kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff - Page 16

Boomboy · #**151** 08-31-2009, 10:42 PM

man i love this tank. i really love the caves in the tank the first section of rock, i bet the fish love to swim through out that alot. very clean setup, everything was thought through. i love this tank and your photos are amazing, really makes a difference for people who arent there in person. if only i had the money to do this.

mseepman · #**152** 08-31-2009, 11:00 PM

I really do love this tank as well.

How are you liking the build quality on the Maristar fixture? Do the reflectors spread the light out enough that it would work on a 32" wide tank?

kien · #**153** 09-01-2009, 03:19 PM

Hehe thanks guys :-)

I love the Maristar fixture. It is pretty sturdy. I can't see it falling into the tank anytime soon :-) To be honest I am not sure if it would be able to handle 32 inches width. It does my 24 just fine (with the fixture 10 inches above the water). I suppose if you raised the light a little more it would spread more. It is a pretty simple design and gets the job done though. What I don't like are the Galaxy Dual Ballasts. I have gone through two of them now. The first one had one side that only worked for 5 hours at a time. Returned it and got another one. The second one had one side quit completely after a week. I am in the process of returning that one now and just sticking with the Galaxy single ballasts. I have one of those for the third halide and it has worked like a champ since day one.

mseepman · #**154** 09-01-2009, 08:14 PM

Thanks, good to know about the fixture and the ballasts.

I'm not sure I would really want to raise the light any higher than 10" as it starts to become difficult to balance PAR and wattage when you go higher.

I've always planned on going with LumenBright wides and supplimental T5 so that is probably what I will continue to focus on. It just would have been nice to get it all in a tidy package like the Maristar.

kien · #**155** 09-01-2009, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mseepman

Thanks, good to know about the fixture and the ballasts.

I'm not sure I would really want to raise the light any higher than 10" as it starts to become difficult to balance PAR and wattage when you go higher.

I've always planned on going with LumenBright wides and supplimental T5 so that is probably what I will continue to focus on. It just would have been nice to get it all in a tidy package like the Maristar.

Ya, there are a lot of configuration factors that come into play. How deep is your tank, what kind of rock work do you have, etc. My tank isn't very tall, just 20" so the light could probably sit fairly without any problem. As it is my sand bed is blasted with quite a bit of light. I could probably grow SPS on my sand bed. I do have some pretty high ledges too, so a lot of my SPS are like 4 to 6 inches from the water's surface. I really do like the neat tidy package though. When I need to do a deep clean of the tank (corners and such) I can just pop off the light and put the whole contraption on the ground while I service the tank. Another thing I like about having the light a little higher is the lack of water splash/salt creep on the lights. I haven't yet had to clean the light at all, still pristine. On previous fixtures where I've had to situate the light closer to the water I had to clean the lights often which was a pain.

Phanman · #**156** 09-01-2009, 09:27 PM

excellent work Kien! love the rock scaping and the clean look of your tank.

soapy · #**157** 09-04-2009, 03:37 PM

The other day Kien sold me a nice little toadstool mushroom so I was over to his place to pick it up and saw the tank. Awesome setup, really good looking. Nice work Kien.

JDigital · #**158** 09-04-2009, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kien

Hehe thanks guys :-)

I love the Maristar fixture. It is pretty sturdy. I can't see it falling into the tank anytime soon :-) To be honest I am not sure if it would be able to handle 32 inches width. It does my 24 just fine (with the fixture 10 inches above the water). I suppose if you raised the light a little more it would spread more. It is a pretty simple design and gets the job done though. What I don't like are the Galaxy Dual Ballasts. I have gone through two of them now. The first one had one side that only worked for 5 hours at a time. Returned it and got another one. The second one had one side quit completely after a week. I am in the process of returning that one now and just sticking with the Galaxy single ballasts. I have one of those for the third halide and it has worked like a champ since day one.

Sucks to hear about your troubles with the Dual Ballast.. I had the Dual 250 Galaxy as well on my 75G and it worked flawlessy for the 9 months I had it..

As mentioned.. Very nice tank!

kien · #**159** 09-04-2009, 07:50 PM

Ya Kevin mentioned that yours worked fine. I wished mine worked because it was nice to save an outlet with those duals. Just bad luck on my part I guess. Funny thing is Kevin lent me the previous defective one so now I am running both the failed ones on one side (of the ballast) each until my replacements arrive. Thanks Kevin!

robert · #**160** 10-02-2009, 05:17 PM

Very nice setup and photos are fabulous. I really found some of your techniques very useful and inspirational. I will definitely apply some in my presently undergoing new built.
Cheers!