65 DSA SPS Dominant Mixed Reef
- Thread starter aggie13reef
- Start date
aggie13reef
New member
Everything is looking good mate, those top down acros look cool :thumbsup:
Love the Clover shot
Thanks Andrew. Now that I know your bug box technique my pictures are about to be way better! Can't wait to see how that blue piece turns out. A picture couldn't do it justice.
Thanks man, Clover just needs to stay out of the tank water now that the tank is in the house!
aggie13reef
New member
I need to add more flow just waiting on another pay check after the light purchase haha. I only have two powerheads and the return line right now, I would say I could probably add one more power head and be good if it is decent sized. I need to decide which one I want though. I have a nano hydor koralia on the back glass and I cannot remember the brand or size of my other head. It's a bit larger though.
daveonbass
New member
I would love to see a full tank shot with the hydra 26's. I'm thinking of taking the LED plunge on my 58g and haven't decided on two 52's, two 26's, one 52 and one 26, or just keep the T5 set up I have with a DYI LED bar. I really want to have the control that the AI's bring...I also recently got am AI Prime and love how it is completely self contained and dims automatically. So...I'd love a FTS just to get a feel of how the light would look.
aggie13reef
New member
I think an RW-8 would do everything you want for a budget price
I looked it up and that's probably what I will go with now. Thank you for the suggestion. I am hoping by adding one more in a 65 gallon tank the 3 should be enough with the return line.
aggie13reef
New member
I was originally dead set on doing an ATI sunpower and got talked into the Hydras. Me and my wife also have a prime that we have had for a couple months and that's what sold me on AI. The controllability is awesome. I am determined to try and get nice color with the LEDs. The two 26s light my tank well. So far I have the blues on 55 and whites at 25 during the peak of the run time. I plan on ramping them up very slowly over the next few months. I also had to turn my BML light bar off for the time being due to my sps retracting their polyps from too much light. The 26s are small but they are powerful. I will post up a FTS after work today.
aggie13reef
New member
As promised here is a couple shots of the tank.
The light bar thats in front and under the Hydras is currently off.
The light bar thats in front and under the Hydras is currently off.
daveonbass
New member
thanks for the Full Tank Pics. I really appreciate that. I'm really sold on the AI's at the moment. But I'm still not sure if I should get 26's or 52's. I would rather get more than I need than less. But the money issue. Plus the adjustment of the tank from 6x39w T5's plus 13 blue LEDs (7RB and 6B) to the 13LED pucks that are each in the hydras. The reason I worry is because the Prime that I have is over a tank that is the same width and height as my larger tank...just the length is different. one Prime is barely enough...and maybe NOT enough for a 24" tank. So...adding 3 more of the same thing seems like it just wouldn't quite make it...but the 52s (7 more pucks) would be plenty...maybe even too much. It's tough to tell. So many decisions...lol.
aggie13reef
New member
Thanks Mark! Heading to a couple LFS tomorrow. Hoping to score some neat acros.
No problem at all, glad I could help. I am still loving these lights. I was toying with the idea of 52's but I could not afford two and I really feel like the two 26's cover my tank well and I still have the lights set to pretty low power. If I would have gone with 52's I would really have to have them ramped down. Always a ton of decisions in this hobby :spin1:
aggie13reef
New member
Heres a little Sunday update for you guys. Today I bumped up the light percentages by 2% per color. For example blues were at 55, now at 57. I plan on bumping up another 2% next weekend for each color. I mounted the new branching monty and blue acro to the rock work and did my normal weekly water change. I also picked up a couple new acro frags yesterday. One is some sort of deepwater species that I cant ID, and the other is Red Planet. The LFS had one frag left so I picked it up! Heres a couple pictures:
New acan that we added, has pink, purple, and orange with some red mixed in.
Heres the Red Planet frag. It had just been cut and glued to a plug a couple hours before I bought it. It had some very slight PE during lights out last night but so far none during the day.
Heres the deepwater frag. Under the LFS lighting it had very faint green skin with pink corallites and polyps. It is pretty pale in my tank hoping it colors up nicely over the next few weeks. If anyone has an ID let me know!
This is becoming my new favorite. It is a beautiful blue with a faint green skin near the base. Difficult to photograph.
New acan that we added, has pink, purple, and orange with some red mixed in.
Heres the Red Planet frag. It had just been cut and glued to a plug a couple hours before I bought it. It had some very slight PE during lights out last night but so far none during the day.
Heres the deepwater frag. Under the LFS lighting it had very faint green skin with pink corallites and polyps. It is pretty pale in my tank hoping it colors up nicely over the next few weeks. If anyone has an ID let me know!
This is becoming my new favorite. It is a beautiful blue with a faint green skin near the base. Difficult to photograph.
aggie13reef
New member
Good to know, thanks for the ID. And thanks for the kind words about the setup!
daveonbass
New member
nice frags. the tank is looking great still. I'm gonna follow to see the progress with the lights.
aggie13reef
New member
nice frags. the tank is looking great still. I'm gonna follow to see the progress with the lights.
Thanks! I plan on ramping them up another 2% today once they turn on. We will see how things go over the next few months. Still no complaints so far.
aggie13reef
New member
Time for another Sunday update. I am currently heating my water up to do my normal weekly water change. I tested my Alk last night and found it to be 7.3 (Red Sea test). If anyone could recommend another high quality Alk test kit that would be great. I love the Red Sea for Ca but Alk gets difficult to pinpoint the exact color change. It is probably just me. As long as my Alk stays between 7.0-8.0 I am happy. I did not test Ca but at long as its over 400 I am happy. I have noticed that since the upgrade that I am not having to dose for Alk and Ca like I was in my 37. I was manually dosing seachem reef builder and Ca each 2 times per week plus 5 gal water change. I tested Alk last week after the change and it was 7.6, so lost .3 over 6 days. Growth looks great on LPS and SPS. My frogspawn is actually taking off about to split two more heads. One of my Acro frags has finally encrusted to the rock 
! This is my first piece that has done this. Others are getting close. My turaki has visibly grown as has my birdsnest and stylo. Overall I am very happy, just need to get my ATO set up. It was given to me free when I bought the tank but I have to fix one piece as its cracked. I plan on saving for a dosing pump so when the time comes I will be ready. I do not want to try to manually dose this system. I will try to get some pics up later!
! This is my first piece that has done this. Others are getting close. My turaki has visibly grown as has my birdsnest and stylo. Overall I am very happy, just need to get my ATO set up. It was given to me free when I bought the tank but I have to fix one piece as its cracked. I plan on saving for a dosing pump so when the time comes I will be ready. I do not want to try to manually dose this system. I will try to get some pics up later!
