20" cube build and a bit of history

[nine8taco]

Yea i think i might need to hit that attorney up as well if i nix the couch in favor of that monster and yes i do still have the tank i picked it up at way too good of a deal to let go!

 

[nine8taco]

i need yalls opinions. I built the skeleton of the hood tonight and im not convinced of it. with the distance that the kessil needs to be off the surface of the water this is how tall the hood has to be. I think its too tall and too close in dimension to the tank. What say you?

 

[Dtackett]

yeah bud, I agree with you. its not going to look right... are you stuck on kessils?

 

[nine8taco]

yeah bud, I agree with you. its not going to look right... are you stuck on kessils?

Not necessarily but I bought an a160 for this project. What else you thinking? Only thing I've been able to come up with is the odyssea 20" t5 fixture. I really do prefer the full hood as I hate the light spillage.

 

[Brian Kim]

Love your idea, it inspired me to use similar concept to design my next tank, the waterfall tank lol

 

[Dtackett]

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-nano-reef/7-sbox-sprite-reef-nano.html

that's my suggestion.

 

[Dtackett]

Love your idea, it inspired me to use similar concept to design my next tank, the waterfall tank lol

lol I did something like this.... the mess was more amazing than the tank... hopefully you do it better than I did...

 

[Dtackett]

or this one. both will grow anything and are par monsters. both can be hooked up to a controller although I just use a cheap digital timer.

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-reef-lights/1-sbox-basic.html

 

[nine8taco]

Very interesting! I haven't ever heard of them. Can you change the color and intensity? And I wonder how high is have to hang them. Didn't see much on the website.

 

[Brian Kim]

i need yalls opinions. I built the skeleton of the hood tonight and im not convinced of it. with the distance that the kessil needs to be off the surface of the water this is how tall the hood has to be. I think its too tall and too close in dimension to the tank. What say you?

Honestly? I think it is a little too tall and it would just look a lot cleaner without it

 

[nine8taco]

Honestly? I think it is a little too tall and it would just look a lot cleaner without it

I'm thinkin the same and I always appreciate honesty!

 

[Dtackett]

Very interesting! I haven't ever heard of them. Can you change the color and intensity? And I wonder how high is have to hang them. Didn't see much on the website.

the basics don't have much in the lines of controls. you can dim them and with a bit of work you can hook them up to apex or other controllers. each step up gets better but no you cant change the color. these lights are less about the cool nifty things that don't grow coral and are more about a spectrum that provides the best coral growth. this is a set it and forget it light that will grow everything. heres the info.

https://sbreeflights.com/content/7-faq

this isn't just some thrown together light. mike has been working on these for a long time and designed the spectrum based on PUR instead of watts or PAR. while these are PAR monsters, PUR is more important.

with the nano youll be able to grow most lps and all softies. with the basic (or any of the 165s) you will be able to grow anything. even with the nano you could grow sps in the middle towards the top but your tank is on the edge of being a nano lol

 

[nine8taco]

the basics don't have much in the lines of controls. you can dim them and with a bit of work you can hook them up to apex or other controllers. each step up gets better but no you cant change the color. these lights are less about the cool nifty things that don't grow coral and are more about a spectrum that provides the best coral growth. this is a set it and forget it light that will grow everything. heres the info.

https://sbreeflights.com/content/7-faq

this isn't just some thrown together light. mike has been working on these for a long time and designed the spectrum based on PUR instead of watts or PAR. while these are PAR monsters, PUR is more important.

with the nano youll be able to grow most lps and all softies. with the basic (or any of the 165s) you will be able to grow anything. even with the nano you could grow sps in the middle towards the top but your tank is on the edge of being a nano lol

Do you have an sbreef light? Id love to see one in action. This is the first time ive wished i was back in FL since i left there i used to live 15 minutes from the address on his site haha

 

[Dtackett]

I had the old version before he upgraded everything and got his signature lights. but if you join the Chinese black box led group buy group on facebook youll see them in action. tons of awesome tanks running them. Mike Herman is the one who made them and he has a build thread on here you can check out and ask him about his lights directly.

 

[Dtackett]

heres his build thread. until his vendor account is active he cant do much but it should be active in a few days. until then you can talk to him directly on his thread
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/560g-reef-build-800g-system.210285/page-4#post-2526524

 

[nine8taco]

right on man thanks for the advice!

 

[Dtackett]

right on man thanks for the advice!

no problem. always out to help

 

[nine8taco]

for the past couple days ive had the kessil hanging over the tank to try and decide whether or not i could stand having all of the light spillage from the tank being open, and the verdict is in. I cant stand it, ive always had a hood, im used to having almost no light spillage into the room and i cant hang without one so ive been brainstorming ideas on how to shorten the height of the hood and this is what i came up with. By eliminating the space to hang the kessil entirely and then push it up through the top just a touch i was able to cut 4 inches out of the height and still maintain the ideal measurement of 12" above the surface. I went from 19" overall to 15" overall. im much much happier with it. It is still big for a small tank but i dont think it looks ridiculous.
heres before

and heres after

and heres what i did exactly cut a hole for the light and the cord then built a rack for it to sit in. the light is set into the rack almost entirely without blocking a single vent hole in the fixture at all.

 

[Chriscrna]

Have you considered a lower profile hood? Maybe cutting the hood down to the size of the kessil? You can always dial your kessil down.

Just a thought. I'm not a fan of hoods on the tank. But then again, light splash doesn't bother me.

 

[nine8taco]

Per kessil the lens of the light needs to be 12" above the water to properly light my tank. This is as low as the hood can go to achieve that. I'm not in love with how tall it is but I can't handle all the light in the room without having a hood so the hood stays. I'm a huge fan of hoods in general.