Need advice on circulation and light sizes for new tank

[TonapahNorth]

So I've only had 2 nano sized tanks. And I've outgrown them. A desktop and An IM40.

Due to space restrictions, I've ordered a 60x30x24 tank - about 180g:

1) the 250 gyre is around 12" and the 280 is around 15". Do I have to get 2 of them to work properly? If I go with one, I'm thinking 2 or 3 nanostreams. Can I get an opinion on this?

2) should the lighting be edge to edge 60" or should I go for more along the lines of 48"? I haven't decided on the lighting yet... I like the idea of the Geiseman hybrids but with the nice light housing, I don't know if I should put that in a hood. I need a hood because I don't like the light spilling too much into the room. Options?

With the nice Black Friday sales, I'm gonna spend some money this week so I'd like to know y'all opinion.

Tona

 

[Xathron]

So I've only had 2 nano sized tanks. And I've outgrown them. A desktop and An IM40.

Due to space restrictions, I've ordered a 60x30x24 tank - about 180g:

1) the 250 gyre is around 12" and the 280 is around 15". Do I have to get 2 of them to work properly? If I go with one, I'm thinking 2 or 3 nanostreams. Can I get an opinion on this?

2) should the lighting be edge to edge 60" or should I go for more along the lines of 48"? I haven't decided on the lighting yet... I like the idea of the Geiseman hybrids but with the nice light housing, I don't know if I should put that in a hood. I need a hood because I don't like the light spilling too much into the room. Options?

With the nice Black Friday sales, I'm gonna spend some money this week so I'd like to know y'all opinion.

Tona

Tona I have the 280 and it is running at 40% easily reaches end to end. Mines 60 x 30 x 27.

 

[TonapahNorth]

Tona I have the 280 and it is running at 40% easily reaches end to end. Mines 60 x 30 x 27.

What other circulation do you have in the tank?

Do you have any lighting issues with a deeper tank? Do you go edge to edge with lighting or more like a 48" light? Or pendants?

 

[Xathron]

What other circulation do you have in the tank?

For now I have the 280and just the 2 returns at each end.

 

[mcarroll]

1) [...]If I go with one, I'm thinking 2 or 3 nanostreams. Can I get an opinion on this?

Honestly, I'd look at the Tunze Turbelle® stream 3 instead. 5 year warranty, built like a tank. One or more, along with some other pumps is a smart move though.

Two or more Turbelle® stream 6105's is another perfectly legit way to go. Really can't beat the price for how much power they give you.

Some links may help:
From the R2R/Tunze forum....Flow reach by pump model?

Some tubes for the Stream 3:

• Turbelle® Stream 3 - Dawn of a new pump technology
• Interzoo 2016: TUNZE® Turbelle® Stream 3 - First details
• Only one Tunze® Turbelle® Stream3 creating a gyre flow in the Interzoo 2016 show tank
• 2 Tunze® Turbelle® Stream3 creating a wave and a directional current
• Interzoo 2016: TUNZE® Turbelle® Stream 3 - First unboxing

2) should the lighting be edge to edge 60" or should I go for more along the lines of 48"?

Depends a little on the light you're thinking about, but I'd say to plan on lighting to the edge, unless you want dark edges.

Don't laugh – lots of people set up tanks with some wicked shadows and then turn around trying to add more lights to remove them.

2) [...]I haven't decided on the lighting yet... I like the idea of the Geiseman hybrids but with the nice light housing, I don't know if I should put that in a hood.

I'd recommend going all LED. It makes less and less sense every day to invest in a scheme where you're replacing bulbs once or twice a year. Arguably, that strategy stopped making sense a few years back now.

2) [...]I need a hood because I don't like the light spilling too much into the room. Options?

I'd consider LED strip solutions like the GHL Lightbar2's and the Orbit Pro and Orbit IC from Current USA as they're designed with feet that allow placement right on the rim of the tank – zero light spill. (There are others too.)

Other fixtures like the Kessils which are best mounted within a few inches from the water would also be ideal candidates.

For fixtures that do not mount onto the tank directly, a little triangle math along with the lens strength of your fixture can help you to get the mounting height in the correct ballpark to begin with.

Let me know when you pick a light and I can work through the numbers with you for your tank and explain more if it needs it.

Two examples in the mean time:

90º Lenses

• 90º lenses are easy because the mounting height dictates the coverage radius 1:1.
• An LED with a 90º lens mounted at 12" from the water will provide a light cone with a 12" radius of coverage.
• No math needed.

140º Lenses

• If I recall correctly, Kessils use this odd-ball number for their lens power.
• 140º divided by two gives us 70º. Doing that also gives us a 90º angle to work with.
• Your tank is 30" wide, so we need a 15" radius of coverage.
• A little computation shows that you'd need to mount a kessil about 5.5" off the water to get that.

 

[TonapahNorth]

Very helpful! thank you very much. I'm sure that I will have questions.
Tona

 

[TonapahNorth]

Soooooo.....
I'm not really in a huge hurry as there will be some time before my tank arrives. But here are things I'm thinking about.

First, Black Friday sales are good. I like the discounts being offered. Yet, the stream 3 isn't available yet. Alas. It appears that two of these might be the best way to make nice flow and gyre without the pumps being too obvious in the tank. I like subtle.

Second, as to lighting I decided to go with a 60 x 30 tank. This size has proven to be a little of a challenge because many fixtures have about a 24" light pattern as a width. This would require me to put on a wide fixture such as all bulbs or turn multiple fixtures sideways.
An example is the Kessile AP700 which has a 24" wide light pattern but will change lengths depending on heigth above the water. Thus, in order for me to reach the 30" width of the tank, I'd need 3 units turned sideways at about 10-12" above surface according to my math. Am I looking at this wrong?

So, despite my desire to hit a Black Friday deal, I'm reluctant to pull any triggers on these two points at this time. At least until I figure out the lighting and the stream 3 is available.

 

[mcarroll]

You're looking at it correctly. You might even want four since you will want them to have a decent overlap.

 

[mcarroll]

It's a bit less complicated to light using the strip solutions (3 Orbit Pro's, or two DUAL kits, for example), but you can get the job done either way.

The main question is which result will you like more? The Kessil is a dang-fine unit, but it's not going to put out a light field like a T5 or LED strip solution would.

 

[TonapahNorth]

It's clear I need to learn more. All I had to do over my two nano was throw on a single LED. And I never set up any controllers.

I want to have a more professional tank as it's in my office. I'd like it to be controllable but produce good results.
Thanks for your help so far.

 

[Salty1962]

Check out this thread for some pump options:
http://reef2reef.com/threads/what-are-you-using-for-circulation.273168/