Arminius

Many of those bung caps have a knockout threaded to receive plumbing.

Somebody shoot a video of that guy in action!

Wow Matty0206 those are very nice pieces.

He is going to get my business by the time Christmas rolls around for sure. I had no idea he was local to here - I have looked at his stuff on Ebay countless times...(drooler)

Great article

Kinks or misconceptions? It has replaced the incandescent and flourescent fixtures in many municipal buildings here and abroad - I believe the Dutch were the first to use for horticulture...of course. And now whole indoor farms with dedicated LED lighting exist. Above water and below it has revolutionized this hobby by leaps and bounds. High Intensity Discharge lighting had been around for ages before being used in the hobby. Phosphors used in fluorescent lighting have come a long way from the beginning, but the overall life and effective illumination of such is just, well, weak. The degradation of the PAR value, Kelvin rating and performance is the blink of an eye with those types vs. LED. Not that they were not effective by any means, just that there is now something arguably better. And saying the life of a fixture for LED is 10 years sounds great on paper, but they, by laws of physics, will degrade in their performance over time as well, just not as swiftly. Coral gardens are by no means a new thing - there are records of Medieval Era coral tidal gardens in the Arab world. It's just in this last century have we been able to light them with something other than the sun. And thus bring them into a more intimate setting - our homes.

Aww...wasn't that nice? Sorry dude - once I get going it's an avalanche...

The dirt comment was too funny.

The dogs had to come check on me when I laughed out loud

Right - and for the first time I'll actually have a pre-built lighting system instead of DIY. First time ever! And they have a 2 year warranty. I think the game is about to change for proliferation of LED. There will be holdouts and good for them, keep up the diversity. Halides work really, really well.

+1 on home page

Yeah those LEDs have a great color variation, high PAR rating and look pretty sweet with the controller up front. For $299 shipped with a remote and hanging system I think they are hard to beat. LEDs seem to be coming way down in price.

When are you going to start the renovations?

No man - I don't lie to my girlfriend.

She is not as hard as I have perhaps made her out to be. She just knows how overboard I go with everything I have interest in. She's just looking out for me, truly.

I would get so much done!!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/dolphins-sleep-stay-awake-weeks_n_1977171.html

So...since I knew I was going to need (to be read as "wanted to upgrade") lighting, and I got some tanks for bottom dollar...keeping my budget as large as it could be...and my girlfriend will never see this post...

I ordered 2 of these:

http://reefbreeders.com/controllable_led_fixtures.html

heh heh heh...

They will get here in a couple weeks and I will do a complete review of them once I get them over some water.

It will be exciting to use these from Day1.

Turd in the punch bowl! I would dig it out and still use the salt though...(hungry)

Good call reefnjunkie. Another flood in my life and I would be back on the dating scene!!!

So a list of the equipment I have right now that I intend to use to get this thing going:

83 gallon 48x20x20 tank that needs work

50 something gallon tank to be modified into a sump and refugium.

DIY skimmer that is good for whatever pump I can put on it, within reason. It man-handled my 120 heavy stock reef with a Bubble Blaster HY2000, but I sold that pump.

2 Grundfos Quiet One external pumps rated for 1150 gph at 0' head - the old ones that don't die as long as you keep them dry and oiled

2 Koralia Evolution 1400

Ebo Jager 250 watt heater

Some LEDs (warm white, cool white, and a couple rbs) and a couple of Meanwell 35-700's I am reserving for a refugium light.

A RapidLED 4 diode moonlight kit.

An older Kent Marine 3 stage RO unit that I intend to upgrade to 100 gpd and 4 stage + DI - I have a new BRS auto shutoff valve and a couple floats.

American Marine Pinpoint pH monitor - probably needs a new probe.

2 15 gallon food grade reservoirs for water change/top off

Rolls and sheets of filter floss materials

Refractometer

Carbon, Kalkwasser powder, denitrator, phosphate remover

Calcium test kit still in date

A 1.25 gallon tank I made as a coral dipping/quarantine area.

A 3/4 bag of salt

And then I have all this other crap:

2 Full on MH setups - Lumatek ballasts, Lumenarc reflectors, bulbs

A 1200 gph submersible pump that was used as a water change return on on my last 2 or 3 tanks...

A Sea clear canister filter/water polisher that I have had forever - 2 filter inserts and all the fittings

At least a dozen old powerheads

Shyteloads of plumbing fittings, extra parts, valves, strainers, tube - I have a 17 gallon plastic bin full of this stuff - if I need a part I can usually dig and find it or something similar enough to use.

Some DIY parts - acrylic sheet, acrylic tube, Weldon 4 and 16...

Bioballs believe it or not - 2 shoe boxes of the little ones (I dumped a garbage bag full on a freshwater society a few years back).

I know there is more, but I am doing a mental inventory.

Yeah - whatever, thanks for the compliment, but I'm just older and have taken the opportunity to learn as many skills along the way as I can cram into my little coconut shaped brain case...

I don't know mangroves grow tall fast and it's hard to keep them leafing - you would need a good grow setup to make them effective. I really liked the "clams as biofilters" thread - add a clam, get some beauty and a nutrient sink...

Bump up on a good deal

Snail in the works? Back siphon? Air vent clogged?

I would dim - not that I own a powerful LED setup like yours, but take into consideration PAR values measured in other threads/studies - 7" doesn't seem like much but readings from various posts/fixture companies show height of fixture and light reach into water depth would indicate "closer to the light, the more light there is". Back them off at a ratio equivalent to the distance to be safe - your lights will be lower by 1/3 your overall distance to the top of the water. Back them off 30% and ramp up as observationally required by the animals - plausibly erring to the side of caution...

$.02

I am just sitting here drawing out some plans, monitoring the forum and reading the news...when something pops up I check it out...

I have some old style powerheads, like 10 of them - all different sizes. They may not be what you are looking for exactly, but if you run into trouble finding some...

You can stack 2 15 gallon food grade containers - I think I saw some on Craigslist. I have 2, but I need them - got them for like 15 bucks each in CO. There should be a company around that specializes in recycling these types of containers.

Whoa! I just skipped to this last page becasue I had read your earlier post and didn't see the pics on page 3 until now. Awesome rig. Are they getting burned by the new lights?