240 Gallon Cube

I'm planning on putting together a tank with similar dimensions. My concern about trying to light it with one light is that the corals will be more colored towards the light, but dark/faded on the opposite side.

Have you noticed this effect at all?

Do you have any supplemental lighting at all?
 
funnyguyMI said:
I'm planning on putting together a tank with similar dimensions. My concern about trying to light it with one light is that the corals will be more colored towards the light, but dark/faded on the opposite side.

Have you noticed this effect at all?

Do you have any supplemental lighting at all?
Click to expand...

You can see this effect especially with sps. The side toward the light is differently colored then the other side. The other colors LPS and softies I do not notice as much. The trick with using a single light is coral and rock placement. The right and left sides of the tank toward the glass have a much lower amount of light. The other thing is that the higher up on the rock work does not necessarily mean more light. The back rock wall in the back of my tank does not have that much light. I actually moved my light by 4" from center toward the back to help light this area.

I do not have any other supplemental lighting. I have thought about adding some led strips or moon lights but have not decided if I want to add it or not. I may change the reflector to a lumenarc to see what happens. So far I have been very happy with the results of 1 light but it does have some challenges. If I had a large rock pile in the middle of the tank the single light would work much better. I wanted more of a ravine look so the single light makes it more challenging.
 
kawicivic said:
How is the new year treating the tank? New FTS? Did your purple acro keep its color?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I lost almost the whole coral. I have two frags left and one is not looking good. It started to STN no matter what I tried fragging, and coral RX dips. Actually almost all of my acros are slowly dieing and I cannot figure out why. All my other corals including montis, birds nests and a couple of other misc SPS or fine. All tank parameters seem in line. The only thing is my phosphates are around .04 checked by a photometer. I am currently working on that otherwise the parameters are looking okay. I am currently cleaning up the algae and will get some new pictures up this weekend.


-cam- said:
tanks awsome.
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
Tom,

I need some help here, my tank just finished cycling and want to start adding corals. Its a 48"x48"x24" 3/4" cube with a 6" eurobrace 3/4" thick all around the perimeter similar to yours.

I bought a 400 watt Lumenbright reflector with coralvue ballast and 14k bulb.

I got between 20" to 21" from the ceiling to the water surface that gives me around 15" to 16" from the bulb to the water surface on the Large Lumenbright reflector.

I do not plan on keeping 100% SPS in fact its gonna be a mixed reef with more lps and softies than SPS, as you can see in the pictures I got most of my minimalistic rock structure right in the middle area.

I got a 14K bulb right now, but if I do stay with the 400 watt or 250 watt halide I will go with a Radium 20k bulb, I love this bulb, specially when supplemented.

Would you see any heat problems on the open top canopy? I could always downgrade to a 250watt set up. I will supplement the halide set up with a 4 T5 retro kit, probably 2 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Actinic plus and 1 ATI Purple plus


IMG_0066.jpg


IMG_0016.jpg
 
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I have no heat issues with my light. You may have a little heat transfer but I think it would be minimal. You are so high up that I think the heat would just go out the top of the canopy. In my case I wish the light was transferring more heat to the tank as my heaters run almost all the time in the winter. A 250 may work out well especially if you run some T-5's as well. I think I am going to try a radium next to see how I like it. Right under the bulb the light is going to be real intense and I would recommend light acclimating LPS and softies there. I moved a torch from a lower light area toward the outer edge of the tank and then moved it to the center and melted it. Something to think about as well.

I did offset my light 4" back from the center of the tank and it mad a big difference with my rock work.

By the way your tank setup up is looking really nice. I like the rock work.
 
goat585 said:
I have no heat issues with my light. You may have a little heat transfer but I think it would be minimal. You are so high up that I think the heat would just go out the top of the canopy. In my case I wish the light was transferring more heat to the tank as my heaters run almost all the time in the winter. A 250 may work out well especially if you run some T-5's as well. I think I am going to try a radium next to see how I like it. Right under the bulb the light is going to be real intense and I would recommend light acclimating LPS and softies there. I moved a torch from a lower light area toward the outer edge of the tank and then moved it to the center and melted it. Something to think about as well.

I did offset my light 4" back from the center of the tank and it mad a big difference with my rock work.

By the way your tank setup up is looking really nice. I like the rock work.
Click to expand...

THX for your help... Yes every time I see a Radium powered tank I just love the colors specially if its supplemented with T5s or VHO actinics. I guess Im gonna go in the long run with a 250 Radium supplemented with T5 ATI blue plus and some royal blue LEDs... I need to sell the 400 coralvue ballast first

Here is a pick of how my canopy ended up...

IMG_0097.jpg



IMG_0095.jpg



Sorry for hijacking your thread with pics of my cube...
 
Very nice,

No problem with the pictures. It is very interesting to see what other people do with the same tank dimensions. I have been following your thread as well.

It looks like your tank is coming along well
 
kmu said:
Really nice show pieces you got there...
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have always been a fan of bigger pieces. I generally will not buy frags anymore. I tend to lose them in the system so mini colonies is as small as I go for the most part.
 
Well I finally broke down and bought a controller. I bought and apex with two extra EB8's. So far I am really happy with it. It was fairly easy to get up and running.

2011-03-13_00001.jpg


I also took a picture of my rbta with my cinnamon clown fish. They are a young pair that are in one of my 30 gallon tanks. I like the photo because they looking at me like don't even think about coming close to my anemone.

Image00001-15.jpg
 
kawicivic said:
What made you choose apex over the other controllers?
Click to expand...

It was a tough choice. I was debating between the Digital Aquatics and the Neptune controllers. The biggest thing concern I had with the reefkeeper elite for DA's customer service. I saw more negative threads and comments about their customer service then Neptune's. They also always seem to have delays releasing new items so to me that seems like they have a lack of resources in house. I had to use the Neptunes customer service and it was some of the best I have ever had with a company. I emailed them and in 10 minutes had a response. They needed the base unit back so I sent it to them and they got it on Friday and fixed it and shipped it back the same day. I bought the controller used and they still fixed it for no charge.

I actually like the reef keeper elites PC4 price point and from a power strip standpoint it made more sense to buy a reef keeper. The biggest drawback was that I would need to buy a separate module or continue to use my tunze controller for my tunzes. When you add it would have cost me more money then the apex. I am happy with my decision so far.
 
looks great!..how have the surges behaved over time? Are you still running them?
Do you run them 24/7?...I want to set up a surge and thought that I would just run it during the photon period by adding a timer to the feed pump.
How have you managed your ATO with the surge?
 
Thanks for the comments,


Yes I do use the surges still 24/7. I have had only one issue with them and that is with my left surge. The chain for the flapper keeps getting hung up and it holds the surge open. It should be an easy fix but my surge is up against the floor joists and I can't get my hand into the right spot. I may have to drain it and make the adjusment.

As for the topoff. I use a auto top off through an aqua lifter pump through a kalkwasser reactor. I do not use float valves as they always seem to fail and scare the heck out of me. I put the pump on a timer. I adjust the timer to get the amount of water that I want to add by adjusting the timer. This way I can control the amount of water added. It takes a day or two to get it adjusted correctly but it has worked great for me. Typically I adjust it seasonally to deal with the evaporation. I used a reef filler pump until it broke. Now I am using the aqualifter which is a little more limited but it is working okay is especially for a $15 pump
 
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