Home Office Frag Tank

[PIPS]

tank is looking sharp, now make woth the pictures of your light fixture

[konolua]

Just got the topoff and skimmer running and I'm starting to collect some frags. I ran the topoff through some wiremold from the closet next to the tank. Added some mangroves to the overflow.

 

 

One thing to be aware of....the mangroves feed heavily off of nitrates, which you probably don't have very much of (if at all). And, with 5 of them, you may have a hard time with longevity, as the mangroves that don't do well won't show symptoms until weeks down the road....

 

Just an FYI.

 

Regardless, your set up is stellar. Again, well done...

[photographer07]

so on those lights do you think that the 60 degree ones have enough of a spread or do you think a wider spread would be better

[stvjohnsn]

so on those lights do you think that the 60 degree ones have enough of a spread or do you think a wider spread would be better

 

I'm pretty happy with the 60 degree. I don't think I'd change it if I did it over as it seems to me the bulbs are about the right height and I have corals all the way out to the edge of the egg crate that seem to be getting enough light.

[Noonan]

I'm thinking about these lights for a 40 breeder (36 inches). If your tank was another foot bigger would you have added a third (or maybe even a fourth) PAR38?

 

Thanks, and awesome build

[stvjohnsn]

I'm thinking about these lights for a 40 breeder (36 inches). If your tank was another foot bigger would you have added a third (or maybe even a fourth) PAR38?

 

Thanks, and awesome build

 

Thanks yeah you'd need at least another bulb. 12" per is a pretty good rule of thumb. I actually like the falloff at the edges because it keeps the algae down on the sides.

[stvjohnsn]

Update...still going well. I have a ton of blue-meanie micros I'm growing out, as well as some acans, dendros, hammer, and zoas. I've raised the lights up a ways as it seemed the corals were shying away from them a bit. Mangroves are doing great and I've chosen to use bandsaw sliced marco-rock as my frag base material. It cuts very easily with the diamond bandsaw and makes a great base imo.

 

The Tunze 9002 nano-skimmer is really impressive. I think it produces more skimmate than the Tunze 9010 I used to have along with my 45g tank, and I don't even have any fish yet. I'll be adding a 6-line shortly to deal with the amphipod plague I'm dealing with.

 

 

[RyanR1212]

that is a sweet frag tank.. if you have any nice stuff in there i might have so snag some

[rrcg50]

updates

[rrcg50]

these are in my sump growing out. will be moved in 2 weeks to my frag setup lit by leds

 

this is tbhe second rack in my sump

[badfish816]

that is a sweet colony of sp reds!! wow!! what are the ones to the right of it

[Gerber77]

dude thats a sweet bunch of frags. very nice

[kegz08]

I am begging you to do a diy thread for your par fixture it amazing! Just with like links to parts to build it on lowes or whatever. Please and thank you! Very cool

[groundking]

love the frag tank!!!!!!

 

how long did it take u to be able to add frags in???

 

amazing tank!!

[ryancmatchett]

I am begging you to do a diy thread for your par fixture it amazing! Just with like links to parts to build it on lowes or whatever. Please and thank you! Very cool

 

Is there a DIY thread for this light fixture?

 

THis really is a great setup. How is it doing now? Do you have any updates?

I am helping a friend build a set up almost exactly like this, and am curious about the light fixture....

Thanks

Ryan

[stvjohnsn]

Sorry been away from this a while. The tanks doing nicely. Other than some pretty normal algae growth.

 

I don't have the time to put together the fixture DIY post but I'll describe it here. I got the basic concept after looking at the light fixtures in the local Chipotle. Everything was purchased at Lowes and consists of 1/2" threaded galvanized pipe and some electrical fittings. First a note of caution. I'm not an electrician so make sure you consult one before wiring this up and be sure safety is a priority.

 

Starting in the back with a vertical 4' section of pipe that's sleeved into some 3/4" PVC which is actually mounted to the stand. That 4' section allows the light to be raised, lowered, and swiveled. At the top of the back pipe is a metal 90deg corner w/ female threads on both sides. That needs to be pretty strong as its bearing a lot of the weight of the rest of the fixture. The horizontal pipe is 8" and leads to a junction box TEE and then lamp holders thread into that. I cleaned all the pipe and parts with solvent and then painted the whole setup with metalic paint. Then I ran an insulated wire through the piping then into the junction box and connected both lamp holders.

 

Thats about it. PM me if you have any questions.

[cbachman]

Do you think that 4 of those lights set up in a simlar fashion would be enough to a 48 inch 55 gallon? i think its 18 deep? your setup is amazing ps!!

[stvjohnsn]

Yes, 4 should be plenty. One thing I'd do is to make sure the height of the lights can be adjusted. I've moved mine up/down a few times to try to adjust the coverage and intensity.

[cbachman]

Yea Ill have to make sure I make a set up that I can adjust. You just got me really excited about this whole idea. Ive always wanted LEDS over my 55 but buying or making one always seemed super pricey. With this setup I could have leds for about 500 bucks! Thats cheaper then almost all metal halide setups! Was the wiring very hard to do? Thats the area that i know the least about. How do you like your setup so far?

[stvjohnsn]

The wiring isn't difficult at all but it's vitally important to get it right, and make it safe. Anyone with basic electrical skills should have no problem. I cut the female end off of a fairly heavy 3 prong extension cord and used that as the main power cord.

 

My only wish would be that the color temp and brightness of the bulbs could be adjusted. I've actually placed some blue painters tape over the white LEDs in the bulbs to alter the color a bit and lower the intensity. Even at 15" above the water (22" above the corals), mine showed some signs of getting a bit too much light.

[cbachman]

yea its pretty limited on the color choices. Did you go with the 12k or 20k? I was thinking I could try 2 12k and 2 20k but I wonder how it would blend. I think it would be obvious the bulbs were different colors about the water but below it it might blend ok? Probably more obvious around the ends too. Do you think for a display tank I would need any other kind of lighting or would this be enough? Without being able to dim them there would be no dusk or dawn period but I wonder if I could set up a timer so they come on one at time every 15 minutes. That might be similar to actinics coming on an hour before my metal halides. The amount I would save each month on electricity by doing this set up instead of two 150 watt MW with some actinics T5s is more than enough reason to do this! Im stoked!

[stvjohnsn]

I'm using 20k with the white emitters covered with blue tape. If I were doing 4 I'd get all 20k, or perhaps even 2 all blue and 2 20k. With LEDs I think the corals look a lot better under a bluer color. More so than PC or MH.

[cbachman]

Yea I kinda of like the idea of doing 2 of each. Im just worried that if I dont like it Im kinda stuck with it. Is this type of setup able to grow an coral? Are there any downsides to it? Its cheaper to purchase. It will save a lot on my electricity bill. I really believe LEDs are the future of the industry. Why arent more people doing this?

[ajmckay]

cbachman,

 

LED's are awesome. I'm actually local to evilc66, so I've seen a few of these. I'll tell you what, they look really awesome! But you need to remove yourself from the expectations of a standard reef lighting system. With an MH or t5 or PC lighting, the goal typically is to provide an even, consistent light source throughout the tank. This means that the available PAR to your corals is primarily a function of how high up they are. Closer to the light = higher PAR, and lower = less PAR.

 

Using these spotlights changes the game completely. There will still be higher PAR the closer you get to the light source, but now you can direct the lights towards certain corals/clams/anemones. If you want an SPS colony on the sandbed, all you have to do is plan for the right optics and point a light at it! The tighter the optics the higher the light intensity (though there will be less residual light for other things.

 

These lights create very dramatic lighting effects, but it's different than a typical full-length light. There's no doubt that these can grow corals very well, but again it's about buying the right intensity. If you want to aim somewhere in the middle, you could get broader optics... Which will smooth out the spotlighting effect a little, but I don't think it will completely get rid of that look. There's no doubt though that this is efficient. Light the things you need lighted and the rest gets the residual light, although less intensely.

[cbachman]

ajmckay,

Thanks for the info. Ive never done anything with LEDs so im pretty excited about it. I kinda of know what to expect because right now i only have a 30in halide on a 48 inch tank so i already have to place things accordingly. Kind of like one big spot light. I just want to make sure that is a good alternative to MH. I want more lighting on my tank and these LEDs could save alot instead of doing a $700 MH system. Not to mention the monthly savings on my electricity bill. I saw that BoostLED also offers a PAR30. Is that major difference between these and Evils just the PAR which i think is the same as intensity or power. Im pretty uneducated when it cames to PAR i guess. Long story short would upgrading from a 30 inch MH with 2 actinics to a 4 bulb LED system spread across 48 inches of tank with either Evils PAR 38s or Boosts PAR 30s be a good idea? Thanks for any info.