Brad's 525xl Super-Sized Reef Adventure.. come join us!

Good I hate for you get a bad light also these lights were 230 volts in Australia so could be totally different. I have a dimmable 24 x 4 Mattrixx Giesemann light but I have not fired it up yet.
 
Giesemann Matrixx 8 x 80w is here and installed

Giesemann Matrixx 8 x 80w is here and installed

Will post a photo soon. Wow what a interesting different between the LED and T5. I can see things including lower portions of the corals and rock I didn't notice before. Now the trickly par, intensity and height of fixture. Did a good deal of measuring par before i removed the Orphek's and I know everyone says par is different between T5 and LED though I'm thinking differently with the Orphek's though I could be wrong. Regardless its amazing how much par different between them. At the moment I'm running 4 Blue +, 3 Coral + and 1 Purple. Its to white for my liking though I have more purple, attinics and blue's bulbs coming to find our liking. At the moment the fixture is sitting 8 1/2 inch above the water line and i'm only seeing 280 par in the middle, 230 at the center bottom and 180 off to the sides. But with the Orpheks I was 380+ par and the fixture was 15 1/2 inch above the water! Not sure if I should lower the fixture down more to match par or leave alone. I was told by BRS that the t5 are more usable light and suggest to run them for only 6 hours a day at 14" above the water surface which may be to high imo. Any suggestions for the T5 users out there??
 
Second day of running them and i really love the difference already. So strange how i'm seeing less par but i physically can see more of my tank/coral and nooks and crannies then ever before. Photo below doesn't really represent how much light the tank really has right now. Only running the center 6 bulbs for now till the actinics and other Blue bulb comes in. Plan to run 5 B+, 1 C+, 1 P+, 1 A. May want to run 2 P+ instead of the 1 C + not sure yet. Time will tell though i'm very happy still wondering the difference between the Matrix and the ATI fixtures everyone raves about. All i know is the corals already are adapting and excepting the new lights well. Thanks for listening guys.

 
Back to Orhpeks,, long story and frustrations but letting that stuff go and moving forward. Happy to have them now hung from a hanging kit looks much cleaner.



Adding another cleaner shrimp, 6 line and royal gramma. Also changing a few things with the system, been skimmerless and no filter socks for 2 weeks bring up the n03 and p04, now its time to grow some corals!
 
If anyone was following I'm sorry for not posting. So many ups and down, and many many different lighting testing. Removed skimmer and running algae scrubber still. Gave up on trying to keep sps's and constant testing. Something is still not right with my main water supply, still working on my ro/di system now...... so the tank is pretty much growing easy sps's like monti's,leptastrea, cup corals, lps's and softies and i'm happy with it for the most part. The floor is almost fully covered we a few different zoa's. Much easier to manage. Currently running just 3 kessil a160's which seem more then fine for this lower demanding lighting system.



 
Last edited:
brad65ford said:
If anyone was following I'm sorry for not posting. So many ups and down, and many many different lighting testing. Removed skimmer and running algae scrubber still. Gave up on trying to keep sps's and constant testing. Something is still not right with my main water supply, still working on my ro/di system now...... so the tank is pretty much growing easy sps's like monti's,leptastrea, cup corals, lps's and softies and i'm happy with it for the most part. The floor is almost fully covered we a few different zoa's. Much easier to manage. Currently running just 3 kessil a160's which seem more then fine for this lower demanding lighting system.



Click to expand...

:fish1: Hi Brad, if I were you I would settle on one type of lighting, get a good RO/DI unit, from BRS or SpectraPure and be done with it. If you are going to keep SPS corals you should also have a good Calcium Reactor, and let the tank stabilize before adding any more SPS Corals. Hook up your protein skimmer, and make sure it is a good one, test your water weekly until the system is stable, then whenever you see a problem in the tank, or maybe once a month if you feel safer this way. Good luck going forward. :fish1:
 
Couldn't agree more regarding light, once you have what is appealing to the eye and enough light for corals let it go.

Regarding water, I have a SpectraPure 6 stage still can't figure out the Cat Pee smell that is created in our holding tank. It's a brute grey which everyone uses too, not sure what is going on but I ordered a new membrane since that is the last piece of the puzzle. RO/DI is only 8 months old.
 
brad65ford said:
Couldn't agree more regarding light, once you have what is appealing to the eye and enough light for corals let it go.

Regarding water, I have a SpectraPure 6 stage still can't figure out the Cat Pee smell that is created in our holding tank. It's a brute grey which everyone uses too, not sure what is going on but I ordered a new membrane since that is the last piece of the puzzle. RO/DI is only 8 months old.
Click to expand...


That smell is completely normal. It will dissipate with time and use. Drove me nuts trying to figure it out until I made a thread about it. Everyone that uses them agrees it's normal and does not impact the tank one bit.

3 years now and I still smell it faintly, but have not had any issue with the tank because of it. I only smell it in my RO/DI storage, once salt is mixed in I cannot smell it anymore.


EDIT:
Great looking tank BTW!!!
 
Whats weird is I never had the smell before. Its strong, really strong. To the point I did a 40g water change and my wife is what the hell is that smell, smells like cat pee.
 
In storage holding brute grey 30g. I've bleached it twice, smell still comes back, thought it was coming from ro/di filters possibly but the smell isn't even there before it, also no where in the house or showers etc...
 
Nice growth for ten months! My Brute kind of smells like cat pee, but only if I stick my head in it. What salt do you use? you don't exactly have cats do you?
 
LOL such a funny subject. I've always used RPM but just switched to AquaForest to give it a shot.

So i'm not alone in this cat pee brute smell. That just doesn't make sense.
 
I tested my RO/DI for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates when I first discovered the smell, all 0's. So thats not it.



I honestly think it's just a product of the plastic leeching a smell. Nothing harmful to our tanks, but none the less frustrating.



I've rinsed, washed, rinsed both my brutes several times. One smells, the other does not, and if I switch containers, one will smell, the other will not.



As anecdotal evidence it may just be the grey brutes, I have 2 red brutes(ace brand but made by rubbermaid and is NSF certified) that I use on occasion when I need a large amount of water, and they do not smell. I wonder if it's just the grey brutes that have the smell?


I have learned to just ignore it and my tank is no different.
 
Yup brutes storing water smell like cat pee, it is most bizarre. Love the zoa colonies on the bottom like that, they look great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Automated/bluetooth/wifi alert systems
Replies
7
Views
155
Dustin07
D
Tamara Marshall
Comprehensive Article About Bubble Algae - Manta Systems Article
Replies
0
Views
92
Tamara Marshall
Tamara Marshall
CHSUB
30 gal RedSea nano xl mangrove reef lagoon
Replies
8
Views
492
Reefing102
Reefing102
9
Red Sea Reef ATO+ Auto Top Off System
Replies
7
Views
467
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
M
NanoCube 24DX Goals...Advice
Replies
1
Views
171
griss
griss
Back
Top