First saltwater tank, 29 gallon Biocube
- Thread starter cdrewferd
- Start date
Great info!! Thanks for sharing it. Probably why my Coral Beauty has done fairly well in my nano reef! I should probably hit you up as well on my stocking list (and order to add them) for my two-tank build that you saw. Since talking a couple weeks ago, I know you got this stuff down. 
I've had some great insight, but more heads together usually come up with the most solid answers.
I've had some great insight, but more heads together usually come up with the most solid answers.
Just FYI and caution for the newbies. Its a pretty common belief that some angles are safe. Cherub pygmy angles are often one that is mentioned. I have heard this many times over and many people do have luck with them so there must be some truth to it. This was not the case for me I had a Cherub pygmy for about 10 days before it decimated half the corals in my tank. My following statements are directed for people new to the hobby.
When it comes to angels no mater how safe someone tells you they are, its a gamble plain and simple. If you are seriously considering adding an angel to your reef ask yourself one question first. "Do I like this fish so much that I am willing to tear my tank apart to get it out (if) it starts being a nuisance?"
If the answer is yes go for it. If not there are plenty other fish in the sea?
When it comes to angels no mater how safe someone tells you they are, its a gamble plain and simple. If you are seriously considering adding an angel to your reef ask yourself one question first. "Do I like this fish so much that I am willing to tear my tank apart to get it out (if) it starts being a nuisance?"
If the answer is yes go for it. If not there are plenty other fish in the sea?
So I have pretty much researched everything I can about both of these systems and it seems like the DIM4 is a better unit out of the box for a couple of reasons; the relay ports, the 500mA circuits and the plug and play setup. The downside is if you want to use it to actually switch on and off the drivers you need to spend another 40$ on the relay board they sell. Also it doesn't offer any upgrade ability.
The typhon on the other hand can be used to control fans if you wanted to just run them on a 10V pwm dimming circuit and sacrifice a led channel. It offers the benefit of having an arduino base so you can write your own software for it, meaning you get what you want. It is also half the price.
One area where they differ majorly and means you need to determine which you will use before hand is that one uses PWM dimming and the other uses a 0-10V dimming circuit.
If you have any questions go ahead and ask me. At this point I'm actually kinda considering just building my own on an arduino base.
The typhon on the other hand can be used to control fans if you wanted to just run them on a 10V pwm dimming circuit and sacrifice a led channel. It offers the benefit of having an arduino base so you can write your own software for it, meaning you get what you want. It is also half the price.
One area where they differ majorly and means you need to determine which you will use before hand is that one uses PWM dimming and the other uses a 0-10V dimming circuit.
If you have any questions go ahead and ask me. At this point I'm actually kinda considering just building my own on an arduino base.
Ask Projectx abput the reef angel he just got. Sounds like he really likes it and worth it for the cost.
http://www.reefangel.com/
http://www.reefangel.com/
I understand what you are saying about the Typhoon. The ability to make it do just about anything you want is nice. Only problem is I'm not a programmer and not sure how deep I want to get into that stuff.
The nice thing about the DIM4, is that it's ready to go. I would only need this for my lights, so being able to customize isn't that high of a priority. I'll probably get an Apex JR or similar down the road, but wouldn't need it to do the lights. Would that be nice, yea but I don't think it's worth the extra money right now.
If you weren't going to build your own, which one would you get? I'd really like to do my LEDs with birthday money and that's coming up in the middle of February. Maybe if you end up doing your own I could help out where I could, throw you some cash and get one for me too?
The nice thing about the DIM4, is that it's ready to go. I would only need this for my lights, so being able to customize isn't that high of a priority. I'll probably get an Apex JR or similar down the road, but wouldn't need it to do the lights. Would that be nice, yea but I don't think it's worth the extra money right now.
If you weren't going to build your own, which one would you get? I'd really like to do my LEDs with birthday money and that's coming up in the middle of February. Maybe if you end up doing your own I could help out where I could, throw you some cash and get one for me too?
So along with still trying to decide about a controller for my LED upgrade, I'm now thinking about drilling my tank and running a sump. Biggest reason I'm thinking this way is it's going to be several years before I get to go to a bigger tank. Also, the added water volume would be nice. A standard 10g will fit front to back in my stand, but is that big enough to really be worth it? Also, if I did the sump would it be worth tearing the tank down and removing the back false wall? It would give me another ~5" of depth to the tank, though not sure how I'd get the lighting back there.Just some ideas I'm throwing around.
I haven't really looked into DIYing a controller. I do computer support for a living and could probably tackle the hardware part, but programing is something I've never really done. Also, it would have to cost about half what the DIM4 does, otherwise I'd rather go with something that works out of the box and doesn't require me spending a lot of time learning new things, which isn't bad, but also has more area's for me to screw something up.
