My New Addiction

[Nofskee]

After tearing down my virgin reef tank, roughly a year go now..ideas of a new setup began brewing up in my brain just a few weeks ago.
The seed was planted by a good friend who bought me a 25G box of Reef Crystals for my birthday. Two weeks later I was helping this same friend move in his new 180 gallon monster of a tank. I knew at that point that a new reef tank was just around the corner for me.

A few weeks pass and the cost of this grandiose project of mine still has me somewhat going back and forth. Thinking yes most days, no for a few seconds at a time.. and eventually I of course convince myself (mainly my girlfriend with whom I live with) and find enough justifications to
start our new baby.

Not much time passed before I emailed Dave from @ConceptAquariums , we exchanged a few emails and I decided on a 24L x 24D x 22H, starphire, rimless, herbie style, coast to coast external overflow cube. Our new baby and my new addiction.

Where I stand now is waiting on my tank from Concept Aquarium (so far very friendly to deal with). I'm also waiting on a metal stand which will help hide my 29G sump. Now onto my current ideas.

The Plan

Starphire 55G Cube @Conceptaquariums.ca
Metal, Earth magnet dressed stand
29G Sump
Radion XR15W Pro vs Radion XR30W Pro (help me decide?)
Bubble Magus Curve 5 Cone
X2 Jebao RW-8's
Eheim 1262
Tonga Shelving/Pukani -Eventually from @Fijireefrock.com
Caribsea Arag- Alive Fiji Pink (suggestions?)
Focus-LPS/Zoa
Complimenting- SPS

So far that's the flexible script.
I'm open to helpful suggestions if anyone is interested.
Pictures, pictures and more pictures will come as hardware comes in.

Feel free to tag along and watch me obsess, over analyze, stress out but more importantly have fun, building my new addiction.

[intarsiabox]

I had a Radion XR30 G2 over a 30" long tank suspended at about 14" and the sides didn't receive much light at all. It would have been much better with a 24" long tank. I haven't seen the XR15 in person so I don't know how well it illuminates 24" and some people like the tank being shadowed on the sides. I just personally prefer a well lit tank all the way from one side to the next. Of course there are also lots of other LED choices these days that are worth researching.

I am assuming you already looked into this but if your sump is a 29g standard tank then it will be 30" long so the stand will have to be at least 6" longer than your display tank to hide the sump.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[bettathenyou]

keep us posted!
pictures or it never happened =P

[mikellini]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

I had a Radion XR30 G2 over a 30" long tank suspended at about 14" and the sides didn't receive much light at all. It would have been much better with a 24" long tank. I haven't seen the XR15 in person so I don't know how well it illuminates 24" and some people like the tank being shadowed on the sides. I just personally prefer a well lit tank all the way from one side to the next. Of course there are also lots of other LED choices these days that are worth researching.

The wide angle lens will help with spread, the XR15 comes with it installed. I think it's an option with the G2 but I believe they came with the narrow angle lens, that might have had something to do with your spread issue.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by mikellini

The wide angle lens will help with spread, the XR15 comes with it installed. I think it's an option with the G2 but I believe they came with the narrow angle lens, that might have had something to do with your spread issue.

Nope, G2 already comes with the wide angle lenses installed. That was part of the upgrade from the previous model.

[Nofskee]

I'm heavily leaning toward the XR30 Pro and just adjusting them down if need be.

Pictures hopefully within the next week or so!
Stay tuned

[mikellini]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

Nope, G2 already comes with the wide angle lenses installed. That was part of the upgrade from the previous model.

Oh, the g3 comes with the standard lens installed, and the wide as an option. Good to know

[mikellini]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

Nope, G2 already comes with the wide angle lenses installed. That was part of the upgrade from the previous model.

Actually I just looked into it a bit more, the G2 was when they introduced the 'TIR' lens, which focuses the output downward. It was an 80 degree lens. The newer generation fixtures introduced the option for the wide angle 120 degree lens. From the Ecotech website:

"EcoTech offers two different TIR lens options for the Radion. The standard 80-degree TIR lens comes equipped on generation 2 Radion XR30w and XR30w Pro models. Our wide-angle 120-degree TIR lens reduces PAR at depth, but increases the coverage area."

[intarsiabox]

I was probably thinking the TiR lens upgrade as standard. Either way I would want to see the XR15 in person to see what the light fall off is like on a 2' tank and if the reduction in PAR caused by the wide angle lenses makes a difference before committing to a purchase.

[Nofskee]

SMALL UPDATE

Tank dimensions have changed and are now 30" X 24" X 22" !!
Which brings me up to a 68G tank.

Nothing too exciting has happened yet however I did get my stand.
A 34" x 24" X 29" aluminum stand with 4 leveling feet.
Pretty slick looking once I polished it up.

Thinking of getting Acrylite board cut to cover my sump area while still leaving the stainless steel corner frames exposed.


Front View

Top View

Leveling feet

That does it for this update.
The following will be a large update with my tank and sump build.