A Reef in the Sky...scaper

[Acrotrdco]

AHH looks good! thank you for posting the color combos!

No problem Hope you'd find it useful.

Looking MUCH better. It needed the 2nd pendant. Your tank already looks well on its way to looking like a 6 month setup.

Yes it needed the 2nd fixture, but I'm afraid it's too bright for my ricordea's and acan's now... I'll check again in a few days.

Very nice indeed, Howard! The light sure brings out the color of the corals in the second to last picture.

Thanks Simon, I'm gonna post some close up shots later this week, just need to find the time to do it :spin2:

 

[Acrotrdco]

Time for some new photos!

FTS:

Some of my fishes:

Some photos of my corals:

 

[Acrotrdco]

 

[Acrotrdco]

 

[Acrotrdco]

 

[Dustin1300]

Nice pics! I really need to start a zoa/ric garden along the bottom of my aquarium as you've started

 

[sahin]

Looks beautiful. Keep up the good work.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Nice pics! I really need to start a zoa/ric garden along the bottom of my aquarium as you've started

Indeed! The trick is, however, how to adjust the light, you need bright light for SPS and very dim light for ric / zoa / acan's.

Make good use of the shadows casted by the aquascape is one technique.

Looks beautiful. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Sahin

 

[agcneves]

Wonderful pics!!

Your tank is great and healthy!

Show more.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Time for another update!

I was always wondering what kind of PAR I would be getting after installing the optics, I could only speculate until I borrowed a PAR meter. :rollface:

First of all, some measurements. My tank is 20" tall, the stand covered the bottom 1", so visible height is 19". The sand bed is about 1.5" thick, water is about 1.5" from the top of the tank, so there's about 17" of water.

The following photos were taken with all lights turned on.

Water surface:

About 3" deep:

7" deep:

8" deep:

10" deep:

 

[Acrotrdco]

13" deep:

15" deep:

16" deep:

Since it was really hard to take photos while measuring PAR with the meter and my hands were wet, that's all the photos I've taken. However I've measured all around my tank, and here's an overall PAR measurements.

Keep in mind that:

1. I've only installed optics on the center 5 groups of LEDs because I want to keep the sides dimmer for softies and LPS, right now they're on the bottom with about 100-200 PAR, perfect!

2. These are rounded up numbers, and have an error margin of +/- 100-200 PAR, due to water current, position of the bulb above it (with or without optics) and any obstruction from the rocks / corals nearby.

3. These numbers are for reference only, and aren't hardly accurate enough for anything else.

 

[SimonSKL]

Howard, very useful PAR info. Thank you! It is interesting to see how sharply the PAR value dropped in just 17" of water. Many people have 24" deep tank, so the optics are a must to keep LPS near or on the bottom.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Howard, very useful PAR info. Thank you! It is interesting to see how sharply the PAR value dropped in just 17" of water. Many people have 24" deep tank, so the optics are a must to keep LPS near or on the bottom.

If you look at the PAR I've measured, you should see that going straight down from the center of the fixture the PAR gradually lowered from 1300-ish down to 600-ish.

Then due to the fact that I've corals on rocks that I've to take measurements near the front glass panel, that means it's further away from the center of the fixture, so the number dropped to about 200 on sand bed.

It really depends on how you position your fixture, using optics or not, and how you do your rock-works, nonetheless, for people with 24" tanks optics must be used if you want to put anything on the bottom of that 22" water.

 

[Maximus]

Your tank really reminds me of a large ADA tank. The seams are awesome! I wonder why more tank manufacturers don't use this method of construction?

 

[sahin]

Howard many thanks for the PAR measurements. This tank is doing well I see.

I realise that you merely transfered rocks and corals over from another tank, but did you see any algae blooms? I have transferred my rocks and few corals over and used live sand, but have got lots of diatoms and some hair algae at the moment. :hmm1:

Hopefully it will clear up as I have started to use Rowaphos.

 

[canesfan44]

Thanks for the PAR measurements. You're tank looks great and your photos are incredible.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Your tank really reminds me of a large ADA tank. The seams are awesome! I wonder why more tank manufacturers don't use this method of construction?

Thanks Maximus - I think the reason is costs of material and labor. Tanks like this requires a lot of labor to make and it'll bump the cost up by a whole lot.

I've got this tank made in China so the labor isn't too expensive, but if it were made in the USA I'd expect it'll cost 5x more but on the other hand it's using PPG Starphire and have to be imported from the US.

Howard many thanks for the PAR measurements. This tank is doing well I see.

I realise that you merely transfered rocks and corals over from another tank, but did you see any algae blooms? I have transferred my rocks and few corals over and used live sand, but have got lots of diatoms and some hair algae at the moment. :hmm1:

Hopefully it will clear up as I have started to use Rowaphos.

Yes basically I've transferred it from another tank, I didn't have any algae bloom, I think it's because:

a) I didn't moved my sump, it was running the whole time with skimmer and some live rocks in it.
b) I kept all my sand / live rocks in water with flow, so I think most of the living organisms survived, including bacteria.
c) I kept all my old water, I actually started saving water from water changes, so I ended up having almost 60-70% old water and top it up with new water.
d) I've added 4 bottles of Prodibio (2x Stop Ammo, 2x Biodigest) after the move to help stabilize the n-cycle bacteria.

Thanks for the PAR measurements. You're tank looks great and your photos are incredible.

Thanks!

 

[Theprettycolors]

Great job and pictures! Keep the passion going my HK friend..

 

[GY2202]

I just finish reading your tank journal...mate its awesome...

A good inspiration and learned a few things...

i just got my Maxspect G2-170W for a 3x2x2 tank, it seems like i may have to get the optics upgrade to penetrate the water. would you recommend the 90deg or 60deg optic?

i have lps only at the moment

Thanks

George

 

[Acrotrdco]

Great job and pictures! Keep the passion going my HK friend..

Thanks :lmao:

I just finish reading your tank journal...mate its awesome...

A good inspiration and learned a few things...

i just got my Maxspect G2-170W for a 3x2x2 tank, it seems like i may have to get the optics upgrade to penetrate the water. would you recommend the 90deg or 60deg optic?

i have lps only at the moment

Thanks

George

I wouldn't recommend using optics if you're keeping LPS only, because they don't have a very high requirements on light, adding optics will reduce the spread, while you shouldn't have much problem on the left or right of the 3' tank, for a 2' wide tank you'll have problem covering the front and the back after adding optics.

If you really want to improve water penetration, you can just install the optics kit without lens, the kit comes with reflective cups which already narrow it down to 90 degrees.