6 Gallon JBJ Documentation

Kex2p · Sep 3, 2012

This is my third saltwater tank so I figured I would document the progress.

I would love for all the comments and suggestions you have.

Here is the tank after cycling and transferring some small frags from my 29 gallon mixed reef. I am pretty disappointed with the stock lights so I am building a custom LED fixture into the stock hood using Rapid LED supplies. Most of the wiring is done and I will update everyone when I am finished.

ritter6788 · Sep 3, 2012

Tagging along. I'm looking into led upgrades for my 8 gal. Biocube. I'd like to see how yours turns out.

revhtree · Sep 3, 2012

Looking good!

Kex2p · Sep 4, 2012

Rapid LED upgrade

I ended up buying 4 Royal Blue CRE-LED and 5 Cool White CRE-LED Lights from Rapid LED. They were out of "plug-n-play" kits so I just bought everything individually so we will put my soldering skills to the test.

The driver is 700mA and I opted for the 60 degree LED lenses. I decided to keep the stock nano cooling fans in as well as the stock moonlights. I plan to wire the system so that I can use the stock light switches as well. I also decided not to go with the a dimming setup.

Here is the setup after I removed the stock ballast and the stock CF lights.

New CRE driver is wired to the stock light switch. It fit in where the stock ballast was quite nicely, but there is no wiggle room.

The finished product picture really doesn't do it justice. It is at least 4-5 fold brighter than the stock light. Blinding!

cdrewferd · Sep 4, 2012

Looks nice. You really need to make it dimmable though. 9 CREE with 60 degree optics is going to hammer the light to the sand bed. You'll probably have 300+ PAR on the sandbed, more than enough to cook just about anything you put in there. Unless you can make some overhangs to help stop the light, it'll be hard to keep many corals in that tank.

Kex2p · Sep 5, 2012

I agree that the PAR value at this point is on the very high end. I removed the optic lenses and the tank looks much better so at this point I think that at I will not have issues with too much light. I will follow that statement by saying that I did just purchase a dimmer from rapid LED just in case. Also I transferred the live rock back into the tank and just added some loose frags I had this morning. Here is an updated picture.

Any frag suggestions? I really don't have a particular vision in mind. I just knew I wanted a 6 gallon on my night stand as opposed to a lamp!

SeahorseKeeper · Sep 5, 2012

The tank is looking good. As for corals, I think some zoas would look great in that tank.

cdrewferd · Sep 5, 2012

Without the otics you should be good to go, but the dimmer might still be a good idea. Some zoas, mini scolly, euphilia would look great.

Kex2p · Sep 9, 2012

I re-arranged the rock-work because my LFS had a beautiful brain on sale that I had to buy. Picking ideal corals is proving to be difficult. Space is so limited and I want colors that are going to pop! I am also not sure what type of inverts I want in the tank just yet. Any other specific suggestions?