par38 spread on a 12" deep tank

[BSD]

I am putting together a build on a 24x24x12 tank that will be lit by 2xpar38 bulbs but am trying to figure out how far away from the water they will need to be. I heard they can get a good 18" spread so I am thinking of having them overlap like this

The plan is to keep mostly SPS.

 

[x3thelast]

you can raise them up higher to remove the "shadowing" on the edges of the tank, ive set mine about 10" from the water line and kept sps no prob right in the middle area.

 

[BSD]

you can raise them up higher to remove the "shadowing" on the edges of the tank, ive set mine about 10" from the water line and kept sps no prob right in the middle area.

Thanks, which color did you end up going with? I was thinking about the 20K but I was worried that it would be too blue and I wasn't sure if the color effects the PAR like it does on metal halides.

 

[TundraGuy]

This is going to sweet. But having owned tanks with this same foot print and rocking my PAR 38s I would suggest you go with 4 of them. But the will really depend on the rock structures you build. Also what lenses you’re going to use I would go for some 80s to get a good deep spread. The thing that’s cool about your build is that you can start with one Par and add more till you get just what you’re liking/needing from them.

For the color thing and distance and a ton of other great info check out Beeker’s build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1805886 in his thread you’ll find info that will be very helpful to you.

I am tagging along on this one. Can’t wait to see some pix as you get everything set up and running.

 

[BSD]

This is going to sweet. But having owned tanks with this same foot print and rocking my PAR 38s I would suggest you go with 4 of them. But the will really depend on the rock structures you build. Also what lenses you're going to use I would go for some 80s to get a good deep spread. The thing that's cool about your build is that you can start with one Par and add more till you get just what you're liking/needing from them.

For the color thing and distance and a ton of other great info check out Beeker's build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1805886 in his thread you'll find info that will be very helpful to you.

I am tagging along on this one. Can't wait to see some pix as you get everything set up and running.

What kind of setup do you have for hanging them? I don't really want to drill holes in the wall and am having a hard time coming up with ideas that don't look like crap.

 

[x3thelast]

i had the ledtric full spectrum ones

 

[TundraGuy]

Yo I went to the dreaded Ikea and picked up this stuff.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60021274/
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10175810/
Looks like I can't find the led strand aren't for sale any more. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30142531/
All you got to do is hang the lights add the paper shades and wrap a set of LED light strands around the hanging wires and it takes on a very professional look. The pix first pix we had them over the 40 breeder the second is over the Nuvo 38, and the last one is of the 24x24x13 with a 150 reef flux 14k. Never did set it up with the Pars like you're doing. Kind of wish I did

 

[TundraGuy]

The pix is hazy but with the surface skimmer the surface was clean for top down views. For this tank all I did was mount a overflow box on the inside of the tank and put the protein skimmer pump in it to surface skim (you can see this in the back right corner. I also mounted a mp10 on the back left corner to create a wave that raised two corners and dropped two corners then vise-versa. This tank sat on my coffee table. By all rights my 60 and 50 gallon reefs had way more coral but the coffee table was the one everyone looked at and talked about.

 

[TundraGuy]

Looking at those pix it looks like the rock work was very closed off and stuffed in but the reality was it was full of caves in swim troughs for the fish. Having a huge foot print even if the tank is shallow like these makes for such awesome displays. Also don’t be afraid to grow mangroves out of the top it really blows people away. Try to hid all the power cords if at all possible.

Hope this info helps.

 

[BSD]

Awesome tank, I like what you did with the lights, so you just hung them from the celling with one of those hook things? I am a bit worried about the whole thing coming crashing down into the tank.

How did you like the mangrove? I always thought it would be cool to have one in a shallow tank like that.

 

[keener1830]

I have a 24x24x12 DIT AIO and am using 1 20k and 1 12K. Growing some birdsnest on top and frog spawn octopus coral and favia on the bottom. Great tank for everything. Here's a older pic of the setup. Added more corals and GBTA since then. I used two section of conduit and painted it black to hang the lights.

 

[BSD]

I have a 24x24x12 DIT AIO and am using 1 20k and 1 12K. Growing some birdsnest on top and frog spawn octopus coral and favia on the bottom. Great tank for everything. Here's a older pic of the setup. Added more corals and GBTA since then. I used two section of conduit and painted it black to hang the lights.

Was it difficult getting the pendant power plug to go through the conduit?

 

[keener1830]

I cut it off then spliced it back on with some butt connectors and heat shrink tube

 

[TundraGuy]

keener I love that stand. Got a few questions for you. Is the tank sitting on an open box frame so with the BB the light goes into the stand? Or do you have a hidden light under the stand lid? If its an open box frame have you tried mounting an mp from under the tank? If yes then what how was the flow in the tank?

 

[unchin]

Nice setup keener, I may do that with my nano.

 

[keener1830]

Thanks for the kind words. Yes the tank is sitting on a open box and the light you are seeing is my main lights showing through. The tank is bare bottom. I havent tried from from the bottom as the two flo heads and one hydor I am using seem to keep the tank nice and moving and the sps happy.


Feel free to use any ideas I get a lot of my ideas from what others post. I'm going to put a false front on the stand soon due to my youngest getting close to being mobile. All that is under the tank is the ato resivor and my power mess.

 

[TundraGuy]

well whats going on with this? did you get some par readings for us?

 

[james1990]

I have the DB 24x24x13 so I'm interested in an update as well. When I get home ill post pics of my lighting