Help with a fixture for ReeFi Uno overhead mount…tank is 59” wide

afternoondelight · Mar 8, 2024

I recently bought three of the ReeFi Uno 2.0’s and have initially bought 2040 aluminum upright tank mounts for my Cade 1500 S2, which is 59 inches long. I think these lights will look pretty spartan mounted this way and I would really like to mount them in a fixture above my tank, but I haven’t been able to figure out which one I want or if I want to custom build one. I figured that instead of reinventing the wheel I would ask the forum and see if anyone here has mounted the ReeFi Uno 2.0’s in an overhead fixture? And if so, what is it…

Initially, I was looking at some of the hybrid fixtures with T5 bulbs on the outside, and the Uno’s on the inside, but the mounting height for the Uno is much higher (recommended 15.7” above my tank) vs the T5 recommended mounting height. That poses a problem! Also, Daniel (the designer/owner of ReeFi) says that three Uno’s will be plenty for my tank and the only reason I may need more light in the future would be if the SPS corals in the upper column cause shading or shadowing for the corals growing below them….

If anyone out there has some ideas, hook me up.

Show me some pictures!

Thanks in advance!!

Ken

Reefing Madness · Mar 10, 2024

afternoondelight · Mar 10, 2024

Yeah...come on people!!

benner33 · Mar 15, 2024

I have a much smaller tank but have my Uno Pro 2 inside an Aquatic Life DX18 fixture. Mainly cause I had it before and also to aid in the mounting. I run the T5s for a bit during the day and use very white bulbs in it.

What else did you want to know?

afternoondelight · Mar 15, 2024

Nothing particularly… Was just looking to see if anyone was running hybrid or combo fixtures. I got my lights delivered the other day from UPS and they look very nice and robust. The power supplies are heavy, big-time! The LED array and the installed 90° deflector looks very nicely done. The lights are sweet, looking and I am going to mount them on that 2040 rail (using the 3-D mounts that I purchased from ReeFi for that purpose ) and see how I like it. If it doesn’t look too cheesy or spartan, I’ll stick with that or I may just custom-build a fixture that I can mount with brackets off the wall. My ceilings are 12 feet tall so it would be ridiculous to hang them from the ceiling… Lol.

benner33 · Mar 17, 2024

I got one of those Aquatic Life hanging rails that I attached to the back of my tank. Honestly I might revisit that cause I have it hung at around 10.5” off the water and for the 90 reflectors it really needs to be higher. I also only use 65w at the max but the whole reason I bought the Reefi was to have headroom down the road (or even a tank upgrade if the wife allows in the future).

Might switch to the 120 reflectors and plan to just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

For the T5s I run 2 PowerChrome Tropic and 2 ATI Blue+ for a few hours a day so my SPS get some full spectrum and also use @telegraham’s AB+ schedule on my Reefi Uno2 Pro for the peak hours. My tank is still young (1.5y) but I noticed these lights are POWERFUL should have followed the less is more approach earlier.

afternoondelight · Mar 17, 2024

benner33 said:
I got one of those Aquatic Life hanging rails that I attached to the back of my tank. Honestly I might revisit that cause I have it hung at around 10.5” off the water and for the 90 reflectors it really needs to be higher. I also only use 65w at the max but the whole reason I bought the Reefi was to have headroom down the road (or even a tank upgrade if the wife allows in the future).

Might switch to the 120 reflectors and plan to just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

For the T5s I run 2 PowerChrome Tropic and 2 ATI Blue+ for a few hours a day so my SPS get some full spectrum and also use @telegraham’s AB+ schedule on my Reefi Uno2 Pro for the peak hours. My tank is still young (1.5y) but I noticed these lights are POWERFUL should have followed the less is more approach earlier.

Thanks for the info and tips....yeah I'm still a couple weeks out from setting up my tank, but dang I've been spending money like a son of a gun! I might have to sell my boat to support my new aquarium habit… Lol!

fhdsdmax · Apr 19, 2024

I started with a cafe 600s2….. kind of wish I went bigger now…. Anyway - if you don’t have water in your tank you can try this. I originally bought the reefi mounting arm but because of the extra 100mm in the back of the Cade tanks the reach wasn’t enough. I also wanted something expandable if I wanted more/fill lights. Extruded aluminum if really easy to work with. I drilled and tapped the stand and mounted uprights and branched from there. You can get drill/tap combo’s you can run in a drill makes it a piece of cake. The aluminum and fixtures and hardware is all available via Amazon.

fhdsdmax · Apr 19, 2024

I went with the Carisea 3000… ended up taking the sump apart and modifying slightly to make it fit the way i wanted. At the time I thought I wanted a refugium and a protein skimmer. Tall order for the small space. For now sticking with a fuge but just have live rumble rock from Tampa bay saltwater there and my watchman goby (too small and found his way into the return through the weir and got stuck in the Clarisea (fortunately I found him before he perished!!! Hopefully I a few months I can return him to the main tank and he finds the pistol shrimp he was paired with. In the meantime he keeps the peppermint shrimp company cleaning the rumble - hair algae is the because apparently I get very late afternoon sun!!! Sides aren’t on because I still have cable management to do…

afternoondelight · Apr 19, 2024

fhdsdmax said:
I went with the Carisea 3000… ended up taking the sump apart and modifying slightly to make it fit the way i wanted. At the time I thought I wanted a refugium and a protein skimmer. Tall order for the small space. For now sticking with a fuge but just have live rumble rock from Tampa bay saltwater there and my watchman goby (too small and found his way into the return through the weir and got stuck in the Clarisea (fortunately I found him before he perished!!! Hopefully I a few months I can return him to the main tank and he finds the pistol shrimp he was paired with. In the meantime he keeps the peppermint shrimp company cleaning the rumble - hair algae is the because apparently I get very late afternoon sun!!! Sides aren’t on because I still have cable management to do…

Looking good my man.... I was hoping to get water in my tank (so we could start cycling) before we went to Belize for 10 days of diving, but unfortunately ran into a little bit of a plumbing snafu and decided to just wait until we got home.