Calistyle's 120G Peninsula Build

[mordibv]

Very clean setup . Sorry about the struggles you are having . I have been beating the boards on this exact same fixture and can't find a lot of good feedback on them . It's a no brainer that the 8 bulb hybrid units work since the led imho are a supplement . I have also tried to compare the ati model that uses 2 x 75 and 4 x 39 watt .I haven't found any users raving on that unit either . The only difference I see between the two are no white emitter's and the use of UV emitter's . We all know t5's have a considerable amount of UV output . How much hits the corals is unknown but I would suspect its a broad output . Very unlike a UV emitter with a narrow pinpoint light. I agree it's not safe to keep playing with the spectrum constantly . Have you considered using 2 blue plus and 2 KZ NG or 2 Geisemann lagoon blues ? If it were me I would try this and omit the UV channel, and cyan channel with all others 100 % with the red dropped down quite a bit .The intensity would be where you are still at . Again I love your build and have my fingers crossed for you . I hope you find that sweet spot so you can enjoy your reef .

 

[calistyle]

At this point i don't think I can blame the fixture, but it was a fun theory.

I ditched the wavepoint blubs, for ATI. I ditched the tunze wavebox for an MP40, ditched the Gyre for another MP40. Flow is nice and quiet, thinks are running better.

SPS is doing better, but I lost my 12 head gold torch. It had 3 separate branch offs with 4 heads each. One by one a head with go, then take on the others on that branch, then the next branch. I was able to cut the remaining side thats to Jeff, but that one did last too long.

At this point, I'm sending in my water to get tested professionally.

All is well, just want to rule out some stuff.

 

[qwuintus]

Nice. If you vinyl wrapped the light fixture black or stainless it would match the rest of your house.

Clean setup.

 

[jabel]

Bummer about the torch. Let me know about your test results.

 

[k.tran]

Keep your head up bro. It can't get worse than MxRiders tank...

 

[818]

Is that drain line secure to anything? Those SCH80 gate valves are nice quality. SPEARS?

I would build a stand for that drain or find a clever way to hang it. The line is sagging which can't be good for the bulkhead/glass in the long run.

Great build!

 

[pmrl]

Fabulous!!
like seeing your glass on top with the water together, the fish not jump off?

 

[calistyle]

I hope it works out for you. I have always thought that the issue is related to when I started playing with adjusting the different colors which in turn shifts the spectrum. I was reading a thread today about how when a mh bulb gets old and the spectrum shifts it could be bad for corals and cause tissue damage. Are you running a custom program or are you running Bali?

I run custom. Not a fan of Bali.

Very clean setup . Sorry about the struggles you are having . I have been beating the boards on this exact same fixture and can't find a lot of good feedback on them . It's a no brainer that the 8 bulb hybrid units work since the led imho are a supplement . I have also tried to compare the ati model that uses 2 x 75 and 4 x 39 watt .I haven't found any users raving on that unit either . The only difference I see between the two are no white emitter's and the use of UV emitter's . We all know t5's have a considerable amount of UV output . How much hits the corals is unknown but I would suspect its a broad output . Very unlike a UV emitter with a narrow pinpoint light. I agree it's not safe to keep playing with the spectrum constantly . Have you considered using 2 blue plus and 2 KZ NG or 2 Geisemann lagoon blues ? If it were me I would try this and omit the UV channel, and cyan channel with all others 100 % with the red dropped down quite a bit .The intensity would be where you are still at . Again I love your build and have my fingers crossed for you . I hope you find that sweet spot so you can enjoy your reef .

I run custom w/ RED and AMBER down to 60%. total power @ 50%.

Fabulous!!
like seeing your glass on top with the water together, the fish not jump off?

Had one jump. it's 2in euro brace around tank, and light covers rest of area. If a fish finds the right angle to get out, so be it.

 

[ericta000]

How are your light working for you so far???? I almost brought the light you have.

 

[calistyle]

How are your light working for you so far???? I almost brought the light you have.

The lights are nice. Look amazing, silent, no heat, etc. Great customization options. But the community is small, which makes it tough to dial in and test new features.

Also, I'm having a hard to find people with acropora success, all mine died. in fairness, My tank was new, but i've added pieces since and it's the same result. Again in fairness, other corals that have thrived have recently had issues, so I can't put the blame on the lights alone.

My main grip is that I'm not sold on the 0 white LED in the clusters.

I'm making a few more tweaks to my settings and added some flow. I'm going to add some more SPS in a few weeks and see.

 

[goreef65]

Reading through your thread....sorry you're having issues. Beautiful tank.
Do you think having your UV channel at 100% could cause any issues?

 

[calistyle]

I recently just dropped it down a bit. I'm open to any suggestions on color levels, etc!

Here are my color settings:

Duration and total power here:

T5 bulbs are:
Coral Plus
Aquablue Special
True Actinic
Purple Plus

 

[goreef65]

The colors look good to me. I'm definately not an expert but I don't believe I've ever heard of SPS RTNing from lights. Typically if lights are giving off to much PAR you'd see some bleaching out...but RTN? I've been running (6) 80w T5's for 5 years now with no issues. I just added 3 Radions and now I'm only using 2 T5's as a supplement. I've noticed that some of my corals were lightning up (bleaching slightly) so I turn the brightness down from 55% to 45% overall and the colors are coming back on those pieces. LEDs can give off a ton of PAR. STN is one of those mysteries IMO. So many reasons but nothing specific. It's a reefers nightmare. It's happened to me many times in the past years and I've had to get in a cut some fresh pieces before the entire colony has gone...which it has every time. I've saved many corals this way. It's starting over but better than nothing. I always cut out the entire colony after fragging it and toss the rest asap. I think STN is almost kind of contagious..but I could be wrong. Hang in there.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Nice tank! I'm going to tag along as I am considering a Peninsula. My guess on your acro struggles is just that the tank is new and lacking life. I have struggled with the same. Good luck!

 

[calistyle]

The colors look good to me. I'm definately not an expert but I don't believe I've ever heard of SPS RTNing from lights. Typically if lights are giving off to much PAR you'd see some bleaching out...but RTN? I've been running (6) 80w T5's for 5 years now with no issues. I just added 3 Radions and now I'm only using 2 T5's as a supplement. I've noticed that some of my corals were lightning up (bleaching slightly) so I turn the brightness down from 55% to 45% overall and the colors are coming back on those pieces. LEDs can give off a ton of PAR. STN is one of those mysteries IMO. So many reasons but nothing specific. It's a reefers nightmare. It's happened to me many times in the past years and I've had to get in a cut some fresh pieces before the entire colony has gone...which it has every time. I've saved many corals this way. It's starting over but better than nothing. I always cut out the entire colony after fragging it and toss the rest asap. I think STN is almost kind of contagious..but I could be wrong. Hang in there.

Nice tank! I'm going to tag along as I am considering a Peninsula. My guess on your acro struggles is just that the tank is new and lacking life. I have struggled with the same. Good luck!

Possibly. My nitrates got very high pretty quickly. I've made some changes in my routine to address that and water quality.

 

[calistyle]

Update time

Added a pair of flame wrasses and I love them.

WC's at 5G at a time, every 7-10 days wasn't doing it for me. My nitrates got over 20ppm real fast, maybe closer to 40ppm (test is trash API). I never had Nitrate issue before so only have API test to see if it was even present in the tank.

That said, I connected RODI unti to washer cold water line in garage. To goes to other side of garage where i have 2 15's (one connected now) for RODI water, and a 32G brute for salt (pump, heater).

I've completed 3 - 30G changes over the last month.

Acro's hated my tank, still might...but atleast my jawbreakers are happy.

 

[calistyle]

I have also started dosing vinegar and I'm switching over to Triton Trace Elementz.

To do this I needed another doser, so while everyone else overpays for Apex Dos, I scooped up another Bubble Magus on the cheap (thanks Apex #1 fanboy).

This gives me 6 pumps to use. 4 for Triton, 1 for vinegar (if/as needed), and 1 for nothing at this time.

Before making the switch I'll send a water sample to Triton to see where my system stands. Then I'll make the switch and manually test for Sa, KH, Ca, Mg. Once dialed in, I'll send in another sample to confirm.

As far as water changes go, I'm sticking with doing them, often. I'll do 15g every 10-14 days.

 

[calistyle]

Go time!

#TeamTriton

 

[ChefZilla]

Go time!

#TeamTriton

You know the triton method revolves around no water changes right? Just run a big refugium and big skimmer... run the skimmer wet or small water changes with fresh water as the base elements will raise your salinity.
Have you figured out your daily dose yet? Minimum you should be at is around 55 for the day starting dose (depending on water volume, 10 mls for 25 gallons)

Also LOLOLOL for the apex fan boy comment.... lemme guess his name starts with a C?

 

[calistyle]

You know the triton method revolves around no water changes right? Just run a big refugium and big skimmer... run the skimmer wet or small water changes with fresh water as the base elements will raise your salinity.
Have you figured out your daily dose yet? Minimum you should be at is around 55 for the day starting dose (depending on water volume, 10 mls for 25 gallons)

Also LOLOLOL for the apex fan boy comment.... lemme guess his name starts with a C?

I plan on sending in my triton test first. Then I'll start dosing the elementz and monitor everything. IF salinity raises much (shouldn't initially starting, since dosing amounts will be low) I'll use one of my dosing pumps to remove sump water, and top off will replace that to keep salinity at bay.

I will do water changes still, but only to address an issue w/ no3 or po4 assuming media isn't handling it. Otherwise the goal would be to still do 1G auto water changes using my red sea pro salt. (maybe, down the road), really depends on tests.

I need to do a little more research on things like, dosing vinegar still, and their salt vs my own.

oh, and yes it starts with a C and ends with ORY