Sammy's 20G LED Cube

[Machupicchu]

is that the only place to get neutrals? LEDsupply? Or is there another place where i could get NW CW Red and RB and meanwells in one place? I havent found any.

[sammy113]

Try cutter or ETG

[wesley6610]

I'm ordering my neutrals and reds from ETG today.

[Machupicchu]

ETGtech.com?

[sammy113]

that's right

[sammy113]

while ago I said I was changing my NAC7 for a Reef Octopus XP1000SSS but never posted pics of it. Heres some after a few weeks running. I'm very impressed with this skimmer. Love the bubble blaster pump. Pulls a LOT of air.

[wesley6610]

That is some serious skimming on that small tank, very impressive. I just upgraded my skimmer also to a SRO 1000, but I haven't set up my new sump just yet to house it under my 75 gallon. Can't wait, just 2 more weeks until the move, I haven't been the happiest with my AquaC EV120 these last few years.

[sahin]

Hi there. How do you rate the two skimmers? Do you have shots to compare the skimmate produced by the BM skimmer?

[Myvirtue]

your tank is amazing.

[sammy113]

Originally Posted by wesley6610

That is some serious skimming on that small tank, very impressive. I just upgraded my skimmer also to a SRO 1000, but I haven't set up my new sump just yet to house it under my 75 gallon. Can't wait, just 2 more weeks until the move, I haven't been the happiest with my AquaC EV120 these last few years.

yeah, I'm very impressed with its performance. I was a bit scared of not fitting in the space but the super saver feature really saves some space. I wasn't really the happiest with my NAC7 either

Originally Posted by sahin

Hi there. How do you rate the two skimmers? Do you have shots to compare the skimmate produced by the BM skimmer?

I do have some shots of the NAC's skimmate. I'll have look for them to post and compare. What I can say, is that the NAC7 never pulled out some coffee like these. I must say the bubbles inside the chamber of the XP1000 are very fine but when they raise to the neck they're kinda big and at first I though this might be a problem and will collapse the skimmate but it does works just fine. I heard that putting a layer on enkamat in the pinwheel improves its performance so I could also try that.

Now comparing the XP1000SSS and the regular XP1000 there is some big differences. Even though they do have the same pump, the XP1000 has the pump outside of the body so the bubble diffuser accepts the pump from one of the sides and the bubble diffuser plate is full of holes, not like the XP1000SSS which has the pump inside the body and has a small area without holes to break the stream of the pump and reduce turbulence.

Also, the body of the XP1000 with pump outside is noticeable smaller than the SSS. Becuse the SSS has the pump inside the chamber, they had to do it with larger diameter cone in the base which gives a lot more room for the reaction chamber. The regluar XP1000 looks so skinny and not powerful like XP1000SSS.

One more thing I love about these skimmers is the gate valve to adjust the water level. I hated the NAC7 for having the wedge pipe and making fine adjustments is a PITA. This gate valve allows you to make very fine tunnings to water level for the desired skimming.

Another thing to mention is that bubble blaster pumps perform way better than Atman's plus you can find replacement parts easily. The NAC7 meshwheel broke on me after a couple of months and the spare meshwheell that came with it didn't fit. The Atman's pump runs at about 45watts and the Bubble Blaster just 10w plus 3 year warranty.

Heres a brief of it:

These pumps feature a digital control circuit board inside that controls directional startup and RPM speeds. This smart circuit board will shut the pump off if it detects a problem. Another unique feature is the clear volute housing which allows you to see inside the pump without having to take it apart. You can easily see if something is stuck inside. Something never seen before on internal or external pumps is the Silicone Nitride shafts and bearings that we use. The benefit of this material is that it will not allow calcium to adhere to it like ceramic. This means less maintenance and cleaning and more time for you to enjoy your aquarium instead of working on it! The biggest feature of the Bubble Blaster pumps is the enormous amount of air that they pull. Air and water volume is the key to aggressive protein skimming and there is no other pump on the market that is capable of pulling the amount of air that the Bubble Blaster pumps deliver. With the performance of these pumps and a 3-year warranty how can you go wrong!

Originally Posted by Myvirtue

your tank is amazing.

Thanks!

[got2envy]

tank is looking sooooooooo nice Sammy!!

[sammy113]

Originally Posted by got2envy

tank is looking sooooooooo nice Sammy!!

Thanks Maria!

[Machupicchu]

Is there any colors you feel are inadequate with your CW RB and Red?

[sammy113]

Not at all. I'm very satisfied with my lamp so far. I received my Neutral Whites today so any time soon will replace 4 Cool Whites for the Neutrals to see what the results are. Not that I'm not happy as is, just to increase spectrum variety though. Next thing to try is some Blue or Cyan for some Royal Blues

[sammy113]

Neutral White LEDs installed done quicker than I though. you can't really see much of a difference with bare eyes between CW and NW. With a picture, is another story. Here's a cel phone pic. Will snap a few shots later with my dslr when I clean the glass and scrape all the goddamn coraline.

[wesley6610]

Looks good, my Neutral whites and red LEDs come in tomorrow, can't wait to get them installed and start a photo journal for several corals that I've seen the biggest decline in coloration since my T5's were over the tank.

[daninfamous]

Hey sam, very impressed with your work, your tank is roughly half the size of an 40b, Im planning out my 40b build, you originally had 12 lights over your tank, do you think 24 would suffice? or should I go 36? im thinking 48 would be overkill?

[sammy113]

Originally Posted by daninfamous

Hey sam, very impressed with your work, your tank is roughly half the size of an 40b, Im planning out my 40b build, you originally had 12 lights over your tank, do you think 24 would suffice? or should I go 36? im thinking 48 would be overkill?

Thanks, for a 40b 36 LEDs will be enough. 24 won't cover the whole tank

[wesley6610]

Got my LEDs installed and I like the softer look of the tank now with 8 CW, 4 NW, 11 RB and 1 Red per array. I will give it about two weeks or so and see if I can tell of any coloration starting to develop; I will say that the red is brighter than I thought it would be, so I might swap it out for a warm white down the road. My pictures over time will help me decide.

[sammy113]

Originally Posted by wesley6610

Got my LEDs installed and I like the softer look of the tank now with 8 CW, 4 NW, 11 RB and 1 Red per array. I will give it about two weeks or so and see if I can tell of any coloration starting to develop; I will say that the red is brighter than I thought it would be, so I might swap it out for a warm white down the road. My pictures over time will help me decide.

Yeah now that we got pretty much the same array, I feel what you're saying. The red is indeed very bright. A lot more than I expected. That's why I installed it in the whites series which is dimmed down to 30% and has a 80 degree lens to blend better. Going optic less may be even better.

I'd like to see your progress as well. My next step will be to change some Royal Blues for either violet, cyan or regular blue

[wesley6610]

Yeah, I placed my red on my RB string thats at 50%, so I might put it on my white string that's around 35% as well, but really I'm not sure at this point. Without optics does more spilling that's noticeable than for aesthetics. Now it did blend better in the tank, but the wall and floor looked like a dark room, lol.

I think that I will remove the Red in a few weeks, get some blues and swap out 4 RB for Blues and see how it looks. The NW really tone down the color and touch the 550 - 620 nm range, so maybe the Red isn't as necessary as we thought. I will take some photos over the next few weeks and see how the growth and coloration shapes my next upgrade.

[sammy113]

Originally Posted by wesley6610

Yeah, I placed my red on my RB string thats at 50%, so I might put it on my white string that's around 35% as well, but really I'm not sure at this point. Without optics does more spilling that's noticeable than for aesthetics. Now it did blend better in the tank, but the wall and floor looked like a dark room, lol.

I think that I will remove the Red in a few weeks, get some blues and swap out 4 RB for Blues and see how it looks. The NW really tone down the color and touch the 550 - 620 nm range, so maybe the Red isn't as necessary as we thought. I will take some photos over the next few weeks and see how the growth and coloration shapes my next upgrade.

Yeah probably reds are not the best option to add that warm touch. Have you tried the optic without the acrylic? I mean just the white holder? It will prevent spill but without increasing light output

[wesley6610]

No, I didn't know you could pop that lens off at all. I will experiment tonight once I get home and let you know what I find. That's a good suggestion indeed.

[sammy113]

Yes, you can I've done it. Just push the acrylic lens from the small hole where attaches to the LED. The acrylic has 3 small notches to secure to the holder. You can always put it back if you don't break them while removing it.

[wesley6610]

Sounds good, I will pop that out this evening and see how the spread looks then, but the light spread without the optic is great, just spilling on the wall and floor, so this sounds like a good medium.