AcRomero412
Community Member
Iv been looking at some lighting options for my Cade 1500 peninsula s2 (white stand).
The dimensions are 59"Lx29.5"Wx23.6"H 178 Gallon (210 with sump)
First some background...
Iv kept some pretty large planted freshwater tanks, but this is by far my biggest tank over the years. It is also my first dive into saltwater and is quite a huge investment so I want to get my equipment selections right, and I'm very much of the buy once cry once persuasion. I wont be able to get all my gear in one go, so I'm going with a some what minimal flow to start and buying only what I need to get cycling and maintaining the tank. I will be keeping the tank fish only after the cycle and then adding in lights last, and eventually adding more flow as needed once I start getting into corals a couple months from now. Speaking of corals, It will be mixed reef with the long term goal of Acro's once I get the system all dialed in have successfully been growing some beginner/intermediate corals for a while.
Now I have a few questions...
1) Should I get a small fresh water light setup just for the fish and maybe some macro algae's for aesthetic reasons short term?
I was already planning on getting a small light for the refugium and growing chaeto or something. But I think it would be more visually pleasing, and probably make the fish a little happier to have light and some plant growth in the display to start it off. Eventually adding the refugium later. But this isnt exactly "buy once" and eventually would have to be replaced by proper lights anyways. But it would let my tank settle in and get some bio diversity rolling pre coral.
2) Should I just go Refugium light and leave the display with nothing and just have it be rock and sand, no lights at all?
3) Or lastly should I just wait all together until I can get the full setup before I even add water to start the cycle process and that way I can have everything ready for both fish and coral. This would give me a lot of time to work out my aquascape which if you saw my other post... I have way to much rock, and could scape for weeks lol. I'm sort of leaning to this option the most at the moment. I'm in no hurry but I don't want to look at an empty tank forever either.
Onto the MAIN subject of this post, my endgame lights.
I like the more natural look to the overly blue style lighting configurations. Buuuut I do love me some fluorescence. It would be cool if I could get the lights to go heavy blue in the morning before I leave for work, ramping up to the natural full spectrum, and then back to the blues in the evening before they eventually shut off.
I have been watching Sydney Reefing on Youtube who has the same aquarium but the s3 version. He is using 2 ATI Stratton flex's (white) hung from the ceiling and I gotta say it is a VERY clean look and I'm highly debating doing the same. This is just such an incredibly aesthetically pleasing look, and as an artist aesthetics is very important to me. Its almost like these lights and the Cade were made for each other. They are also both very quiet and since this is going in my living room area where I watch movies and stuff that's pretty huge. Here is a link to Sydney Reefing's video showing them off on his Cade build.
On the other hand with my current gear selections, everything can be adjusted and played with through the Mobius app. And I kind of want to keep with that line of thinking when it comes to my lights. That means Ecotech, and AquaIllumination lights...
At first I was going to just get 2x Radion xr30 G6 Pro's Maybe adding some AI Blades for extra coverage/color pop long term. I would not be hanging these from the ceiling, I would most likely DIY some 80/20 extruded aluminum coming from the wall over hanging the peninsula for a sort of floating look that wont add any pressure to the glass. I would have it done in a way where I could lift the lights up, like some sort of hinge for better access to the tank. This would also allow me to add more lights, auto feeders, or anything else I can think of down the road.
But then I saw Kessils shimmer... And even though it would go against my all Mobius setup idea, I thought maybe I go with something like 3x xr15 pros, 2x kessil A360XE, 2x AI Blade glows. This would give me all the things + the Kessil shimmer that looks so good.
Anyways I'm curious to hear what you guys think, I know this is a lot of questions but I'm excited to get some opinions to help sway me one direction or another.
The dimensions are 59"Lx29.5"Wx23.6"H 178 Gallon (210 with sump)
First some background...
Iv kept some pretty large planted freshwater tanks, but this is by far my biggest tank over the years. It is also my first dive into saltwater and is quite a huge investment so I want to get my equipment selections right, and I'm very much of the buy once cry once persuasion. I wont be able to get all my gear in one go, so I'm going with a some what minimal flow to start and buying only what I need to get cycling and maintaining the tank. I will be keeping the tank fish only after the cycle and then adding in lights last, and eventually adding more flow as needed once I start getting into corals a couple months from now. Speaking of corals, It will be mixed reef with the long term goal of Acro's once I get the system all dialed in have successfully been growing some beginner/intermediate corals for a while.
Now I have a few questions...
1) Should I get a small fresh water light setup just for the fish and maybe some macro algae's for aesthetic reasons short term?
I was already planning on getting a small light for the refugium and growing chaeto or something. But I think it would be more visually pleasing, and probably make the fish a little happier to have light and some plant growth in the display to start it off. Eventually adding the refugium later. But this isnt exactly "buy once" and eventually would have to be replaced by proper lights anyways. But it would let my tank settle in and get some bio diversity rolling pre coral.
2) Should I just go Refugium light and leave the display with nothing and just have it be rock and sand, no lights at all?
3) Or lastly should I just wait all together until I can get the full setup before I even add water to start the cycle process and that way I can have everything ready for both fish and coral. This would give me a lot of time to work out my aquascape which if you saw my other post... I have way to much rock, and could scape for weeks lol. I'm sort of leaning to this option the most at the moment. I'm in no hurry but I don't want to look at an empty tank forever either.
Onto the MAIN subject of this post, my endgame lights.
I like the more natural look to the overly blue style lighting configurations. Buuuut I do love me some fluorescence. It would be cool if I could get the lights to go heavy blue in the morning before I leave for work, ramping up to the natural full spectrum, and then back to the blues in the evening before they eventually shut off.
I have been watching Sydney Reefing on Youtube who has the same aquarium but the s3 version. He is using 2 ATI Stratton flex's (white) hung from the ceiling and I gotta say it is a VERY clean look and I'm highly debating doing the same. This is just such an incredibly aesthetically pleasing look, and as an artist aesthetics is very important to me. Its almost like these lights and the Cade were made for each other. They are also both very quiet and since this is going in my living room area where I watch movies and stuff that's pretty huge. Here is a link to Sydney Reefing's video showing them off on his Cade build.
On the other hand with my current gear selections, everything can be adjusted and played with through the Mobius app. And I kind of want to keep with that line of thinking when it comes to my lights. That means Ecotech, and AquaIllumination lights...
At first I was going to just get 2x Radion xr30 G6 Pro's Maybe adding some AI Blades for extra coverage/color pop long term. I would not be hanging these from the ceiling, I would most likely DIY some 80/20 extruded aluminum coming from the wall over hanging the peninsula for a sort of floating look that wont add any pressure to the glass. I would have it done in a way where I could lift the lights up, like some sort of hinge for better access to the tank. This would also allow me to add more lights, auto feeders, or anything else I can think of down the road.
But then I saw Kessils shimmer... And even though it would go against my all Mobius setup idea, I thought maybe I go with something like 3x xr15 pros, 2x kessil A360XE, 2x AI Blade glows. This would give me all the things + the Kessil shimmer that looks so good.
Anyways I'm curious to hear what you guys think, I know this is a lot of questions but I'm excited to get some opinions to help sway me one direction or another.
