Coral Growth with DIY LEDs

[AntiSatan]

Very nice those monti caps can grow like a weed

 

[Lyghtning]

Hey Bgifford, frogg, others in AZ

I just uploaded this so you can see lights/flow/stuff.

http://youtu.be/1BH6w70hWJ4

in HD even

took forever to compress.....

 

[bgifford]

Hey Bgifford, frogg, others in AZ

I just uploaded this so you can see lights/flow/stuff.

http://youtu.be/1BH6w70hWJ4

in HD even

took forever to compress.....

How old is the tank, what do your water tests say, how often do you do water changes, what salt do you use, how long has the coral been in the tank?

First impressions:

I think that light is probably 3-4 times as much light as I have running my tank that is 21'' deep and my lights hanging 6-12'' off the water.

I could be jumping to conclusions, but it looks like your tank is young, maybe a few months old? (I say that based off the type of algae your growing).

I also suspect that your nitrates and phosphates are high. Just so you know, fish excrete ammonia directly into the water column. The ammonia is degraded by bacteria into a less toxic chemical called nitrite, and is further degraded into a less toxic chemical called nitrate. (our bodies break down proteins/muscle into amino acids which are used for energy or get degraded into ammonia which enters the urea cycle and is stored in our bladder)

Zooxanthellae and other endosymbiotic dinoflagellates can use small amounts of nitrate, however if you have too much nitrate & phosphate (or other nutrients) you quickly start to see negative impacts on your corals and the looks of your tank. High nutrients can also support the fast growth of many demanding algae which can really increase your biological oxygen demand of your system. The fish and living things in the water then compete for their oxygen and can crash the system. This happens in the ocean when fertilizers get dumped into the sea.

Another take-home message:

1. seriously consider lowering the intensity of your lights
2. do weekly 10% water changes - its a blessing not a curse
3. get a cleanup crew-hermits, snails, horseshoe crab (my favorite).


I'm unsure if I would suggest biopellets. I started mine before I had any hard coral in my tank. I had a few softies and I had a rough beginning that almost wiped out my mushrooms. After a short rough period, my nutrients were under control and I started adding sps. While getting my nutrients under control, I stocked up on clean up crew. I got a sand sifting star and a horseshoe crab to shovel my sand around.

I'm no expert, but this is what I would do if it was my tank. Hope it helps.

 

[Nibrown9]

Hey Bgifford, frogg, others in AZ

I just uploaded this so you can see lights/flow/stuff.

http://youtu.be/1BH6w70hWJ4

in HD even

took forever to compress.....

What is your alk at? And you need more random flow for the birdsnest and montis you will notice it will come back and take off like a weed if you keep alk stable and more random flow..IMO I would move the power head around a bit

 

[Lyghtning]

Amm: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Alk: 12dkh
Calc: 480
PH: 8.3, daily, nightly drops to about 7.8

Water changes every saturday, 6 gallons, RO/DI only with 5 stage SpectraPure RO/DI system 0 TDS, Salt used Red Sea Pro.
Went over to Carlos's today, picked up some "Fuel"


Tank up since December

I do have a clean up crew, Hermit crabs x20, 1 emerald crab, 3 tuxedo urchins, 2 Nasarius snails, 1 Brittle Star.

I had more emerald crabs but i believe they starved to death....

 

[bgifford]

Amm: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Alk: 12dkh
Calc: 480
PH: 8.3, daily, nightly drops to about 7.8

Water changes every saturday, 6 gallons, RO/DI only with 5 stage SpectraPure RO/DI system 0 TDS, Salt used Red Sea Pro.
Went over to Carlos's today, picked up some "Fuel"


Tank up since December

I do have a clean up crew, Hermit crabs x20, 1 emerald crab, 3 tuxedo urchins, 2 Nasarius snails, 1 Brittle Star.

I had more emerald crabs but i believe they starved to death....

I know your probably doing everything right, but I have to ask just in case. What test kit are you using? Are you following the directions EXACTLY? I have seen many people use the API kits wrong, specifically the nitrate test. The test can tell you that you have minimal/no nitrates if you don't shake the 2nd bottle for an entire minute. Also (this sounds ridiculous), but solution amounts may vary if you are not holding the bottle exactly vertical. Also make sure your using clean pipettes and clean test tubes. :deadhorse: What do you use to measure your salinity and what do you try to keep it at? This is one area that I try to be very strict about. I use a digital salinity meter by Milwaukee. I make sure that my salinity of the tank and new water is as exact my reading indicates 1.025. Many people don't care about this and it may not matter- I have not data to support this, these are just things that I do to get my results.

Just so you know, my alk (my last reading was 6-7) and calcium (last reading was high 300's) are much lower than yours. I don't dose, I rely on the coral pro salt mix to keep my system going. Most everyone reading this will sincerely disagree with my methods and warn me of my tank being unstable or about to crash in the near future as my corals grow.

If it was my tank, I would slowly try different (slightly lower levels) of calcium/alk. I would like to see the light intensity in person ,but I would maybe try different light levels.

I would like to hear everyone else's advice and suggestions. I would like to learn how other people run their systems and see their coral growth as well, I'm always excited to learn new techniques and methods to try. I hope this info makes some sense/helps.