Broadfield's Red Sea Reefer 450 Build - OCD Inspired... Going Back To a Reef

[Reef Monkie]

IMG_0898 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

I hope you don't mind the question, I am looking at lighting options for a new build and I came across this picture. To me this represents the 'perfect' look/colour temp. that I had in mind when I picture a reef tank and so different from the 'windex' look that so many seem to like. Since I enjoy photography a bit myself and noticed you use a decent camera I was curious about the white balance of the shot and if you had to correct that in post-processing. I don't mean to imply anything negative by that, I understand the reality of post-processing and its necessity in many cases, I am just trying to inform myself properly and the area of lighting seems to be filled with a lot of contradictory information and quite expensive choices.

 

[Broadfield]

I must say...your tank is a work of art! The tank aquascaping is great, but your plumbing work is just a sight to behold! I hope you're very proud of what you've done here....all around beautiful setup!

Once I can hope to model after in the years to come!

Thank you!

What substrate area you using in your tank, I’m starting a build and really like the look of that sand

It is the Tropic Eden Reefflakes... I love it!

 

[hockeyhead019]

Wow, what a read. @Broadfield your attention to detail and process of thinking really appeals to me being an electrical engineer. Absolutely love the control center and the layout for how you setup water changes.

The tank is fantastic and your photography skills are something for me to strive for! Keep up the great work and hopefully that position at Red Sea opens up for you, I think you could do a lot of good for them given your attention to detail and thoroughness.

Cheers!

 

[Broadfield]

I hope you don't mind the question, I am looking at lighting options for a new build and I came across this picture. To me this represents the 'perfect' look/colour temp. that I had in mind when I picture a reef tank and so different from the 'windex' look that so many seem to like. Since I enjoy photography a bit myself and noticed you use a decent camera I was curious about the white balance of the shot and if you had to correct that in post-processing. I don't mean to imply anything negative by that, I understand the reality of post-processing and its necessity in many cases, I am just trying to inform myself properly and the area of lighting seems to be filled with a lot of contradictory information and quite expensive choices.

For "my" lighting, I use a 10k white balance setting. I then fine tune it some in the white balance shift setting. I typically shift it into the blue/green quadrant... around a B3 G3 or so. This usually gets me about spot on. I rarely adjust white balance in post. From there I boost vibrance and saturation a little... the colors are a little flat compared to what I see with my eyes. I imagine if one were to shoot in JPEG, vibrance and saturation would not need much adjustment.

So yeah, I have been really happy with my lighting. I recently changed to Radiums and love them... still 250 watt. I'm actually not running my T5s in conjunction with the MH now that I installed the Radiums. The Radiums dip into the blue spectrum a little more than my Giesemann 21ks did. To put it simple, the Radiums alone have the same spectrum to my eyes as did the Giesemann 21k MH + the 4 T5 Giesemann True Actinics. Which is nice, because I feel that I had too much PAR for my LPS when running the T5s. So now I just run the T5s for an hour, then just the Radiums for 7 hours and then just the T5s again for an hour.

 

[Diazcm]

@Broadfield Bro.... awesome thread!! I just finished reading the whole thing and to me you are a reefing GOD lol and congrats with all the awards you have earned well deserved. After reading this and taking notes i'm planning on doing a complete overhaul to my 450's sump area cause right now looks like spaghetti with all my control wires and tubing all over the place, if you see it you'll probably go NUTS! just got a few questions hopefully you can help me out.
I noticed you have two different media reactors and from one of your post your running GFO and bio-pellets and you had a huge hiccup with bio-pellets at one point.
Why run both? correct me if i'm wrong but aren't you doing double the work?
Isn't bio-pellets and GFO basically the same thing?

I'm kinda going through the same thing you went through, my nutrient levels are low and noticing my corals are not doing so well. My nitrates are at zero and phos at 0.06 trying to raise nitrates a bit without making phos go crazy. Thanks man and keep up the awesome work

 

[Reef Monkie]

For "my" lighting, I use a 10k white balance setting. I then fine tune it some in the white balance shift setting. I typically shift it into the blue/green quadrant... around a B3 G3 or so. This usually gets me about spot on. I rarely adjust white balance in post. From there I boost vibrance and saturation a little... the colors are a little flat compared to what I see with my eyes. I imagine if one were to shoot in JPEG, vibrance and saturation would not need much adjustment.

So yeah, I have been really happy with my lighting. I recently changed to Radiums and love them... still 250 watt. I'm actually not running my T5s in conjunction with the MH now that I installed the Radiums. The Radiums dip into the blue spectrum a little more than my Giesemann 21ks did. To put it simple, the Radiums alone have the same spectrum to my eyes as did the Giesemann 21k MH + the 4 T5 Giesemann True Actinics. Which is nice, because I feel that I had too much PAR for my LPS when running the T5s. So now I just run the T5s for an hour, then just the Radiums for 7 hours and then just the T5s again for an hour.

Oh wow, so that is just the Radiums and not with T5's as well as I first presumed. Also thank you for confirming that your processing was for accuracy, the shots are so crisp and your tank is simply stunningly beautiful with that light. I do like the blue look for a moonlight type effect but if I wanted to spend my days in 'blacklight' rooms I would be planning to spend more time clubbing and not setting up a reef tank.

 

[revhtree]

Tank still looks awesome!

 

[Broadfield]

@Broadfield Bro.... awesome thread!! I just finished reading the whole thing and to me you are a reefing GOD lol and congrats with all the awards you have earned well deserved. After reading this and taking notes i'm planning on doing a complete overhaul to my 450's sump area cause right now looks like spaghetti with all my control wires and tubing all over the place, if you see it you'll probably go NUTS! just got a few questions hopefully you can help me out.
I noticed you have two different media reactors and from one of your post your running GFO and bio-pellets and you had a huge hiccup with bio-pellets at one point.
Why run both? correct me if i'm wrong but aren't you doing double the work?
Isn't bio-pellets and GFO basically the same thing?

I'm kinda going through the same thing you went through, my nutrient levels are low and noticing my corals are not doing so well. My nitrates are at zero and phos at 0.06 trying to raise nitrates a bit without making phos go crazy. Thanks man and keep up the awesome work

Correct, I have three reactors plumbed into my system. I was running one for bio pellets and one for GFO. The third one was in case of an emergency where I might need to run carbon and so on. While bio pellets can remove some level of phosphates, it's not enough alone for some tanks.... mine being one of them. I had to run GFO in order to keep phosphates where I wanted them. Bio pellets worked great "for me" when I had very low PAR. However, when I switched to MH, my corals were starving for nutrients. I now run only GFO and keep my nitrate around 10 ppm and my phosphate around .o3 - .05.

 

[Diazcm]

Correct, I have three reactors plumbed into my system. I was running one for bio pellets and one for GFO. The third one was in case of an emergency where I might need to run carbon and so on. While bio pellets can remove some level of phosphates, it's not enough alone for some tanks.... mine being one of them. I had to run GFO in order to keep phosphates where I wanted them. Bio pellets worked great "for me" when I had very low PAR. However, when I switched to MH, my corals were starving for nutrients. I now run only GFO and keep my nitrate around 10 ppm and my phosphate around .o3 - .05.

Thanks man! i'm now working on raising my nitrates by feeding more, lets see how it goes.

 

[Broadfield]

Oh wow, so that is just the Radiums and not with T5's as well as I first presumed. Also thank you for confirming that your processing was for accuracy, the shots are so crisp and your tank is simply stunningly beautiful with that light. I do like the blue look for a moonlight type effect but if I wanted to spend my days in 'blacklight' rooms I would be planning to spend more time clubbing and not setting up a reef tank.

Thanks man! i'm now working on raising my nitrates by feeding more, lets see how it goes.

Good luck with it! I think your coral will be very happy with a little nitrates.

 

[VJV]

I do not run a chiller.... tank never really gets over 82 degrees. I am running the Giesemann Spectra

Hi Toby, I have followed this thread from the beginning and I am a complete fan [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

I particularly like your current fixture and am considering one for my 80x24x24 tank, but heat has been concerning me and I do not want to add a chiller.

Where I live (Portugal, Southern Europe) I have pretty hot summers, reaching between 86 and 95F on average.

Is this similar to where you live? Also, how high is the light from the water surface. It seems quite high. Would you say this is the reason why you have not experienced increase in water temp? Finally, at that height doesn’t it generate a lot of light spill?

Apologies for all the questions but my tank sits as a room divider to the dining section and would want to avoid blinding my family [emoji16].

 

[Broadfield]

Hi Toby, I have followed this thread from the beginning and I am a complete fan [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

I particularly like your current fixture and am considering one for my 80x24x24 tank, but heat has been concerning me and I do not want to add a chiller.

Where I live (Portugal, Southern Europe) I have pretty hot summers, reaching between 86 and 95F on average.

Is this similar to where you live? Also, how high is the light from the water surface. It seems quite high. Would you say this is the reason why you have not experienced increase in water temp? Finally, at that height doesn’t it generate a lot of light spill?

Apologies for all the questions but my tank sits as a room divider to the dining section and would want to avoid blinding my family [emoji16].

The fixture isn't terribly high currently... right at 9" AWL. At that height, I don't get any spill. I need to take an updated pic so you can see. It does get up to 100 degrees here in the summer, but I usually have the A/C on if it's over 85... it gets humid here.

 

[ReefguyEric]

Once again nice reef, what kind of ballast are you running.

 

[Broadfield]

Once again nice reef, what kind of ballast are you running.

Thank you... I am running the Luxcore 250/400 watt selectables.

 

[AlexDm]

How do you get into the back of your custom display? For example, adding changing wires and the dosing pumps? Could you post a picture please? [emoji3]

 

[JDowns]

Correct, I have three reactors plumbed into my system. I was running one for bio pellets and one for GFO. The third one was in case of an emergency where I might need to run carbon and so on. While bio pellets can remove some level of phosphates, it's not enough alone for some tanks.... mine being one of them. I had to run GFO in order to keep phosphates where I wanted them. Bio pellets worked great "for me" when I had very low PAR. However, when I switched to MH, my corals were starving for nutrients. I now run only GFO and keep my nitrate around 10 ppm and my phosphate around .o3 - .05.

I've found the same thing. As I've increased the lights I've had to dose nitrates to keep them above 5. I lose about .5ppm of Nitrate a day. I'm in the process of slowly taking the Pellets offline by removing pellets each week until nitrates stabilize.

Tank still looks stunning.

 

[SanClementeEric]

Wow! Amazing setup.

 

[schaNYC]

How is the glass maintenance for the rear? How often are you cleaning it? Would peel off the black sticker in the back of had to do again?

Also how much rodi topoff would you say per week?

 

[Broadfield]

How do you get into the back of your custom display? For example, adding changing wires and the dosing pumps? Could you post a picture please? [emoji3]

The lower black beauty panel is pressure fit into place and the top two black beauty panels are magnetized into place. So all three of those simply pop off and expose what you see in the image below. Once there, the middle section hinges up to a 90 degree position and locks into place. That then gives me plenty of access to everything behind there. I left some extra length on the dosing tubes so I can slide the DDR out onto the floor and slightly off to the side if needed.

IMG_8001 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

 

[Broadfield]

I've found the same thing. As I've increased the lights I've had to dose nitrates to keep them above 5. I lose about .5ppm of Nitrate a day. I'm in the process of slowly taking the Pellets offline by removing pellets each week until nitrates stabilize.

Tank still looks stunning.

It's amazing how lighting and flow can affect the coral's uptake of nutrients. I learned the hard way when I switched to those MH. But now everything is back in the zone and really benefiting from the MH.

Wow! Amazing setup.

Thank you!

How is the glass maintenance for the rear? How often are you cleaning it? Would peel off the black sticker in the back of had to do again?

Also how much rodi topoff would you say per week?

I wipe the rear glass down with a Flipper every other day or so... takes about an extra 60 seconds over just doing the front and ends. However, I use a Kent scraper for the overflow... which I let that go for awhile and do it about every 2 weeks or so.

The first thing I would do is peel off the black backing... still love it! However, depending on the color of the wall behind the tank, the effect may not be as appealing. Or if you had cables draping down etc.

I think I go through about 8-10 gallons of top-off per week. I'll make a tape mark on my holding container and check it in a week... then get back to you for an exact amount.