Is your light suspended?

[uscamaro]

I'm wondering what everyone's light fixture looks like when it's suspended. I see that almost every one of them has a hanging option and was curious how often people use them and what they look like.

So post your hanging fixture picture!

 

[mr_X]

here is my last coral tank and a picture of when it was lit by 150 watt, clip on halides and another when it was lit by hanging 8 lamp t-5 fixtures. yep, that top frag tank is suspended from the ceiling too.

 

[uscamaro]

That is an awesome tank! I bet you make a ton of money off those frags.

 

[mr_X]

well, i sold corals much cheaper than most. i actually got into the business because i was sick of seeing 40 dollar, 1" frags. i guess i paid for the salt and electric though..

 

[uscamaro]

Do you still sell them? I know I WILL be extremely interested once my tank gets a bit more established. Right now I wouldn't know where to begin if I were to have a 1" frag.

 

[mr_X]

well, i'm making settlement on a house in about 60 days. i'm definitely going to be putting an obscene reef system in, but i'm not sure about anything else at this point. if i decide to do something commercial, i'll be sure to contact the officers here and see if i can advertise.

 

[uscamaro]

I think all you'll need is that picture of your setup and your contact info in the corner, the picture sells! What size tank are you thinking?

 

[mr_X]

well, something in-wall i hope. maybe 300+ gallon display and i was thinking of using one of these in the basement as a lagoon/frag area-
American Farmland Round Tank 8 x 2 in Plastic - 2177188 | Tractor Supply Company
i'm mainly worried about humidity. it's a long way off though...i'll work something out.

 

[uscamaro]

amazing

 

[mr_X]

i'll probably have the display tank made. all the 300+ tanks out there seem to be a bit too deep top to bottom for my liking. 24" is about as deep as i can stand (short arms)

 

[cmor1701d]

Sounds great Doug. There's a guy in Philly that has a simalar setup in the basement. He use that tank as his sump with a dsb, and macro. He occasionally sells detrivore kits on eBay from that.

Please do a buld thread when you start.

Selling frags occasionally to other members is fine. I have bough frags from folks before. It's when it becomes a business that it crosses the line.

Allan (Ziggy9530 used to sell frags a few time a year when he pruned and the grow out tank was ready to sell.

 

[cmor1701d]

Oh, back on topic. When I switched to LEDs I wanted to be able to raise and lower them. So instead of just hanging them with the included hanging kits I mounted them in my old canopy and added a linear actuator to raise and lower the canopy (remote controlled)

 

[mr_X]

...and, make no mistake-a lighting system that can be easily moved out of the way is invaluable to a reef keeper. trust me, you'll have your hands in the tank almost every time you walk by....lol.

 

[uscamaro]

Those lights are really high, would I have to keep my LEDs that high? I would like for my lights to sit kinda close to the tank.

Doug, I'm not sure what you mean by putting my hand in there all the time. Do you make a lot of adjustments, or is it for feeding?

 

[mr_X]

lol..cmors pic was when he opted to have the lights raised up so he could do maintenance. they are usually sitting on the tank.

it's both...frags fall over, snails can upright themselves, rocks fall down, feeding, moving something unhappy to it's "happy place"...there's always something to do!

 

[cmor1701d]

Doug's correct. Usually the canopy sits right on the tank with the LEDs 4" above the water. The canopy goes up every time I feed every time I clean the glass, for pwc's and when I need to move or re-attach a coral that's been knocked over.

Adding nori and using the magnet cleaner is about the only maintenance that doesn't require lifting the canopy.