A Customdusty Rimless Build

Taqpol said:
I really don't like the UVL Actinic Whites, they seem to give the tank a weird purplish hue. I run:

Blue+
KZ Fiji Purple
Blue+
ATI Aquablue Special
Blue+
ATI Aquablue Special
Blue+
Blue+


That is pretty much what SunnyX runs over his tank, minus the KZ Fiji Purple.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking, but Grim said the 6500k will help with better growth, and I figured would be offset by so many B+ bulbs. I might just do Fiji Purples instead of the Actinic White, I like the Fiji I run now - I wish I had two.
 
Do you have a PAR meter? Judging by most peoples PAR numbers yours should be way up there at 5-6" above the tank. Those lights are so sexy. Lucky dog you.
Can't wait to see it.
 
I agree, you should be good with the 6500K's. I even got one to try out, but with only having eight bulbs I got some yellow-ish "hot-spots" between my otherwise very blue-white tank. I remember Grim teling me that the Blue+ bulbs had the second highest PAR only to the 6500K, so you should get great growth. I might even throw some true actinics on the ends just to really pop things.

Also, definitely go with the Fiji Purples, they are awesome bulbs.
 
It will be nice to never have to wonder about whether or not I have enough light :dance:

Here are some preview pics of the fixture and custom white color I am getting.

24.jpg


41.jpg


ST-T5-880-1.jpg
 
Well another setback today, now just a few days into the Zeovit system and my tank showing signs of that change, I hopefully narrowly avoided a near disaster.

My Apex lost power this afternoon when I shut down the circuit to change a light fixture in the house. When I powered it up everything seem to come back on normally. Little did I know that the power loss deleted all of my Apex programs and re-assigned default ones to each outlet. Unfortunately the "light" progam got assigned to my Alkalinity portion of my 2 part system and it dosed 400mL of Alkalinity over the course of 5 hours until I noticed "huh, my pH seems a bit higher than normal". Then my halide turned off at a wierd time, and then back on a little while later, then off again. I started investigating then and found the Apex memory had been wiped out. My pH went from 7.9 to 8.3 from the 400mL of Alkalinity being added, which is about 6 times what I usually add per day. I did an emergency 20 gallon water change which lowered it to 8.14 - but that is the best I could do.

I got the Apex re-programmed and working right again, but I'm afraid that another big episode like this might start doing some real harm. I just haven't managed to maintain good stability for long enough to let things settle in. Despite having some of the best equipment out there, I feel like I have been walking a fine line with a full out tank crash.

The other piece of good news..... The Coral Rx dips that I did for the AEFW just about killed every frag I dipped. Any type of deep water acro, bottlebrush, or valida is toast. My red planet - gone. Miami orchid - gone. Hawkings blue echinata - gone. I made it through 2 dips with most of them, with the instructions saying 5-10 minutes, I did 6 which apparently was too much.
 
I have found that Hawkins echinatas are particularly susceptible to dips of all sorts. Sorry to hear about all your troubles!
 
Well I might not have to worry much about acclimating my corals to the new light when it gets here, I might not have any left by then.

I managed to get the alkalinity back under control, it peaked at 12 dkh and slowly drifted down to 7.5 over the past few days without dosing anymore, which is slightly lower than where it was.

Now since that happened and 1 week into the ZeoVit system, I have RTN just nailing half of my SPS, and the rest are bleached out with almost no PE.

Here I am trying to improve my color and I just about wipe out the tank. We will see how things recover, if they do. Things are just going so far in the wrong direction that that I don't think I have any option but to pull the plug on Zeo and wait it out.

To add insult to injury my wife's only fish in the tank, a Royal Gramma, decided to jump out of the tank. RIP Gramma.
 
Just a quick update. Things have been very stable now for the past 4 weeks. All of my parameters seem to be right where I want them and varying little if any. I am more pleased now with my control over the parameters than I have ever been.

Unfortunately, the effects of the water chemistry changes alkalinity/zeovit have taken some time to show. I believe things are beginning to recover now, but not before having lost about all of my SPS. From roughly 40 different species, I now have less than 10 remaining - althought I did not lose a single LPS or soft coral.

Here is what I lost:

Pink milli (large colony)
Red milli
Red/white milli
Blue milli
Green Milli
Purple milli
Yellow milli
ORA Hyacith Birdsnest (large colony)
ORA plum crazy
ORA miami orchid
ORA blue tort
ORA Blue tip stag (large colony)
Neon green bottle brush
White caroliniana
ORA Bellina
ORA Borealis (large colony)
ORA Red planet
Sky blue stag
ORA Voodoo
Shaggy green stag
Superman monti
Reverse superman monti
Brown white tip stag
Tri color valida (large colony)
Blue stag (large colony)
50% tissue loss on my 2 large slimer colonies
And more........
 
My new fixture finally arrived today. I plan to get it installed this weekend, but here are some preliminary pictures. I didn't think that build quality could get much better than the Giesemann fixture I have now, but wow - this thing is just slick. If the Giesemann is a Mercedes, this thing is definitely a Ferrari. Just soooo sweet.

DSCN0759.jpg



DSCN0765.jpg
 
Six fans, and more than 50% of the surface is the mesh - plenty of air flow to breathe and keep cool.

DSCN0757.jpg


All individual reflectors

DSCN0752.jpg
 
reefsahoy said:
wow 12 bulbs! that's alot of light! are the fans quiet? you need to change your tank info!
Click to expand...

Yeah I wanted as many bulbs as possible, but not too much light where I nuke the tank - that's why I went with a 36" fixture with 39w bulbs.

I can't change my tank info until I hang it up!
 
The fixture is installed now and it actually is a really nice fit. The only problem was with the two point hanging kit adapting to my hanging arms, because of the short distance I dont have the ability to raise and lower the light for maintenance or if I need access.

The fixture is also 20" wide and my tank is 24", so the front two bulbs spill some light, but overall the fit is real nice. I'll have pictures up in the next couple of days. I am really digging the 36" fixture over the 48" tank, I don't think I will buy a full length fixture again now that I see how well it works.

I don't like the current bulb set-up just yet, I think I have a good combo but I just need to work out the bulb positions to get it just right.
 
customdusty said:
The fixture is installed now and it actually is a really nice fit. The only problem was with the two point hanging kit adapting to my hanging arms, because of the short distance I dont have the ability to raise and lower the light for maintenance or if I need access.

The fixture is also 20" wide and my tank is 24", so the front two bulbs spill some light, but overall the fit is real nice. I'll have pictures up in the next couple of days. I am really digging the 36" fixture over the 48" tank, I don't think I will buy a full length fixture again now that I see how well it works.

I don't like the current bulb set-up just yet, I think I have a good combo but I just need to work out the bulb positions to get it just right.
Click to expand...

Hey where did you purchased this fixture from, i'm in the market my tank is
36x24x22 ?
 
boxer385 said:
Hey where did you purchased this fixture from, i'm in the market my tank is
36x24x22 ?
Click to expand...

This would be a perfect fixture for your tank. I bought it through Aquatics Elite, they are new on the sponsor forum here on RC or just head to www.aquaticselite.com There are a lot of options, within the same footprint 36"x20" fixture you can get any combination of T5, LED, and HQI.

Once I get everything cleaned up a bit, I'll send in some photos and my tank will be featured in the gallery on their site.
 
Here is a preliminary shot of the new fixture over the tank. I love it, and really like the look of the 36" fixture over 48" tank.

DSCN0781.jpg
 
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