awsome tank dan!!... what type t-5 lighting do you have??

BEautiful tanks, the amount of corals and thier beauty is staggering!!

What bulb sequence do you use?
On your full aquarium shot the lighting looks intense, while on your other shots it looks more blueish. Is this camera setting or full/partial light setting?

Amazing... I blame RC for not making your tank TOTM earlier and helping me decide to do T5 instead of MH. Im happy with MH, but I think I should have gone T5.

Ludwigia, ever thought of supplementing your MH with T5s? That way, you'd get the best of both worlds but also more heat and higher energy consumption.

FastUno, bulb sequence is as follows:
AB-BP-AB-AB-BP-AB-AB-BP
(AB - Aquablue Special; BP - Blue Plus)
Pics were taken with all lights on. Some were slightly underexposed (aperture setting) to avoid washed out pics.

your tank looks great, and i love the use of the t5s.

Nice, Real Nice...

Do you know where you can buy the ATI light fixtures online? I have found the bulbs but not the fixtures.

Very nice tank! I like it cos it looks so serene...

wow danano, just read through the TOTM write up and...wow. very nice tank, by far my favorite TOTM that i've seen ( no offense to any past TOTM winners:thumbsup: )
you've got me debating between T-5's and MH for my new tank now.

congrats on the TOTM.

Danano,
Many congrats.. a well deserved accolade, great to read and see your tank again.

Danano,


Congratulations, what a beautiful tank......And without metal halide to boot........


John

I mentioned this to Danano in another thread but would like to ask again. Do you think the even light is what makes the t5s work. I know my 400 is great right under it and peters out the further away you get.

Wow they just keep getting better and better, great looking tank.

Great Job. You really deserve TOTM. Thanks for the awesome pictures.

Beautiful set up!

Who built the tank?

:) thanks. Glad you like the write-up and pics.

chuckd, I know the ATI bulbs are in the US but I've not seen the fixtures either. Perhaps in time, ATI will design one with US voltage in mind. The fixtures are known as ATI T5 Powerbalken in Europe.

John, your tank and numerous others (including Steve Weast's) are inspiring my next "BIG" project. But that's at least several years away and would involve moving to a bigger place, i.e. house-hunting with a 300-500g and dedicated reef-room in mind. :p It's still a dream at the moment.:D Thanks!

Spearfish, the T5s give excellent edge-edge coverage. And the ATI bulbs provide the right intensity and spectrum for the corals. The Germans seem to have gotten it just right. Good reflectors and fixture design play an equally important role - to maximise intensity. Although still no where near 400W MH bulbs. I've seen excellent results and color in tanks using 400W MH bulbs coupled with well designed reflectors. But there's always a trade-off somewhere. With T5s though, bleaching and UV effect on corals is much less of an issue.

Reefwaters, it was custom built by local tank maker. Euro bracing all around, with extra strips of glass on all side and bottom edges for added strength and support. Probably overkill but better safe than sorry.;)

Dan

WHOOHOO!!! SWEET TANK!!! Congrats,
really impress with the colors of the corals with T5s.

You've come a long way Dan. One of the best nano's ever and now RC's TOTM! Well done and beautiful work! :)

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by jdsabin1 [/i]
[B]You've come a long way Dan. One of the best nano's ever and now RC's TOTM! Well done and beautiful work! :) [/B][/QUOTE]

Hi Jeff! Good to see you here bro. And thanks for the kind words.:)

Dan

excellent tank, you seem to have a very high bio load that doesnt afect the SPS??

Dan: could you explain the overflow on the left side? It appears to be external to the tank rather than inside the tank. Am I correct?

xxr66t, to moderate the effect of the heavy bioload, I use a powerful skimmer, perform very frequent water changes and vacuum detritus build-up off the top layer of the sandbed as necessary. I feed small amounts every two days, hence minimising introduction of undesirable/external elements. The quality LR act as a natural food source for many of the fish. Regular spawning (crabs, shrimps and sometimes, the fish)provide another natural source of food.

On the subject of spawning, I noticed a few of the fish were in a frenzy just after sunrise this morning (some light streams into the living room in the morning) and the sps polyps were still out. On closer inspection, I saw that the Sally Lighfoot had just released its fry and there were thousands tossed around in the flow/current! And I've never seen the bellies of the two green chromises and orange skunk so full before.

Skip, you are correct. The overflow box is attached to the left side of the tank. A 16" x 2" U-section was cut out from the left galss panel. A black acrylic sheet slightly shorter than the left glass panel (so the sheet would fit beneath the Euro bracing) is glued to the glass. Before that, slots were cut out across the top edge of the acrylic for the overflow into the external box. DC794 silicone was used to attach the overflow box and a wooden bracket attached to the stand gives added support.

congratulations - a beautiful tank and setup!! very deserving!

when you mentioned dosing the amino acids, what product are you using and where did you find it?? additionally, how frequently and how much do you dose?

thanks.

gm

danano:
Awesome tank.
I was beginning to doubt the ability of my TEK T5 on light demanding clams and SPS and was gonna overdrive them, but I'm reconsidering it now.