New tank with LED light

[rodneyri]

I pulled down my 3yr old tank as I was doing renovations at home and got sick of the stand and wanted a new one. So the long planning stage took place in Jan 2011 to design this tank, I was going for a cabinet to match the rest of my furniture and to hide the ugly chiller.

Now for the other reason for changing tanks, ive had a few types of lights over my tanks and with all the hype about LED I thought id give it a go. So many different opinions on this light if it can or cant grow corals, colors and the like. Well I liked the low power, no need to change tubes (so the manufacturers claim 50k hours we will see), less heat, and fully programmable. So after alot of thought I decided to rip down my old tank, take frags and start all over again from the ground up to really see what these LEDs can do.

I have kept my birdnest which I grew from a frag and a few small SPS I have grown from frags. No wild colonies to really see how I can go with this system.

Now picking the fixture, I dont have a hood so a full pendant had to be the way to go...coming from the giesemann and ATI PM it had to be aesthetically pleasing...so Vertex Illumina 1200 it was. I wanted to do this right so coughed up alot of cash for this light as it best suited my needs.

So I invite you to join me on my journey with growing a SPS tank from frags under LED

This was the design I came up with, had ATI at the time lol


and this is how it turned out.


Im running a simple sump, with a skimmer and just rowaphos and carbo, CR for calcium/alk supplement.


Im still learning how to take photos but here are some unprocessed pics, looking really blue under the LEDs though. These shots were taken with 8-% white and 100% blue/RB on










Im really keen to see how LED works in my tank, ive had them for 4 months now.

Rod

[xxtriggermanxx]

looks really clean ! very nice looking setup

[Bello]

Aesthetically very pleasing!! Love the lil' Regal Angel.

How's the chiller in the cabinet working out for you?

[rodneyri]

chiller in the cab is going ok, takes a bit longer to chill the tank down though...but i have a pretty big cab and no backing on it.

here is a shot of a frag ive grown under my light...really like this piece


got this new one from my bro two weeks ago getting come color and bit of growth

[mark54321]

I really like your set up ,so clean.What dimensions is your tank?

[Rogger Castells]

I think the real tank came out better than the sketch! Very clean tank, I like it a lot, Good luck!

[rodneyri]

thanks guys im really pleased with the way the whole thing turned out.

the tank is 1400x750x550 (almost 160g)

[shingo43]

beautiful tank!

[chadfarmer]

your corals look bleached, why not raise the light a little

[rodneyri]

which ones look bleached? i was thinking of adding more light like an illumilux to the rear of the tank to get more light coverage....could be the crappy photos too

[Retzius]

Great light, I have the vertex illumina as well on my 40 breeder. I am interesting in seeing how your sps colors hold up. Great setup.

I was running white at 10%, Rb/B at 50%, today I increased my blues to 80%. My tank is at the end of its cycle and will eventually go 100% Blue/Royal Blue

[ryanrid]

Originally Posted by chadfarmer

your corals look bleached, why not raise the light a little

i see nothing bleached

[Karlheinz]

Rodney:
Like your tank and the stand very much. It is really a beauty !! Definately one of the nicest setups I have ever seen.
Scaping is just perfect.

You do not use any sand on the floor.
Do you leave this that way ?
If yes: Why ?

When coralline algae (?) start to grow on the floor and backside glass:
Do you plan to try to remove them?
Thanks Karlheinz

PS: Please excuse my poor knowledge of your language, as I am German.

[JDMhoes]

very clean setup! Maybe it would be sweet to put angle slits so the chiller can draw air from the outside?

[rodneyri]

Karlheinz, ill send you email tonight with the attacments of the design. im still deciding if I will put sand on the bottom or not, I do like the look without sand and yes I have a blade that im using to scrape the bottom to keep clean and make sure corraline doesnt stick there.

I did think of putting a grill on the side, but my cab is too nice to cut up the back of the cab is completely opened up and the sides dont go right up to the wall. It still gets really hot in there when the chiller is on though.

[Karlheinz]

Hi Rodney, -
yes, I got your mail. Very kind of you. Thanks a lot.
I will have to modify the design of the stand, as my tank will become what we call a "room-devider", where you can see both long sides of the stand. Only one narrow side will stand next to a wall.

But, I will have to wait for annother year before we will move into our new flat.(House is still under construction)
On the other hand, that will give me sufficient time to think about the question: Sand or not.
I like the look of "No sand" and it might make take out the detrius much more efficient.

During that time I will keep my eye on your tank and see, if you stay without,... or change to "With sand"

Thanks again for your kindness, and have a lot of joy with your outstanding tank.

Karlheinz

[sahin]

I love the look of this setup. The design is so sleek. I can't believe this thread hasn't got more replies. The room decor looks amazing the tank is just as well designed.

I would keep the barebottom for the tank. I love the look of your tank. The rockscape is very good too and had a very promising arrangement for a spectacular display once corals have grown and matured.

Keep up the good work. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

[GSMguy]

Very nice but I can not understand why you still need a chiller? To me it seems like that is adding more heat to the tank than anything else.

[rodneyri]

thanks sahin, im actually leaning towards sand in the tank...i like the fiji pink sugar grain

ive had a few hot days here lately and the chiller has gone on. its summer now we hit 40 celcius so the tank did heat up. its for piece of mind i think

[rodneyri]

so added the sand, the other half wanted it so to keep the peace in went one bag of fiji pink sugar grain sand.

Got out the PAR meter and took some shots with top down

so withe the pumps turned off


and some top down

[reefnut81564]

Looks good. I did the same with my 155 in April. Corals grew like crazy under MHs and tore the entire thing down and saved frags from everything. Switched to LEDs and now all is starting to take off once again. Good luck!

[bluebastion]

Rod,

Nice to see you started a thread. I'm still working on my tank (does one ever stop?)... and as you know I have a Vertex Illumina over my tank... Do you stay running at ~8 white and 100 blue and royal blue? I like the color of the corals better when the light is bluer but currently have peak at around 45 white, 80-90 on the blues... corals look more brown in general. At the early and latter end of my photo period.. when the white led's are dimmed lower the coral colors are acceptable.

Also, how high is your vertex light from the water's surface? I just raised mine to 6" from 5"...

Thanks in advanced.

[rodneyri]

photo update

[rodneyri]

bit of an update..

reverse superman monti turned orange


growth is great! these shots one month apart



new one with awesome purple polyps...was brown when I got it a week ago






new light schedule

[ChicagoReefOne]

Looks really nice, personally I think the orange and blue reverse is pretty sweet!