BK's 110 Gallon Build

[Schplitter]

How's your sps doing?

It's complicated. The Montipora seem to be doing good. The Green Slimer seems to be doing good. Any kind of Acro or Birdsnest seems to die quick. It seems weird but I think it's due to the problems I had with the Calcium Reactor and bad test kits. I guess I'll try them again once everything is working well for a while without any kind of interruptions.

 

[Schplitter]

It's been over 4 months since my last update. Looks like I had all kinds of trouble with SPS at that time. I'm happy to report my SPS seem to be doing fine now. 40 pieces and counting!

Things I changed in the last 4 months:

(1) Parameters are stable now. Not quite stable enough but withing good ranges and very slow fluctuations if any.

(2) I'm running 4 wp25's, mp10 and a 1200gph return pump. I'm very happy with the flow.

(3) I have learned to place my coral very low in the tank for a while. Then when I see the coral color up I move it up about one inch per week or less. This seems to do the trick for light acclimation. I also have screen shades so I can drop the intensity of new lamps when I replace them.

When moving coral from LED lit tank I shade and place the new coral on the bottom.
When moving from T5 lit tank I place coral on the bottom and only shade for a couple of days.
When moving from MH lit tank I place on bottom and watch carefully.

Who knew you could have too much light? 250w HQI's are no joke!

 

[Saltygram]

Looks great.

 

[Schplitter]

I'm pretty sure all of my metal halide stuff is dead. I'm not getting power to the ballasts and my bulbs are just about done. After I came home today from work the tank was dark, the bulbs look like they got burned and the ballast housing was hot to the touch. Not a good thing.

I guess I have no choice but to give the Pharos LEDs a shot instead of testing them o ER some frags for a while. I guess plans change... Good thing I just picked them up.

The funeral for the metal halides will be this Friday if anyone wants to attend. 12 years of good service. They will be missed!

 

[kegogut]

Sorry to hear about the MH Ben. But at least you have the Pharos to fall back on.

 

[makeshift101]

12 years is a good life span imo

 

[Mr D smack]

Im sure your aware of this but you can get replacement parts

 

[Schplitter]

Im sure your aware of this but you can get replacement parts

Working on it right now. I think some of the connections are lose inside. If I have to I'll rewire the whole ballast. I'll be happy as long as it works and is safe. I was afraid everything inside was completely fried.

 

[Schplitter]

12 years is a good life span imo

Agreed. Can't complain there.

 

[Schplitter]

Sorry to hear about the MH Ben. But at least you have the Pharos to fall back on.

Yeah the Pharos are working now. the shimmer and the colors of the coral are insane!

I took the MH stuff off. It may be repairable. I was really hoping to figure out how to work the Pharos and what setting work best before I put them over my tank. With almost all SPS Im taking a huge risk with just switching without any kind of knowledge of what to do. If I can fix the MH I'll go back until I understand the new lights a whole lot better.

 

[Schplitter]

Before I get harassed lol

This is just the Pharos at about 50/50/60/30 white/other white/blue/uv.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Looking good!

 

[Pife]

Looks like you are getting great growth and color.

 

[Schplitter]

Looking good!

Thank you!

Looks like you are getting great growth and color.

For sure. i'm doing something correct this time :dance:

Here is a good comparison:

Tricolor 7.19.14 when I placed it in the tank

7.22.14

9.6.14

11.19.14

1.9.15

 

[Schplitter]

I love this shot. LED's at 1% Blue only and only one fixture.

 

[smoothdog]

Looks great BK! Did you mount the leds on an angle?

 

[Schplitter]

Looks great BK! Did you mount the leds on an angle?

Thanks!

Yes one of them is on an angle and the other one is back over the frag rack in the sump. I managed to replace all of the wiring inside of the ballast so I put the Metal Halide's back up and this is the only way I could mount one of the LED's. I figure I may as well use them for moon lights and dusk to dawn when I have them.

The frags on the frag rack look great so far so hopefully I can convert over to LED before the summer. I'll take my time with testing...

 

[Schplitter]

 

[Schplitter]

No SPS whatsoever. I am a SPS murderer. The clam does have new rings and I have a lot of coralline growing.

I was just browsing through this thread of mine and realized that it has only been a year since I added the 1st SPS in the system. The quote is from 4.13.14. Obviously, after reading through this thread, the switch from dosing to the Ca reactor made this possible along with you guys telling me to test teligiously. The system is 97% SPS now :dance:

 

[Schplitter]

Just like his older brother my latest frag (Liam) loves the tank.

<a href="http://s282.photobucket.com/user/schplitter/media/110/7442193E-0893-4E0F-9EA9-237C2EFD82EB.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk272/schplitter/110/7442193E-0893-4E0F-9EA9-237C2EFD82EB.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 7442193E-0893-4E0F-9EA9-237C2EFD82EB.jpg"/></a>