180 Reef Upgrade

[ARVERLY]

Yes it's 8x80w

If I remember correctly
2x ATI Actinic
3x ATI Blue+
3x ATI Coral+

Are you dimming your T5s on your tank? I find it that on my frag tank that is also 12" tall like yours, 6 bulb configuration about 12" above the water is too much. Some corals become really pale, as if they were blasted by too much light, yet PAR meter shows 250-300 par on the sand bed which is about what corals in the main tank get. Of course it could be some chemistry issues as well I guess as the tank is kind of new. Nothing is dying and in fact PE looks good, just that colors are not quite the same as in the main tank

Yes I'm dimming them and only at 60% max right now. I also need to raise the fixture because it's definitely too much light. At 100%, bottom is at 300par. I want to bring that down to 150 at the bottom and around 500-600 on top.

Are you also running LEDs? You should think about adding reefbrite LEDs!!
With an 8 bulb fixture, I would probably do 3 blue plus, 2 actinic, 2 coral plus, and 1 purple plus. And two reefbrites!!!

 

[raidendex]

I have my own bars made that come on at night and dim with arduino as moon lights.

Hmm ok, will have to see how to "dim" mine. I guess I could remove two bulbs and just run 4 bulbs on the frag tank. I think they it is about 150ish par on the sand bed, although I am growing SPS there so it may be different from what you want on yours.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Nice avatar raidendex

 

[raidendex]

Here is somewhat finished tank with 5 tall islands of SPS and so far 3 flat islands doe acans, pallys, and favias. Have a few SPS that I still need to attach and couple of monties that I need to glue somewhere, probably back wall somehow.

Full shot


Islands







Excuse the sand algae ! ;P

 

[raidendex]

Quick video update

 

[likefish]

Nice work! came out great

Curious to see if you can leave it alone long enough to let it grow out?

Keep us updated!

 

[raidendex]

That's the idea!

 

[raidendex]

Updated Michael's Coralpedia yesterday. Not quite 10-20 corals in the main tank lol, but just sitting back and watching them grow from now on

http://reef.verynotgood.info/

 

[Tenshoa]

Looks great! Looking forward to seeing it progress! I always loved he island idea. My tank just wasn't feasible for it.

 

[raidendex]

Got Tunze new magnet (long version) the other day. So far i really like it. Gets green haze off in one pass and fairly decent on coraline. Main thing however is the ability to go a bit over the usual area where the normal magnets reach and clean up the line that they leave. Like at the top of the tank and at the bottom in my case as the wood trim covers about inch of the tank.

 

[plyle02]

Michael,
Love the open scape, good to see am them fish out and swimming, great job, looking forward to seeing this reef grow
Regards,

 

[bobbravo2]

Just caught up. Looking great. +1 on using a calcium reactor.

 

[raidendex]

2(3) Part seems easier to control and use And I already have 5 gallon buckets full of Ca, Mg, and Ash that will last me forever.

Need to take another video of the tank soon. Just stirred it up yesterday to remove detritus from the rock work. Will see how it looks today for a video.

 

[raidendex]

Quick video update. Seems like it did not focus well lol on it's own, usually I use manual focus, this time left it all to the camera.

 

[Swirlygig]

You rock man!!! What coral is that on the far far left by the acans? strange...

Btw, move that monti to an island it will take over your branching...if you need other color montis i have some.

 

[raidendex]

There are no monties on the rocks, couple of chalices, a bit easier to control them.

On far left is some sort of hawaiian anemone. I posted about it a while ago when trying to ID and everyone mostly screamed to take it out. They've been sitting looking pretty on that rock for months now

 

[jaylensdad06]

very nice set up

 

[raidendex]

Took out all of the sand few days ago. Looks much better imo. Also seems like a good thing for corals that fall down, now they have a chance to survive on the glass bottom vs getting buried under the sand. Only issue is that flipped over hermits for now are getting stuck, but should get better for them once stuff like coraline will cover the floor.

 

[cham]

Took out all of the sand few days ago. Looks much better imo. Also seems like a good thing for corals that fall down, now they have a chance to survive on the glass bottom vs getting buried under the sand. Only issue is that flipped over hermits for now are getting stuck, but should get better for them once stuff like coraline will cover the floor.

Nice!

And you can place all your monti's on the floor to encrust and free up the rocks for other corals.


And you can turn the flow up all you want.


I love the look of sand, but the perks above I'll never have sand again. Plus it's so much easier to keep nutrients down.

 

[raidendex]

Never had many monties, but few I did have I glued to the back wall... eventually they all fell down and died in the sand lol. I do have one of the overflow box. Also fished out two pieces of jf guac cyphasteriasomething, so that will just sit on the floor now. Maybe I'll get rid of the three flat islands that have Acans, Pallys, and Favias and just spread them around the floor instead now for a nicer coverage. Mainly did those flat islands so they would not get lost in the sand, while keeping them away form main rock work, but not it's pretty easy to just throw them all over lol.