Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)

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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

As most of your questions were answered by Mr. Wilson, you probably should try for 63 degree optics as this would give you the best spread for you tank and since its shallow, you don't really need the focused light that say a 23 degree optic would produce. There are many DIY LED thread out there right now. All of the ones Ive read have all found that the 60 degree optics are best suited for the application at hand.

Here is a good thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1826521

Good time to join this thread before it gets long
Rob
 
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.

Thank you for your concern.
Lucky me that the protest area is far from my house.
For the Bangkok crisis, I believe it will end up very soon.

Peter, sorry to hijack your thread.
 
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!

one fish room sink coming up.............



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Peter
 
Thank you for your concern.
Lucky me that the protest area is far from my house.
For the Bangkok crisis, I believe it will end up very soon.

Peter, sorry to hijack your thread.

Chingchai, I would be honoured if you would hijack my thread. :wave:

Anytime my friend.......

Peter
 
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 :)

Thank you Mr. Wilson. This is for sure stuff, for the Capn's log. It is very helpful. The light fixture by the way is 4.8" in depth. Now I'm off to read the links.......

Peter
 
looking good Peter :D what are you planning on for your frag tank, and cutting board/fraging station?? you will be needing one, i didn't think id enjoy fragging but now its almost a obsession in a good way of coarse :]
 
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Peter,

Just wanted to say thanks again for letting us all tag along.
This is the first place i go when getting home from work... desperately hoping for pictures...:lol2:
Its great that someone is building the tank we all dream of building...

BTW Mr Wilson you have an almost disturbing knowledge of all things saltwater...:fun5:
...and per your direction i have purchased a mate for my diamond goby... who could not be happier!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing this tank come together!!!
 
Peter,

Just got caught back up after a few days in which i had so much going on that I didn't have a lot of time to read RC. WOW!!! I was about 8 pages behind. Keep up the awesome work and enjoy the process. Sure, you want water the same as we all do but once you finally get there all the waiting time and building time will make it that much sweeter.......

You and Mr. Wilson are co-authoring a build that could truly affect this community for years to come. Not to mention how much I would like to see this in Architectural Digest.....

Or life styles of the rich and infamous!!!

"I'm Robin Leech and this week we go into the home of notorious Canadian investment banker X to see what can only be described as the world's most insane reef aquarium. it's bigger than the Great Barrier reef and single handedly saved two species from extinction.....":lmao:

hahahahaha HAVE FUN AND ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Scott
 
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 :)

I read this to my wife Mr. Wilson and she is out scouring the planet for Mangrove plants.............and cork it is.........and now she is designing a water fountain that will no longer allow any room for fish stuff!!!!!!!!!

Thannk you very much!!:frog:

Peter
 
looking good Peter :D what are you planning on for your frag tank, and cutting board/fraging station?? you will be needing one, i didn't think id enjoy fragging but now its almost a obsession in a good way of coarse :]

Antonais, I know that I have a working surface near the sink but I haven't finalized the details yet.

Peter
 
Peter,

Just wanted to say thanks again for letting us all tag along.
This is the first place i go when getting home from work... desperately hoping for pictures...:lol2:
Its great that someone is building the tank we all dream of building...

BTW Mr Wilson you have an almost disturbing knowledge of all things saltwater...:fun5:
...and per your direction i have purchased a mate for my diamond goby... who could not be happier!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing this tank come together!!!

Thank you KumiClaws, the dry wallers are here and strangely quiet.......I wonder if they are fermenting a revolution down there.......I'm almost afraid of going down to look........

:o:bounce1::bounce2::o

Peter
 
I read this to my wife Mr. Wilson and she is out scouring the planet for Mangrove plants.............and cork it is.........and now she is designing a water fountain that will no longer allow any room for fish stuff!!!!!!!!!

Thannk you very much!!:frog:

Peter

C'mon, I let you off easy. I could have recommended a Feng Shui balance with a glass cabinet full of Steiff teddy bears :)
 
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