Stu

It's funny you mention this; I go down to the Florida Keys several times a year, and see the same lack of concentration on the reef. Go inshore, however, just to the tide's edge in areas with jetties or other rocks, and you will literally find thousands of blue legged hermits, cerith snails, and every other scavenger you can imagine covering these structures. You can grab at least 50 hermits with one scoop of your hand across the rock face. In July, I was snorkeling collecting some inverts and I came across 15 emerald crabs on a 2'x2' rock. I think it goes to show how unrepresentative of actual biotopes the typical mixed reef can be. Not that I really care, as long as it looks good

Judging by that first pic, looks like you're not the only one who wants that stand gone

Wow. Beautiful tabling pattern on that coral. I hope you find a piece.

You could make a pedestal of sorts with epoxy and attach it to the stem. It would keep it elevated and probably not be too visible.

Looks like an awesome fixture.

Good call. Resist the urge to crowd that sandbed! The white space really opens the tank up and draws the eyes up to the rockwork. FWIW, I think a big centerpiece clam/coral would look awesome.

Wow! What a great build. I love how clean it all is. What tools did you use to build the tank and keep the glass at right angles? Did the glass company bevel or polish the edges for you? Also, how did you affix the birch panels to the frame? I don't see any holes or screws (a good thing!) Sorry for all the questions; this is a very impressive project.

Mine went on the fritz a few months ago, with some things not turning on when they were supposed to. Turns out it was the data connection from the unit to the DC8 (telephone jack-looking port). After troubleshooting with customer service, determined that there was a bunch of dust in there and it wasn't communicating properly. I shop vac'ed the whole thing, wiped it down, used a compressed air duster, etc. and it worked fine after that.

WOW http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=246394&view=findpost&p=3536240

Yep. And if you are careful, you can just return the pipe bender after using it...but you didn't hear that from me

No problem and thanks for the compliments. I enjoyed chatting with you about your build, and looking forward to seeing the finished product!

It's terribly easy. Conduit is very cheap as well, so if your bend doesn't turn out just right you can always cut another and try again. I bought a pipe bender, conduit, black spray paint, and a carriage bolt to cap the end of the pipe for a cleaner look. You could probably also use some sort of plastic plug. I also bought 2 brackets that I screwed into the back of my stand that held the pipe, and could be tightened and loosened with wingnuts. It was very easy to move the lamp up and down.

This is going to look great, Chad. Nice to see you're paying as much attention to the exterior as the interior--by the looks of it, this will rival many of the expensive LED fixtures both in performance and appearance.

I understand the desire to experiment with warm whites, but as an FYI, NW's (which are I believe ~2000k higher than WW's) are VERY yellow. Some of the guys on nano reef experimented with WW's and attempted to balance them out with RB's/B's, and the outcome was "Wonka-like" (not in a good way). I'm never one to discourage experimentation, but I don't think going much lower on the Kelvin scale than NW's will be very aesthetically pleasing. The key to adding reds (which many people scrapped) seems to be driving them at a lower current (not sure if this is the right terminology). Essentially, running even one LED at the same intensity as the other LEDs in the array was enough to give a terrible "disco-ball" look...think red bouncing all over the sand from the shimmer. I have, however, seen a few builds where a 1W red was added (amongst 3W LEDs), and the effect worked. All this to say that I also had the problems with red/yellow color pop, and it was instantly cured by replacing a few royal blues with blues. See this post for some other clarification on mixing whites: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=246394&view=findpost&p=3314433

RB is very purple to my eye. This is why I added a few B's to tone it down and smooth out the contrast between white and RB. In my opinion, solely using RB's as a source of blue light casts a purplish hue that can look artificial and overpowering. While using too many B's does create a windex look, adding the right amount takes some of that overpowering purple and balances it out with the bluer "20k" look. I can explain/show you what I'm talking about when you stop by this week.

Let me know how it goes. Unfortunately with these builds it seems playing with combinations is the only way to truly get a customized product. I just wish it wasn't so time consuming/semi-permanent!

17 RB 3 B 10 NW

No problem; I hope it helps. Replacing just 3 RB's with blues in my array made a big difference, particularly with red corals.

Wednesday should work for me, although I may not be home from work until around 8. I'll shoot you a PM on Wed. and we can coordinate.

It seems like a lot of WAMAS members are doing DIY LED builds, and consequently have a lot of questions about color mixing. For anyone attempting a DIY LED build, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend reading this thread first: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=246394 It's very long, but is extremely informative, and it was an immense help in planning my build. Several people participating in the discussion have done pretty extensive testing of different LED colors, and posted their results. Cool white, royal blue, neutral white, blue, green, red, UV, etc. are all covered. It takes a while to read through, but once you do, you will be glad you did. I consider it an excellent primer on the aesthetics of different LEDs over a reef tank.

My DIY retrofit has 10 NW's, 17RB's, and 3 CB's. I started with 20 RB's and 10 NW's, but added the 3 CB's for extra pop for red/pink/orange corals. I've been very pleased with it. You're welcome to come take a look if you want. I spent a lot of time researching/tweaking plans, so I have some trial and error experience that might be helpful in planning your build. I think Bill is spot on about smoothing out the spectrum, and I have been thinking about replacing a few more LEDs with the colors he talks about. The peaks in RB and whites are very tight and unforgiving in my opinion.

I felt it as well. It gave a decent shake.

Thanks! It seems that lots of commercial fixtures initially went with the CW-RB combo, and are switching to NW (and other colors--Cyan, magenta, red, etc.) as they start to see the benefits that other colors bring out. I think this is one major drawback of LEDs as compared to other lighting sources like MH. MH has a very wide spectrum and can bring out a lot of colors, while most of the LEDs available now have fairly specific spikes in the spectrum. So it can be tough to bring out all the colors in a reef. For example, I was in Petland the other day, and was looking at their LPS under LEDs. **Shameless plug: Petland has a killer selection right now and Ben and Billy are doing a great job** One lobophyllia that was red with a green center was off-the-charts screaming red and green. Just down the tank under the same lights, a deeper red chalice with teal streaks appeared very dull and muted. While both are "red", one looked incredible while the other looked, well, not so much. I know for a fact that this chalice was not inherently dull, as I used to have the same thing under t5s a while ago and the thing was fire engine red--deep red and gorgeous. So one "red" coral and another "red" coral can look great or dull depending on which "red" it is. So in that respect, LEDs can take some tweaking (as I did with swapping out the 3 RBs for CBs). It sounds like you're on the right track for dialing in the right color. I saw some pics of corals under magenta and I'm very intrigued. I have a feeling it could do wonders for warmer colors if used in moderation.

Bummer. I wonder if something spooked them or if they just got the urge to take off. If I can put my two cents in, I think despite the risk of jumpers, a rimless tank looks so nice that it's worth it.

Your corals look great Chad! Love all the acans.