Zer0's 17.3G Shallow Rimless Cube

[Mitchell0605]

Here's a quick liftout from a Reefkeeping Mag article about light temperatures and they effects he discoved on growth rates when using them over his tank:

I have personally used all of the above Kelvin bulbs with the following results:
The 6500 Kevin bulbs have given me the greatest coral growth in SPS, LPS placed lower in the tank and even soft corals. The color of the 6500-Kelvin bulbs when supplemented with actinic VHO tubes produces a crisp white appearance. For those seeking the greatest growth rates from SPS corals, I would recommend this color bulb.
The 10000-Kelvin bulbs also achieve good growth rates, albeit slower than the 6500-Kelvin bulbs. Their appearance is white with a slight blue tint when used with actinic supplementation. Bulbs of this color have produced excellent growth with soft corals and LPS in my own tanks along with slower paced SPS growth. I would recommend this bulb for a mixed reef environment.
The 20000-Kelvin bulb is very blue and brings out all of the fluorescent pigments in many corals. While they are visually appealing, the growth rate of my SPS corals came to a complete standstill while using them. I feel that these bulbs are well suited for a tank that simulates a deeper reef environment with LPS and soft corals but from my own experience, I do not feel that they are the best choice for high light SPS and clams. One note about the 20000-Kelvin lamps: in order to get the best intensity and color from these bulbs, they require a special HQI ballast for them to be driven as intended. This ballast is similar to the standard metal halide ballast, but includes a special starter to fire the lamp.

 

[mr_X]

the thing about color temp, is that the PAR greatly varies, and usually, the higher you get, the less PAR you have. this is why the narrator @ reefkeeping mag saw the growth differences.
the truth of the matter is- if you have enough PAR, no matter what color the bulb is, you'll get optimum growth.
in other words, if i have a 10k bulb that gives me a PAR reading of 300 @ the coral in question, and i have a 20k bulb that puts out that very same number at the same depth, you will not see any difference in growth. the trouble is, it's hard to find a 20k lamp that puts out that kind of intensity. that's why i recommended a 250 watt bulb earlier. it may sound like a lot over such a shallow tank, but given the height, and the PAR numbers an average 20k lamp puts out, it should work fine.

 

[Zer0]

Yeah, i here you guys on that, but the main focus of this tank is zoanthids and plays. Mostly PE's and LE's. Along with only some lps like duncans, and a couple others i can't really think of atm. There will however be some sps. A couple monti caps and then things like birdnests, pocilloporas and a few other ones. My tank isn't SPS dominant or LPS dominant. So that's why i don't want a 250w. A 150w with a 14 or 15k bulb would do just fine, especially since my tank is very shallow.

 

[Zer0]

Update.

I did purchase some base rock from marcorocks.com last week and i received them on Friday. Best base rock i've ever seen. Extremely porous, has some amazing textures and shapes, and definitely will harbor some awesome micro life once my tank is set up. I love these rocks.

So far, this is what i came up with, and i'm going to let it sit for a while so i can see if i get the feel of it. I have about half a box left of nice rocks to play around with so i feel i may find another aquascape i like. In the meantime, i very much like this aquascape, and it looks much better than what my camera can capture. Plus, it looks ugly with the crappy light in the background and with that old towel in there.

Let me know what you guys think. Be harsh.

 

[Zer0]

A macro shot:

 

[Mitchell0605]

I love it. Great lagoon scape. The little rock by itself looks great too like a bommy or something.
I just wish it was live so you didn't have to add anymore rock.

Also I'd say for your light go with 10,000s and 18,000s. That way you get good PAR for growth and awesome highlighted colour from the 18,000s.

 

[Zer0]

Thanks Mitch! My theme is Tidal Pool/Lagoon actually so i guess i got it right.

Tbh Mitch, i would love to have something like a 18,000k bulb but they don't make them lol. They only make 6500k, 10,000k, 14,000k, 15,000k, and 20,000k rated bulbs. That's why once the 14,000k bulb life runs out i will try and upgrade to a 15k bulb. So i can a little more blue actinic tint in there while still having good growth and nice crisp white hue.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Hahaha I didn't know. How many tubes can you fit in your fixture?

 

[mr_X]

looks cool. i even like the faux substrate.
the only problem i see is running out room very quickly. especially with zoanthids.

 

[Zer0]

Well it's a small tank dude, i think that part is inevitable. What would you suggest i do? Pack the tank full of rock? lol.

 

[mr_X]

na..just skip the zoas, and do all sps!

 

[Zer0]

hahaha that's what i've been told to do many times. Don't worry dude, there will be plenty of nice sps in there. Zoas are my favorite, but SPS are still extremely nice.

P.S.

Forget T5's, Halides, VHO's, whatever. I'm going fully controllable Cree LED's. My mom is a computer programmer and she now wants to work on the LED fixture with me, as far as the Arduino programming goes. I do the assembly on the LED's etc, and she programs the Arduino controller. Fully dimmable, fully controllable LED's. This is gonna be awesome.

 

[Jnam]

I love my LEDs whats the plan on the number of LEDs and what blends on color are you planning? I have done a few fixtures of the last few years so let me know if I can help (I prefer robotics =) but the arduino makes a mighty sweet controller) If you are planning on LED go look at the nanotuners stuff they just released a new driver unit that looks awesome if you are needing more than 6 leds. Full dimming on PWM and stable for both series and parallel applications.

 

[Zer0]

I plan on using 24 Cree XP-G Q5 3w LED's. On two dimmable meanwell drivers. 12 Cool White's on one driver and 12 Royal Blue's on the other driver. I'm sure i will want to try different color LED's in the future, but i'm going to start off with these and then see where it takes me.

I'll definitely let you know if i need help building the fixtures. I'm just thinking of the design of the fixture now, and what materials i could use to build it. I am considering something like 1/2" thick frosted acrylic, and just build a fixture out of that. But i'm not sure. Any suggestions?

 

[Zbatey]

Were can you get these fixtures and what are the prices for these tanks

 

[Zer0]

What fixtures? The LED's i'm talking about? They aren't fixtures, you have to build everything yourself... DIY. But you can find them here:

Reef Led Lights

As for the tank, i bought mine from AdvancedAcrylics. I highly recommend their work. It's flawless.

Advance Acrylics items - Get great deals on items on eBay Stores!

 

[Zbatey]

Meant to say the tank I'm very interested in it

 

[Jnam]

Acrylic works. a lot of people just use the heatsink it depends if you have a hood this is all going into or if its going to be on display

 

[Mitchell0605]

But we were going to be T5 buddies.

 

[Zer0]

Jnam, i don't have a hood, and it will be on display, so that's why i need to make it look really nice. Going to use 1/2" thick black acrylic to make the fixture housing. It's gonna look real nice. Then i'm going to make a whole separate control box with the dimmable drivers and an Arduino controller to create a dusk/dawn effect, and so i can control it from my itouch. Going to mount the control box to my stand, on the right side closest to the light tree so the wires don't have to be so long. What do you think?

Mitch, sorry bud, but i really wanna do LED's. The colors from LED's are just insane.