This made me laugh.

This tank looks booming! Especially with the par38s.

just move the front 2 tracks up another 2 inches, it seems the bulbs are now a 33 inches from the sandbed, the last pics i took were with the lights at around 31 inches, now it has a little more spread and looks like Evilc's tank

although my clam keeps failing over night after night and it's completely ####### me off, i really wish it would attach it's ####ing self already! #### like this is so ####ing annoying to me

Sometimes i hate clams

Pardon my ignorance here but is the clam on the bare bottom glass? Do you really want it to attach there?

My favorite shot here. Love the shadows, the back wall, the bridges etc. Looks so life like. Well done.



I wonder if anyone will ever get to the point that "real" pictures are possible with LED lighting????

actually i kindof do want the clams to attach to the glass, they'll be easier to razorblade off of it when i have to move them, plus i wanted to give them time to adjust to the intensity of the lights and didn't want to place them up higher right now

i really only want sps on the rock structure though i'm going to have to figure out a way to get the clams to stay upright, i might attach some putty to the clams shell just so it doesen't tip over to give it time to attach

I didn't get to try all my camera's setting's but taking a FTS shot proves hard since the white balance gets blown out of proportion, the pics i took above are the best representation of what it actually looks like in person though it still looks better when you see it up close

Just a suggestion, can you get a clam - oyster shell just big enough to fit the clam into? Would allow it to attach to something other that the glass and also provide some stability to it. I would not try to attach any part of the clam via glue, putty etc. If it wants to move and cannot it may get stressed out enough to cause some damage.

Just sayin..........

Mix a entire stick of aquamend into a potato, katate chop potato half way down and flatten bottom of putty potato.... BB clam mount complete!

Don't have any shells big enough for him to sit in sadly and too bad i only have 1/4 stick of putty at my disposal, lol

plus the damn jacks aquarium is a 20 minute drive from me so it makes in inconvienant to get more putty during the work week, but i might just have to try that out, i think i'll change the flow a little bit and see if that doesen't keep him from rolling over, it just sucks cause he will sit there upright and fine for 2+ hours and then i walk away for 30-40 minutes and come back to find him on his damn side again, it's just really annoying

Did somebody say secrets???

Sorry to hijack. Your tank looks great! One thing I think about when I see par38 (spotlight in general) lit tanks, is how natural it looks.

In the ocean, there are forests of rock, seaweeds & coral structures that light must get through. When it gets through, it looks dramatic & you can imagine what it must look like IRL.

Chris

i agree

May I ask where you purchased your lights from? Website? Much thanks.

nanotuners.com is where i got mine

Not sure what camera you have beeker, but if there is an adjustment for exposure compensation, turn it down a few notches. It helps take out the blowouts on the FTS. Believe me, you will learn a lot about your camera now that you have LEDs. They aren't easy to photograph well.

The natural look is what has completely enthralled me for the last 8 months. Everyone that has seen my tank says the same thing, and I'm sure you will get more of the same comments too beeker. Once you break the habbits of traditional lighting for an aquarium, it opens up so much more. You can now actually create a sense of depth in the tank depending on how you light it.

OK thanks....what combo did you go with 2 white/3 blue or the 3 blue/2 whites...
is there enough color pop with these that you dont need supplemental actinics, etc to get the best color effects?
thanks!

I'm a huge fan of these lights after seeing them in person, my pheonix 14k 150w doesen't even compare to the beauty of these, like i said on reef central it is honestly like i have 8 250w MH's over my tank



i raised the front 2 lights over the clams another 2 inches last night and measured from the water to the bulb and i'm at 6 inches off the water, so 33 off the bottom exactly where your lights are at evil i seem to be getting some nice shimmer as well

have you tryed any clams in your setup?

mine seemed to react a little better to the raised height but i'll have to watch them again tonight and see how they look this will only be the 3rd day under the lighting, still running a 6 hour photoperiod on the tank, so far things look good, moved 2 clams my duncan, orange hammer and my aussie elegance over to the 200g

Mona- i went with 12k PAR38's with 40 degree optics

IMO they don't need to be supplemented with anything, my favorite bulb was a radium 20k and these aren't as blue but the color they put out is honestly eye pleasing, in other words it looks natural and perfect, the right amount of white with the right amount of blue

the only thing i'd add to my tank now is some moon lights and that would be it, if you are using 4 bulbs you could go with 2 12k's and 2 20k's

i might add some 20k's to the setup evntually, i still have another 8 bulbs to add and then i might even get 4 more, PAR readings will tell me what direction to go in next

No clams yet. The system is certainly mature enough for it, but I have been a little nervous to pull the trigger. Need to learn more about them first.

Don't forget that you can use the 80 degree lamps for an area color wash to tweak the color a little.

clams are easy, just set them in and forget them unless they fall over mainly just watch them be perty, lol

keep alk/calc and mag good and wc's as usual and clams are a piece of cake

if they are under 3 inches you might have to dose pytho plankton to keep em happy though but bigger ones just grow from the 3 part and light

hey Chris told me your pico lamp was super top secret!










(I think he was being sarcastic)

Nice tank beeker!

Anyways, the tank dimensions are awesome I can't wait to see where this goes.

I'm assuming you've thought about/tried this, but you should angle the lights on their tracks as well, to mix up the patterns a little, depending on where you stick corals.

I'll mess with the angle more after i figure out the intensity of these lights, seems that i'm getting as much light if not a little more than a 150w MH at the bottom of the tank with the lights 6 inches off the water, 33 inches from the bottom of the tank

I'm still waiting to see how my Sps frag on the bottom is going to do in the next 3-4 weeks before i start messing around with the lighting more

have to find out the tolerances i can get away with first and that might take me a few more months to figure out but it should be interesting

So far my Gold maxima is the only thing that is reacting badly to the 200g, not sure if it's due to the tank being new or due to the lighting being too intense for it, but my other 2 clams are reacting perfectly fine under the lights, the gold maxima is around 3 inches though so it might just need a little more time in my 29g to grow some so it isn't as pytho dependant and relies more on the light

Red planet and purple acro (been there for 4 day so far)


My Beautiful elegance coral seems to be loving the LED's it's been in the tank since saturday

Orange hammer






My tiny elegance next to the big one this tiny one has been thru hell but it's looking a ton better under the led's than it ever did under my MH, i've had this one for 3 months or so and it's been under the leds for about 7 days now

Tiny elegance again

wow..great setup...very interesting..

The one on the right looks like it ate a ton of rocks!!!

haha, my tangs are always loaded with Nori, so much so they look like their going to explode

That maxima seems to be looking better.

yeah it's stopped falling over for the most part now that i made a doughnut ring of putty to wrapped around it to keep it upright, it still hasn't attached it's foot yet...been there for a few days as well but who know that might take some more time

needs sand.

And lots of it!

not a fan of sand so that isn't happening....ever, lol

Scoly's, Zoa's and corals are going to be my sand, it will cost more and look a lot better than sand :]]

FIRST SET OF PAR PICS ARE FROM MY BC29G (150W MH AND 2 24W T5'S







PAR OF 99 AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF MY B29G


PAR OF 214 IN THE MIDDLE OF MY BC29G

PAR OF 189


INFRONT OF THE SQUAMOSA




NEXT TO MY GREEN ACRO


PAR OF 226 NEXT TO THE GREEN ACRO AGAIN


PAR OF 66 OUTER RIM OF THE BULBS COVERAGE




PAR OF 398 LEFT OF MY RED PLANET ACRO

TOP OF THE 200G DD AGAIN






PAR OF 322 NEXT TO THE TENIUS








PAT PICS OF MY SUMP, LOL

thats frickin awesome....1294 at the surface. that's crazy. the tank looks nice. i love the natural look to spotlights.

holy freaking crap that is an AWESOME TANK!!! its damn near the size of the room! so do you ever get the urge to hop in and go for a swim?! wow thats just impressive.

Haha, i wouldn't want to clean the mess up that i'd make after swimming in it, just can't wait to get the rest of the PAR38's over it and a Vortech mp40, might be about a month or so longer before that happens though

wow talk about money pit...is it still a dream once you've bought everything for it?

Does the water look that hazy in person or is it the camera that makes it look that way?

Water is crystal clear, though towards the top where the main focus of the beam is you can see particulate in the water colum but that doesen't bother me at all and won't be there after the tank settles more, it's still pretty new only about 3 months old at this point

it wouldn't matter if i spent another 5k on the setup it would still be a dream tank for me, so 2400 in lighting doesen't bother me, considering i've always viewed lighting as the most important part of a reef tank, second to circulation and flow

plus these bulbs will last 7 years atleast, my main tank has only been up a little over 2 so when this tank gets to the 7 year mark it will still be a dream tank to me, and by then LED lighting will a lot more affordable and almost everyone's tanks will be lit by it by then i'm sure

just look at the PAR numbers they speak for themseleves

i wish all of you could see it in person cause pics although close don't even give you an idea of how good this looks

even my friends that aren't into reefing have given me a ton of complements on how natural the tank looks with the spotlights

i love my par38's

Here's a better plot i took to measure the PAR from dead center of the bulb to the outer rim

here are the pics everyone wanted, lol



Dead center of the PAR38 12k 33 inches away from the bulb


Dead center again, highest PAR hit was 198 but wasn't able to get a pic of it


1 inch from center PAR of 170


2 inches from center PAR of 165


3 inches from center PAR os 133


4 inches from center PAR of 103


5 inches from center PAR of 74



6 inches from center PAR of 48



7 inches from center PAR of 33





Excuse my chicken scratch handwritting, lol

Glad you are enjoying them beeker.

I know about PAR numbers, but what are considered good PAR numbers, for lets say, SPS?

Acros will do fine @ 200 PAR.

for softie's, Lps, Acan's, Zoa's, duncan's, hammer and chalice a PAR of 150-100 is enough

for Sps, Acro's, Milli's, Digita's, Monti's and the like a PAR of 180 or more will grow them just fine, this is what i've found out from my main BC29g tank

Updated pics, the first red planet frag i put in the tank(It's above the 2 bottom sps) it browned out but new growth is forming around the base, color still needs to be worked on but it is growing













orange setosa has done amazing under the Led's

the second red planet frag, lost it's green base but grows great and still has red polyps

wow!