Crew's 120g Reef Tank

They are definitely bright. I couldn't believe how bright they get at 100%. I'm sure I will never go above 75%.

My current program is:
10:00AM - Start Sunrise
2:00PM - Intensity hit's 75% and holds
7:00PM - Start Sunset
10:00PM - Lights out

It's a long photoperiod, but a good chunk of it will be at a pretty low intensity.
 
I run mine on a 12hr period. 9am: 5% both ramps up to 1pm 65% color, 60% intensity, holds until 5, then ramps back down.
 
Crew;1013471 wrote: They are definitely bright. I couldn't believe how bright they get at 100%. I'm sure I will never go above 75%.

My current program is:
10:00AM - Start Sunrise
2:00PM - Intensity hit's 75% and holds
7:00PM - Start Sunset
10:00PM - Lights out

It's a long photoperiod, but a good chunk of it will be at a pretty low intensity.
Click to expand...

Be careful with the kessils they very strong lights and will bleach the crap out of your corals. I had mine about 11 inches off the waterline at 50% and still had trouble acclimating.
 
Update:

I've gotten a lot done in the last few days. I'm about 10 days into the cycle and I'm seeing clear signs that i'm coming out the other side. I haven't seen much of an algae bloom outside of diatoms, but I think that may be from using almost 0 live rock.

I saw spikes of Ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites, and all 3 have since fallen off rather dramatically. If everything continues as planned, I'm hoping to add some inverts on Wednesday or Thursday.

Some photos:

Full Tank Shot to show final rock work - if I remember correctly, this is with the Kessil's running about 10% of their color with a total intensity of maybe 35-40%. The glass is still a little dirty in the photo, but i've since cleaned it up.
http://i.imgur.com/FwJhxAX.jpg?1" alt="" />

Here is a shot to give you a better look at the internals and how I managed to hang Kessil's inside a canopy. I hadn't set up the skimmer yet when this was taken.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/gr0bKgb.jpg?1" alt="" />

Here is a close up of the lights
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/FY3VEgD.jpg?1" alt="" />

And an extreme close up if you want to replicate what I've done. The lights are about 6 inches off the water.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/MGA3Sy4.jpg?1" alt="" />

My program starts with almost 0 color in the morning and peaks at around 55% color, 50% intensity. Then, as the "sun sets", the color continues to go up and the intensity goes down, ending with 100% color and 0% intensity. This particular shot is about 75% color, 30% intensity, taken at around 8:00PM.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hH4W4bH.jpg?1" alt="" />

Yesterday, I decided to tackle my auto top off problem. Being a 120, I have quite a bit of water evaporating daily (about 1.5 gallons from what I've seen so far). The return pump is sitting in a chamber that holds around 5 gallons, so I have to fill it rather often. To fix that, I needed to find a reservoir that would fit in the tiny footprint I had available in my stand (8"deepx16"wide). Aquariums aren't usually that narrow unless I want a 2 gallon reservoir, which seemed pointless, but I did notice that dog food containers are that narrow and very tall. Sure enough, it fits perfectly.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/CMqt2O7.jpg?1" alt="" />

I gave the inside a good scrub with hot water and then labelled the outside. It comfortably holds 7 gallons, meaning I can probably go 4-5 days without having to top the system off.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/0tYVj5U.jpg?1" alt="" />
 
Looking good! Diggin the rock work! I just rescaped mine a few weeks ago to give the tank a more open feel,
fce5d813c7d4273acb9f2f5cb3ced599.jpg
alt="" /> I didn't see any diatom bloom until 2 months in, still dealing with a little bit. Very clean looking with the kessils in your canopy.How easy would adjustments be made? Such as height or placement if you ever change your scape. Might replicate this with a floating canopy. Good progress!
 
Right now I have the kessil's as high as they will go, but I could lower them fairly easily if needed. I would just have to replace the eye screws that I used with longer ones ($0.50 each). I didn't place the kessil's directly over my two islands of rock, but instead centered them so their footprint covers the entire tank. I figure that the lights are easily bright enough that i could increase the intensity should any of the coral need it. If I did want to move them laterally, I would add a bar/rod between the two eye screws and then hang the kessil's from that. Fairly adjustable for what I need.
 
and if anyone noticed, that blue photo was taken at the height of my diatom bloom haha.
 
Crew;1014970 wrote: Right now I have the kessil's as high as they will go, but I could lower them fairly easily if needed. I would just have to replace the eye screws that I used with longer ones ($0.50 each). I didn't place the kessil's directly over my two islands of rock, but instead centered them so their footprint covers the entire tank. I figure that the lights are easily bright enough that i could increase the intensity should any of the coral need it. If I did want to move them laterally, I would add a bar/rod between the two eye screws and then hang the kessil's from that. Fairly adjustable for what I need.
Click to expand...
Pretty easy fix then, but you should be set, couldn't see you ever having to lower them!
 
I know! I can't get over how bright they are. I cranked them to 100% with 0 color just to see and my tank looked like a spot light. They put off some serious light. The fact that they are so small is mind blowing.
 
Crew;1014974 wrote: I know! I can't get over how bright they are. I cranked them to 100% with 0 color just to see and my tank looked like a spot light. They put off some serious light. The fact that they are so small is mind blowing.
Click to expand...
They're seriously underrated! I haven't seen many applications where an intensity anywhere near 100 would be needed. A lot of people give them crap about keeping sps due to shadowing, but I've managed to keep acros with full PE under the kessils. It really depends on the angle the corals are placed to eliminate any shadowing. So far it hasn't been an issue with me!
 
The only application where 100% would be needed is if you keep the kessil's 2 feet off the water haha
 
I noticed yesterday that my diatom bloom finally relaxed a little bit and my water is crystal clear now so I decided to take some photos to show off the kessil's.

All 3 pictures have the intensity at around 20%

20% intensity, 0% color
http://i.imgur.com/hG24Dat.jpg?2" alt="" />

20% intensity, 30% color
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/NmFVbol.jpg alt="" />

20% intensity, 60% color
http://i.imgur.com/3CMbYAi.jpg?1" alt="" />

I thought about taking a photo at full color but got distracted - either way, I thought this was cool.
 
The tank is going strong! Here are some quick updates:

The clowns have moved in and are enjoying their new home. As I like to say, "Batman" and "No, I'm Batman" are patrolling the reefs of Gotham. I haven't been able to get a decent picture of them yet, but i'm working on it. Speaking of photos, I've started messing around with my wife's fancy camera, but until I can figure it out, we will have to settle for more phone pictures.

Full Tank Shot:
http://i.imgur.com/PHA6N3N.jpg?1" alt="" />

Utter Chao's (Thanks Ben!)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/52USgkn.jpg?2" alt="" />

Eagle Eye's (seeing great growth already)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/vjNzjBL.jpg?2" alt="" />

Green Ricordia (looks like it's about to split)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/IfWXAE7.jpg?1" alt="" />
 
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