Zer0's 25G Rimless Cube Reef

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
I would have to look it up. I kept my 250s about 15" off the water and that was over 24" of water. I just see you having heat issues with it that close.
 
Yeah.. i just edited my post a second ago. The water temp is at 84 degrees now. So i think i'm definitely going to have to raise it a couple inches. Think i'll still be able to have my zoas and LPS all the way at the bottom if i raise the light a bit?
 
You should be just fine with that light over that tank at any depth. I would go at the minimum 8" off water, that HQI will generate a lot of heat even with venting on top.
 
Alright awesome. Gonna raise it to that height, and then i might put together a DIY fan setup. Got two brand new 120mm PC fans laying around the i'm sure i could convert to a regular outlet plug. just a little cutting, wire stripping and soldering and it should be good to go. Whatdya think?

Nevermind... doing something like that would make the fans explode lol.
 
Yeah i agree Mitch.. doesn't look like a cube in the pictures. It does in person though.. I blame the camera.. :p

redneckgearhead, thanks a ton actually. I was looking for something that maybe had a transformer or some kind of adapter, but using a phone charger would make my life a heck of a lot easier lol. I'll see if it works. Thanks again.
 
Dont use a battery charger to run fans. I am assuming your fans will require 12VDC and 200mA or so. You can get a "wallwort" at radioshack that will work just fine.

Battery chargers are designed to work in a much different manor than a power supply. They have a circuit meant to detect charging and charging progress, they arent a simply step down xfmr with a rectifier and filter.

Find the operating voltage of your fans and how much current they draw, then match them up to a plug in wall transformer from radioshack. Very, very easy!

Matt
 
mrg02d said:
Dont use a battery charger to run fans. I am assuming your fans will require 12VDC and 200mA or so. You can get a "wallwort" at radioshack that will work just fine.

Battery chargers are designed to work in a much different manor than a power supply. They have a circuit meant to detect charging and charging progress, they arent a simply step down xfmr with a rectifier and filter.

Find the operating voltage of your fans and how much current they draw, then match them up to a plug in wall transformer from radioshack. Very, very easy!

Matt
Click to expand...

Ive used them countless times for various "projects". Matt may be right but they have never seemed to mind what i hooked up to them. They have always worked and been very reliable. Just my experience.
 
Kevin, listen to Allen (Ziggy). He knows how to grow corals.

Too bad you couldn't go with an LED fixture. Since my switchover my tank stays at 79 all the time, my evaporation has decreased by half or more and I no longer need to run a fan. Big savings in the long run.

BTW, your tank looks great with that 20k. Can't wait to see it stocked.
 
Yeah, i raised the light to 8 inches from that water and now my water temp has been at 80 degrees all day, and that's without running a fan as well. So yeah, that was definitely a big help on Ziggy's part.

Also, it's a 14k bulb, not a 20k. ;) 20k is too blue for my taste. I wanted a crisp white, and honestly, the 14000k bulb is SO nice. It's like pure white.
 
I ran a lot of different color combinations over my tanks. I always ended up back at the 10,000 - 14,000 range with actinic supplement. I'm going a totally new route with my Nano Cube project though. I'm going completely LED. I want to avoid any heat issues and conserve power use as much as possible.

I'm glad to see you raised the light I think you will get the results you want and avoid major heat issues.
 
Zer0 said:
Yeah, i raised the light to 8 inches from that water and now my water temp has been at 80 degrees all day, and that's without running a fan as well. So yeah, that was definitely a big help on Ziggy's part.

Also, it's a 14k bulb, not a 20k. ;) 20k is too blue for my taste. I wanted a crisp white, and honestly, the 14000k bulb is SO nice. It's like pure white.
Click to expand...

You would be surprised with the Radium 20k bulb. It is actually a crisp white with a tint of blue. Its got to be the whitest 20k bulb out there and makes the corals look great while also achieving good growth.
 
Nevermind, I got lots of catching up to do, I just went a couple pages back and saw you have 150w DE halides, so the Radiums I am talking about are out.
 
Yeah, i see what you mean Ziggy. I would have gone with LED's as well since they're really awesome, but putting something together for my tank would have definitely costed me +$200 and i don't have that kind of money right now. This MH came with everything, ballast, UV lens, hanging kit, pendant and bulb all for $140.. and it was a quality pendant.. so i just couldn't pass it up. Ya know? However, when i get the chance, the next time i need to change the bulb out i'm definitely going to get a really nice one.. maybe something like an Ushio or Pheonix. I'm also thinking that when i get a job i could get a few LED's and integrate them with the pendant i have now.. to use as actinic supplementation. And i'm sure i could do it, since those 460nm Cree LED's are out there. Just need to get a heatsink and a power supply. I'm good with soldering and wiring.. so putting it together won't be a problem at all. I just need to get the materials first haha.

ryshark, i'm sure the bulb your talking about is nice and all, but the bulb these people were going to give me was going to be really blue. The bulbs they supply aren't top of the line, but they aren't garbage either, so i had to go with the 14k. ;)
 
Zer0 said:
Yeah, i see what you mean Ziggy. I would have gone with LED's as well since they're really awesome, but putting something together for my tank would have definitely costed me +$200 and i don't have that kind of money right now. This MH came with everything, ballast, UV lens, hanging kit, pendant and bulb all for $140.. and it was a quality pendant.. so i just couldn't pass it up. Ya know? However, when i get the chance, the next time i need to change the bulb out i'm definitely going to get a really nice one.. maybe something like an Ushio or Pheonix. I'm also thinking that when i get a job i could get a few LED's and integrate them with the pendant i have now.. to use as actinic supplementation. And i'm sure i could do it, since those 460nm Cree LED's are out there. Just need to get a heatsink and a power supply. I'm good with soldering and wiring.. so putting it together won't be a problem at all. I just need to get the materials first haha.

ryshark, i'm sure the bulb your talking about is nice and all, but the bulb these people were going to give me was going to be really blue. The bulbs they supply aren't top of the line, but they aren't garbage either, so i had to go with the 14k. ;)
Click to expand...

Makes sense
 
Yeah, but seriously, raising that MH by a few more inches worked wonders! My tank temperature has been at 80 degrees all day so far! No fans and no a/c.. so that's a plus. Only thing is.. i'm definitely noticing an increase in evaporation. But not so much that i won't be around to top-off.
 
Yup. I'll be getting one sooner than i thought. My mom is going on vacation and i'm getting paid to take care of all our pets. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ChiTownRomeo
Reef tank with cracking brace. Should I worry?
Replies
3
Views
285
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
B
Mini cube tray for making Repashy
Replies
1
Views
285
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
C
Cycling nano reef
Replies
18
Views
478
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
D
New reef tank
Replies
2
Views
593
Dhurga
D
boardsurfer
Hope everyone is good and still reefing
Replies
0
Views
589
boardsurfer
boardsurfer

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom