d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build
- Thread starter d2mini
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d2mini
Premium Member
d2mini
Premium Member
Thanks!
Not at this time. For one I don't want to spend the money, and two I'd like to see more people implement one into a calcium reactor setup. Most will be using it with regular liquid dosing.
d2mini
Premium Member
Finally got the Radion Diffusers installed! 
Honestly, it's not that much different than before. Still plenty of shimmer. And not much loss in light. I have a hand held photography light meter than can measure LUX and I'm recording only a 3-5% loss. The tank looks very evenly lit with very little shadowing. I'd say it's a very subtle but nice upgrade.
Also, I kind of like not seeing those individual led domes on the pucks.
Looks more finished IMO.
Honestly, it's not that much different than before. Still plenty of shimmer. And not much loss in light. I have a hand held photography light meter than can measure LUX and I'm recording only a 3-5% loss. The tank looks very evenly lit with very little shadowing. I'd say it's a very subtle but nice upgrade.
Also, I kind of like not seeing those individual led domes on the pucks.
Looks more finished IMO.
d2mini
Premium Member
Thanks, Brandon!
You've already got the T5's, so unless your Kessils are giving you too much shimmer as-is, I'd skip the diffusers.
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing! I've noticed that really nice looking tanks have a macro refugium of some sort and in most cases the size of the refugium does not matter. I have been researching on building a display refugium however, I've also noticed most refugiums (display or otherwise) can get to be an eye sore. It seems the more eye sore they are the more efficient they are for the total water quality of the system. I don't mind an eye sore under the tank but I'm not wanting an eye sore display refugium 
I apologize if I offended you with my above post as I certainly wasn't knocking your refugium or anything like that at all. I think you have one of the nicest tanks in the hobby and most of us are striving to get there as well. I'm always amazed at your dedication and I certainly enjoy the you tube videos that you had published.
d2mini
Premium Member
No offense taken.
I've had a pretty cool display refugium before. And with this tank I've come to appreciate the "eye sore" type from a more functional standpoint because I know that all that stuff growing on the walls and the thick muck that covers the surface of the water is beneficial to the tank and I'm exporting nutrients when I remove it. Better to have that stuff in the fuge than the display. Especially when it's hidden in the stand anyway.
d2mini
Premium Member
tenpercenter
Premium Member
Dennis - trying to decide between (6) xr15s and (3) xr30s (both PRO). Tank depth in my case is 30" (front to back) with the 15s I'd be able to spread them apart further (couple inches) but would avoid the fans constantly running.
Would you go with the 30s if you were to do this again?
Would you go with the 30s if you were to do this again?
d2mini
Premium Member
Yes I would. I never liked the look of the 15's on a large tank.
Plus you'd have double the cords/plugs.
And FWIW, I can't hear my fans running.
tenpercenter
Premium Member
Thanks! Took three evenings to make it through this build. It's awesome
d2mini
Premium Member
Ok guys, need some help!
Had a couple things going on with the tank lately and it's having an affect on my sps.
First, my ph was going down below 7.6 in the mornings. Got that taken care of by making adjustments to my calcium reactor by changing the feed pump and co2 settings. But while this was happening, my Alk was bouncing around. Not a whole lot but it went down as low as 6.5 and up as high as high 8's. I normally keep it around 8.0.
Second, as I was getting the reactor pretty much dialed in, I added the Radion diffusers.
My lux meter didn't record much drop in light, just a few % but Ecotech says they record PAR drops of around 20%. So considering that, I should have been upping my overall brightness, but I only upped it about 5% and then forgot about it.
So thats the two things that have changed/been happening lately.
My Alk is now a steady 7.3 for a week.
BUT... this past week (or two) I've been having problems.
My SPS are losing color intensity or browning out. My Milli's have turned brown, my Paletta Pink Tip lost it's pink... almost white, but still have the green. Some other greens dulled out. Blues dulled out. Purple Bonsai has dulled. My ORA Joe the Coral has STN's to almost nothing. I lost two frags, RTN's overnight. All sps and zoas seem just dandy.
So first I was thinking alk instability... but it wasn't THAT bad. It's not like it shot up to 11. And the changes weren't overnight, they were over a few days.
Then I remembered about the light. Could the decrease in light have caused any of this?
Parameters are all stable and in line.
pH now ranges from 7.76 to 8.0.
Alk 7.6
Calc - haven't checked in awhile but was around 430
Mag - 1400 last i checked
Salinity - 1.0256
Nitrate - 2-3ppm
P04 - haven't checked in a while, but was .04
I'll try to update some of the above parameters later today.
But any thoughts on what's going on?
Had a couple things going on with the tank lately and it's having an affect on my sps.
First, my ph was going down below 7.6 in the mornings. Got that taken care of by making adjustments to my calcium reactor by changing the feed pump and co2 settings. But while this was happening, my Alk was bouncing around. Not a whole lot but it went down as low as 6.5 and up as high as high 8's. I normally keep it around 8.0.
Second, as I was getting the reactor pretty much dialed in, I added the Radion diffusers.
My lux meter didn't record much drop in light, just a few % but Ecotech says they record PAR drops of around 20%. So considering that, I should have been upping my overall brightness, but I only upped it about 5% and then forgot about it.
So thats the two things that have changed/been happening lately.
My Alk is now a steady 7.3 for a week.
BUT... this past week (or two) I've been having problems.
My SPS are losing color intensity or browning out. My Milli's have turned brown, my Paletta Pink Tip lost it's pink... almost white, but still have the green. Some other greens dulled out. Blues dulled out. Purple Bonsai has dulled. My ORA Joe the Coral has STN's to almost nothing. I lost two frags, RTN's overnight. All sps and zoas seem just dandy.
So first I was thinking alk instability... but it wasn't THAT bad. It's not like it shot up to 11. And the changes weren't overnight, they were over a few days.
Then I remembered about the light. Could the decrease in light have caused any of this?
Parameters are all stable and in line.
pH now ranges from 7.76 to 8.0.
Alk 7.6
Calc - haven't checked in awhile but was around 430
Mag - 1400 last i checked
Salinity - 1.0256
Nitrate - 2-3ppm
P04 - haven't checked in a while, but was .04
I'll try to update some of the above parameters later today.
But any thoughts on what's going on?
Last edited:
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