Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)
- Thread starter nineball
- Start date
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I have three or four favourites. I have a custom cliff thorburn (of course :fun4, an old Meucci, an AE and a Joss.
Peter
Sounds good. I still have my first meucci. My current main cue is a Tim Scruggs (Was with Danny at Joss for years back in the day)
carolina reefer
New member
Finally, after 3 days lost to this thread, I have caught up. Peter, thank you for putting one thread together that any aquarist can view and gain as much knowledge as this one gives. This whole project reminds me of Jurassic Park though. Lets keep the inhabitants smaller than we are just in case. WOW, I can just imagine having to go outside and returning to see what was missed on the first trip through your wonderful home.
Also a big thank you to Mr. Wilson for joining in on this journey.
Also a big thank you to Mr. Wilson for joining in on this journey.
nineball
Active member
Thank you very much carolina reefer. My hope is that someday when my tank is wet and the inhabitants are happy that I will have the time to take Chingchai's phenomenal journey and mine through an edit process to extract the pure value parts of the two builds and process it into a single thread. I agree with you, Mr Wilson and others who have joined this group have made this community a better place for reefer's all over the planet.
Peter
nineball
Active member
Sorry for what seems like an interminable delay folks. Work is going on, albeit slowly and painfully. Its not that I don`t feel the same sense of urgency that you do. I am pleased that some of the extra effort has gone into the build because of issues raised in this thread. It has for sure stretched the calendar but I promise it will be worth it.
Remember my opening set of principles declared that the fish room would be as much a part of the Display Tank experience without compromise. This intention has raised the bar in terms of ancillary work in planning and execution for the entire project. I am tiling part of the fish room in marble so that it doesn't look or feel like a `back room`. Lighting in the fish room is another careful consideration due to a million legitimate issues raised earlier in the thread. The layout for practically every supporting system has been affected by advice and discussion coming from this thread. Each day we make adjustments based on a walk through of the fish room.
Fortunately, the live rock appears healthy. There still is no smell. I had one issue with one of the skimmers that stopped foaming and it took an initiative by John from DQI to take the thing apart and put it back together again. Although he did not find anything concrete it`s foaming again. He thinks something small got into the intake and the disassembly got rid of it. For me it was a great learning experience that just may pay dividends further into the build. :mixed:
So hang in folks progress and pics will be here in short order.
Peter
nineball
Active member
An Aside......
An Aside......
I hope that the recent events in Thailand leave our friend in Bangkok safe and secure. Chingchai has enriched this environment with knowledge, class and a willingness to share that continues to this day. He serves as a blueprint for those of us who want to raise the bar in this hobby. He is an important member of this family and we should reach out to let him know we are concerned.
Peter
An Aside......
I hope that the recent events in Thailand leave our friend in Bangkok safe and secure. Chingchai has enriched this environment with knowledge, class and a willingness to share that continues to this day. He serves as a blueprint for those of us who want to raise the bar in this hobby. He is an important member of this family and we should reach out to let him know we are concerned.
Peter
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
You will be happy with your extra efforts to make the fishroom "not look like a back room". People often forget that they will be spending a considerable amount of time in these self-imposed cells in the basement. A lot more time than in the living room you paid a designer a fortune to decorate.
One caveat though, too much marble and tile can make small spaces in a basement feel like a restaurant basement bathroom. Try to incorporate some organic materials like slate or cork to warm it up. The mangroves will go a long way to achieve this. Jelinek cork in Oakville has some nice materials that will dampen the drone of pumps and water draining. Remember those Mars systems are designed for industrial use so you will have to make some mods in the plumbing and possibly some acoustic adjustments. Add a decorative fountain/waterwall so the cacophony of rushing water blends with a more natural scene. I hope there's a bathroom nearby
One caveat though, too much marble and tile can make small spaces in a basement feel like a restaurant basement bathroom. Try to incorporate some organic materials like slate or cork to warm it up. The mangroves will go a long way to achieve this. Jelinek cork in Oakville has some nice materials that will dampen the drone of pumps and water draining. Remember those Mars systems are designed for industrial use so you will have to make some mods in the plumbing and possibly some acoustic adjustments. Add a decorative fountain/waterwall so the cacophony of rushing water blends with a more natural scene. I hope there's a bathroom nearby
nineball
Active member
OK I need help...........
OK I need help...........
I think I have the best solution for the lights but I need some help with admittedly basic information that I don't have. I have a lighting engineer who is part of my project team for the house. He has been talking to the Philips lighting engineers. They have been asking questions that I don't have the answers to, so I thought I might ask them here. The solution that I am looking at has the following characteristics:
ColorReach Powercore (housing)
Each fully aimable panel is ( H X W X D inches) 20.5 X 28.9 X 4.8 .
Each panel has two parts split evenly into ..........
Lumens 5200+ for the RGB LED
Lumens 1777 for the white light at 6500K
The RGB can throw light 500 ft.
There is no PAR information so I bought a single fixture to test with.
I will eventually get six panels. This lighting is capable of infinite dimming while maintaining colour temperature or varing colour temperature while maintaining brightness levels.
Beam angles 8 / 13 / 23 / 40 / 63 deg. 5 / 17 deg asymmetric lens.
designed for dry, damp, wet locations.
Questions are............
1. What is the impact if these lights do NOT offer light in the UV or IR frequency range?
I will have managed UV light in the fish room as part of the CL system.
2. Is the PAR measurement the only relevant measurement as far as coral health is concerned?
3. What differences in light requirements are there for fish vs corals? I realize fish can move and corals can't, for the most part.
Any feedback from knowledgable sources will be greatly appreciated.
Peter
OK I need help...........
I think I have the best solution for the lights but I need some help with admittedly basic information that I don't have. I have a lighting engineer who is part of my project team for the house. He has been talking to the Philips lighting engineers. They have been asking questions that I don't have the answers to, so I thought I might ask them here. The solution that I am looking at has the following characteristics:
ColorReach Powercore (housing)
Each fully aimable panel is ( H X W X D inches) 20.5 X 28.9 X 4.8 .
Each panel has two parts split evenly into ..........
Lumens 5200+ for the RGB LED
Lumens 1777 for the white light at 6500K
The RGB can throw light 500 ft.
There is no PAR information so I bought a single fixture to test with.
I will eventually get six panels. This lighting is capable of infinite dimming while maintaining colour temperature or varing colour temperature while maintaining brightness levels.
Beam angles 8 / 13 / 23 / 40 / 63 deg. 5 / 17 deg asymmetric lens.
designed for dry, damp, wet locations.
Questions are............
1. What is the impact if these lights do NOT offer light in the UV or IR frequency range?
I will have managed UV light in the fish room as part of the CL system.
2. Is the PAR measurement the only relevant measurement as far as coral health is concerned?
3. What differences in light requirements are there for fish vs corals? I realize fish can move and corals can't, for the most part.
Any feedback from knowledgable sources will be greatly appreciated.
Peter
Posidion
Coral Gardner
I hope he is able to weather the storm intact, read in todays paper their going to kill the power and water supply to the areas with protesters in them. If that includes Chings area he will need a large generator or a wrench for the drain plug, and that would be devistating.
nineball
Active member
You will be happy with your extra efforts to make the fishroom "not look like a back room". People often forget that they will be spending a considerable amount of time in these self-imposed cells in the basement. A lot more time than in the living room you paid a designer a fortune to decorate.
One caveat though, too much marble and tile can make small spaces in a basement feel like a restaurant basement bathroom. Try to incorporate some organic materials like slate or cork to warm it up. The mangroves will go a long way to achieve this. Jelinek cork in Oakville has some nice materials that will dampen the drone of pumps and water draining. Remember those Mars systems are designed for industrial use so you will have to make some mods in the plumbing and possibly some acoustic adjustments. Add a decorative fountain/waterwall so the cacophony of rushing water blends with a more natural scene. I hope there's a bathroom nearby
Sean, here is the "bathroom" that belongs to the fish room..............
I hope to maintain the same ambience in the fish room except with more of a CSI Miami look and feel.
Peter
nineball
Active member
nineball
Active member
If you were working on the fish room architecture you too would be using this facility. I haven't forgotten........fish room workers are people too!
Peter
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
How many watts per individual bulb/light point? The trend is toward higher wattage to provide more shimmer and shadows similar to the sun or at least MHL. Current mass produced LED fixtures with multiple points of light look eerie and clinical/fake like fluorescent light.
What are the dimensions of the fixtures? It seems tall 20.5"? Usually LED's are low profile 3"ish.
There are no known negative aspects to a lack of UV, or conversely benefits to having it, but in my unpopular opinion natural conditions should be replicated and UV does readily exist on natural reefs. Corals develop UV protection (mycosporine-like amino acids/MAA's) as sun block from the harmful UV rays of the sun. Reef fish have these same MAA's in their mucous. These were originally believed to be pigmented but are now known to be colourless. The zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae) within the coral's tissue are a light brown or drab green colour and do not require UV to our collective knowledge. This article and the series by Dana Riddle covers the subject of lighting and coral colouration. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/1/aafeature1
PAR is the biggest single lighting parameter you need to monitor. It will indicate if your bulbs are old and if they are adequate in the first place. PAR is basically the quality and intensity of light that is required for photosynthesis. LUX is the intensity reading that includes the higher nanometer (nm) light that is easily recognized by the human eye as being "bright". These readings are good for testing bulb life but do not indicate the hidden PAR generated by the light.
The other consideration is coverage, as LED tends to cover a smaller spotlight area compared to MHL or natural sunlight. Home & office use LED lamps are starting to use 7 watt multichip LED clusters. http://shop.humanscale.com/family.cfm?groupid=87 and there are even 100 watt LEDs used in the aquarium trade now. http://econlux.de/2010/
Your tank is shallow so lighting is not as challenging with regard to penetration, diffusion and intensity.
There are two ways of looking at the lighting issue. One way is to find out what corals appear to require for growth, health and colouration, then create those conditions with the technology available to us. The second approach is to match the lighting conditions of natural reefs and assume that nature got the formula and balance right and we can't improve upon it. It's a matter of personal choice just like GMO's (genetically modified organisms) or organic foods.
Enjoy the reading & research
Padrino
New member
Hey peter,
That bathroom looks well put together. One thing to include in your fish room is a sink and tap. This is probably an obvious suggestion for you by now. I'm really looking forward to seeing the pics of the fishroom with marble floors. That will look quite amazing! and CLASSY!
That bathroom looks well put together. One thing to include in your fish room is a sink and tap. This is probably an obvious suggestion for you by now. I'm really looking forward to seeing the pics of the fishroom with marble floors. That will look quite amazing! and CLASSY!
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Sean, here is the "bathroom" that belongs to the fish room..............
I hope to maintain the same ambience in the fish room except with more of a CSI Miami look and feel.
Peter
I'll take it. I assume you allow pets?
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
No need for a tap, he can wash his hands in a water wall or peeing cherub fountain.
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