My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics

[scubadan206]

Hey Scott. I'm curious why you went with the 360 at this point. I like the lights personally, but I hear through the grapevine that Kessil did not. They discontinued the 360 model recently. It looks like the 380 model will be introduced at MACNA. Possibly shortly after. It's great that you probably got the new ones at a discount, but I'm curious why you made the decision before the announcement.

BTW. Tell Jim that we are anxiously awaiting a return to his old format. Good stuff incoming. He could set up his own website and charge a bit. I don't think it would cut down on viewership at all.

Oh. Very cool to see montage of your mods to the Tunze's. Almost as good as the video I bugged you to do.

Daniel. :bigeyes:

 

[pmrossetti]

Hey Scott. I'm curious why you went with the 360 at this point. I like the lights personally, but I hear through the grapevine that Kessil did not. They discontinued the 360 model recently. It looks like the 380 model will be introduced at MACNA. Possibly shortly after. It's great that you probably got the new ones at a discount, but I'm curious why you made the decision before the announcement.

BTW. Tell Jim that we are anxiously awaiting a return to his old format. Good stuff incoming. He could set up his own website and charge a bit. I don't think it would cut down on viewership at all.

Oh. Very cool to see montage of your mods to the Tunze's. Almost as good as the video I bugged you to do.

Daniel. :bigeyes:

Where's you get this information?

 

[slief]

Hey Scott. I'm curious why you went with the 360 at this point. I like the lights personally, but I hear through the grapevine that Kessil did not. They discontinued the 360 model recently. It looks like the 380 model will be introduced at MACNA. Possibly shortly after. It's great that you probably got the new ones at a discount, but I'm curious why you made the decision before the announcement.

BTW. Tell Jim that we are anxiously awaiting a return to his old format. Good stuff incoming. He could set up his own website and charge a bit. I don't think it would cut down on viewership at all.

Oh. Very cool to see montage of your mods to the Tunze's. Almost as good as the video I bugged you to do.

Daniel. :bigeyes:

Hmmmm... Good question.. You have now succeeded in making me question myself. My decision was an impulsive one. I had been contemplating this for a long time and just decided to bite the bullet. I really didn't even think about a forthcoming 380 and will now be paying close attention to news from MACNA. I did however get them at a reasonable discount so hopefully it's a decision I don't regret. Fortunately, if and when the 380 comes to market, the migration will be simple and my 360's should still have some decent resale value.


In the mean time, I am well prepared for the swap. Jim should be here around 1:30 at which point it should be smooth sailing.

 

[slief]

Organized and ready to go.. The wait is killing me! Jim should be here in an hour or so..

 

[pmrossetti]

Look so cool.

 

[slief]

Lights are in. I have to clean up and tie down all the wires and do some minor adjustments but they are in and the tank is lit up. We swapped in one light at a time for 2 Kessils so the tank stayed lit and I had light to work under. Over all I am pleased with the results. I may end up moving two lights at the end of the tank but that's a project for another day. The shimmer is insane. I took two videos. One with half the tank under Kessils while the other half was under my Reeftech's and the second video is all Kessil. I will get some pictures of the light rack later today if not tomorrow when I clean the mess of wires up on top of the rack. In the mean time, here are a couple videos of the results.


Tank with half Kessil and half Reeftech.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NehoO27nL_Q?list=UUvWr8KN2BmfBg4D-vJWwLFA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Tank with all Kessil.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q--I30bPhhw?list=UUvWr8KN2BmfBg4D-vJWwLFA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[pmrossetti]

I think they look awesome Scott.
The shimmer is beautiful.

 

[scubadan206]

Where's you get this information?

BRS. Did an interview with the Kessil guys a while back. They showed a prototype Kessil that resembles a radion in form. It's on their YouTube channel. Kessil also profiled the new 380 on their channel. Just a grow light as of the video release. A couple other reefers looked into a possible release day, but honestly I don't have much definitive. What does seem to be definite is that the 380 and 360 will be compatible.

Daniel. :wildone:

 

[scubadan206]

I almost bought a few myself with the recent sale. I found a deal on some used radion's that were very close to me so I bought them instead.

 

[pmrossetti]

Fts fts

Whats with the dinosaur?

 

[slief]

Fts fts

Whats with the dinosaur?

I couldn't figure out what you were talking about until I watched the video again and saw that the next video is of Doc, our free roaming house trained iguana..

He's my buddy. He usually comes running when he sees me. I'm daddy to him.
Here is a shot of the zoo. Tortoises not included.

 

[win98ena]

Awesome setup .. how is the led ?

 

[pmrossetti]

You look a little apprehensive there

Really neat how they all get along.

How did you train him?

 

[chris_kitedude]

My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots...

My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots...

i say wow. it does really make a difference. i'd say it was def. a improvement and money well spent. the shimmer looks fantastic and the video shows it. very natural look of a shallow marine habitat.

as the shimmer is directly affected to the waters surface movement : do you run any wavepatterns on your ph's
where there is heavy surface movement and the shimmer is too much or maybe distracting? would be worth a try on a video.

i think i will go the same route on my tank project with 6 x 360's , 6 gorilla mounts and 3 vdm modules.

cheers,
chris

btw: the iguana is lovely. haha.

 

[Aquatron]

How's the color of your corals look now in lieu of the old lighting? Great video showing the shimmer

 

[slief]

i say wow. it does really make a difference. i'd say it was def. a improvement and money well spent. the shimmer looks fantastic and the video shows it. very natural look of a shallow marine habitat.

as the shimmer is directly affected to the waters surface movement : do you run any wavepatterns on your ph's
where there is heavy surface movement and the shimmer is too much or maybe distracting? would be worth a try on a video.

i think i will go the same route on my tank project with 6 x 360's , 6 gorilla mounts and 3 vdm modules.

cheers,
chris

btw: the iguana is lovely. haha.

i say wow. it does really make a difference. i'd say it was def. a improvement and money well spent. the shimmer looks fantastic and the video shows it. very natural look of a shallow marine habitat.

as the shimmer is directly affected to the waters surface movement : do you run any wavepatterns on your ph's
where there is heavy surface movement and the shimmer is too much or maybe distracting? would be worth a try on a video.

i think i will go the same route on my tank project with 6 x 360's , 6 gorilla mounts and 3 vdm modules.

cheers,
chris

btw: the iguana is lovely. haha.

I'm running two Tunze 6205's and one Tunze 6105 controlled by my Apex. I have several profiles programmed. At night I have calm with the just a simple flow from the pumps. Sunrise/sunset is a calm wave or surge pattern that kicks up later in the morning to a stronger wave pattern. There is also a flush cycle programmed in that kicks the pumps up to full speed one side at a time and alternates side to side ever 30 or so seconds to suspend any detritus and send it up and over into the overflow. That cycle kicks on a randomly a few times a day and runs for a few minutes. Throughout the day the wave pattern change to different profiles to provide a more natural surge effect.

I have a Reeflo Hammerhead as a return pump. It puts out a lot flow and returns through a pair of SeaSwirls at the end of the peninsula. The contributes substantially to the surface agitation. As for the shimmer being a distraction.. I don't find it to. I think it's very natural looking and having run metal halides for more than 10 years before going to LED's, I'm used to it and like the shimmer.

Here is a video I did 4 years or so ago showing the the effect from two Tunze 6205's when I first set those up. You can see that I get a really good wave effect going in the tank. The wave patterns have since been modified a bit so it's not as violent but you can get a pretty good idea.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BQua9Niz-RU?list=UUvWr8KN2BmfBg4D-vJWwLFA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[slief]

I cleaned most of the wires up. Still have more work to do but it's much better. Good enough for a few pictures now.

These are with the rack elevated. The little tiny square boxes attached to the rack are my lunar simulator LED's. The fans are for evaporative cooling.

These are with the rack lowered. Lights are about 8-9' off the water.

Here is my lighting graph showing my schedule and the color and intensity throughout the day. This graph is from Fusion. The orange line represents the intensity and the blue line represents the color change. At present, I peak at 90% for four hours a day. I will keep an eye on my corals and either adjust this as needed or raise my light rack.

The higher up on the graph that the blue line becomes, the whiter the light. Sunrise and sunset are very blue and graduate to and from a whiter light.

 

[slief]

Here is one more video I just took. It has some better full tank shots as well as a walk around. I just uploaded it and it's still processing. Once the processing is done, the resolution and video quality will improve.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q--I30bPhhw?list=UUvWr8KN2BmfBg4D-vJWwLFA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[chris_kitedude]

Lightrack looks awesome with the Kessils. Very tidy and detailed. Just had a look at your videos and found the LA Fishguys Episodes about your System and just watched all of 'em. Really cant wait on my Kessil order to arrive now.

Hope you have fun with your lights. I've read in an earlier post you switched your Skimmer to an Royal Exclusiv Supermarin. I am just about to order my Skimmer for my new System and cant get my head around the Royal Esclusiv supermarin or the new Tunze Master Doc Skimmers. I have just returned from Bangkok last week and seen the Tunze Masterdoc in Action from one of the SiamReefClub Guys. The Tunze has some neat features like Antioverfoamprotection and no fiddling as its autoadjusting. What did drive you to get the Royal Exclusiv? I mean besides its no doubt one of the best High End Skimmer on the Market its also super heavy on the Moneyside. If my better half sees the next CC she prolly kill me with far over +1,5k€ for that mantoy, lol.

chris

 

[dotcommer]

These look great. Awesome job.