240g tank w/fish room build

Glad that you are able to take this slow. It leaves you so many chances to correct your plan or adjust I should say when you go this route. that's one thing about us hobbiest never can make our minds up when it comes to out systems.

Glad that you are able to take this slow. It leaves you so many chances to correct your plan or adjust I should say when you go this route. that's one thing about us hobbiest never can make our minds up when it comes to out systems.

Yes I'm taking this very slow. My original guess was 6 months to finish everything. I got an AC guy coming in next week to do the ac stuff for me. I was going to do it my self but his price was so good. I'm going to let the pros do it.

Roger
 
Well I just did some thing I never though I would have done. I just bought 3 radion gen 3 pro led setups. It was a great deal. I am still planning on running 2 mH 250w or 400w for just 2-3 hrs per day. I will also get either 2 or 4 t5 to put in front and back of the tank. So I'm still looking at radions as supplemental lighting. I think I will run 20k radium mH either 250w or 400w I already have both sets of ballast so I can go either way. I will either run 2 actinic and 2 blue plus t5 or 4 blue plus I haven't decided yet. So I guess I need to go pick up a reef link now.

I do plan on chatting with chad on his program he is running his radions on.

What's you also thoughts on this?
 
Awesome. I love the radions. I was thinking of picking one of those 3 up! Was a good deal for sure, let me know if u decide you only need two :)
 
Awesome. I love the radions. I was thinking of picking one of those 3 up! Was a good deal for sure, let me know if u decide you only need two :)

Sorry I need 3 at min. I prob should use 4 but with all the other lighting I should be ok with 3
 
This is a quick sketch of what I'm thinking. It's to scale with in reason. I will probably add 2 t5 on back side also but I didn't want to draw them in over the over flow box.

I will be swapping out the lenses for the wide angle instead of the 80 deg it comes with.

Sorry couldn't figure out how to rotate it in photobucket :(
20150419_151108_zpstmpsuaku.jpg
 
we will be able to see your house by looking up to the Northern lights! Just kidding, no one can say your not adding enough light. As I recall, your not lighting all at once?

So, Radiums for x period, then LED and T5's?
 
we will be able to see your house by looking up to the Northern lights! Just kidding, no one can say your not adding enough light. As I recall, your not lighting all at once?

So, Radiums for x period, then LED and T5's?

Yes. Well this tank will be sps only so I am going with a high light system. I was going to go with just the reef bright xho led with the MH but the reef brides don't have uv light and everything I read says u get better color with uv. I got a great deal on the radions. all though I have never been a fan but john at faois tells me the newest generation is much better then the past gen. So giving them a shot. I figure if I don't like the white LEDs same as the past I will just run them for blue, royal blue, and uv. I will have the mH for the white light. I normally only run the whites 2-3 hours per day. The t5 is optional but I like the idea to play with some fine tuning on the coral if needed. My main thing I have never liked about led is when u turn the white up enough to give a nice viewing brightness the corals start to bleach cause the white led are so strong and focused.

All that said as of now the lighting plan will be

Uv, blue, royal blue on full power (slowly acclimated) 8 hrs ramp up and down hr before and after
White, green, red led 3-4 hrs or not used at all if I still don't like them
MH 2-3 hrs
T-5 six - eight hrs

I am curious of people's opinion on this. If the led are as good as people claim I will ditch the mH and t5 but I'm not holding my breath.

Roger
 
Yes. Well this tank will be sps only so I am going with a high light system. I was going to go with just the reef bright xho led with the MH but the reef brides don't have uv light and everything I read says u get better color with uv. I got a great deal on the radions. all though I have never been a fan but john at faois tells me the newest generation is much better then the past gen. So giving them a shot. I figure if I don't like the white LEDs same as the past I will just run them for blue, royal blue, and uv. I will have the mH for the white light. I normally only run the whites 2-3 hours per day. The t5 is optional but I like the idea to play with some fine tuning on the coral if needed. My main thing I have never liked about led is when u turn the white up enough to give a nice viewing brightness the corals start to bleach cause the white led are so strong and focused.

All that said as of now the lighting plan will be

Uv, blue, royal blue on full power (slowly acclimated) 8 hrs ramp up and down hr before and after
White, green, red led 3-4 hrs or not used at all if I still don't like them
MH 2-3 hrs
T-5 six - eight hrs

I am curious of people's opinion on this. If the led are as good as people claim I will ditch the mH and t5 but I'm not holding my breath.

Roger

I think growth and color will be awesome. Your hitting with full spectrum for sure. Can't beat MH Radiums, and the LED/T5 combo is proven as well. I don't have anywhere near that light and my SPS growth is great. CaRx and this light, should be really interesting to watch. I think you have a winner if you ask me. Just play with photoperiod for .....
 
Thx for Input. I agree I will have to play with photoperiods to not bleach stuff out.

What bulb combo have u seen added to LEDs that work well?
 
Thx for Input. I agree I will have to play with photoperiods to not bleach stuff out.

What bulb combo have u seen added to LEDs that work well?

I played with alot of "stuff" on the T5s. I actually bought T5 white blacklights for a 350-365 nm. I didn't see much improvement. I like the Giesmann Actinic plus (much like ATI aquablue special). I finally settled on ATI coral plus and Aquablue special for 8 hours with my LEDs running 10 hours at a peak of 85% blues and 60% whites.

On the 300, I run the lights more but the tank is 6 inches deeper. I noticed that when running light period more things actually got better (like 12 hour periods with 4-5 hour peaks). Still experimenting with the new tank. The 120, I leave at pretty much what I said above.
 
If they scare you too much and end up selling them I might take one. You could have gone with 3 NanoBox hybrid lights which are 24" x 10 and come with 4 NanoBox pucks, 2x24w T5 and are completely wireless.
 
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Ok so if u r following along. U may have noticed very little progress this past month. Yes I have been very busy but at the same time. I couldn't figure out the logistics of moving the new display in since I have 2 fully stocked tanks in the way. I was going to move both tanks in to the new fish room, but there was so much risk I was afraid and that's why I haven't made any progress. Last night I solved the problem it was so simple..... Setup the 40 breeder setups first not the new display. They will not be going in the same area as the current tanks to I can/will be setting up the 40 breeder setup first now. This way I can set it up let it cycle then slowly move the corals and fish over o that system. Then I can break don the current tank. Sell them and then move in the new display. They I can let it cycle, and after it's ready mov all the sps to the new display. Now I feel much better about getting back to work on the systems. So the whole focus now needs to shift to the fish room tanks not the display. I guess the radions will sit for months now before setting up :(

So next step now is design the best stand to house the breeders. Jeff if your out there and have time I would love some ideas.


The goal is two 6ft 6inch stands x 24 inched wide. The hight I haven't worked out yet but if needs to be able to handle a 6ft sump and house a 30 inch tall skimmer. The goal will be to have two 40 breeders side by side then to have a shelf above those tanks to house two more 40 breeders side by side.I'm thinking a 12 inch space from the top of the tanks on the bottom row to the bottom of the shelf for the second row of tanks. Both stands will be side by side to look like one 13ft stand but in reality will be 2 stands. This way if I ever want to sell them they could be used for any 6ft x24 inch tank. Just cut the top shelf off.

I realize the top row will be very tall about 60inches for middle of top tanks, but I don't see another way.


Any help with design is welcome.

Thanks

Roger
 
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