In-wall/Behind-wall, 180g peninsula, with a basement fish closet

[schuby]

I completely agree that the flexibility of LED light-settings is not such a great thing. So easy to change means that our corals may not have stable lighting if we can't refrain from "playing".

 

[New&no clue]

Here is a picture with the hood. You can see how the lights hang down really blocks all access to the tank. The only thing to do is take the hood off, which is heavy and a two person job.

 

[fishguy242]

how about mounting lights inside canopy,securing hinge ,and having a floating canopy,will also deflect light down ,and not spreading out into room ?

 

[New&no clue]

how about mounting lights inside canopy,securing hinge ,and having a floating canopy,will also deflect light down ,and not spreading out into room ?

Like something like this?

 

[schuby]

Ah, I see. Looks pretty cramped. Do you have glass lids on the tank or is it open?

I understand about taking the hood off. I want to change my hinges, but my wife won't help me take it down.

 

[fishguy242]

exactly,any questions on how,ask away...

 

[New&no clue]

Ah, I see. Looks pretty cramped. Do you have glass lids on the tank or is it open?

I understand about taking the hood off. I want to change my hinges, but my wife won't help me take it down.

I have screen lids.

exactly,any questions on how,ask away...

I have a million, but we will start slow. I understand what you are saying about the hinge, and I wonder if I could make it work with the current hood. I will post pictures later for your review. I am also wondering if this will help with heating and airflow, or will I run into the same problems? Lastly, if it can't be secured to the wall, is it possible to hang it similar to how we hang lights? I do like hanging lights for tank maintenance. I can pull them up to the ceiling for starters, so they are out of the way, and I like that they still shine down on the tank, so you still have light while working.

 

[fishguy242]

yes ,i would recommend air holes 2 and 1 fan either sides ,or top no matter how you mount,hang if only for thr life of lights being overheated,yes you can hang entire unit from ceiling ,even use pulleys to raise and lower ,
but mount must be strong ,canopy def have some weight to it, and more if using pulleys.
do you know which way ceiling joists run?
not as hard as it sounds..

 

[revhtree]

Looks great!

 

[New&no clue]

In my quest to add bio-diversity to my tank, I have ordered some more items. I have already added several different species of pods. I have also added some macro and some rock that come from my existing system. From RUSALTY, I added a couple of sponges. I hoped to put them in the DT. However, currently, I am "burning in" my T5 lights (which I didn't know what a thing). My lights are currently at 100% for 50-100 hours (getting different answers). I was worried that would be too intense for sponges, so I have them in the sump for now. I also went to IPSF and got some micro brittle stars, mores pods, plankton, and some coralline algae plates. I have a ton of bristle worms in my current tank that will all move over when I take the rocks. I use to have coralline covering all my rocks, but an invasion of asterina starfish have cleaned my rocks. I added a harlequin shrimp to the tank in hopes that he will eradicate them before the move, and these new plates will help seed and regrow this tank. I also plan to scrape the back wall of my old tank and sprinkle that into this tank as well.

 

[jandlms]

I completely agree that the flexibility of LED light-settings is not such a great thing. So easy to change means that our corals may not have stable lighting if we can't refrain from "playing".

I agree that chasing a certain look with the LEDs is not the way to go, but corals naturally have to deal with slight changes all the time. Cloudy days. Differences in water clarity. Solar output. All of these factors alter the light that corals receive naturally. I’m sure there is a bunch of other factors. We just have to stop playing with the settings on the light systems Quite so much.

 

[New&no clue]

I agree that chasing a certain look with the LEDs is not the way to go, but corals naturally have to deal with slight changes all the time. Cloudy days. Differences in water clarity. Solar output. All of these factors alter the light that corals receive naturally. I’m sure there is a bunch of other factors. We just have to stop playing with the settings on the light systems Quite so much.

I agree that corals are used to changing lights. However, I rented a PAR meter, and my goal is to "set it and forget it." The thing I still struggle with is how long to have them on in a day.

 

[jandlms]

I have never been a believer of chasing water parameters chemically except under rare circumstances. I guess I also believe in not chasing PAR values. I am currently setting up a 120 gallon system and I really don’t plan to start the lights seriously for months ( actually I am at the stage of adding water and maybe sand and rock today) but I will be able to tinke a small amount without corals. I just want to get what is aesthetically pleasing initially and then after corals have acclimated MAYBE tinker a small amount to keep the corals happy.

 

[New&no clue]

I have never been a believer of chasing water parameters chemically except under rare circumstances. I guess I also believe in not chasing PAR values. I am currently setting up a 120 gallon system and I really don’t plan to start the lights seriously for months ( actually I am at the stage of adding water and maybe sand and rock today) but I will be able to tinke a small amount without corals. I just want to get what is aesthetically pleasing initially and then after corals have acclimated MAYBE tinker a small amount to keep the corals happy.

I agree that chasing magic numbers that one system verse another uses isn't always the best. Instead, I think getting stability and consistency is the key to a happy environment. I believe it is the same with the lights. I plan to get the LED aesthetically pleasing to the eye color-wise. Then adjust the intensity to be within a commonly accepted PAR range. Once this is done, as long as everyone survives and thrives, it shouldn't be adjusted to meet some new standard.

 

[New&no clue]

This weekend I worked on the lighting schedule. I played around with colors but in the end I went with their presets.

Once I found a color for the LEDs I liked, I used a PAR meter to determine the intensity of the LED and T5s. My goal was to have the top of the rock structure around the 300 range and the rest at the 150-250 range. I am overall happy with the look; however, I have concerns with the LED color I picked. The preset I chose is labeled Coral Plus. As this is an ATI fixture, I went with that, but the whites are at the highest, and the reds are relatively high as well. I thought or maybe misunderstood that Red and White light leads to algae growth, which is why refugium lights are typically in Red and White spectrums. I am not sure if I am overthinking it.

I am going to add some corals I have on a frag rack into the system. These are some zoas, a toadstool, and a couple of mushrooms. I wanted to test the water out before I move all my rocks over. I will let these sit for a week, make sure they do okay, and possibly start to transfer next weekend.

 

[fishguy242]

no expert on "new tech" ,but agree with you ,red and white ,think blue up and down where i see red..

 

[fishguy242]

@DiefsReef @Lost in the Sauce RS lights here..

 

[DiefsReef]

@DiefsReef @Lost in the Sauce RS lights here..

Thx Frank!

 

[schuby]

There are no absolute "laws" when it comes to reef-keeping. For every statement such as "Red spectrum causes algae" or "Phosphate over 0.08ppm causes algae", there are many tanks where this is simply not true.

Each of our tanks is unique. Only through trial-and-error can we determine what works best in each one. Slow and deliberate will usually have more success than sudden and frequent.

 

[New&no clue]

I did my first water change this weekend and didn't have to carry a single bucket of water.

This has been a goal for a long time, and I was finally able to do it with this new tank. For my old water change process, you can refer to this post here.

Going forward, I bought a small Syncra 2.0 pump along with 3/4" tubing. I measured from the tank to my bathtub and then added on some extra footage. My tank is 180 gallons, and then two sumps each 34 gallons for a total of 248 gallons. Subtract for rock, sand, equipment, and sumps not entirely full guessing about 200 gallons of water. For the first water change, I turned off my pump in the basement and let the water level in the tank fall. Next, I put the pump in, ran the hose into a 7-gallon bucket in the tub, and filled it up. For a 10% water change, I need to do 20 gallons (round to 21 as I am using 7-gallon buckets). I filled up the bucket three times and then marked the water level on the side of the tank. Sometimes I do a 25% water change which would be 50 gallons. I filled up four more buckets and then marked the side for 25%. Now going forward, all I need to do is run the hose to the tub, turn it on, and then turn it off when the water level hits the mark. To add water in, I added a hose to my filling station. I run the hose from my station into the sump and turn on the pump. Once I see water coming back in the drain lines, I pull the hose, let it level a bit, and then add until I get to the ATO sensor.