Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)

[mr.wilson]

Can you give us the lighting schedule for the DT? When everything comes on and turns off.....

Thanks.

The first blue LEDs come on at 11:00. Each of the 16 Orphek fixtures come on five minutes apart to ease into dawn with the sun rising from east (right) to west (left). One hour later at 12:00, the white and the rest of the blue LEDs in the Orphek fixtures start to come on every five minutes from right to left, alternating on each side of the tank (surrounding the MHL fixtures). An hour later at 1:00, the MHL lights and T5s all come on at once for full mid day illumination. We thought about staggering the on/off times of these fixtures but our wiring to the Profilux is limited; remember, the Profilux is 40' away from the furthest light and we don't have a conduit for wiring. It's one of the shortsights of the original plan.

There is little in the way of light shock with all three Aqua-Medic fixtures (12 x 250w MHL + 12 x 39w T5 actinic) come on at once, by this time the tank is pretty bright with just the Orphek LEDs. The Aqua-Medic lights go off 7 hours later at 8:00. Then the Orphek white & blue mixed lights (60:40) start turning off every 5 minutes in succession starting at 9:00 for a total of 9 hours of duty for each light fixture. The blue dusk light stays on until 11:00 for a total of 12 hours of blue light. Again, these lights go off in sequence every 5 minutes from right to left for a smooth transition.

Summary[\b]

12 hours blue LED (4 x 2w LED chips per fixture x 16 fixtures = 128w)
9 hours 60:40 white & blue LED (56 x 2w x 16 = 1792w)
7 hours MHL & T5 actinic (12 x 250w + 12 x 39w = 3468w)
7 hours peak illumination (1920w LED + 3468w MHL & T5 = 5388 = 4w/gal)

 

[mr.wilson]

Mr Wilson, the Aquasunlight you use has magnetic ballast which you say is better in terms of par. I bought an Aquasunlight recenlty with one blown ballast. I connected a magnetic to the 250w halide but the bulb so dull. The orignal Aquamedic electronic ballast used is far more powerfull and far more par than the magnetic driven ballast.

That's interesting! We had the reverse experience. The Aqua-Medic magnetic ballast gave us 2000 PAR at the surface of the water, while the Aqua-Medic electronic was only 1400. The same decline was true of the Phoenix bulbs as well, just lower numbers. The PAR of the Phoenix 14 K is 40% lower than that of the Aqua-Medic 13 K, making the 13k my favorite MHL bulb.

Aqua-Medic has introduced a new electronic ballast which is smaller, lighter, and hopefully brighter. We are still waiting for testing before release over here in North America.

 

[mr.wilson]

Yeah I'm in the process of getting a magnificent foxface now. I'm going to attack the valonia from two fronts. What kind do you have?

Sally lightfoots are definitely not reef safe. We have the Larger, soft glass bubble valonia, not the brighter green one with a smaller network of bubbles. Naso tangs eat it to a certain extent. Fox face is good choice as well.

 

[msr224]

The first blue LEDs come on at 11:00. Each of the 16 Orphek fixtures come on five minutes apart to ease into dawn with the sun rising from east (right) to west (left). One hour later at 12:00, the white and the rest of the blue LEDs in the Orphek fixtures start to come on every five minutes from right to left, alternating on each side of the tank (surrounding the MHL fixtures). An hour later at 1:00, the MHL lights and T5s all come on at once for full mid day illumination. We thought about staggering the on/off times of these fixtures but our wiring to the Profilux is limited; remember, the Profilux is 40' away from the furthest light and we don't have a conduit for wiring. It's one of the shortsights of the original plan.

There is little in the way of light shock with all three Aqua-Medic fixtures (12 x 250w MHL + 12 x 39w T5 actinic) come on at once, by this time the tank is pretty bright with just the Orphek LEDs. The Aqua-Medic lights go off 7 hours later at 8:00. Then the Orphek white & blue mixed lights (60:40) start turning off every 5 minutes in succession starting at 9:00 for a total of 9 hours of duty for each light fixture. The blue dusk light stays on until 11:00 for a total of 12 hours of blue light. Again, these lights go off in sequence every 5 minutes from right to left for a smooth transition.

Summary[\b]

12 hours blue LED (4 x 2w LED chips per fixture x 16 fixtures = 128w)
9 hours 60:40 white & blue LED (56 x 2w x 16 = 1792w)
7 hours MHL & T5 actinic (12 x 250w + 12 x 39w = 3468w)
7 hours peak illumination (1920w LED + 3468w MHL & T5 = 5388 = 4w/gal)

Thank you so much for the info.

 

[nineball]

Lighting pics

Lighting pics

Full LED's without MH or T5's

 

[johnl69]

I made it! 3 weeks and quite a few late night but im glad I read it all and not just skipped through,

Congratulations Peter and Team You have created a work of art.

The amount of information on this thread is just outstanding, I am currently setting up a 100g system but after reading this thread I have redesigned a few things, Im quite interested in your DSB's in the overflows how are these working? Are they working as expected?

 

[nineball]

Lights Continued......

Lights Continued......

All LED's Metal Halides and T5's on full.....external lights off.

canopy in transition from full LED's to blue

Full canopy LED blue with external blue moon light

 

[nineball]

I made it! 3 weeks and quite a few late night but im glad I read it all and not just skipped through,

Congratulations Peter and Team You have created a work of art.

The amount of information on this thread is just outstanding, I am currently setting up a 100g system but after reading this thread I have redesigned a few things, Im quite interested in your DSB's in the overflows how are these working? Are they working as expected?

Thank you very much John. You can now call yourself a full citizen of this community. I will let Mr. Wilson answer your question as there is likely more than one answer to be given.........

Peter

 

[nineball]

One more,,,,,,,,

Life under the Blue light.........

 

[Reefski's]

beautiful pictures.

is the light the same intensity in the whole tank or are there lower light areas for different corals?

what are PAR values? did i miss a posting about that?


Carl

 

[swissgaurd]

peter
im stuck for words

the corner shot is amazing

hows the mangroves looking
an experimint i did when i had mangroves was test the water above the miracle mud and then took water sample from within the miracle mud
i found quite a difference in nitrate readings.
might be worth a test just for an experiment


vic

 

[vaporize]

hows the mangroves looking
an experimint i did when i had mangroves was test the water above the miracle mud and then took water sample from within the miracle mud
i found quite a difference in nitrate readings.
might be worth a test just for an experiment

What's the difference ?

 

[nineball]

beautiful pictures.

is the light the same intensity in the whole tank or are there lower light areas for different corals?

what are PAR values? did i miss a posting about that?


Carl

Actually Carl we did post some par values a while ago but I would wait a bit as we plan to take a series of readings with all the lights and combinations of lights throughout the tanks. I can say that so far we are very satisfied with the real world results in the appearance of the reef inhabitants. The MH does range from 13K to 10K over the length of the tank but again we will be doing a lighting update with all the science in the near future.

Peter

Peter

 

[canesfan44]

Wow!!! The entire room looks amazing. It reminds me of a lot of the fancy smaller exclusive lounges/clubs here in Miami, very nice.

 

[nineball]

peter
im stuck for words

the corner shot is amazing

hows the mangroves looking
an experimint i did when i had mangroves was test the water above the miracle mud and then took water sample from within the miracle mud
i found quite a difference in nitrate readings.
might be worth a test just for an experiment


vic

Vic, the mangroves are coming along great. I am very pleased with the results so far. The growth is just starting to take off. Soon I'm going to have to get some advice on the best pruning strategies from this thread community. We will be taking some measurements but not until the mangroves have become well established first.

Peter

 

[swissgaurd]

start with the tips of the leaves first

vic

 

[BPro32]

It's amazing how fast a 1300gal display tank can get filled up with corals. I've been looking through the pics on this thread for a while now and it seems like everything kind of exploded in there. Great job guys! :thumbsup:

 

[zaheda]

Mr Wilson, was the 250w electronic ballast the Metrolight make. The magnetic ballast I tested was the 250w Vosloo Schwabe. Lastly can you tell me what make 250w magnetic ballast is the one you using?

 

[dainiusiva]

Peter, as a member who has followed you from the begining, I can say - the LED lights are the best thing that happened to this tank (apart from you hiring mr. Wilson). The shot with only the LED's on is amazing. What keeps you from going all LED over your tank (apart from PAR and space issues)?

 

[mr.wilson]

Mr Wilson, was the 250w electronic ballast the Metrolight make. The magnetic ballast I tested was the 250w Vosloo Schwabe. Lastly can you tell me what make 250w magnetic ballast is the one you using?

We are using an Aqua-Medic magnetic ballast which is a generic Chinese type. Different ballasts will fire bulbs at different crest factors. Most ballasts cover a broad spectrum of bulbs, but some types will change the colour temperature, CRI and intensity. This is why a PAR meter is a great tool to have. It also makes it clear when you need to change bulbs.