"The Two Towers" 62G SPS Starfire Reef (Rebooted)

[JDigital]

Would you be able to give me the LED count for a 36" Marker?

 

Also what does RB NW TV OCW stand for?

[heifinator]

You really wouldn't need a 36" over a 40" long tank, I have a 24" over my new 40" tank and its perfect.

 

You would need a very similar light count, just something that would divide into 3 clusters evenly.

 

RB = Royal blue

NW = Neutral White

TV = True Violet

OCW = Ocean coral white (cool blue + deep red + cyan)

[pschom]

I can say I have used T5 and LED. Go with the LED.

 

Just build your own DIY fixture, use the makers heatsink, looks amazing and you can modify the color to your liking.

 

The one downside to LED is color mixing, but with the 3up leds and DIY you can get exactly what you want.

 

I've built 3 fixtures now and honestly I prefer my LED fixture to my 6 bulb ATI that I own. Not even a contest on par / growth.

 

I would say this though, if your not going to DIY your led, get the t5. If you are ok with DIY then go LED.

 

I have never liked any LED fixture i have seen except DIY & ecotechs

Can you elaborate on this? I'm really on the fence about LEDs vs T5 vs. halide right now. Just got a chiller so any option will work. Need some advice to decide. IMO MH looks the best, but T5 is customizable. And of course the benefits of LEDs...

[heifinator]

Can you elaborate on this? I'm really on the fence about LEDs vs T5 vs. halide right now. Just got a chiller so any option will work. Need some advice to decide. IMO MH looks the best, but T5 is customizable. And of course the benefits of LEDs...

 

Common misconception that T5 is the most customizable. t5 gives you the ability to choose between the combination on 6 bulbs. If you go dimmable t5 then you get some good customization but at a large price.

 

with LED (DIY) you get to choose the exact bulb combination and each color is dimmable, giving you complete control of your color.

 

Only way t5 provides good customization is via dimmable t5 fixtures.

 

MH = Simple, tested, reliable at the cost of heat, wattage, and bulb replacements

T5 = Customizable, tested, and reliable at the cost of wattage and bulb replacements

LED = Customizable, cheap to operate at the cost of complication in design and experimental nature.

 

I have had all and honestly the only situation I can see LED not being the best is if you buy a pre made fixture (except AI & ecotech) or you don't know what your doing and don't get a good color balance.

[disaster999]

i can agree with heifinator somewhat. color blending is an issue with LED unless you have the colors clustered very close together. par and color cant compare to t5ho. the only thing t5ho wins against led is the spread. i have no problem with shadows when i had all t5ho. my SPS looked great from all angles and i wont see a clear separation on the sps where it was getting light and which parts it was under shadows.

 

with LED, esp with lenses, areas where my SPS was receiving direct light was showing all kinds of vibrant colors, but parts where it was under shadows its brown and ugly. this makes it pretty nasty looking when looking at your tank from the sides. the only view i enjoy looking at my tank is from the top now.

 

adding 2 t5ho to my LED fixture helped with the spectrum but doesnt really fixes the shadows issue. sometimes i wish i was back at using t5ho, but the money i save from not changing bulbs kept me from going back.

[heifinator]

i can agree with heifinator somewhat. color blending is an issue with LED unless you have the colors clustered very close together. par and color cant compare to t5ho. the only thing t5ho wins against led is the spread. i have no problem with shadows when i had all t5ho. my SPS looked great from all angles and i wont see a clear separation on the sps where it was getting light and which parts it was under shadows.

 

with LED, esp with lenses, areas where my SPS was receiving direct light was showing all kinds of vibrant colors, but parts where it was under shadows its brown and ugly. this makes it pretty nasty looking when looking at your tank from the sides. the only view i enjoy looking at my tank is from the top now.

 

adding 2 t5ho to my LED fixture helped with the spectrum but doesnt really fixes the shadows issue. sometimes i wish i was back at using t5ho, but the money i save from not changing bulbs kept me from going back.

 

I had a different experience with t5. I think it comes down a lot to scape, since I didn't have lots of covered areas in my tank that had t5's I never noticed the shadows, but that makes sense.

 

As far as color goes I still think it comes down to proper use of exotics, until very recently the majority of LED fixtures had Blue and white and maybe some exotics but not nearly as many as used today. I have some recent experience with this.

 

My 40b fixture I built over a year ago and was happy with. Had RB / NW / some TV & red /cyan but not a lot.

 

I upgraded this fixture for my new tank with OCW and a lot of TV and wow what a difference. I actually pulled my t5 fixture out to compare and honestly, the LEDS look better. Yes, there are some areas that don't pop as well but they were isolated to the very far corners, that could be fixed with better clustering and raising the fixture.

 

The color where the light was balanced though was spectacular far better than t5.

 

Plus no shimmer with t5 which is a bummer.

 

You make a point though disaster with the spread, that is a quantitiative thing that is lost, I think LEDS now are super close if not surpassing t5 in coloration and maybe even spread.

 

Again some of this is just IMHO

[JDigital]

Heif, I want 36" to have full spread of the opening in my tank. (I loose 2" for the Eurobrace on each side)

 

I have read a lot of complaints when it comes to the disco-ball effect, which is why I asked about more LEDs, even if I have to run them at lower %. I want the best light coverage I can get. Disasters post kind of worries me, as I don't want to be viewing my tank from top down only to see the best coloring of my coral. I really want to view from the front and right side of my tank and with SPS being my main goal, I'm now really concerned with shadowing.

 

 

Marine Depot - Hope you can see it in this crappy pic, but this kind of shows the bottom edge of the acrylic.

 

 

 

 

And a couple pics of my Power Center and MP10.

 

 

[heifinator]

1. Always use the sticky hook that comes with the mp10. If you don't it will get knocked off and probably break at some point.

 

As far as light goes, I will try and get some pictures. Having the bulbs go all the way across the tank won't help with disco, what you want is tight clusters. You will have some shadowing under overhangs, ect. If done right it looks natural cause lets be honest, there is only 1 sun =)

 

I have never had a problem with the "disco" or "shimmer". My corals look just as good from the side as the top. Honestly though, if you don't want to tinker with things, go get yourself some MH or T5 and call it a day.

[Marine Depot]

JDigital, I see how that was done, that's fantastic! I thought it was just a small piece of acrylic, but it extends past the bulkheads too. That's a great way of doing that and I appreciate the picture.

 

Pretty clever eggcrate wall to mount PC4's too, loving it. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build, I'll be following.

 

Dan

[JDigital]

1. Always use the sticky hook that comes with the mp10. If you don't it will get knocked off and probably break at some point.

 

As far as light goes, I will try and get some pictures. Having the bulbs go all the way across the tank won't help with disco, what you want is tight clusters. You will have some shadowing under overhangs, ect. If done right it looks natural cause lets be honest, there is only 1 sun =)

 

I have never had a problem with the "disco" or "shimmer". My corals look just as good from the side as the top. Honestly though, if you don't want to tinker with things, go get yourself some MH or T5 and call it a day.

 

Heif, I do have those sticky hooks, just haven't gotten around to attaching them yet. Might do that tomorrow. I've spent a chunk of today working on the 180G at my office.

 

I think my plan has been confirmed for lighting. 2 Radions. I'm getting a killer deal on them so that's what I'll do, I should have no lack of light.

 

 

JDigital, I see how that was done, that's fantastic! I thought it was just a small piece of acrylic, but it extends past the bulkheads too. That's a great way of doing that and I appreciate the picture.

 

Pretty clever eggcrate wall to mount PC4's too, loving it. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build, I'll be following.

 

Dan

 

Thanks Dan, I appreciate the support. I do plan to add the SL1 to that wall and possibly the head unit, I just ran out of zipties.

[MeanGreenEyes]

Nice build...subscribed.

[heifinator]

Careful with the radions. High quality but their spectrum choices were questionable

Check out uglyfish's tank thread he talks about his issues with them.

[pschom]

Careful with the radions. High quality but their spectrum choices were questionable

Check out uglyfish's tank thread he talks about his issues with them.

Do you have an opinion on the AI Vega? Or maybe the upgrade kit for the SOL?

[heifinator]

Can't say.

 

I don't know of any LED fixtures on the market that are up to date on the current understanding / acceptance of proper spectrum.

 

LED is a very new technology in aquariums and I think its just changing faster than the development can keep up. I know a year ago it was way different than it is now.

[saltwatercoral]

Looking good! Its alsmost ready to get wet! I have the AI SOL Blues and 3 of them have great coverage for my tank! Its a 120g (4x2x2).

[JDigital]

Did a bit more work on the tank tonight. I started the "power center" last week I think but never ended up finishing it or cleaning up the wiring, so I took care of that tonight.

 

Picked up a Tunze ATO from Concept Aquariums and some Dry Rock as well (only about 20-25lbs). So I set that up, as well as placed the rock in the tank just for aesthetics.

 

Still need to finish my plumbing (just the return portion left) this weekend, but I picked up the wrong size PVC part on my way home so will have to get around to that tomorrow.

 

Couple photos, as crappy as they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jedimasterben]

Damnit I wish I could keep my sump area as organized as yours.

[evo_2679]

Sweet Build !!! Can't wait to see this tank filled up and stocked with corals !!!

[JDigital]

Damnit I wish I could keep my sump area as organized as yours.

 

Haha.. Thanks. Cable management is the main thing on my mind with this build and sump area. It's actually still a bit messier than I want, but I still have a few things to add/remove so gotta wait before the final zip-tie down.

 

 

Sweet Build !!! Can't wait to see this tank filled up and stocked with corals !!!

 

Thanks Evo - I almost bought my RO unit last night instead of the Tunze ATO, but I held off as I know that as soon as I have access to water I will start to rush other parts of the build, which is something I don't want to do. I'm sure I'll forget something, but I'm trying to be as thorough as possible.

[NanoTopia]

Tank is really shaping up, the sump is looking proper. I use the same ATO and find the float works better for me if it is 3 inches higher than the optic sensor. The reason is when I turn off my main pump or shut down my skimmer for maintenance, the sump fills up a bit at triggers the alarm via the float sensor. So I would have to turn the ATO off. Not a good idea (incase I forget to turn it back on). By having the float sensor ~3 inches higher than the optic sensor I still have the backup failsafe but it doesn't interferer with daily maintenance like turning my main pump off for feeding etc.

 

Not sure if your sump/tank is configured in a way that the levels will increase the water level in the sump if the main pump is turned off, just thought I would mention anyway.

 

Looking forward to more updates

[JDigital]

w00t! Finally finished my plumbing today. I should have had it done weeks ago when I started it, but got a bit lazy @ home and busy @ work which delayed me in picking up the correct plumbing parts I needed to finish the job. But it's done now.

 

My plans now are to sell off that Bubble Magus NAC6 and pick up a Reef Octopus XP1000sss, then my Lights which I am back to being undecided on , then Salt and RO unit.

 

 

 

Tank is really shaping up, the sump is looking proper. I use the same ATO and find the float works better for me if it is 3 inches higher than the optic sensor. The reason is when I turn off my main pump or shut down my skimmer for maintenance, the sump fills up a bit at triggers the alarm via the float sensor. So I would have to turn the ATO off. Not a good idea (incase I forget to turn it back on). By having the float sensor ~3 inches higher than the optic sensor I still have the backup failsafe but it doesn't interferer with daily maintenance like turning my main pump off for feeding etc.

 

Not sure if your sump/tank is configured in a way that the levels will increase the water level in the sump if the main pump is turned off, just thought I would mention anyway.

 

Looking forward to more updates

 

I will just end up using a Ball valve to close the return line when I do my water changes. I usually rely on a check valve, but I couldn't find one locally and I didn't feel like ordering online this time so went with a simple, cheap ball valve.

[urbaneks]

Nice build thus far. Great equipment choices. I would make sure to go get a check valve as well. If your pump shuts off and you are not home the ball valve wont be of much help.

[icombs17]

Gunna be sweet!

[JDigital]

Nice build thus far. Great equipment choices. I would make sure to go get a check valve as well. If your pump shuts off and you are not home the ball valve wont be of much help.

 

 

Thanks urbaneks - I'm taking chapters out of your build for somethings. My sump is almost the exact same size as my display, so without a check valve it will only drain back 10.3-11.7G, which my sump is more than capable of handling. I definitely considered it though, but after calculating how much would flow back vs how much my sump can handle, I'm safe. If you spot anything else I may have overlooked though, feel free to mention it.

 

Gunna be sweet!

 

Thanks icombs. Slow and steady wins the race right?!.

[JDigital]

Small update before life gets crazy for the christmas season.

 

Picked up my Vertex Puratek 100GPD RO/DI unit, a bucket of H2Ocean salt, and another 23lbs of dry rock to finish my aquascape.