Radions or Orphek Atlantik's?

[bubbaque]

I was thinking the heat in the garage may be an issue for the leds too. Could put a dent in your par if they are dimming.

It may be an issue for leds also but I don't have any other choice. I'm trying to introduce as little heat as possible.

Yep correct. Also remember you’ll usually have a frag rack 2”-2.5” off the bottom. Plus the frags grow or become a small colony. So now you’re at 3” below the surface. Not the same as 6” as BRS measured.

I grow them directly off the bottom on a tile with no rack, so I'll probably be right at that 6".

 

[bubbaque]

Defiantly my bad. Fans like something like these: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6...hermal_Control_BT12038B1M.html?tl=g36c265s703 or go crazy with this type of cooling: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...40_GPX_Pro_AMD_RX_Vega_M01_-_black_11494.html

I had to go take a pic to show you the fixture in my garage, lol. The Florida heat really starts to cook out there. I had to put this giant box fan to blow extra air into the fixture to cool it down.

 

[FarmerTy]

I had to go take a pic to show you the fixture in my garage, lol. The Florida heat really starts to cook out there. I had to put this giant box fan to blow extra air into the fixture to cool it down.

[emoji50]

 

[bubbaque]

[emoji50]

It's hideous, I know, lol. Luckily it's in the garage where no one would see it. My wife would never allow anything like that in the house. It's crazy to think even with that fan, the fixture still dims down some days.

 

[FarmerTy]

It's hideous, I know, lol. Luckily it's in the garage where no one would see it. My wife would never allow anything like that in the house. It's crazy to think even with that fan, the fixture still dims down some days.

My Apex setup currently. Don't feel bad at all Bubba. [emoji23]

 

[BoomCorals]

My Apex setup currently. Don't feel bad at all Bubba. [emoji23]

One major reason I switched to GHL. Less cords and modules all over!

 

[bubbaque]

My Apex setup currently. Don't feel bad at all Bubba. [emoji23]

I feel better now, lol.

 

[FarmerTy]

I feel better now, lol.

I jumped on the grenade for you bud. Added Gif.

 

[Caravanshaka]

I know it won’t tell you much, but I took a quick photo of the full size without the compact. The visible light shows at least a few more inches to the left than the pic, but the pic probably shows where decent par ends. Probably 8-10 inches to the side

Again, don’t mind the ugly UV sterilizer

 

[Mortie31]

They aren’t. The spread didn’t get to the edges. The outer 4” of each long edge was getting under 100 PAR. So on a 24” wide lowboy you’re losing about 8” of that. That’s a lot of real estate!!

How high did you have the units above the surface? IMO much better to raise them up rather than dim them down, and obviously the spread increases as you raise them up, I run mine 14” above the surface another benefit if heat is an issue you can generate better airflow around them, my fans have only tripped on a few times in he last day or 2 and yesterday it was 30C... I’m getting 150 - 185 par on the sand bed at the very front of the tank..

 

[jschultzbass]

Seems like BRS is the only place you can buy orphek?

You can order direct from Orphek as well. That's what I did. Just shoot them an email and they'll send you one.

 

[gig 'em]

Maybe. One T5 might bring that up only about another 50-75 PAR, depending on the reflectors. Two on each side would absolutely do it though.

When I had my Orphek over a 24" wide tank I had 2 T5s parallel to it to in order to eliminate that dark areas. I'd say you can get away with one T5 on each side, but I agree that 2 on each side would be ideal to get complete spread over a low boy. I plan on running at least one T5 on each side of my Orphek over my low boy when I get it set up.

 

[FarmerTy]

When I had my Orphek over a 24" wide tank I had 2 T5s parallel to it to in order to eliminate that dark areas. I'd say you can get away with one T5 on each side, but I agree that 2 on each side would be ideal to get complete spread over a low boy. I plan on running at least one T5 on each side of my Orphek over my low boy when I get it set up.

Same, but since you're doing it first, I'll wait and see your results and we can hit it with a par meter for everyone to see.

When are you getting the V4 in?

I plan to keep some lower light corals/anemones in the frag tank too so having some lower par areas is not a bad thing for me at least.

 

[BoomCorals]

How high did you have the units above the surface? IMO much better to raise them up rather than dim them down, and obviously the spread increases as you raise them up, I run mine 14” above the surface another benefit if heat is an issue you can generate better airflow around them, my fans have only tripped on a few times in he last day or 2 and yesterday it was 30C... I’m getting 150 - 185 par on the sand bed at the very front of the tank..

When I raised them up, the PAR did some strange things even with higher intensity. By my notes, 14" above the water at 90% intensity was the best combo, but still left the edges at too low of PAR.

 

[gig 'em]

Same, but since you're doing it first, I'll wait and see your results and we can hit it with a par meter for everyone to see.

When are you getting the V4 in?

I plan to keep some lower light corals/anemones in the frag tank too so having some lower par areas is not a bad thing for me at least.

Who knows man! I remember when I originally bought my Atlantik in 2012 it took a while to arrive and I haven't heard a thing from Orphek since I paid them for the upgrade 2 weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get a shipping confirmation soon, but since I haven't even plumbed the frag system yet, I guess I'm not in that big of a hurry.

 

[FarmerTy]

Who knows man! I remember when I originally bought my Atlantik in 2012 it took a while to arrive and I haven't heard a thing from Orphek since I paid them for the upgrade 2 weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get a shipping confirmation soon, but since I haven't even plumbed the frag system yet, I guess I'm not in that big of a hurry.

The masses want to know! Give them a call! Light a fire! [emoji23]

 

[jschultzbass]

Personally I think you are thinking too much about the 24" width. Minus the glass you are at 23". And you're probably not putting SPS within 2" of the glass so it can grow out a little on all sides so that leaves about 19" of width which I don't think you'll have any issues with. I have my V4 on a 28" wide tank 14" above water line and don't have any issues with light at the front of the tank....but I also don't keep SPS within 4" of the front and 3" of the back so it can grow out.

 

[bubbaque]

With it being a frag tank you will more than likely have corals all the way to the glass, all the way around. At least I do in mine.

 

[BoomCorals]

With it being a frag tank you will more than likely have corals all the way to the glass all the way around. At least I do in mine.

Yep me too. And inside glass to inside glass on a low boy is about 23.75”. I try to use every inch of my frag tanks. If I didn’t use even the outside 2” on each long edge, that would be about 26 less frag discs with acros in them! That’s way too much real estate to give up.

 

[gig 'em]

With it being a frag tank you will more than likely have corals all the way to the glass, all the way around. At least I do in mine.

I agree, when it comes to frag tanks you want to use as much room as possible for frags and colonies. Maybe in a DT you don't mind the front of the tank being a little shaded since you probably don't want anything growing there anyway. Not to derail the topic, but where do you get your frag disks bubba?