melev
Avid Hobbyist
Your issue is the huge wide footprint and shallow pool of water. The 400w bulb will end up with a hot spot that may cook most corals, but lifting them higher may help. It's definitely a challenge.
My ever-growing system
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- Thread starter benny z
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OP
OP
Based on my PAR readings last night with the 20k Radium, at the height which gave sufficient coverage, I was getting between 350 (just below the surface) and 200 (bottom of the tank), right under the bulb. I'm thinking it should work out pretty well... I'll take some more readings when these fancy dual ARC bulbs some crafty character is sending me show up. Have any experience with those?
OP
OP
Just took a look. Holy cow! That's some serious output. Your used bulbs just showed up this morning - hopefully I can test them soon. I need to actually hang the reflectors so I don't need to use a second person holding them up to test. Results pending...
Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
Dang! That's a big skimmer! What is it, and how big is it rated? I would also love to know your thoughts on how you select a skimmer.
OP
OP
haha! ok - here it is with the box cut away. 
it's another bashsea 8-36, the 8 being for the 8" body and 36 for the 36" height.
"shredder" bubble plate
mdbannister - i've gone back and forth between various beckett and needle wheel skimmers over the years and keep coming back to becketts. yes, they require a big powerful pump to operate at their full potential, but the quality and quantity of skimmate they produce hasn't been replicated with any needleheel i've owned.
i choose bashsea as my preferred manufacturer because of their patented "twisted" injector, the way they continue the plumbing into the chamber, and the "shredder" bubble plate. i've owned some other brand beckett skimmers in the past and like the improvements bashsea has implemented in their design. this is basically a duplicate of the skimmer on my other system, but this one adds a flange mid-body and a drain at the bottom per my request, just to make cleaning a bit easier.
i believe this skimmer could easily skim a heavily stocked and fed 500g+ system.
it's another bashsea 8-36, the 8 being for the 8" body and 36 for the 36" height.
"shredder" bubble plate
mdbannister - i've gone back and forth between various beckett and needle wheel skimmers over the years and keep coming back to becketts. yes, they require a big powerful pump to operate at their full potential, but the quality and quantity of skimmate they produce hasn't been replicated with any needleheel i've owned.
i choose bashsea as my preferred manufacturer because of their patented "twisted" injector, the way they continue the plumbing into the chamber, and the "shredder" bubble plate. i've owned some other brand beckett skimmers in the past and like the improvements bashsea has implemented in their design. this is basically a duplicate of the skimmer on my other system, but this one adds a flange mid-body and a drain at the bottom per my request, just to make cleaning a bit easier.
i believe this skimmer could easily skim a heavily stocked and fed 500g+ system.
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OP
OP
on the one on the other system, i'm using a gen-x pcx-100, which is 1590gph and uses 360w.
this one will be on a panworld nh-250ps, which is 1900gph and uses 390w. i will also be feeding two media reactors off of this pump for this system.
this one will be on a panworld nh-250ps, which is 1900gph and uses 390w. i will also be feeding two media reactors off of this pump for this system.
