Mike's Rimless 125

[Mike]

I can finally start working on things. I got the sump last night and it fits like a glove. There is plenty of room for my Alpha 300 cone, some phosban sponges, and the return pump. I am going with the Eheim 1260 that I have to reduce noise through the overflow. I am not looking to make niagra falls just turn over the water 5x's an hour through the sump. Here are some pics of the tank and stand from today.


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[cephalotus]

Tagging along on this one, thats one beautiful rimless.

[Mike]

I just checked to make sure the skimmer will fit and it fit with just a little to spare ;) I am happy that the only other thing I will have in the sump is my return and the phosban sponges. I have the De-Nitrator and a media chamber that are external. If I do this right I will have adequate room under the stand. The return goes literally straight up to the bulkhead and the drain will feed into the skimmer chamber.

[Hopkins]

Perfect spot for the tank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike]

I have to find the right pendent hangers for the light fixture but I think it looks cool there too

[JMALACHI]

Wow! Beautiful rimless. Where did you get it made and was it expensive?

[MizTanks]

I'd treat the OSB with some polyurethane 2-3 coats. If it gets wet ( and it will where it's at) it will swell and warp.


Sent from my iPhone while chasing Forest Gump!

[Sir Patrick]

Very nice! How tall is your sump??

[Mike]

Tank was made by aquarium warehouse. The sump is 30-22-12. I am looking at different ways to hang the lighting right now.

[larryandlaura]

Amazing tank Mike any pictures of it full?

[Mike]

I have been taking it slow. The heat sInks will be ready the eighth. TheY are being cNc'd for 180mm fans to be recesseD.

[larryandlaura]

Ok I will wait lol.

[Sir Patrick]

Is this tank in the same place as the original pic? Or did it find a new location?

I agree w/ larryandlaura- need some new pics!

[larryandlaura]

Well Mike where are the updates?

[Sir Patrick]

I heard its got lights.....lets see it!

[Manoj's Reef]

We need updates!!

[Mike]

I finally have lights over this baby. The tank pic here is lit by two Kessil A150W (purchased at Fish Doctors in Ypsilanti) and waiting on an Ecotech Radion for the middle of the tank. I am pretty happy with the Kessil pendents as they are very point source and punch through the water well. This is the look I wanted for the tank. Pretty clean in terms of lighting. I thought I would need a couple more of the Kessils until I put them over the tank. Now I think they will be fine with the Radion.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/skippyreef/DSCN4005.jpg

[MizTanks]

Wow that is a beautiful tank Mike! Yes those pendants look awesome. What are the tank spccs?

[larryandlaura]

Very beautiful tank Mike!

[AJ :)]

Great looking build Mike. Looking forward to it's progress. :)

[Sir Patrick]

The Radion should settle in just perfect between those 2 fixtures.

[Mike]

The Radion should settle in just perfect between those 2 fixtures.
I think it will fit in well

[Mike]

Now all I need are a couple Vortechs to go with the Radion.

[Poseidon]

Mike, do you mind sharing the coverage of those Kessill lights? Do you by chance have a PAR meter as well?

[SnowflakeCoral]

That's ganna look sweet!

[Mike]

Mike, do you mind sharing the coverage of those Kessill lights? Do you by chance have a PAR meter as well?

I am getting a "useful" spread of 18-20 inches withthe lights 4inches off the surface. That puts them 24 inches off the bottom. PAR numbers with the Apogee meter are 300's 1-2 inches under the water surface. Mid 100's at mid tank and 60-80 on the sand bed. This is pretty comparable to the nubers I got with 250 watt MH over the large tank but it must be said the halides were 10" off the water and that was a 24" deep tank. The rimless is 20" deep.

With that being said these are a much more focused point source light and the shimmer effects are more dynamic IMHO that the halides were. I am going out on a limb here but I believe the A350W will be monster PAR engines. They have at least 2.5 times the power as the A150W's do.

I have looked at the A150W Amazon sun as a possibility to play with in the future and take some PAR measurements. That light has a 6700K spectrum and my guess it, like the Iwasaki of MH lights, it will produce more PAR. I am not completely convincede now that PAR and these type of lights are apples and apples. There are tons of accounts of people switching to LEDS and haivng bleaching events lol. I thnk maybe there is more to the lighting game than the simple lables we use like CRI and PAR.

[Poseidon]

Thanks Mike!

I think you are correct about the measurement of LED PAR, it doesn't seem to all show up there does it?

I keep bouncing around on my light, one minute I am going to do a DIY 24" kit, the next a pair of AI's and then I thought of a single Radion... I guess I have some time yet to decide. I also looked at the Kessil's one day, this lighting thing is TOUGH!

[binford4000]

I am getting a "useful" spread of 18-20 inches withthe lights 4inches off the surface. That puts them 24 inches off the bottom. PAR numbers with the Apogee meter are 300's 1-2 inches under the water surface. Mid 100's at mid tank and 60-80 on the sand bed. This is pretty comparable to the nubers I got with 250 watt MH over the large tank but it must be said the halides were 10" off the water and that was a 24" deep tank. The rimless is 20" deep.

With that being said these are a much more focused point source light and the shimmer effects are more dynamic IMHO that the halides were. I am going out on a limb here but I believe the A350W will be monster PAR engines. They have at least 2.5 times the power as the A150W's do.

I have looked at the A150W Amazon sun as a possibility to play with in the future and take some PAR measurements. That light has a 6700K spectrum and my guess it, like the Iwasaki of MH lights, it will produce more PAR. I am not completely convincede now that PAR and these type of lights are apples and apples. There are tons of accounts of people switching to LEDS and haivng bleaching events lol. I thnk maybe there is more to the lighting game than the simple lables we use like CRI and PAR.

I agree completly.there is a known diffrence of a 25 percent error of par readings with LED's and bleaching is a common problem with them.I personaly think haveing dimable LED's is the first step to haveing sucesses with them, Another issue is knowing the diffrence in spectrum readings. I started off swearing by par numbers and then CSQ explained the diffrence in the readings and actual light intensity as explained to him by a par meter company.I know do more observation to adjust the lighting and use the par readings for just refrence.Your kissel numbers are lower to what I am running but I have helped others set up there LEDS with my meter and the levels are close to yours.Good Luck and looking forward to seeing this build lit up !!!

[Mike]

I think the Radion will be more intense. That being said I think that with LEDs using energy more efficiently at the front end that the quality of the output may be better. Halides produce a lot of heat and waste energy because of the heat. I think LEDs also produce heat but more energy is utilized to light the diode which may be why we get such high intensity in such a small package. The other nice thing is as far as we know there isn't degradation of the lighting spectrum because there are no phosphores to burn up in the filamanent. That's a plus for us. I have watched videos showing the Kessil Amazon Sun over planted tanks and the growth is lush and healthy. I think we get good light and stable temps, making a huge difference in the hot summer
Months.