A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

Thanks guys. Going to get the stairs trimmed out this week and then will work on the tank trim as soon as I can get local INDMAS member to help me out as he has some cabinetry/wood skills I don't!
 
I am having some lost color in following coral and was originally sold to me as "Palmer's Mille" but seems that's not close. Anyone help with identification? It was getting pounded with light and I've since cranked back photoperiod in tank and moved it out of the light directly under. I would like to look for it's optimal conditions:)

PalmersMillie.jpg
 
What intensity do you have the leds at? do you think less power instead of a shorter photo period would be better?

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SPotter said:
What intensity do you have the leds at? do you think less power instead of a shorter photo period would be better?

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

I'm already using less intensity, but have also now chose to dial back photoperiod.

Running two lights on the tank.

Orphek 72 (Left Side):

0% to 85% from 2-4pm
85% from 4pm-8pm
85% to 0% from 8-10pm

Apollo (Right Side):

Blues -
0% to 80% from 2:30-4:30pm
80% from 4:30pm-9pm
80% to 0% from 9-11pm

Whites -
0% to 65% from 3-5pm
65% from 4pm-8pm
65% to 0% from 8-10pm

These all probably had another 2 hours on photoperiod previously.

Food:

- I dose 40mL of AquaVitro Reef Fuel (Amino Acids) on Wednesday/Sunday
- Feed fish 1-2 times a day with Spectrum Thera-A
- Feed 1 mysis cubes weekly
- Feed 1 cyclop-eeze cubes weekly
- Feed ~1 cube Rods Reef weekly

Params:

Salanity - 1.026
Temp - 77.8-78.2
PH - 8.3-8.42
Nitrate - 0
Alk - 9-10 dKH
Calcium - 450-500 ppm
Magnesium - 1450
Phosphates - .02-.05 ppm
Iodine - 0.06

Not been testing Iron or Potassium. Any ideas?:idea:
 
Only thing I can think of is the lights. As you know its been a struggle for me keeping sps in my tank and I think part of my problem has been my light. I remember you did par studies on the lights and I remember the number were very impressive. I also remember reading something from apogee saying that par meters dont measure blue leds properly and numbers are under stated. I now run my whites at 55% max, green 30% max and all other colors at 80% max. The max time period is only 1 hr. I think if you look at David's thread, he is running his Radions at a max of 75%. All of your parameters look great.
 
SPotter said:
Only thing I can think of is the lights. As you know its been a struggle for me keeping sps in my tank and I think part of my problem has been my light. I remember you did par studies on the lights and I remember the number were very impressive. I also remember reading something from apogee saying that par meters dont measure blue leds properly and numbers are under stated. I now run my whites at 55% max, green 30% max and all other colors at 80% max. The max time period is only 1 hr. I think if you look at David's thread, he is running his Radions at a max of 75%. All of your parameters look great.
Click to expand...

I think I'm going to drop down the lights and leave them as is, feed a bit more and see where I go. As long as I keep that phosphate down I should not have any problems to keep feeding as Nitrates are a non-issue at this point. I actually thought about having skimmer only run part of the day to drive nutrients up a bit or cutting off any water changes until I start to see Nitrates climb a little bit. I'll keep tinkering and changing a variable or two at a time and giving it time to see if things improve. Give me a year and I'll have the system figured out:hmm2:
 
Did not have much time to work on the basement remodeling tonight. Did run to Lowes and got caps and the trim for the stairs to get them wrapped up tonight/tomorrow night. I managed to route the top cap and get them in place. Rest of trim should be easy to finish off tomorrow night. Next is the tank after that followed by the carpet!!!

Just taking picture for the picture junkies out there!
IMG_1830.jpg


IMG_1831.jpg
 
SPotter said:
Only thing I can think of is the lights. As you know its been a struggle for me keeping sps in my tank and I think part of my problem has been my light. I remember you did par studies on the lights and I remember the number were very impressive. I also remember reading something from apogee saying that par meters dont measure blue leds properly and numbers are under stated. I now run my whites at 55% max, green 30% max and all other colors at 80% max. The max time period is only 1 hr. I think if you look at David's thread, he is running his Radions at a max of 75%. All of your parameters look great.
Click to expand...

I'm up to 85% with all colors for 3 hours. and 20k set at 100% for 1 hour. then 8 hours of blues with a touch or red ramping up and back down.
 
Last edited:
Newbie Aquarist said:
So which do you like better, the Orpheks or the Apollos?
Click to expand...

I like them both. I know from Sanjay's earlier results from his testing that the Orphek has a better lumens/watt ratio than any fixture out so that makes it slightly ahead in that metric. Since many go to LEDs for the power consumption being less it'd make sense that that is high on the list of factors you should conisder. I've been running the PR-72 since MACNA and I've had really good results with it thus far. I had it about a foot higher than the Apollo for first month as it puts out some crazy PAR and I've not had much color loss on that side since adding many of the larger colonies. Pinks lemonade has lost it's deeper purple color on branches and is a purlple/yellow which is the way I wanted it to color up. On the flipside, the Apollo has had some recent changes to it which should change up the spectrum and PAR numbers.
 
david00061 said:
I'm up to 85% with all colors for 3 hours. and 20k set at 100% for 1 hour. then 8 hours of blues with a touch or red ramping up and back down.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing David. How high of intensity do you run the blues at for that 8 hours? Have you ever done any PAR/PUR tests to see where your numbers are at in the tank?
 
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