my 500 gallon reef tank

[steve the plumb]

The tank is in the basement.The room is 10 x 10 and I have a room next to the tank room that is 6x6 so that room will have my sump.The tank alone weighs 650 pounds.The stand weighs a good 200 pounds (easy).With water inside its a good 5000 pounds.The stand sits on a tiled floor.The concrete was a good 12 to 16 inches so its a strong floor.There is a floor drain in the bathroom next door and I have a 2 inch drain in the sump room so all water changes will be dumped in there,there are also water lines in there if I want to place an RODI unit in there.There is a 3/4 inch water line that comes off of my main so there's good pressure for an RODI unit.I have a fan that I got from work at a discount.Its very quiet and it has a humidity sensor so it will turn on automatically.You can set the desired humidity level.

[steve the plumb]

This is a more recent picture I have some china leds on the tank but they will be replaced with reeftech led fixtures

[steve the plumb]

here is a video there is only one light on the tank

[Skimmerking]

how are you liking the reef tech lighting

[steve the plumb]

From what I see they are very nice.The quality is much better than my china lights and other lights that I have looked at from many manufactures that are out there.The fixture,the led boards and the way its built is much better quality.There isn't many companies out there that make very nice led fixtures with these type of features.I have looked at fixtures from china, Taiwan even the AI units from the states or the vertex that are made in Austria.The way the sunrise and sunset effects work its flawless between the 4 units.They act like one unit and the wireless feature is very cool.The cloud program looks pretty cool and the thunderstorm was awesome.I did a par test and my par at the bottom of the tank was 138 and the spread was around 30 inches.Once I set the units up and I remove my tank cover I can test the par levels again.Led lights have a better penetration than MH lights when it comes to light going through and acrylic top.I have a 400 watt MH pendant and I have played around with it on my old tank and compared it with the china led units I had bought for my friend (3 watt) and I found you lose a lot of par once the light hits the acrylic.With led it not as bad because its a point of light source.The ReefTech fixtures have a better quality led and all around better design.The fans are pretty quiet and the software takes a bit of playing around to get used to it.I need to buy a bluetooth wi fi adapter for my computer so I can control the lights via bluetooth.My computer doesn't have one and Raf told me I can buy one online.I had to flash the units when I got them it wasn't hard to do but I had a hard time getting the flash software to work with the lights software so Raf had to help me with that.I still have to play around with the lights to get the color temp that I find pleasing to the eye.Raf has some guide or settings that will help you get the color temp (like 12k 15k 20k etc) so this should help people find the color spectrum a little faster.From what I understand it should help but you can adjust the lights yourself and see what you like.Raf mentioned that most people don't run the lights at 100%.I should have more time next week to play around with them since I am on vacation.Hurray I will have some time to work on the tank.

[steve the plumb]

I took these pics when I picked up the lights and brought them home

[fishoholic]

Awesome tank! I love the size of it, very cool

[steve the plumb]

Thank you very much.Its been a very slow build but I am trying to get my butt into gear.I see others peoples tanks and I get ideas.My tank is large but empty as far as corals.The back of the tank has a large open space.I should try to fix my aquascape.I am not very good at that.

[steve the plumb]

I took a par video of the reeftech lights outside the tank.The unit was placed 26 inches above the floor and I had a pad that was 24 inches x 24 inches.It hard to take a video when you are trying to take par readings.My readings are mostly at the floor level because it was impossible to hold the camera and tape measure at the same time while also trying to measure par.I will also try to take measurements in the tank but I will get my wife to help me with that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryp9WMEJeuY

[steve the plumb]

ok i fixed the privacy issue so people can now see the video