DevonCichlid Posted September 13, 2013 Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 I've finished building my multi-tank stand now and am planning out my equipment list and am looking to sharpen my pencil on the lighting costs. Any hints, tips or advise would be appreciated. There are two tiers with 4 tanks on each tier and a 2x4 in the middle for bracing. The total length will be around 52" from the left edge of tank 1 to the right edge of tank 4. The tanks are 24 long x 18 high x 12 wide and will be placed side by side with the 12" (12.5") side front facing. Unfortunately I only had a 55" wide x 80" high pocket in my mechanical room that I could fit a multi-aquarium/multi-tier stand so I'm looking to maximize the amount of smaller tanks that I can fit in there. I will probably paint the back of them with just a flat black exterior paint to block the view of any hoses/cords that could be an eyesore. While I'm at it I might as well put my other plans/ideas out there and see if anyone else is doing similar or might have experience with running multi tanks like this. Filtration Sponge Filters for each 20G tank, air driven. I started seeding a couple Seapora sponge filters in an established tank but I'm kind of second guessing them as they seem to be really fine compared to old ones that I used to buy (can't remember the brand) Air Pumps Rena 400 split off. Best case scenario I can run all eight sponges off of the two ports on the back of the Rena 400 but am thinking realistically I'll end up needing a couple of them. I've been changing out the Stellars I used in the past that I found quite noisy although they really pump out the air. Heater Any sufficient submersible 100W heater for each tank (this is where my monthly electric bill is really gonna suffer). I have only Jager's in all my other tanks and have been issue free thus for with them so will probably stick with them. Substrate Probably a SIL8 or SIL9 in the tanks I chose to put it in. A few of these tanks are intended to be fry/grow out tanks so I probably won't use substrate in them or the Q tank. I just recently put in some SIL8 in my new 120G and am quite happy with that grain size. It was only $25 for 160lbs of it so the price is right. Lighting I'm tossing the idea of picking up a 48-60" LED Single bright Marineland Light for each tier but that's still $160.00 a piece. I see the Beamlight 24-36" LED lights are only $69.99 and they appear to just have a different sticker then the Marineland so that could be an option too but the total cost will still be higher then I was hoping for having to buy 2 per tier. Ideally I'll wait for most of these items to pop up on sale or wait for boxing day sales to pick everything up. I'm not in a rush right now but knowing me I will get impulsive and have to start to piece together sooner rather then later. Anyways that's my long winded topic that started out a lot shorter. Any ideas would definitely be welcomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted September 13, 2013 Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 http://www.aquatraders.com/LED-Aquarium-Lighting-Freshwater-Bright-p/56284.htm 48" Beamswork LED, I have it on my 120, it's awesome! Pictures please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonCichlid Posted September 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 Here are a couple pics from my phone. That's after the first coat of flat black exterior paint. I'll put on one more coat and move it into the basement. The side view isn't great but shows what the middle tier looks like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted September 13, 2013 Report Share Posted September 13, 2013 If you look in my journal, I believe I have some pics of my old Aquaponics set up, which had a similar stand. If the tanks didn't have plants (or just moss), I used a couple Sunblasters ($80 for 2!!). If you don't want to have it mounted in just one spot on the 2x4 brace, just add a couple 2x4 pieces where you want to mount the T5s. As for heating, how big is the room they'll be in? Can you add insulation to that room? Though the initial cost might be a bit more, heating the room instead of individual tanks will be WAY cheaper in the long run. The other option is to just go with cool-water fish. If you're worried about pore size for the sponge fillters, have 2 for each tank. After a month or so for them to get established, you can start a bi-weekly schedule of rinsing one sponge. One well known guppy breeder does this and actually throws them right into the washing machine with a cup of bleech (no soap, and he runs a rinse cycle before)! A sheet of Poret foam is around $100, and might be enough for you to get an HMF into each tank - I've converted all of my tanks (from 3-125gal) to HMFs after seeing some fishrooms with similar setups. It doesn't matter if you have a high or low bioload, there's more than enough surface area for bacteria to colonize! Food for thought. Looks good, so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonCichlid Posted September 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2013 I will definitely be trying out the sunblasters, i just haven't made it into the city yet to pick them up. I've been monitoring the temperature of my mechanical room and I actually don't think the heaters will have to work very hard. They are on about 30% of the time right now on the two tanks I have in there and the room is a bit chilly from the a/c being on. I suspect in the winter it will warm up in there and they will be on even less. With all 8 heaters running I could be looking at around $10-15 per month total which I am willing to live with. The lights will only be running 4 hours a day and the air pumps hardly cost anything to run so after the up front costs the project shouldn't be too costly. So for an update, at embarrassing as it is, I moved the stand into my basement mechanical room with a big curve ball. It didn't fit down the staircase. Shame on me I guess as I used to deliver furniture for a living so I should have realized the dimensions werent optimal. Anyways, I had to disassemble all the middle bracing from the sides which wouldnt have been too bad if I hadn't also glued each joint in addition to the screws. Once it got it all apart and moved downstairs it was a breeze to get back together but none of the joints are glued now. Luckily the floor was level where I was reassembling so that made it a lot easier. I'm now seeding 4 sponge filters, 2 different kinds in one of my 90s and am going to monitor them over the next month or so to see if there is any diffence as far as plugging etc. It likely won't be an issue anyways because none of these 20s are going to be overstocked but it's my little experiment for now. Its tough not to just go out and get all the equipment and get this project in full force but I am looking at another potential move now so that's a bit of a deterrent. Anyways thanks for the replies and feedback, I'm always open to reading and hearing everyone's experiences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano85 Posted September 25, 2013 Report Share Posted September 25, 2013 Will they be planted? At any rate Id check out http://www.diyfishkeepers.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?46-DIY-lighting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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