Beeker's 200g DD PAR38 lit new pics 8-31-10!!!

[beeker]

Just picked up this tank from Joe over the weekend, can't wait to get it up and running either so hopefully in the next few months that will be a reality :]]

working on cleaning the stand and repainting it and then figuring where it's going to go

Tank plans

Stocking will mainly be Sps i'll shoot to have a Zoa mountain, Acan's and chalice abound, and pretty much all i'll have for softies is Branching hammer, orange anchor hammer and my multi-colored finger leather

Going to try and get a pair of Blue throat trigger's or Sargassum's, a purple tang, maybe some platinum clowns and chromis, not sure what else would be good fish for this tank though

Lighting:
10 Par38 12k led spot lights with 40 optics on track lighting, and maybe 2 all blue Par38's with 60 or 80 optics
a few strips of Led moon lights

Flow:
Snapper return pump
Mp40

MSX160, will probably mod it some or upgrade after i see how well it does on the bigger tank
Reverse light cycle cheato
2 250w heaters
Tunze ATO

about 130-150lbs of lr, 50 from my main tanks now and some more in the next month so i can have time to cure it and cook it before it goes in the 200g


What has been done so far 3-1-10




















Enjoi!



pics of in it my basement, it will probably end up going where that tv in the background is, we will be notching out the ceter of that wood panel the Tv is on and putting the tank there with the sides raised a little, and then i'll be painting the back wall and skinning the stand







NEW PICS

[aquavista99]

Very nice footprint for your new tank. Looking forward to seeing your build thread!

[Logzor]

There are some really nice LED fixtures on the market, check out the Maxspec LED module. Not too expensive, either.

I am not sure if you can pull this off with the PAR38 bulbs, I've only seen them on nano tanks. If they only hit 420 PAR reading at 18" in open air, I don't see how they would provide enough light in your DD tank. Even with the optics, they will probably have a scattered spotlight effect, unless you raise them really high.

Those bulbs are pretty expensive from what I remember, it would cost at least $500 for all of those.

I would look at a T5 / LED combo. Or even one 400w MH with a huge reflector.

[beeker]

I'd go with T5's or Mh but my dads main concern is with the electricity cost

These will have a spot light effect but even from the pics i've seen it isn't much and with 5-6 bulbs on each side of the tank this won't be that great, plus it will give the tank a more dramatic look

Evilc66 has 4 PAR38 12k's over his 40br all have 40 optics, the PAR38's he is using are the older 15w versions of the bulb, the ones i will be using at the 21w Version of the bulb he does have 1 all blue PAR38 over his tank now that he just added

he has his lights 33 inches off the sandbed and is growing sps within the bottom 5 inches of his tank, the 40br is half the dimensions of this tank, so the lighting setup i'm thinking of doing should workout great

if he has his lights at 33 inches then that puts the lights exactly at 6 inches off the water on this new tank, the spread of the PAR38 at that height evil told me 2 bulbs with 40 optics would light the tank front to back each bulb has about a 2 foot spread at that height, granted i'll have more than 2 to get better coverage and increase the PAR on the rockwork, thats why i'm planning about 6 bulbs on each side of the tank, plus the all blue PAR38's put out just about the same PAR as the 12k's

i would do maxspect but any fixture that isn't using 3w cree Leds isn't worth it IMO, Cree leds are the only ones i've seen that put out reasonable PAR, 1w LEDs are just too weak for anything buy softies and i'll mainly have sps in this tank, granted the sps will be up about 5-10 inches off the sand and the spot lights will mainly be focused on them on the rockwork

I'd love to go with a full fixture over the whole tank, but no Led inventor has made anything as good as these bulbs that doesen't cost well over 1000.00, and granted this will cost a lot but i'll only be lighting one side of the tank at this time and then slowly i'll add the rest of the bulbs to the left side so that in a way will be more cost effective than buying an under powered fixture

[Logzor]

I believe the G2 Maxspec has 3w LEDs and two 10w LEDs.

Your tank is a lot deeper than a 40b, not to mention you have almost 3x as much surface area. Even though his lights are pretty high up, they're not going through as much water. I guess the idea of spending that much on a bunch of independent bulbs makes me nervous.

Regardless, I am really curious to see how things turn out. What kind of sps do you plan on keeping, btw?

[beeker]

i looked at aqua illumination but their fixtures would be around 2k+ for the whole setup for a tank this size

The G2 looks good but i have no idea if it would work over a tank this tall without costing a lot more money wise, does the G2 have any support in the US yet? and can you find any shots of it over a tank this tall with sps on the bottom? cause i haven't seen any yet, or any PAR readings for it

the spot lights on track lighting would look amazing and i'm sure Evilc66 will ever be evoling those bulbs so that wouldn't be a bad option since i'm sure there would be upgrades for it in the future, plus starting out with a few spot lights is cheaper than buying a 1k fixture upfront all at once the spots are pretty much plug and play for a retro type setup and i like that fact

i keep every sps that is in my main BC29g tank

Basically acro's, milli's and monti's really any sps that have nice color is what i look for, i'm not a huge fan of reds and greens so this tank won'y have a lot of those other than the corals i have in my display now that are already those colors

[aquaman7]

Kyle, I like the looks of that tank... what are its dimensions?

[beeker]

dimensions are 48*36*27

i actually have skinned the stand and painted it, and am in the process of curing the LR for it as we speak, i'll try to get some pics up tonight or tomorrow of what me and my dad have already accomplished, lol

[reeftigergal]

Looking GREAT so far, cant wait to see it all up and running.
Nancy

[aquavista99]

Very nice!!!

[beeker]

i got the rightside aqauscaped this weekend and should have pics of that up in the next day or two

Just need a Mp40 and the lighting as well as some supplie's, but i'm getting close :]]

[Coral Pets]

Is anything going to go around the tank in that space around it?

[beeker]

most likely no, i was thinking of adding mirrors to the side walls around the tank to give it a badass reflection look to it, or i'll find some nice artwork to hang on the left and right side of the tank

I'll have the right side aquascape pictures up tonight :]] stay tunned, lol

[KZmurk]

Have you heard anymore info on the par 38 leds? It's an intresting concept, but $$$$$$$.

[beeker]

No more info, Evilc66 supposedly just made a custom PAR with warm white Cree led's that give the bulb a more Radium look to it, not sure if these will be available when i make my order or not, i'm about 2-3 weeks from getting bulbs, just got my Aquascape on the rightside of the tank done and then need to do the lighting track and get an Mp40 as well as bulk supplies, so i'm hoping in 2-3 weeks i can atleast have 8 bulbs to cover the right side of the tank, i think i'll be using all 12k bulbs for this, eventually i might add some 20k's into the mix or when evilc66 comes out with a different blend i might switch to that but we will see

PAR38's are 300.00-400.00 more for the setup than a DIY led, but IMO i can work and fix a PAR38 more easily than i can work with 50-60 leds mounted to a solid heatsink, to me that is more involved than i want to get at this point in the hobby, maybe down the road i'll make a DIY led setup for the sump for frags so it might change my mind but i plan on using the PAR38's for atleast 3-5 years and in that time i'm sure they will have something bigger and better available and hopefully more cost friendly

for the PAR38 setup it will cost me around 2,100.00 if not a little more but it's a lighting setup that should last me atleast 8 years with less heat, energy consumption and no bulb replacement