Raied's Punyaquarium Build
 

Well, I am back :mrgreen:

For the past 1 year, I have had quite a few changes: I got the perfect job, I bought a brand new car and finally switched to a better apartment. I thought about restarting my hobby but some things kept on blocking it. But finally, few weeks back, when I was talking to a client from long island and he showed how he was using the LED fixtures from the company that I work for (I work for a LED manufacturer btw), that clicked my determination! I have finally decided to pull the trigger once more.

Well this tank is NOT going to be like the last big mistake I made. It is going to be small, only LPS and softies and something that I can enjoy instead of experimenting with. From the top of my mind, I am planning on the following:

1. Tank dimension: 18"x18"x15". Will be starfire, black siliconed and absolutely no trim. I am ready to sacrifice size but won't have any trim and get bugged by the salt creeps.

2. Lighting: as many of you know, I am not a big fan of LEDs for aquarium. But for this tank, I am going for LEDs and none other than Kessil (they are a real LED fixture manufacturer). Reviews seems to be good and I like their no lens fixtures for the nice colour blend. For the tank size, I am going for A160. I am struggling to find the PAR readings out of these fixtures; can anyone please help me out with this?

3. Filtration: This is something that I am debating with myself. I want a big skimmer on the tank and since my previous filtration experience has always been overkill, I don't want to repeat the same thing again. Then again, I am open to suggestions for this. Anything that can be done without sump. Suggestions are always welcome.

4. Content: as mentioned earlier, this is going to be a tank that I can enjoy instead of messing around with. I really like the idea of a bonai tree (with various colours of torches) and I will probably be going for that. Want something sweet and simple this time. Colourful, basic, with some crazy clownfish clowning around.

Just as a quick flashback, this is where I left an year ago:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5820/...50dc0b29_b.jpg

I am excited :)

Welcome back!

Only 21 gallons? You'll be upgrading soon, lol!

Thanks Warren :D

Nah I got tired of big tanks. I am not going to think about big tanks until I get my own place and that is not happening anytime soon. Its hard for me to maintain big tanks at rented places.

HUH? Say whut ?!? These two things don't seem to add up. :lol: I would hardly call your last tank a "big mistake" :-)

Welcome back !

This big mistake was supposed to be TOTQ. Just bad timing all around.

Good to see you back .
Was only a matter of time

Glad to see you back Raied missed seeing your tank which I might add was to drool for regardless of what you think 😜

Btw your not allowed to leave again that's the rules

Welcome back! Why don't you put a false back in it like the AIO tanks and make the compartment big enough to hold a little Tunze skimmer? Hang-on skimmers overflow onto your floor unless you mod them.

Welcome back, I look forward to seeing what you put together for this time around. :)

In many ways it's nice to have a clean/fresh start. I can't help on the PAR readings but I sure do like the Kessil's myself, if I were to completely fresh start myself I'd give those a serious consideration. I keep looking at them for use as plant lights too.

I Knew you be back Raied 😁

Mistake as in the tank was way too big for me. I barely could enjoy it and most of the time, I was tweaking something to keep it going. Not going to happen this time (hopefully). Thanks :) I am happy to be back.

Well I still count that as a win for me. I was happy that I could accomplish that much in such a short time. :) But I did learn a lot from the tank (and from all of you guys), made tremendous amount of mistakes and have become wiser :mrgreen: Hopefully the same mistakes will not be repeated for the new one.

Thanks :D

Thanks. Always appreciate your high compliments :redface:

Haha. I will try not to leave :)

Thanks for your input. I have been thinking of getting an AIO but all the store ones are not enough for me. After seeing you idea about putting tunze inside the compartment, I contacted the aquarium manufacturer and they can make an AIO :D So I am getting an AIO with enough space to put in a tunze 9004. I am going to sit with the design now and hopefully can post it tonight to get more feedbacks :)

BTW I am getting mixed reviews regarding tunze skimmers; do you have any input on how tunze 9004 performs?

Thanks :)

Yes kessil is making a lot of sense to me and I don't think A160 will be underpowered for a 18x18x15. I especially like the shimmer and how easy simple the control ability is. And no disco effect!

:redface::lol::mrgreen:

Awesome! The Tunze skimmers, like any skimmer, are very sensitive to water height so they perform much, much better if you use an ATO. You don't have to use the Tunze, I was using it as an example, there are others you could check out too that have similar dimensions.

Thanks! :D Yes I will be putting in Hydro ATO to keep the level consistent.

So I have come up with the final dimensions for the tank. It is going to be 16"x20"x15". 4" inches will be used up for the three chamber AIO partition and so I will end up with a "nearly cubic" 16"x16"x16".

For skimmer, I have decided to get Aquamaxx WS1. The reef central community swears by it and although it is going to be massively overkill for the size of my tank, I want to make sure I am covered for my bad habit of over stocking. Thanks to Ray @ reef supplies for making it easier to get this skimmer.

For lighting, I am still inclined towards kessil; nothing else is making sense to me yet. I am leaving this open for suggestion; please do let me know if anyone has any better idea for light.

I can't comment on lighting as I'm not a fan of LEDS, but with those dimensions you don't have a lot of choice. If I was you, I'd make that tank 24 x 20 x 15" and use a 24" T5 fixture. :p

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

I know. It's a weird size. :redface: Going bigger is not an option and I am disciplining myself not to deviate to bigger tank. Maybe I can get a halide but that's gonna fry everything up + the heat will be too much for such a small tank.

Welcome back!
I just had the same dilemma with lighting a small tank and picked up a used AI prime and am very please with it so far. They're rated for 18"x18" spread and are controllable via an APP for Android or IOS out of the box. If you're buying new they're about the same price as the Kessil 160's. Controlling sunrise/sunset was a huge plus over the Kessil IMO
Good luck with you new build!

Thanks for your input. The thing that concerns me about AI prime is the individual lens around the LEDs and the disco effect. Do you get any disco effect with your light? Both kessil and ai seems to be of same price.

Look into the kelo LEDs. They are just like kessil
http://kelolight.com/aquarium_detail...enuid=125&id=6

I haven't seen a Kessil in action since, but when I was at MACNA in 2012 the Kessil stood out to me as one of the worst for the disco effect. I'm not sure if they've changed lenses or anything - I haven't kept up.

I haven't seen an AI Prime turned on either, but of all the LEDs I've had experience, I like the AI Hydras the best (over Radion and Hydra even), and the Prime is similar.

Holy molly those are complete Kessil ripoffs. I am wondering why Kessil didn't sue them yet.

Thanks for the suggestion Nick but they seem to only have 100W and that would burn any small tank :P

Mr. H! You mentioned that you are now in the employ of an LED manufacturer.... asking a lot of questions on what LED light to get??? You should be the expert advising the rest of us!!

Funnin' aside, have you considered DIY? My home built multi-chip fixture is still going strong after quite a few years of use now. No lenses, no disco effect that I'm aware of... check out link below if you haven't already seen the build thread.

Same goes for skimmer, don't discount DIY & old school tech. I'm still rockin' with a wooden air diffuser powered home built that came with my used tank. Low power, quiet (dependent on air pump) and as efficient as any of the new fangled stuff out there. Granted, it is located beside the display, but I have a good drain on the cup going into a 2 liter pop bottle & a bucket just in case, although never had an overflow on the floor yet.

Haha. Well that's the reason, in technical terms, kessil made more sense to me and will probably be going that way. But it is always nice to get input from people about their experience with individual fixtures and sometimes, numbers and real life experience varies. Plus I work in a completely different market which is very far away from aquarium industry :razz:

Appreciate your input. DIY would probably be easy to assemble/make since I have access to LED chips from high CRI bins and the equipment needed but getting everything sorted out will probably be more tiresome than its worth putting the effort for such a small tank. Bigger tanks: definitely worth the effort. If I can DIY, it will definitely be a great experience and now that you have mentioned, I will probably give some thoughts to it :) Same goes for the DIY skimmer. Thanks :mrgreen:

I get the disco effect but only when YMCA's playing in the background :rainbowa:
But seriously, no disco like my last 2 LEDs... The Maxspect Razor had disco until I put a single layer of ziploc baggy over them... and same with the Evergrow until I put half pong pong balls over each LED. The Prime has needed no mods. It appears they've began to realize what I figured out a couple years ago that LEDs need to be slightly diffused (no clear lenses) so the Prime has slightly cloudy lenses. I can only speak for these 2 though as I haven't owned a Radion or Kessil...

I have been running Kessil a360 on my sps tank for almost two years and I can confirm they are the closest light to m/h out there . They give off zero disco effect and will grow anything. Not sure what you saw at MACNA but it sound like you might be mixing them up with some other led . I also run a ai prime on my frag tank in my sump and I can tell you it would drive me nuts if that light was in my main it is full on disco. I would have bought a Kessil 160 but my space was limited so I went with the ai and after all it is in my sump .

Not sure what kessil's older model was but their LED chips layout that they implement in the current fixtures should have little to none disco effect. Most of the LEDs on the market comes with individual optics on each LEDs and that causes (along with other factors like water surface refraction and so on) the disco effect. But lens have come a long way over the last few years so I guess the newer fixtures, like AI prime, will probably have less disco effect compared to older fixtures. I looked at some AI prime videos and I can clearly see what colours of LEDs the fixture have on the sandbed; the camera probably picks these up more than what can be seen but still, its there. I am yet to see a kessil video that shows individual colours on sandbed.

:lol:

Yes frosted optics and lens helps diffuse the beams thus mixing the colour better. You should have contacted acted earlier and contacted those manufacturers to get the frosted optics/lens going :D I think maxspect razor had the worst disco effect that I have seen until now.

Thanks for the information. Finally someone with both the fixtures I am comparing (well I am planning on getting 160we but its the same layout as a360). Really appreciate your input :) I guess I won't be disturbing my sleep tonight thinking which fixture to get :mrgreen:

I took a quick look at these. Can you buy these anywhere? Their website is surprisingly unhelpful in this regard as to who sells them or even their ballpark pricing. I'm guessing importing them might be an issue..

Over other forums, people said that you can save around $100 to $150 on these compared to a360. Couldn't find anyone from Canada who carries them.

So a quick update.

Tank has been ordered. I went slighting smaller with all side starfire, polishes edges and 3 compartment AIO. For lights, I have kessil a160we on the way. For skimmer, aquamaxx ws-1; extremely overkill for the size of the tank but I wanted to make sure the tank has enough skimming power. The return pump will be an ehime compact 1000. The flow will be covered by an rw4. the stand will be a DIY (simple as last time but I will cover it with carbon fiber 3M to match it with the black silicon). For RODI, aquasafe 100GPH portable RODI.

The toughest part will probably be finding the live rocks that I need. Anyone knows where I can find branching/plating LR (actual LR)? Thanks :)

Talk to Dave at bigshow. If he can't help you get them I can

Lots to learn here, will definitely be keeping up with your build

So I have been hitting my head all throughout the day to see whether or not I should get a controller for my tank. Here are my thoughts:

Apex:
Too darn expensive for my taste and for what I will get. A jr costs $305 with which I will need to add another $127 for VDM to be able to control the kessil. Alongside, I will have to buy an ATO separately ($130). So, for light control, temperature control and ATO, I am in $562.

Reefkeeper lite:
A basic unit will cost me $170 and the LED control unit will be $100. The ATO switch will cost me $50 and the expansion unit to connect the ATO will cost $120. So all in, its $440.

Reefangel:
This is probably the only controller that includes all the units that I need (ATO, 1-10v dimming, 8 outlets, etc.) but with the crazy conversion rate right now, the total is coming out to $550. Still a deal when considering Apex but this is too much.

For me, there are two main reasons for looking into a controller:
1. Heater control (the MOST important reason)
2. LED control (a luxury I don't need but why not!)

So I have decided to go to a very elementary approach. Here are the equipment that I will have and how they will be controlled:

1. Skimmer: it is going to be on 24-7 so I will have this connected to an outlet 24-7.
2. Pump in the return compartment: it is going to be on 24-7 too so direct connection to an outlet 24-7.
3. Wavemaker: RW-04 will be connected through a timer outlet; I don't want to rely on the night mode sensor.
4. ATO: I will be getting tunzi nano. Will be around $130 and includes pump. Thought about getting hydor but the 1cm difference between the two probes might not be great for such a small tank. The ATO will be connected to power outlet directly and for 24-7
5. Light: I will get a spectra controller ($130) for the kessil.
6. Heater: Will get a jager 50W and connect it to Jonson Tempeature controller. This is an industrial controller and not hobby grade so much more reliable. And cheap. Around $70.

So with the required controls, I am spending $330. Not getting all the fancy stuffs but I am also leaving more money in my pocket :D

I run the Hydor with a Toms Aqualifter. Flawless after 1 year. Would cost you about the same. Just a thought

Thanks. I have thought about that combo initially but the fact that hydor doesn't kick in until the water level changes about 1/2" makes me skeptical about more salinity swings than I would want. Hence I am sticking to tunzi nano.

Have you thought about a profilux as a controller?
It will do anything you want it too.
I've found tan you can usually find one used for a very good price.
Just a thought.

I would love to get a profilux! :biggrin: But until I find one used, I will have to stick to regular control. Thanks for the idea :mrgreen:

What the min and max height on the Tunze? Just noticed the Tunze has optical too never knew that as all I ever noticed in the pics was the float switch, carry on :) and good price

I am getting the nano one which only has the float switch, the optical sensor is only available for the bigger one. There is no min max height for the float switches, just switch touching and not touching. Not sure about the optical sensor though but I think it is about the same as float switches.

Pick this baby up today :)

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/695/2...4d23204c_c.jpg2015-12-22 16.54.29 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

And the thing was broken during shipping:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5744/...49b25a17_c.jpg2015-12-22 16.54.52 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/780/2...537a1aeb_c.jpg2015-12-22 16.55.12 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

But the package inside was sealed so no damage to the salt itself. Talked to amazon and they refunded 20% so win win :mrgreen:

The lid is probably the worst one. No one does lid better than Salinity and I missed my Salinity bucket while "struggling" to open this one.

But there were nice stuffs inside:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5622/...7b6ec274_c.jpg2015-12-22 16.55.44 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5641/...b15558d9_c.jpg2015-12-22 16.55.58 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/641/2...549819f7_c.jpg2015-12-22 17.33.50 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

Should have purchased their reef salt instead of probiotic reef salt (half the price and even their guideline suggests to use regular reef salt for none-SPS dominant tanks) but well, I am not expecting any harm.

I didn't open the salt yet since I am not when I will be able to start the tank but I can feel that there is a measuring cup inside :biggrin:

Here's what I got for boxing day:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1587/...8e4118a0_c.jpg2015-12-26 13.40.24 by M Raied Hasan, on Flickr

And the things that are on its way:

1. The tank (almost ready)
2. Skimmer: aquamaxx ws-1 is on its way
3. Kessil: a160we + goose neck + controller on its way
4. Return pump: ehime compact 1000; haven't picked it up yet
5. Live rock: getting Walt Smith ocean cured rock from Tim
6. RODI unit: this one is kinda ****ing me off; was suppose to be shipped on 11th Dec but now the date has changed to 28th Dec; hopefully there won't be any further delay.