pa1ntbru5h's 300+ Gallon Build Thread
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pa1ntbru5h
New member
Thanks!
Yup the sump was made by AA.
I got most the plumbing from pvcfittingsonline. I never thought I'd spend so much on PVC in my life...
This build is my ultimate dream build so I'm going all out haha
Don't let your wife know how much you're spending on the new tank otherwise she won't let you have it regardless how nice it looks lol
pa1ntbru5h
New member
I did opt for an extra fee to have the guys from CDA to help move it inside.
They brought lift tables which makes it a lot easier to get it up on the stand. We had a total of 5 people. And yes it's heavy AF... haha.
pa1ntbru5h
New member
Following this amazing
Thank you!
I'll reveal lighting this Wednesday/Thursday! I'll also post about why I went with what I did.
Queue the suspense!... lol
pa1ntbru5h
New member
Woohoo! The lights are here!
Big thanks to Richard for making this happen
I'll do a write up on why I chose these lights tonight.
Hopefully I'll even have them hung and powered on!
Big thanks to Richard for making this happen
I'll do a write up on why I chose these lights tonight.
Hopefully I'll even have them hung and powered on!
Duality
New member
I would have put the check valve after the manifold T off. Now when the return turns off the water from the tank will back flash to your reactors.
But I do like the plumbing looks kick but
pa1ntbru5h
New member
Why I chose Philips CoralCare Gen 2
I'll put a TL;DR (Too long; Didn't Read) in italics at the end of each section if you don't want to read through all my thoughts.
*I am not sponsored nor was I asked to write this. These are my personal thoughts.
1) Spread
I've been in the hobby now for over 6 years. I know.. not really that long compared to some of you guys and gals on here. In that time, I've experimented with LEDs and T5s with all types of corals. Starting out back in 2014, I had an AI Prime over my 10g nano. That light served its purpose to keep my beginner corals alive and colored up.
Once I moved on to my Red Sea Reefer 250, I bought 2 Radion XR15 G3. I started dabbling in SPS. The radions were great. They had good color and they kept my more advanced corals alive!
Within the last 2-3 years, I've tried chinese black box LEDs, Kessils, Radions, Orpheks, ATI T5, AquaticLife T5 Hybrid, Reefbrites, and a couple others.
I can confidently say that no LED could beat just plain old T5s. And I've never had better coloration in my SPS than when they were under T5s.
The longest light that I owned was an 8 bulb ATI Powermodule Hybrid. That light was an absolute beast. It had my entire 36" Red Sea tank covered from corner to corner with light. Nothing was left unlit. It was the ultimate set it and forget it light and my corals never looked better.
Now that you know some of my history with lights... Why the CoralCare Gen 2?
If you're familiar with BRS, they do light reviews with real data. I won't get too deep into it but BRS basically said the CoralCare Gen 2 had light spread that was extremely similar to T5s. They overlaid the data from the ATI T5 with the CoralCare and they were almost identical.
I would love to have T5s under my canopy but T5s get too hot. From my experience, my tanks run a good ~2 degrees hotter with T5s. So you're telling me I can get T5 like performance without the heat?
TL;DR CoralCare has spread like ATI T5s
2) PAR
According to the BRS review, the light spread is almost identical to T5s. But with their review, they tested the PAR to be a little bit underwhelming when set to their personal color settings. Their color setting is to mimic ATI Blue Plus bulbs.
I personally like my tanks' color spectrum to be on the whiter side. I don't run heavy blues unless the light is about to turn off for the night or if people are over and want to see the crazy fluorescence of the corals.
If I run the light on a whiter spectrum than BRS, the PAR numbers will go up since the white LEDs will be running at higher intensity. I honestly think it will be enough PAR for the tank and if it isn't then I can always add supplemental lighting such as Reefbrite LED bars.
TL;DR T5 like spread. Whiter spectrum = higher PAR than BRS states in their review.
3) Brand
Everyone knows the Philips brand. I'm almost positive everyone has something in their house made by Philips. Their main market is lighting.
To see a brand as big as Philips making lights for such a niche hobby is mind blowing to me.
I believe that Philips has the knowledge, money, and resources to create the best light that they possibly can because why would they waste their time and effort to create a sub-par light that no-one would buy? Their whole focus was to create a light that mimics the corals' natural habitat as best as possible.
I was originally going to use Ecotech Radion Gen 5s over my new tank.
Sure, Ecotech probably has the #1 sold light in the hobby. And it's been around for a long time so everyone in this hobby knows of them and their success. Stores, farms, hobbyists all use the light with great success. Radions appeal toward folks who like really blue tanks. If you want to see your corals as bright as they can possibly glow, then Radions are for you.
TL;DR Philips is a huge well known company with tons of resources and is willing to dip into our hobby.
4) Price
The price for the CoralCare Gen 2 is very similar if not even slightly under what I would be paying with Radion Gen 5s.
With the CoralCares, they come with everything you'd need. It includes the hanging kit. The diffuser is the glass panel that's already built into the light.
With Radions, I need to buy the light, the diffusers, the mounting bracket, the hanging rail, and the hanging kit for the rail. That all adds up very quickly and actually ends up more expensive than the CoralCare.
TL;DR Cheaper than Radions because Radions need all sorts of separately sold accessories to mount them.
5) Aesthetics
I will be running 4 of the CoralCares over my tank.
If I had gone with Radions, I would be running 8 of the XR15s.
That's 4 less wires, 4 less power bricks, and just 4 less lights I need to worry about.
Also did I mention the CoralCare is passively cooled? No fan to clean and best of all NO NOISE.
TL;DR Less lights, less mess. No fans. Silence...
I'll put a TL;DR (Too long; Didn't Read) in italics at the end of each section if you don't want to read through all my thoughts.
*I am not sponsored nor was I asked to write this. These are my personal thoughts.
1) Spread
I've been in the hobby now for over 6 years. I know.. not really that long compared to some of you guys and gals on here. In that time, I've experimented with LEDs and T5s with all types of corals. Starting out back in 2014, I had an AI Prime over my 10g nano. That light served its purpose to keep my beginner corals alive and colored up.
Once I moved on to my Red Sea Reefer 250, I bought 2 Radion XR15 G3. I started dabbling in SPS. The radions were great. They had good color and they kept my more advanced corals alive!
Within the last 2-3 years, I've tried chinese black box LEDs, Kessils, Radions, Orpheks, ATI T5, AquaticLife T5 Hybrid, Reefbrites, and a couple others.
I can confidently say that no LED could beat just plain old T5s. And I've never had better coloration in my SPS than when they were under T5s.
The longest light that I owned was an 8 bulb ATI Powermodule Hybrid. That light was an absolute beast. It had my entire 36" Red Sea tank covered from corner to corner with light. Nothing was left unlit. It was the ultimate set it and forget it light and my corals never looked better.
Now that you know some of my history with lights... Why the CoralCare Gen 2?
If you're familiar with BRS, they do light reviews with real data. I won't get too deep into it but BRS basically said the CoralCare Gen 2 had light spread that was extremely similar to T5s. They overlaid the data from the ATI T5 with the CoralCare and they were almost identical.
I would love to have T5s under my canopy but T5s get too hot. From my experience, my tanks run a good ~2 degrees hotter with T5s. So you're telling me I can get T5 like performance without the heat?
TL;DR CoralCare has spread like ATI T5s
2) PAR
According to the BRS review, the light spread is almost identical to T5s. But with their review, they tested the PAR to be a little bit underwhelming when set to their personal color settings. Their color setting is to mimic ATI Blue Plus bulbs.
I personally like my tanks' color spectrum to be on the whiter side. I don't run heavy blues unless the light is about to turn off for the night or if people are over and want to see the crazy fluorescence of the corals.
If I run the light on a whiter spectrum than BRS, the PAR numbers will go up since the white LEDs will be running at higher intensity. I honestly think it will be enough PAR for the tank and if it isn't then I can always add supplemental lighting such as Reefbrite LED bars.
TL;DR T5 like spread. Whiter spectrum = higher PAR than BRS states in their review.
3) Brand
Everyone knows the Philips brand. I'm almost positive everyone has something in their house made by Philips. Their main market is lighting.
To see a brand as big as Philips making lights for such a niche hobby is mind blowing to me.
I believe that Philips has the knowledge, money, and resources to create the best light that they possibly can because why would they waste their time and effort to create a sub-par light that no-one would buy? Their whole focus was to create a light that mimics the corals' natural habitat as best as possible.
I was originally going to use Ecotech Radion Gen 5s over my new tank.
Sure, Ecotech probably has the #1 sold light in the hobby. And it's been around for a long time so everyone in this hobby knows of them and their success. Stores, farms, hobbyists all use the light with great success. Radions appeal toward folks who like really blue tanks. If you want to see your corals as bright as they can possibly glow, then Radions are for you.
TL;DR Philips is a huge well known company with tons of resources and is willing to dip into our hobby.
4) Price
The price for the CoralCare Gen 2 is very similar if not even slightly under what I would be paying with Radion Gen 5s.
With the CoralCares, they come with everything you'd need. It includes the hanging kit. The diffuser is the glass panel that's already built into the light.
With Radions, I need to buy the light, the diffusers, the mounting bracket, the hanging rail, and the hanging kit for the rail. That all adds up very quickly and actually ends up more expensive than the CoralCare.
TL;DR Cheaper than Radions because Radions need all sorts of separately sold accessories to mount them.
5) Aesthetics
I will be running 4 of the CoralCares over my tank.
If I had gone with Radions, I would be running 8 of the XR15s.
That's 4 less wires, 4 less power bricks, and just 4 less lights I need to worry about.
Also did I mention the CoralCare is passively cooled? No fan to clean and best of all NO NOISE.
TL;DR Less lights, less mess. No fans. Silence...
pa1ntbru5h
New member
I did talk about that here. Basically it's not meant to be used as a fail-safe but more for convenience to keep as much water in the display as possible during maintenance. I will manually shut off the valve to the reactors if I shut off the return pump.
Duality
New member
But what about if you have a power outage while away or vacation. Or if the return fails while at work?
pa1ntbru5h
New member
If that's the case then it'll back flush through the reactors but the sump can hold the full water volume with no issue.
Hopefully I wont have any unplanned power outages once I have my solar and battery backups installed.
pa1ntbru5h
New member
Lights are up!
pa1ntbru5h
New member
Yeah the coverage is great! Super happy so far. Only time will tell to see how these lights perform.
Yes!! I've been slowly moving my fish over from my old tank. Now that the lights are on I can move a couple low demand corals to test the waters! Super excited.
Thank you!
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