Broadfield's Red Sea Reefer 450 Build - Page 3

neuro · 10/01/2015, 09:24 PM

i'm stealing your ideas. no take backs!

=D

neuro · 10/01/2015, 09:24 PM

dope!

Broadfield · 10/01/2015, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neuro

i'm stealing your ideas. no take backs!

=D

Yeah, but I'm gonna charge you $1/idea... that will be $3 sir!

Broadfield · 10/01/2015, 10:17 PM

Soooooo, I swapped out my (3) Hydra 52's for (5) Primes. I'm sure some might think I'm crazy, but I'll explain why I did it. First off, I have had Hydra 52's on a couple of different tanks and have never been happy with the spectrum. I could never get the crisp white/blue color like that of a Kessil. So I walk into MACNA this year and the first thing I see is the Aqua Illumination booth. There sits an Innovative Marine tank with a couple of Primes over it. I'm instantly drawn to it because of the light spectrum. I immediately ask one of the AI guys if they mind giving me the color percentages they are using so I can get the same look on my 52's. He says "NO"! As I'm thinking in my head, "what a ****", he instantly follows up with: "no, because the 52's cannot duplicate this spectrum." I obviously assumed the Primes used the same pucks as the 52's and 26's... but I was wrong. The Primes use Cree Blues in place of the Cree Royal Blues found on the 26/52. So my very next question was about the PAR levels of the Primes and if they would be enough on my tank. He said that they absolutely would be enough for a Reefer 450. He claimed they have them on plenty of tanks at the office with same depth and have great growth from SPS that are midway to high in the tank... which is exactly what I want since I'm doing LPS and softies also. So I pulled the trigger and sold all of my 52's, mounts etc and purchased the Primes... even made some money in the whole deal.

So got them on about a couple weeks ago and am very happy that I took the chance on them. My PAR fears were eliminated once I pulled the PAR meter out. I'm at 500 PAR at 6" below the water line and around 60-75 on the substrate. That's even with the lights sitting as high as they can on the AI brackets. I also don't get any spill, front-to-back, like I did with the 52's. On top of that, I really like the look of 5 much smaller fixtures.

I just got my Neptune WAV kit put in last night... I'll be posting up info about that soon. First impressions: WOW!

A tad bit of modification to the Reefer overflow cover:

I put my new light fixture up also

andrek787 · 10/01/2015, 11:39 PM

There are two different versions of Hydra52/26 actually made. The US and EU version. The only difference is that US versions use a Royal Blue Cree led, where as EU version has Blue Cree Led.

I recently picked up a 4 x hydra52s ( EU versions ) from the RC classifieds and the seller explained this to me. Thats why the new Hydra52 HD version drops the deep blue and offers both Blue and Royal Blue channels

Broadfield · 10/02/2015, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrek787

There are two different versions of Hydra52/26 actually made. The US and EU version. The only difference is that US versions use a Royal Blue Cree led, where as EU version has Blue Cree Led.

I recently picked up a 4 x hydra52s ( EU versions ) from the RC classifieds and the seller explained this to me. Thats why the new Hydra52 HD version drops the deep blue and offers both Blue and Royal Blue channels

Yeah, I spoke in depth with AI and even the AI European rep at MACNA. The Primes are still slightly different than the Euro 52. The Euro uses OSRAM OSLON Very Deep Blue and the Prime uses OSRAM SQUARE Deep Blue. On top of that, the new Hydra 26/52HD uses something different than the Euro, the Prime and the old 26/52... it uses Cree Royal Blue in conjunction with the Cree Blue. So it looks like this:

Prime: Cree Deep Blue + Cree Blue
EU 52: Cree Very Deep Blue + Cree Blue
US 52: Cree Royal Blue + Cree Deep Blue
US 52HD: Cree Royal Blue + Cree Blue

I probably would of been satisfied with the pucks from the Euro, but that would of been some serious scratch for 12 of them.

andrek787 · 10/02/2015, 01:09 AM

Very interesting info.

I want to try replacing 1 or 2 pucks in my EU Hydra52 with US Hydra52 pucks to see what the spectrum would be. Technically having more variety of LEDs in a fixture would provide a more complete spectrum to the corals. A US/EU hybrid Hydra52 would have UV, Violet, Very Deep Blue, Deep Blue, Royal Blue and Blue LED chips.

BTW, If you want I may be able to get more EU Hydra52s.

Yash · 10/02/2015, 05:02 AM

Looking great! Love the look of these new lights!

nuxx · 10/02/2015, 09:11 AM

Love the look of the lights

We have 6 A360WEs mounted on goosenecks above our tank with no canopy

nuxx · 10/05/2015, 11:43 AM

Sorry for more car offtopic...

Just picked this up for my wife

dabob79 · 10/05/2015, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuxx

Sorry for more car offtopic...

Just picked this up for my wife

I'm trading my Charger in on a Hellcat next year!

nuxx · 10/05/2015, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dabob79

I'm trading my Charger in on a Hellcat next year!

Nice

neuro · 10/09/2015, 11:38 PM

wanted to ask, how did you create or get the black back board to mount everything onto?

adddo · 10/12/2015, 03:57 AM

Nice tank and cars!

Broadfield · 10/18/2015, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neuro

wanted to ask, how did you create or get the black back board to mount everything onto?

That is simply Rubbermaid brand shelving from Home Depot... cut to length.

Broadfield · 10/18/2015, 12:48 PM

I had a few corals that I transferred over from my old nano, but recently picked up some frags from a live sale...

IMG_4687 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4675 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4670 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4668 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4663 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4629 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4520 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4526 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4523 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

spbk84 · 11/01/2015, 04:44 PM

Nice set up. How is your Tank Progressing? I have been considering getting one of these. Is the set up silent?

Broadfield · 11/01/2015, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spbk84

Nice set up. How is your Tank Progressing? I have been considering getting one of these. Is the set up silent?

With an Ecotech Vectra DC return pump and Nyos Quantum skimmer, it's basically dead silent!

Broadfield · 11/01/2015, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spbk84

How is your Tank Progressing?

Recently picked up a nice Goniopora Norfolkensis species and some Gold Tip Cloves from a LFS for a really good price. I have a small shipment of coral coming in from Vivid Aquariums this week. Stocking this thing at a fairly decent clip. I'll be adding fish in about 6 weeks.

IMG_4719 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_4811 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

wheels2040 · 12/06/2015, 04:22 PM

Are you still liking the Primes over the Hydra 52s? I am going to pickup a Reefer 350 first part of next year. I have a Hydra 52 on my current tank and was going to move it along with a new one to the 350, but after seeing your Prime setup, I was thinking of going with 3 Primes.

Bman562 · 12/06/2015, 08:08 PM

Broadfield, sweet tank. Btw, awesome 40.

JWClark · 12/31/2015, 05:14 AM

How did you tee off the return line? Do you think it is possible to attach a seaswirl? Pick up my tank today and will be able to have a look/feel of it today.

ruckuss · 01/01/2016, 01:17 PM

Awesome tank, how are the Primes working out for you? I'm thinking of getting 3 for my reefer 250.

Broadfield · 01/08/2016, 09:37 AM

Ok, I have a major update, but not necessarily by choice. I completely removed all of my sand and rock, then replaced with all new. Here's why:

When I did my original aquascape, I used rock that I aquired from a friend. The pieces weren't ideal, but I used hydraulic cement to make structures that I was happy with... bonding smaller rocks together to make larger ones, making overhangs etc. Everything was fine for the first three months. I then noticed a couple of the cemented joints starting to "break" down. The cement was getting soft and starting to deteriorate. The small dark grey parts of the cement were flaking away and making the sand in the area look bad. Luckily, the "infected" areas were not really structural ones so I didn't worry about it too much. The areas where I really needed the support were still solid and completely intact. Until about a month ago when those areas started to also break down. Now the sand really looked bad and I was going to be facing a landslide of reef rock before too long. On top of that, I was never happy with the sand. To start off, it was REALLY dusty. It also wasn't consistent. It had larger chunks of stuff that would color up with surface algae and then look really out of place in the sand. So being completely fed up, I ordered up 120 lbs or Marco Rocks and Tropic Eden Miniflakes. In the past, I used Marco Rocks in my nano and was 100% happy with them.

I put all of my coral in my sump and performed a 24 hour swap. First getting the rock out and then the messy job of getting the sand out... without removing any of the water. Here it is with everything out:

IMG_5122 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

I think I clogged up about 20 filter socks throughout this process lol. It was very late at this point so I let the tank clear up over night and then I continued on with it when I got home from work the next day. I did my aquascaping with the new Marco Rocks. Since they sent me a nice variety of large pieces, I didn't have to bond anything together to get the look I was after. Next up was the Tropic Eden sand. Let me tell you, this stuff is basically dust free... it's unbelievable! Then I simply moved the corals back into the DT and I was good to go. I used a bottle of Dr. Tim's All-In-One to make sure I didn't have a crazy cycle. All parameters tested great every day. I had a very minor, 1 week long diatom bloom. And that was it. I have had great results with Dr. Tim's in the past and the results were equally impressive this time around. Back in business:

IMG_5285 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

A quick video I made for documentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhYkA5m4O0

DVW · 01/12/2016, 08:48 PM

What sch 80 adapter did you use between your return plumbing and the Rea Sea plumbing?

Tank looks great btw!

Thanks

10/01/2015, 11:39 PM	#55
andrek787 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 378	There are two different versions of Hydra52/26 actually made. The US and EU version. The only difference is that US versions use a Royal Blue Cree led, where as EU version has Blue Cree Led. I recently picked up a 4 x hydra52s ( EU versions ) from the RC classifieds and the seller explained this to me. Thats why the new Hydra52 HD version drops the deep blue and offers both Blue and Royal Blue channels __________________ SCA starphire 150 gallon, custom Advanced Acrylics 50g sump, 3 x Hydra52 Hybrids, 2 x Gyre xf-150, 2 x Kessil A150 6700k fuge lights, ATI 250is Skimmer, Skimz RR-153 bio-pellet, Kore 5th Doser

10/02/2015, 01:09 AM	#57
andrek787 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 378	Very interesting info. I want to try replacing 1 or 2 pucks in my EU Hydra52 with US Hydra52 pucks to see what the spectrum would be. Technically having more variety of LEDs in a fixture would provide a more complete spectrum to the corals. A US/EU hybrid Hydra52 would have UV, Violet, Very Deep Blue, Deep Blue, Royal Blue and Blue LED chips. BTW, If you want I may be able to get more EU Hydra52s. __________________ SCA starphire 150 gallon, custom Advanced Acrylics 50g sump, 3 x Hydra52 Hybrids, 2 x Gyre xf-150, 2 x Kessil A150 6700k fuge lights, ATI 250is Skimmer, Skimz RR-153 bio-pellet, Kore 5th Doser

10/02/2015, 09:11 AM	#59
nuxx RC Sponsor Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Austin, Tx Posts: 3,990	Love the look of the lights We have 6 A360WEs mounted on goosenecks above our tank with no canopy __________________ Peter TankStop - Fish and Coral 470G Display - Build Thread Current Tank Info: Retired - 470 Gallon Mixed Reef (120x29x31")

10/05/2015, 11:43 AM	#60
nuxx RC Sponsor Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Austin, Tx Posts: 3,990	Sorry for more car offtopic... Just picked this up for my wife __________________ Peter TankStop - Fish and Coral 470G Display - Build Thread Current Tank Info: Retired - 470 Gallon Mixed Reef (120x29x31")

10/12/2015, 03:57 AM	#64
adddo “Goodnight, tiny humans.” Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 1,008	Nice tank and cars! __________________ If Pacman had affected us as kids, then we'd all be running around in a dark room, munching pills and listening to repetitive music //Bjarne

10/01/2015, 09:24 PM	#51
neuro the cat did it Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: bay area Posts: 976	i'm stealing your ideas. no take backs! =D

10/01/2015, 10:17 PM	#54
Broadfield Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Normal, IL Posts: 151	Soooooo, I swapped out my (3) Hydra 52's for (5) Primes. I'm sure some might think I'm crazy, but I'll explain why I did it. First off, I have had Hydra 52's on a couple of different tanks and have never been happy with the spectrum. I could never get the crisp white/blue color like that of a Kessil. So I walk into MACNA this year and the first thing I see is the Aqua Illumination booth. There sits an Innovative Marine tank with a couple of Primes over it. I'm instantly drawn to it because of the light spectrum. I immediately ask one of the AI guys if they mind giving me the color percentages they are using so I can get the same look on my 52's. He says "NO"! As I'm thinking in my head, "what a ****", he instantly follows up with: "no, because the 52's cannot duplicate this spectrum." I obviously assumed the Primes used the same pucks as the 52's and 26's... but I was wrong. The Primes use Cree Blues in place of the Cree Royal Blues found on the 26/52. So my very next question was about the PAR levels of the Primes and if they would be enough on my tank. He said that they absolutely would be enough for a Reefer 450. He claimed they have them on plenty of tanks at the office with same depth and have great growth from SPS that are midway to high in the tank... which is exactly what I want since I'm doing LPS and softies also. So I pulled the trigger and sold all of my 52's, mounts etc and purchased the Primes... even made some money in the whole deal. So got them on about a couple weeks ago and am very happy that I took the chance on them. My PAR fears were eliminated once I pulled the PAR meter out. I'm at 500 PAR at 6" below the water line and around 60-75 on the substrate. That's even with the lights sitting as high as they can on the AI brackets. I also don't get any spill, front-to-back, like I did with the 52's. On top of that, I really like the look of 5 much smaller fixtures. I just got my Neptune WAV kit put in last night... I'll be posting up info about that soon. First impressions: WOW! A tad bit of modification to the Reefer overflow cover: I put my new light fixture up also

10/02/2015, 05:02 AM	#58
Yash Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Knoxville, TN Posts: 56	Looking great! Love the look of these new lights!

10/09/2015, 11:38 PM	#63
neuro the cat did it Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: bay area Posts: 976	wanted to ask, how did you create or get the black back board to mount everything onto?

10/18/2015, 12:48 PM	#66
Broadfield Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Normal, IL Posts: 151	I had a few corals that I transferred over from my old nano, but recently picked up some frags from a live sale... IMG_4687 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4675 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4670 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4668 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4663 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4629 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4520 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4526 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr IMG_4523 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

11/01/2015, 04:44 PM	#67
spbk84 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: South jersey Posts: 248	Nice set up. How is your Tank Progressing? I have been considering getting one of these. Is the set up silent?

12/06/2015, 04:22 PM	#70
wheels2040 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Colorado Springs, CO Posts: 18	Are you still liking the Primes over the Hydra 52s? I am going to pickup a Reefer 350 first part of next year. I have a Hydra 52 on my current tank and was going to move it along with a new one to the 350, but after seeing your Prime setup, I was thinking of going with 3 Primes.

12/06/2015, 08:08 PM	#71
Bman562 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 188	Broadfield, sweet tank. Btw, awesome 40.

12/31/2015, 05:14 AM	#72
JWClark Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: MD Posts: 576	How did you tee off the return line? Do you think it is possible to attach a seaswirl? Pick up my tank today and will be able to have a look/feel of it today. __________________ Back after a 13yr hiatus--much to my wife's dismay. Though she sure loves looking at the tank and feeding the fish! Current Tank Info: Reefer 450 seed tank for the retirement 315gal Reef Savvy build.

01/01/2016, 01:17 PM	#73
ruckuss Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 25	Awesome tank, how are the Primes working out for you? I'm thinking of getting 3 for my reefer 250.

01/08/2016, 09:37 AM	#74
Broadfield Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Normal, IL Posts: 151	Ok, I have a major update, but not necessarily by choice. I completely removed all of my sand and rock, then replaced with all new. Here's why: When I did my original aquascape, I used rock that I aquired from a friend. The pieces weren't ideal, but I used hydraulic cement to make structures that I was happy with... bonding smaller rocks together to make larger ones, making overhangs etc. Everything was fine for the first three months. I then noticed a couple of the cemented joints starting to "break" down. The cement was getting soft and starting to deteriorate. The small dark grey parts of the cement were flaking away and making the sand in the area look bad. Luckily, the "infected" areas were not really structural ones so I didn't worry about it too much. The areas where I really needed the support were still solid and completely intact. Until about a month ago when those areas started to also break down. Now the sand really looked bad and I was going to be facing a landslide of reef rock before too long. On top of that, I was never happy with the sand. To start off, it was REALLY dusty. It also wasn't consistent. It had larger chunks of stuff that would color up with surface algae and then look really out of place in the sand. So being completely fed up, I ordered up 120 lbs or Marco Rocks and Tropic Eden Miniflakes. In the past, I used Marco Rocks in my nano and was 100% happy with them. I put all of my coral in my sump and performed a 24 hour swap. First getting the rock out and then the messy job of getting the sand out... without removing any of the water. Here it is with everything out: IMG_5122 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr I think I clogged up about 20 filter socks throughout this process lol. It was very late at this point so I let the tank clear up over night and then I continued on with it when I got home from work the next day. I did my aquascaping with the new Marco Rocks. Since they sent me a nice variety of large pieces, I didn't have to bond anything together to get the look I was after. Next up was the Tropic Eden sand. Let me tell you, this stuff is basically dust free... it's unbelievable! Then I simply moved the corals back into the DT and I was good to go. I used a bottle of Dr. Tim's All-In-One to make sure I didn't have a crazy cycle. All parameters tested great every day. I had a very minor, 1 week long diatom bloom. And that was it. I have had great results with Dr. Tim's in the past and the results were equally impressive this time around. Back in business: IMG_5285 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr A quick video I made for documentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhYkA5m4O0 Last edited by Broadfield; 01/08/2016 at 09:43 AM.

01/12/2016, 08:48 PM	#75
DVW Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Posts: 3	Adapter between your return plumbing and Rea Sea plumbing What sch 80 adapter did you use between your return plumbing and the Rea Sea plumbing? Tank looks great btw! Thanks