47G SPS...Revamp

[dtum]

Have you considered running a Metal Halide over your tank?

 

[sahin]

Have you considered running a Metal Halide over your tank?

I would love to run a 400w Radium. But its never going to happen. My living room runs 27'C ALL YEAR round. I'd need a chiller and electricity bill would be sky high. At moment my tank runs up 1/2 the electricity cost of the whole place. If it went higher wife wouldnt be happy at all. Due to the point course nature of MH, I'd ALWAYS want to use T5 lighting as supplements to provide the fill...and then Royal Blue LED's for that pop...so you can see how the heat and electricity cost would get pretty crazy...

I know with a 400w Radium I'd be pulling better colours easier...but I am pretty confident a T5/LED combo can get me that with a bit of tweaking.

This same setup was pulling great colours a few years ago...I just need to get to that point again...in the next 6 months I think I can pull it off.

Currently my Blue Tort and Red Planet look 8.5/10 with 10 being perfect colours. Other corals are far below that score. Tank is getting there...I just need to tweak balance of nutrients and water quality. :fun5:

 

[sahin]

Have you considered running a Metal Halide over your tank?

FWIW, some of the BEST colours I saw in Acropora was under an ATI Sunpower at my LFS. Corals looked AMAZING. Previously had MH.

And then a buddy of mine who ran a DIY T5/LED system. The deepest/strongest colours in Acros in a non LFS system. He was rather a newbie with respect to SPS...but ran a simple system...had great colours. This is the guy whom I got my Blue Tort from. He has since shut down the tank and is out of the hobby. I wish I had taken photos of his system when it was up.

 

[echopiece]

Looking great sahin! Your colors are really starting to pop now! Speaking of blue torts, I'm hoping to score a sweet true Oregon tort next month at reefapalooza.

 

[SneekaPeek]

There was an article a few years ago where they carried out PAR testing on painted V non painted/no background tanks. They found that having nothing on the back glass provided the most PAR; that the painted surface absorbs some of the light etc.

I had black background before, but I much prefer the blue background. Tank appears brighter and thats the look I prefer. Also I've been diving on a real reef and a blue background looks more like the deep blue that can be seen when looking into the distance on a real reef.

Thanks for your insight. your build is truly inspirational for all of us. I'll be watching over like a hawk because you seem to be doing everything right and have meticulously thought about every component. Seriously man great job and keep up the good work. Pat on the back!

 

[sahin]

Looking great sahin! Your colors are really starting to pop now! Speaking of blue torts, I'm hoping to score a sweet true Oregon tort next month at reefapalooza.

Thanks buddy. I'd love to find a piece of the Oregon Tort. The Oregon Tort will ALWAYS be one of my top five Acros to have in any tank.

Thanks for your insight. your build is truly inspirational for all of us. I'll be watching over like a hawk because you seem to be doing everything right and have meticulously thought about every component. Seriously man great job and keep up the good work. Pat on the back!

Hey thanks for the nice compliment. I really hope by the end of the year 90% of my acros are coloured up nicely. Only then will I say I'm deserving of your nice compliment.

 

[dtum]

Thank you for answering, but why were you thinking of 400 MH and not 250? For the tank of this size would not it have been appropriate?

 

[sahin]

Thank you for answering, but why were you thinking of 400 MH and not 250? For the tank of this size would not it have been appropriate?

I like the 400w halides. I've known people to run 400watters over 20G SPS tanks. :lol:

 

[biggles]

The word 'appropriate' and SPS lighting choices have no place in the same sentence tbh dtum. I find that if i get painful sunburn after having my arm under a Radium bulb for 60 seconds whilst working on acro stuff that the PAR at the surface is spot on.

I don't believe you can do that with your hybrid/mutated T5 LED light rig can you Sahin ?

 

[mellotang]

Isn't that why we still use Halides... To get a tan while servicing the tank?!

 

[biggles]

Isn't that why we still use Halides... To get a tan while servicing the tank?!

Quite right mate :beer:

Lighting can be confusing, especially to those new to the hobby so it's easier to draw distinctions by the use of analogies.

LED - imagine you were an acro and you suddenly woke up on an examination table being probed by aliens under intense space age lighting.

T5 - same acro waking up in one of those weird solarium tanning beds.

Halide - that acro is now basking on a Pacific reef under the midday sun thinking ' hmmm i feel so jolly good i might look all bright and colorful '

I'm pretty sure none of my acros wanna get probed any time soon...........

 

[Fishy 1]

Quite right mate :beer:

Lighting can be confusing, especially to those new to the hobby so it's easier to draw distinctions by the use of analogies.

LED - imagine you were an acro and you suddenly woke up on an examination table being probed by aliens under intense space age lighting.

T5 - same acro waking up in one of those weird solarium tanning beds.

Halide - that acro is now basking on a Pacific reef under the midday sun thinking ' hmmm i feel so jolly good i might look all bright and colorful '

I'm pretty sure none of my acros wanna get probed any time soon...........

Hmmm, interesting thinking Andrew. Well all I have to say is that you do enough acro probing without the help of aliens:hmm5:

 

[sahin]

Quite right mate :beer:

Lighting can be confusing, especially to those new to the hobby so it's easier to draw distinctions by the use of analogies.

LED - imagine you were an acro and you suddenly woke up on an examination table being probed by aliens under intense space age lighting.

T5 - same acro waking up in one of those weird solarium tanning beds.

Halide - that acro is now basking on a Pacific reef under the midday sun thinking ' hmmm i feel so jolly good i might look all bright and colorful '

I'm pretty sure none of my acros wanna get probed any time soon...........

:uzi::uzi::uzi:

Give me a few more months to play around with my system...I've seen great colours in T5/LED system...something isnt quite right with my water...the lighting is fine.

 

[biggles]

i know you'll have a beautiful SPS display in the near future mate. It's surprising how little of a tweak or change to your water is required sometimes to see dramatic results so i hope you hit the sweet spot soon Sahin.
Any ideas what might be off with the water that's giving the acros the sulks ?

 

[sahin]

i know you'll have a beautiful SPS display in the near future mate. It's surprising how little of a tweak or change to your water is required sometimes to see dramatic results so i hope you hit the sweet spot soon Sahin.
Any ideas what might be off with the water that's giving the acros the sulks ?

No idea mate. Maybe tank needs more time.

The thing is, I am joined to so many reef forums and now Facebook and have seen both online and in person, good SPS colouration under many different lighting...that leads to assume that water quality is more important than the lighting technology used.

At the moment a large portion of my corals show good colour. Question is, if you can colour up wild SPS so easily Andrew, what is it in my tank prevent the brown ones from colouring up? Assume lighting isnt an issue mate because some of my corals have never looked better...yet others are brown; but they are meant to be colourful as I can see hints of colour.

 

[afernandez]

I think its time for an update like an FTS or something

Call me crazy

 

[Keng_v]

Love the setup.

 

[mhucasey]

I think that the T5s can provide the right intensity and coverage for the majority of SPS, but there are some corals, especially the wild ones, that need that extra oomph that the halides bring. I'm not willing to deal with the heat and I like the hanging pendant type light, so Im not willing to switch for those reasons, but it seems undeniable to me that the halides are still the king when it comes to coloring coral...

 

[afernandez]

I think that the T5s can provide the right intensity and coverage for the majority of SPS, but there are some corals, especially the wild ones, that need that extra oomph that the halides bring. I'm not willing to deal with the heat and I like the hanging pendant type light, so Im not willing to switch for those reasons, but it seems undeniable to me that the halides are still the king when it comes to coloring coral...

absolutely agree!

 

[shih87]

I think that the T5s can provide the right intensity and coverage for the majority of SPS, but there are some corals, especially the wild ones, that need that extra oomph that the halides bring. I'm not willing to deal with the heat and I like the hanging pendant type light, so Im not willing to switch for those reasons, but it seems undeniable to me that the halides are still the king when it comes to coloring coral...

Interested. Any theory behind why wild coral hard to bring up color or why they need HQI?
I too don't like change my ATI T5 back to HQI, but maybe knowing why can figure out something else....