Beeker's 200g DD PAR38 lit Reef
- Thread starter beeker
- Start date
stunreefer
Reef Hugger
Awesome, I love the dimensions of the 200DD tanks :thumbsup:
Beeker - Very cool idea to use only Par38's. I thought about doing that with my 90 gallon and even bought one of the Par38's to try out. I started to question the cost of doing it compared to building my own LED fixture. Do the LEDs in the Par38's give off more par than say a 12 LED retro? I ask because they cost about the same as a 12 LED retro. Granted you have to buy the heat sink and soldier it all up, but it seems to me that you would be getting more than double the light for about the same amount of money. Any insight would be great, because I really like the Par38's and think that it is going to look amazing once your done. Good luck.
i've looked into a DIY led setup for the whole tank and honestly it would be more coverage and about 300 bucks cheaper than the PAR38's but IMO with the way i'll be doing the aqauscape and the fact that i won't be lighting the front glass or the side glass at all or the center of the tank where it is braced it makes me feel that the PAR38's seem like they will be able to achieve what i'm going for
To me and my dad the DIY led setup is more involved than we both wanted to get at this point, my dads idea is that if 1 of the PAR38's go out it would easier to replace than having to pull a whole heatsink off the tank with 50-60 leds mounted too it, also the light would be completely down until i could repair it leaving no backup lights for my corals, so we decided that even though the PAR38's cost a little more it most likely will make the setup simpler in the long run
and if 1 of the leds in the PAR38 most likely i can get some DIY training and resoder it myself thus bringing the cost down over time for the PAR38's
i might eventaully go to a DIY led setup but for now i'm pretty certain the PAR38's will be able to achieve the results i'm going for
this tank will mainly be sps, Acan's and Chalice, Some Scoly's as well as clams and an elegance coral, Zoa's will fill in the rest
tank dimensions are 48*36*27 i have a lot of room to work with now compared to my BC29g and the aquascape i plan on going with should utilize all of the available light from the PAR 38's
Evilc66 use's 4 PAR38's on his 40g breeder tank so 16 of them over this tank should give me all that i'm looking for, i will be using all 40 degree optics as well to get the highest PAR i can, eventually i'll try to get a PAR meter to give some numbers and results i can't wait!
To me and my dad the DIY led setup is more involved than we both wanted to get at this point, my dads idea is that if 1 of the PAR38's go out it would easier to replace than having to pull a whole heatsink off the tank with 50-60 leds mounted too it, also the light would be completely down until i could repair it leaving no backup lights for my corals, so we decided that even though the PAR38's cost a little more it most likely will make the setup simpler in the long run
and if 1 of the leds in the PAR38 most likely i can get some DIY training and resoder it myself thus bringing the cost down over time for the PAR38's
i might eventaully go to a DIY led setup but for now i'm pretty certain the PAR38's will be able to achieve the results i'm going for
this tank will mainly be sps, Acan's and Chalice, Some Scoly's as well as clams and an elegance coral, Zoa's will fill in the rest
tank dimensions are 48*36*27 i have a lot of room to work with now compared to my BC29g and the aquascape i plan on going with should utilize all of the available light from the PAR 38's
Evilc66 use's 4 PAR38's on his 40g breeder tank so 16 of them over this tank should give me all that i'm looking for, i will be using all 40 degree optics as well to get the highest PAR i can, eventually i'll try to get a PAR meter to give some numbers and results i can't wait!
Thanks for taking the time to explain your reasoning. It sounds like you have a great plan for this tank. I'm looking forward to watching this build come together.
Also I did read on NR that Evil/Nanocustoms would fix (for a nominal charge) any Par38 that has an LED go bad. I would definitely contact them if you ever have a problem.
No problem, i've had this thought out for months, in my head i'm 30 steps ahead of where i'm actually at on the tank, i've done a lot of dreaming/thinking in my sleep lately, lol
yeah i figured they would fix the PAr38bulbs but i think if i do have one fail i might actually try to take it apart to see how it goes together and to gauge on how hard/easy it would be to replace the led myself, not sure what their fee would be but since shipping isn't cheap anymore i'm sure it would be around 30 bucks for the service, which if i'm unable to actually repair the bulb myself i'll probably be sending it to them though i'm hoping to get a few years out of the bulbs before i have to do anything like that and by that time they might have a better upgrade for the PAR38's or better leds out to install into it, which will be awesome
yeah i figured they would fix the PAr38bulbs but i think if i do have one fail i might actually try to take it apart to see how it goes together and to gauge on how hard/easy it would be to replace the led myself, not sure what their fee would be but since shipping isn't cheap anymore i'm sure it would be around 30 bucks for the service, which if i'm unable to actually repair the bulb myself i'll probably be sending it to them though i'm hoping to get a few years out of the bulbs before i have to do anything like that and by that time they might have a better upgrade for the PAR38's or better leds out to install into it, which will be awesome
I've got about 50lbs in my 29g biocube that i'll be using to build up the left side of the tank, the first aquascape pictures will be the building of the right side of the structure
I'll be reglueing all the Corals from my main tank onto the right side structure before moving my 50lbs from my main tank and making up the left side
I'm going for something like this, rough paint outline of the aquascape, the red line is the center brace of the tank, this is a top down view, i'm using about 120lbs more of carribean LR to fill the rest of the tank
the two islands will be sps and Zoa heavy, inbetween the main structure and the islands will be clams, Lps, Acan's, and chalice the main rock structures will be all Sps, i will have 8 PAR38's over each side of the tank, these will be in rows of 4, so 8 individual bulbs on the right side and all of these will be on track lighting with movable sockets so i'll be able to angle each bulb idividually from one another over the rockwork, so most of the lighting will be right over the 4 rock structures and angled appropriatly
Blue spots indicate how bulbs will be positioned, granted this was done with paint so it isn't visually appeasing, lol
Each bulb should be able to light a 1 foot area, making 4 able to light 4 feet worth of tank space, so this should work out nicely
I'll be reglueing all the Corals from my main tank onto the right side structure before moving my 50lbs from my main tank and making up the left side
I'm going for something like this, rough paint outline of the aquascape, the red line is the center brace of the tank, this is a top down view, i'm using about 120lbs more of carribean LR to fill the rest of the tank
the two islands will be sps and Zoa heavy, inbetween the main structure and the islands will be clams, Lps, Acan's, and chalice the main rock structures will be all Sps, i will have 8 PAR38's over each side of the tank, these will be in rows of 4, so 8 individual bulbs on the right side and all of these will be on track lighting with movable sockets so i'll be able to angle each bulb idividually from one another over the rockwork, so most of the lighting will be right over the 4 rock structures and angled appropriatly
Blue spots indicate how bulbs will be positioned, granted this was done with paint so it isn't visually appeasing, lol
Each bulb should be able to light a 1 foot area, making 4 able to light 4 feet worth of tank space, so this should work out nicely
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haha honestly i wasn't joking about the water
my Ro/Di is only a 75gpd unit and i'm only home 3-4 hours a night, so i've really only been able to get aqbout 40 gallons of water mixxed up in the last week, and i saved about 15-20 gallons of aged water from my 29g BC to seed this tank, but honestly with as slow as my Ro/Di is i'm really thinking about using tap, lol
RoWall
Member
I would be scared for an algae outbreak or other nasty consequences. Wasn't it the Steve's Weast tank that got down after he used tap water in emergency? I would just buy a faster membrane.
Thanks for the details about your plans, looks like it's well thought out! I can't wait to see those lights in action!
Thanks for the details about your plans, looks like it's well thought out! I can't wait to see those lights in action!
Thanks for all the comments :]]
yeah you're right i don't want the algea outbreak but honestly even if i use freshwater my tap water TDS is only 150 and i used it to on my BC29g for a long time before i got the Ro/Di
i will still be letting the LR cycle and cure for another 3 weeks after i get it into the tank IMO in this time i could make up enough Ro/Di to do a good water change at the end of 3weeks and that would most likely balance out the negatives of going with the freshwater, i'm just impatient and would love to get the tank filled already cause my 3 small mixxing pumps are slow to mix up cold Ro/Di with salt inside of buckets and mixing the salt with the return pump in the main tank would most likely be a lot faster, lol
I'll figure something out i'm sure, haha
yeah you're right i don't want the algea outbreak but honestly even if i use freshwater my tap water TDS is only 150 and i used it to on my BC29g for a long time before i got the Ro/Di
i will still be letting the LR cycle and cure for another 3 weeks after i get it into the tank IMO in this time i could make up enough Ro/Di to do a good water change at the end of 3weeks and that would most likely balance out the negatives of going with the freshwater, i'm just impatient and would love to get the tank filled already cause my 3 small mixxing pumps are slow to mix up cold Ro/Di with salt inside of buckets and mixing the salt with the return pump in the main tank would most likely be a lot faster, lol
I'll figure something out i'm sure, haha
Definitely subscribed to this one since I'll be switching over to a 200 DD myself in a week or so and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to light it. Can't wait to see how the Par38s work out for you - are you fitting the light tracks in a canopy, or just going open top?
it will be an open top, i'm shooting to have the PAR38's about 3 inches off the water, which since i have no powerheads aimmed at the surface means i don't get any splash so i don't have to worry about anything landing on the bulbs, a mp40 and the lighting is pretty much all i have left to do
I got the rockwork done on the rightside, it's a little different than what i was going for since the LR pieces i had were big so i built the right side up against the glass and i'll be sloping the right side out into the left side so it kindof looked like a mountain side, the left side with mainly be LPS and acan's so i'm making sure to leave plenty of open space for scoly's and the like
should have aquascape pictures up in the next day two
I got the rockwork done on the rightside, it's a little different than what i was going for since the LR pieces i had were big so i built the right side up against the glass and i'll be sloping the right side out into the left side so it kindof looked like a mountain side, the left side with mainly be LPS and acan's so i'm making sure to leave plenty of open space for scoly's and the like
should have aquascape pictures up in the next day two
