First SW tank. Need some advice.

James Barton · May 30, 2017

Hi all, I've been a lurker of the forums for a while now and finally decided to register! I just recently purchased a 185g (60x30x24) tank to begin my journey in the saltwater community. After doing a while lot of research and reading I'm where I am now. I am looking at led lighting for this tank and need help choosing the correct light setup. I have pretty much narrowed it down the the rb photon v2 because I want to be able to control the sunrise/sunset and adjust the lights. My question is which size will I need? Will the 50 be big enough for the tank even at 30"? Or will I need 2 smaller units? I plan on keeping a mixed reef tank but obviously that will come over time. I would just rather have the proper lighting from the start.

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure which protein skimmer I should look into for my sump. Any advice on that will also be greatly appreciated!

melypr1985 · May 30, 2017

Welcome to R2R! I'm not familiar with those lights so I won't be much help there. We can call the #reefsquad for more opinions and suggestions though!

prsnlty · May 30, 2017

I am not familiar with that light unit as well. I hear they are great people however and will give you good advice on which will be best for your system if you contact them.

I have a 180g system and currently run a reef octopus that is really just a tad small but works. I'm currently considering a Bubble Magnus Curve 9 for my tank.

Stolireef · May 30, 2017

I do not have the Photon but I've seen it on several tanks. You'll definitely want either the V2 50 or two 24's. You want to make sure you can grow corals anywhere in the tank and to reduce shadowing. With regard to the skimmer, there are a gazillion options. I've used Reef Octopus and I'm current running a Vertex. Both are solid options. Just make sure you buy one rated at least 50% more than the volume of your tank (unless you go with Deltec who is really accurate with their tank sizing IMO). It's rare to regret buying a stronger skimmer and it's common to lament buying one that is too small.

Oh, and make sure you completely understand the footprint of the skimmer and where it will be located in your sump. From personal experience, it really sucks when you mismeasure your footprint and have to get a new skimmer to fit a new sump.

Maritimer · May 30, 2017

Welcome aboard, James!

Not at all familiar with that lighting system, I'm afraid - I'm using the MarsAqua "black boxes", so I'll just quietly envy your natural sunrises and sunsets.

I picked up a Deltec skimmer from Adam, over at BattleCorals, and couldn't really imagine myself being happier. (It'd be nice if the foam would stop blowing the lid off the thing, but hey ... it's still break-in period for the first month or so, right?) You'll want to get the skimmer cranked up almost as soon as you've got salt water in the system, as they do require a bit of break-in time.

~Bruce

Test led · May 30, 2017

You might want to contact Logan at Reef Breeders and go over your options. With having a 30 inch wide tank you my end up with some shadowing. With a single 50 inch light or even with 2 24 inch lights. IMO you may want to think about running three 24 inch lights from front to back to get full coverage or dual 50 inch lights. But I would really talk to Logan and see what he would say.

Stolireef · May 30, 2017

Very good idea. At that point, you may also want to consider AI 52HD's. If you're budget allows, Echotech Radions are also excellent.

mskiki0520 · May 30, 2017

I'm a newbie too and I personally like the Current USA Loop... It has the same features ur talking about.

James Barton · May 30, 2017

Thanks for your replies! I'll give Logan a call! Mskiki I considered their lights but after reading many reviews I opted out.

Peeptoad · May 31, 2017

I also have the current USA marine LED (not the pro version). You can customize the light schedule (intensity, hours on, sunrise/sunset time, moon lights) on 4 different programs. It also has other programs such as lighting storm, cloudy day, etc. I bought it because of amount of features you get for a decent price. Softies and LPS seem to do well under this light, SPS was up for debate in the reviews for this product. So I would highly suggest this light if you want to do a softy/LPS tank, if your into SPS you might want to research it a bit more.

cjd · May 31, 2017

I owned a reef breeders photon v2 for about 30 days . The disco ball effect was awful , even without running reds and greens. Before I officially took the light down I raised the fixture about 20 inches above water line and set the colors to radions coral lab SPS AB+ schedule . It looked a lot better and I could see that there was some potential there. But I had a buyer on the way to my house and I had plans to build a floating canopy to incorporate leds and t5's, so that is as far as that testing went.
Do know that with the V2's controller you have to set each hour of the 24 hour day so tweaking the lights is very time consuming. You have to adjust each hour you want the change to run. Unfortunately the lights do not adjust slowly ,they immediately switch to the new setting on that hour , so don't expect a gradual ramp up and down for your sunrise and sunset.
I think these have some potential in being good lights and I think coming back to leds from T5's was a shock looking at the disco ball effect I wasn't used to seeing. When I set the SPS AB+ schedule it looked real good. I think with your tank being wide you could add T5's on the sides to gain the coverage you need and you get the best of both worlds.

Velcro · Jun 6, 2017

cjd said:
I owned a reef breeders photon v2 for about 30 days . The disco ball effect was awful , even without running reds and greens. Before I officially took the light down I raised the fixture about 20 inches above water line and set the colors to radions coral lab SPS AB+ schedule . It looked a lot better and I could see that there was some potential there. But I had a buyer on the way to my house and I had plans to build a floating canopy to incorporate leds and t5's, so that is as far as that testing went.
Do know that with the V2's controller you have to set each hour of the 24 hour day so tweaking the lights is very time consuming. You have to adjust each hour you want the change to run. Unfortunately the lights do not adjust slowly ,they immediately switch to the new setting on that hour , so don't expect a gradual ramp up and down for your sunrise and sunset.
I think these have some potential in being good lights and I think coming back to leds from T5's was a shock looking at the disco ball effect I wasn't used to seeing. When I set the SPS AB+ schedule it looked real good. I think with your tank being wide you could add T5's on the sides to gain the coverage you need and you get the best of both worlds.

I have two of these lights on the way (2x 24" for a 30x30 cube). I plan on getting it as high as possible from the waterline. Where is the SPS AB+ schedule?

cjd · Jun 6, 2017

http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf.

Velcro · Jun 6, 2017

cjd said:
http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf.

I'm familiar with the study and the profile for radions. Is there a thread where these settings have been adapted to the color percentages on the photon?

cjd · Jun 6, 2017

Velcro said:
I'm familiar with the study and the profile for radions. Is there a thread where these settings have been adapted to the color percentages on the photon?

The photon has the same led colors. What I did was just copy what they had suggested.

hung the fixture 20 inches above water line
100% uv
100% blue
100% royal blue
24% white
24% green
24% red

Since these don't have a separate intensity slider to acclimate you just cut everything in half . 50%, 50% 50% , 12%,12%,12% .

Velcro · Jun 6, 2017

cjd said:
The photon has the same led colors. What I did was just copy what they had suggested.

hung the fixture 20 inches above water line
100% uv
100% blue
100% royal blue
24% white
24% green
24% red

Since these don't have a separate intensity slider to acclimate you just cut everything in half . 50%, 50% 50% , 12%,12%,12% .

Not sure how much it matters, but isn't the UV from the radion a lower NM than the Violet from the photon?

Maacc · Jun 6, 2017

Welcome to R2R!
I am setting up the same tank. I have 4 24" v2's and am going to be running a deltec 1660 from Adam at battlecorals.

cjd · Jun 6, 2017

Velcro said:
Not sure how much it matters, but isn't the UV from the radion a lower NM than the Violet from the photon?

Maybe ?? I was just doing it for the visual appeal . I literally set those settings while the guy was on his way to purchase the unit. I fiddled with them for over a month of trying to make it look good to my eyes. Even if the coral was doing fine , the tank has to look good to me. The radion like settings looked real good, so good if I tested this setting out a week earlier they would probably still be on the tank and I would be able to give some insight on coral response. This is just a recommendation for a starting point, with all the different color leds how do you know where to start ?? Just saying its a good start !

Velcro · Jun 6, 2017

cjd said:
Maybe ?? I was just doing it for the visual appeal . I literally set those settings while the guy was on his way to purchase the unit. I fiddled with them for over a month of trying to make it look good to my eyes. Even if the coral was doing fine , the tank has to look good to me. The radion like settings looked real good, so good if I tested this setting out a week earlier they would probably still be on the tank and I would be able to give some insight on coral response. This is just a recommendation for a starting point, with all the different color leds how do you know where to start ?? Just saying its a good start !

Thanks for the info!