Hardscape

[Trevor W]

I'm sure some of you are wondering just what became of this tank, well...., after facing a couple hurdles namly my wife absolutly hating the 8 bulb tek elite fixture I tore the entire tank down inturn losing my hardscape. Although I knew I would be setting it up as a reef tank in the future I kept everything. After tearing it down I decided to make it a discus biotope style aquarium like my other tank that I have. I am a freshwater guy originally. So it just seemed like a no brainer. So this is what I made it into.....

So after finding myself very unhappy and constantly lurking on forums like canreef I woke up early one day and said screw this! I am going to tear it down again and try and rebuild my hardscape and sell off my tek elite 8 bulb ( which will be posted forsale soon if anyone is interested haha) and invest in some leds to appease my wife and so it began....

Sorry about the glare from the window the right side island is actually not touching the right pane at all and is quite aways away similar to my previous scape.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Its not the same as how it was before but I feel that I actually improved on it this time. Its really hard to get a feel for the new layout with the quick shotty cell phone pics. I will try and get some better pics up when I get back on friday. I was really worried about trying to replicate my past rockwork and I am very relieved that it was infact so easy believe it or not but this only took me roughly 15-20 mins. So what do you guys think?

[Trevor W]

Any thoughts on lighting?

[kien]

Originally Posted by Trevor W

Any thoughts on lighting?

Did you just say that you were going to go with AI Sols? :-)

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by kien

Did you just say that you were going to go with AI Sols? :-)

Nothing has been purchased yet, so before pulling the trigger on anything thought I might get some opinions.
The Mitras are amazing but I dont think 2 @ $1200 ea is doable.
Thank you for the reply Kien

[kien]

Originally Posted by Trevor W

Nothing has been purchased yet, so before pulling the trigger on anything thought I might get some opinions.
The Mitras are amazing but I dont think 2 @ $1200 ea is doable.
Thank you for the reply Kien

I don't recall that you gave a particular price range so that's why I suggested them :-) Perhaps if you shared your budget for lighting we could narrow down your choice. There are so many!

Having said that, I know people growing mixed reefs under pretty much all the LED fixtures on the market today. Lots of nice tanks under Radions, AI Sols, Mitras, Vertex, Kessils. They all get the job done. They all have different costs though and have different implementations. For example, I would say the Mitras are at the top of the heap and their price reflects that mainly because they are the most flexible. Flexible meaning they are ridiculously programatically customizable. At the other end of the spectrum (no pun intended, sort of) the relatively inexpensive Kessils are kind of a no frills unit. ON and OFF and an analog dial to mix White and Blue is all you get. However, with the kessils you also get a tightly packed LED array which a lot of people like. Everyone else kinda falls in between (in my opinion).

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by kien

I don't recall that you gave a particular price range so that's why I suggested them :-) Perhaps if you shared your budget for lighting we could narrow down your choice. There are so many!

Having said that, I know people growing mixed reefs under pretty much all the LED fixtures on the market today. Lots of nice tanks under Radions, AI Sols, Mitras, Vertex, Kessils. They all get the job done. They all have different costs though and have different implementations. For example, I would say the Mitras are at the top of the heap and their price reflects that mainly because they are the most flexible. Flexible meaning they are ridiculously programatically customizable. At the other end of the spectrum (no pun intended, sort of) the relatively inexpensive Kessils are kind of a no frills unit. ON and OFF and an analog dial to mix White and Blue is all you get. However, with the kessils you also get a tightly packed LED array which a lot of people like. Everyone else kinda falls in between (in my opinion).

Yea sorry I never stated what my budget was, you could say that my budget is basically either 2x radion gen2 or 3x Sol blue/hydra. So for arguments sake we will call it $1500.

Thanks for the general info on the different fixtures. Its greatly appreciated.

What would you do in my situation? Fork out the extra $ for the LEDs or try and find my b*lls in my wifes purse and keep the TEK? LOL
I had my eye on the Sol because I found a used one but it sold and if I went used it wouldnt be as big of a hit on the wallet.