Luc Vogels's 600+ gallon CoralCare Reef

[Luc Vogels]

And some additional shots

 

[Bronc]

Are those for sale in Europe yet? If so, what is the suggested retail price? I'm really interested in these for my 75g tank and would even consider ordering from a European vendor.

 

[eg8r210]

Thanks Maroun!
I agree, learning curve is rewarding.
I just make 1000 pictures and with some luck 4-5 of them are Ok.
Lets hope next year it will be 1 out of 100 haha


Bedankt! I will ask but I thought it was (former) Dutch East Indies



Thanks and I will keep updating this topic!

About the form factor and choice of the CoralCare fixture.

In our labs we worked for multiple years on the design and validation of the CoralCare spectrum and optics. Once we knew what was key (spectral distribution, homogeneity and color consistency) to efficiently grow corals and stimulate colorization, we scanned the existing Philips portfolio to find a product that could meet the required specifications. Philips is a multibillion company, but that does not automatically mean it grants you unlimited resources to develop a product!!

It took me an extreme effort to influence and convince the board to invest in this proposition for a niche market. You can imagine that a company perceives each product as an investment, which eventually should compensate for the development and release costs (and even better, make a profit).Therefor we decided to scan the Philips portfolio on existing products and determine what product already fulfilled a part of the Marine aquaristic specification.

We chose for the Gentlespace 2 architecture, an extremely durable and high quality fixture that ensures reliability and long lifetime of the product. We changed the optics, LED engine and driver components to further match the specs (the five points we mention as benefits of the system). This choice affects the aesthetic appearance of this fixture. It has an industrial look (because it was designed for this) that some reefers do not find appealing.
We made the choice to put the performance of the fixture as our most important priority.

Therefor we considered passive cooling as a mandatory feature, and for a 190Watt fixture that simply means that a large quantity of metal is needed to ensure a correct operation temperature of the fixture (while applied in aquaristic applications). Also the shape (finned design) and used materials (glass front plate, metal housing, thick coating and heavy duty hanging kit) ensure a long lifetime in the harsh aquarium environment.

Thanks for the reply. I totally understand the position you were in and while the fixture is not appealing to look at, I am greatly intrigued by the performance especially after seeing the review from BRS. I have a canopy so I think it is a win win at this point.

 

[revhtree]

And some additional shots

What type of Eel is that and how has your experience been with keeping one?

 

[Luc Vogels]

What type of Eel is that and how has your experience been with keeping one?

Hi David,

This is a Pseudechidna brummeri.
I have kept this eel for almost two years and I had very positive experiences with it.
The burmmeri is very friendly and does not show any aggression towards the other inhabitants.
It lived together with a Valenciennea wardii under a large rock formation in the left side of my tank.
This eel was a very active swimmer and showed himself quite often in the open.
i heard this is not always the case.. I guess I was lucky.
I fed him twice a week (half a smelt) what was a lot of fun to do.

Why do i speak in the past tense

Unfortunately, the eel found its way into my plumbing and ended up in the filtration system.
(you can think of what happened next).
It is unbelievable how he achieved this.... The top surface of my tank is secured so no fish can jump out (borders near the sides and protectors around the plumbing).
But there was a extremely narrow gap (only 10mm) about 5 cm above the water surface... but he managed to squeeze himself through this.

So yes I have positive experiences but be 100% sure your tank is secure!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Sorry about what happened with your eel. Those guys can seemingly accomplish the impossible.

 

[ksed]

Luc, your tank looks amazing, keep up the great work as it's very rewarding.
Your family story is very inspirational.

Kevin

 

[Luc Vogels]

Some marco shots

Cirrhitichthys falco

Genicanthus melanospilos

And a tank shot from that period (December 2015)

 

[revhtree]

Oh man sorry to hear about the eel!

 

[Luc Vogels]

Some more pictures of the tank ( January 2016)

 

[Luc Vogels]

And from February onwards I started to clean the back window of my aquarium.
It takes a lot of work but really increases the depth perception of the tank
What do you guys think?

 

[eg8r210]

Tank looks amazing. I definitely like it better with the back cleaned up.

 

[Luc Vogels]

Two somewhat more "artistic" images of my tank .

Bit nerdy, but the idea was to play around with the TIR (Total internal reflection) that is caused by the watersurface and cleaned internal glass plates.
In the second picture you can see 5 reflections.

 

[JMacedo]

Great work and gorgeous reef!

 

[Breadman03]

Beautiful! I think I'm going to use one of them for my laptop background!

 

[revhtree]

Just amazing! I agree with keeping the back clean!

 

[reef_ranch]

Wow! Awesome tank. AND you got to design an LED fixture for Philips!! Not bad at all.

Please make your next goal getting those fixtures released in NA!

 

[Coral Frenzy]

Beautiful tank! I agree, it looks much deeper with the back glass clean.

 

[van7271]

Looks great. I agree with clean.

 

[mazoli]

Love your thread and great story! Keep up the good work, and keep posting, you have a beautiful aquarium.