Working up to beginner

[MeCasa]

I've been lurking and reading for awhile now and I'm impressed with the technical abilities of many of Nano-Reef's members.

 

I took in my grandkids age 11 & 12 and decided to set them up an aquarium so I dragged out my old 150 and proceeded to start setting up. There's so much information out there now via the net that I wonder how we made do in the old days however I'm quickly getting burnt out on the learning curve.

 

I've read through the options and I'd like an inexpensive basic system something along the lines of Steve's or Rapid's or ????

 

I'm tired of beating things to death and hope I can get ya'll to detail me a system for a 6 footer including what options or extras I should order.

 

I'm not that picky and as tacky as it sounds my granddaughter will love playing with a remote that controls the light colors of her new aquarium. I'll keep it under control so we won't have disco fish but she lost her mother and deserves a little fun.

 

Help me out, I'm too damn old to learn the hard way.

 

Thanks for any help

[Horerczy]

Sounds like a good cause to help out with.

 

First what are the full dimensions of the tank?

 

Also what do you plan on keeping?

[Jackal_Knight]

Cheap lights for a 150 gallon? I think any good option for a tank that size is gonna be a pretty penny. Have u thought about just going fowlr? When i have kids over they just like watching the fish and crabs. They don't care about the coral lol.

[Go Tigers!]

First things first . Welcome to Nano Reef !

 

Secondly You need to perform a leak test on that 150 of yours since you say it's old. Inspect the silicone and check for cracks and what not.

[MeCasa]

Sounds like a good cause to help out with.

 

First what are the full dimensions of the tank?

 

Also what do you plan on keeping?

 

72 X 18 X 28 is the size. I'm going to start with easy care readily available fish as I live in a medium size town in Texas where Petco and Petsmart came in and put all the local dealers out of business. I purchase equipment online but I promised the kids they could pick out the fish (my oversight).and local will be where it happens. Towns are not close together in Texas :-)

 

I am however preparing the rocks for future expansion on the reef. But no frags will be added until I have the system stabilized and even after that it will be slow as money and time allow.

 

 

Cheap lights for a 150 gallon? I think any good option for a tank that size is gonna be a pretty penny. Have u thought about just going fowlr? When i have kids over they just like watching the fish and crabs. They don't care about the coral lol.

 

 

I'm prepared to spend a pretty penny but I intend to start off walking before I run. It's hard to explain to a kid that you need 6 months before they can buy their fish.

 

 

First things first . Welcome to Nano Reef ! Secondly You need to perform a leak test on that 150 of yours since you say it's old. Inspect the silicone and check for cracks and what not.

 

 

 

First thing I did and I held my breath because prices on equipment have skyrocketed.

 

Tank has passed the trial run

[MeCasa]

Since my old lights still function and will be fine for now I thought about adding two of these in 72" version just to give the kidos a night light.

 

http://shop.stevesleds.com/Advanced-Moonlight-System-Complete-RGB-Moonlight.htm

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

[MeCasa]

I understand that these lights are beneath most members of this forum but for me they will serve a purpose which is to get me up and running with moonlight. When I say my original lights will work, there was no moonlight the last time this tank was up and there were not forums to ask questions, trial and error was the costly method which defined this hobby. Now it seems that the current hobby is 'who can spend the most money'..

 

All I'm asking is a quick pro and con of these units and suggestion of any options or mods that I should add because I need to order this week.

 

Please

[MadReefer13]

There just for moonlighting right?

[MeCasa]

Yes sir

[MadReefer13]

Then they should work fine I've found out with my moonlight the less you can use them the better ...when I had mine on alnight my tank would get way more algae then when now I turn off before bed and back on in morning before lights on they don't let off much nut seems in my experience they do feed the algae somewhat ..let's see if others with moonlights has noticed this in there tank also

[Halo_003]

I just have a single strip of controllable LEDs for my moonlights. I don't get any algae growth from them since they're so low output. Not sure if they'd work on a tank that big, but you can find them on Amazon. Search for waterproof controllable LED strip light and it should pull them up. I'm on my phone right now but I'll edit a link in when I can to what I got.

[MadReefer13]

I have a three led moonlights its hardly any light but still see more algae maybe Marineland moonlight let off too much ?

[Horerczy]

Moonlights are whatever you want really. My opinion run them at a lower Kelvin white or red, as a moonlight.

[MeCasa]

Moonlights are whatever you want really.

I agree 110%. For the moment or at least until I increase my needs I'm not looking to duplicate the moon cycles. In the beginning their main use is so that the kids can look at their fish at night without the tank light annoying me. I was at a freind's home and she had a small salt tank with a moonlight setup and the tank looked down right sexy. I wanted the same ambiance but the options and cost change quickly when you move from a 20 gallon tank to a 150 gallon.

 

My post was more about making sure that I wasn't wasting my time by buying garbage or not buying the correct options. I hate when somebody says "you should have gotten the #### option" after the fact. The problem is that I have no idea what these units consist of. They look like strips of LED's without a case or cover which means that I'll need to build something to force all the light down in the tank. And even that's a guess because I've never owned any LED tank lights period. I'm looking for ambiance, Down the road I'll worry about making my reef think I'm Mother Nature, today I just want some lights that give a beautiful night time effect.

 

Thanks

[Tamberav]

You could light the tank with two reef-breeders value fixtures I would think. They go on sale for $160??? every once and awhile. They are manually dimmable but not controllable though. You will prob get some shadowing on the sides of the tank so Softies/LPS there but SPS should work fine elsewhere on the rocks.

 

I guess it would look something like this (except a rectangle light and not a square one, but you get the idea).

 

 

 

NO way you need to spend $100 on moonlighting. A quick ebaying shows a set for a 72 inch tank for $50 (can buy a dimmer separate looks like). Even then I am sure you could probably DIY something using the water proof blue led strip lights for even cheaper. That's just looking at 1 thing, I'm sure there are a lot of options.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/72-36-LED-Moonlight-Aquarium-Moon-Light-Power-Supply-/150389613604?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2303eb6424

 

 

I agree 110%. For the moment or at least until I increase my needs I'm not looking to duplicate the moon cycles. In the beginning their main use is so that the kids can look at their fish at night without the tank light annoying me. I was at a freind's home and she had a small salt tank with a moonlight setup and the tank looked down right sexy. I wanted the same ambiance but the options and cost change quickly when you move from a 20 gallon tank to a 150 gallon.

 

My post was more about making sure that I wasn't wasting my time by buying garbage or not buying the correct options. I hate when somebody says "you should have gotten the #### option" after the fact. The problem is that I have no idea what these units consist of. They look like strips of LED's without a case or cover which means that I'll need to build something to force all the light down in the tank. And even that's a guess because I've never owned any LED tank lights period. I'm looking for ambiance, Down the road I'll worry about making my reef think I'm Mother Nature, today I just want some lights that give a beautiful night time effect.

 

Thanks

[MeCasa]

I appreciate your post. I looked at those lights and almost made the leap then I noticed that these from Steve's

 

http://shop.stevesleds.com/Advanced-Moonlight-System-Complete-RGB-Moonlight.htm

 

I knew my granddaughter would LOVE playing with that remote and with the added red she could get some pretty colors.that would make her smile. From there I started looking at easier to use remotes and I eventually I put together something that I posted on the other thread and I meant what the title of that thread said, what with the internet nowadays it's like a never ending wish list in front of you. It's hard not to get sucked in and I'm starting to think ignorance really is bliss.

 

Hopefully I can put something together for $100 or so which will last me until I get my pocketbook replenished. If I knew how much this was going to run I would have left the tank in the shop.

 

Now I remember why I put it there :-)

[jtwisconsin]

I have the Steve's moonlight kit for my tank, and I also purchased another LED strip light kit off Amazon for my cabinet. Both came with a remote, but the Amazon version had a few more features plus included a 16 foot LED strip.

 

Here is a link to the Amazon version...

 

http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-Controller-2034RGB-3315-3215/dp/B0040FJ27S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398339687&sr=8-1&keywords=led+wholesalers+16.4

[Tamberav]

I appreciate your post. I looked at those lights and almost made the leap then I noticed that these from Steve's

 

http://shop.stevesleds.com/Advanced-Moonlight-System-Complete-RGB-Moonlight.htm

 

I knew my granddaughter would LOVE playing with that remote and with the added red she could get some pretty colors.that would make her smile. From there I started looking at easier to use remotes and I eventually I put together something that I posted on the other thread and I meant what the title of that thread said, what with the internet nowadays it's like a never ending wish list in front of you. It's hard not to get sucked in and I'm starting to think ignorance really is bliss.

 

Hopefully I can put something together for $100 or so which will last me until I get my pocketbook replenished. If I knew how much this was going to run I would have left the tank in the shop.

 

Now I remember why I put it there :-)

 

If you want something for your granddaughter to play with then I would suggest those reef-breeders AND a cheap RBG light. Just turn the main light off and she can go wild.

 

RBG color changing waterproof strip lights with remote:

 

http://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-Waterproof-300LEDs-Flexible-Controller/dp/B00B2F3KDQ/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1398383103&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=led+rbg+remote

 

Power Supply:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TUMDWG/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

 

Edit: Just noticed jtwisconsin posted the same thing Oh well.. I'll leave my post since I think buying them separate looks cheaper.

[MeCasa]

Here's what I went with. I bought 16' of RGBW on ebay for $47

http://www.ebay.com/itm/351021096493?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

Then I bought this controller on ebay for $18

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111328697456?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

This 100Watt Power Supply from Amazon for $50

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T6TN44/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3O3SSGGJLKX15

These 5pin connectors were hard to get but I got 10 pair for $10 on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121316088453?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

So far I've spent about $125 but I should get a tremendous spectrum of light with the white included. I plan on running (2) six foot LED strips which should draw around 80 watts (7W per foot) and I'm going to mount it on acrylic ??? haven't got that far yet. I'll probably space them out by dividing the top in thirds and I'll figure something out to make sure they run cool.

 

The biggest problem I have now (besides building it) is stopping her and her brother from torturing the fish with the included disco mode :-)

 

Although I want everybody to know that she's a sweet kid and she'll always act concerned....... once she stops laughing of course ;-)