DivingTheWorld's Custom Leemar 80g Rimless Reef

[DivingTheWorld]

It's been a while since I updated my thread, so here's a quickie. I'm seeing noticeable sps improvement since swapping my lights to ATI T5. My acros and milles are showing colors they never have and much faster growth. I took a few pictures of before and one month in. I'm planning to take some more in another week or two at the 2 month mark and I'll post them in this thread so everyone can see the progress.

I started my ATI fixture at 4 hours per day and have gradually increased it weekly. The increase this past weekend was to 8 hours of 100% all bulbs plus a 1 hour dim up and dim down on each end for the two bulb Channel 1 only. So 10 hours total per day. I think this is going to be my final setting.

I also made one bulb change. I originally set up the fixture using a EuroQuatics E5 Blue Pop LED bulb along with a Blue+ on Channel 1 which I was planning to use for dimming. After the 50 hour break-in I started dimming and soon after discovered that the E5 does not like dimming. If you turn it on at 100% it works fine, but if you try to dim it up or down it just turns off. So I switched it out for an ATI Actinic. It's not as nice of a pop as my old Radions, but it looks pretty good.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in trying the E5 Blue Pop LED and has a 36" T5 (non-dimmable) fixture, let me know. It's a nice replacement for a Blue+ and I'd sell it for only $40.

One interesting development over the past 1.5 months since installing the fixture, besides my alk and cal depletion being up, is that my Nitrates are dropping. I was averaging Nitrates around 20-40 before T5, and by last weekend, they had dropped all the way to 1ppm! Crazy! I can only assume the corals are consuming more nutrients as they are growing faster.

So a few days ago I resumed dosing Pohl's Xtra Special. I'm starting with a low dose of 2ml per day and I'll see how it goes. I don't plan to dose Nitrates unless I see a fading of colors in the corals. For now the colors are still great and in many cases improving. I might also add another fish if they stay consistently low. The kids have been asking for another fish for a while now!

 

[WLachnit]

Thanks for the update. Do you have any sense of what your PAR values are/were with the switch from LEDs? I see so many of these threads where people change back to T5 or MH after messing around with LEDS for awhile.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Thanks for the update. Do you have any sense of what your PAR values are/were with the switch from LEDs? I see so many of these threads where people change back to T5 or MH after messing around with LEDS for awhile.

I honestly have no idea. If anyone local has a PAR meter and wants to help show me how to use it... :hmm2:

It's strong, I can tell you that. My chalices on the bottom of the tank and zoas are not very happy, but the SPS are absolutely loving it.

 

[gabloo]

Amazing tank. I read that you don't play around with Nitrate but how about phosphate? I have done what you did. I took out all my sand and went bare bottom. My tank and corals seem to be in better shape now. SPS that I could never keep started extending their polys. However, my Nitrate is at 50 and Phosphate is at .22. I am not sure whether i should run GFO or not. If you could give me advice, that would be great.

Thanks

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Amazing tank. I read that you don't play around with Nitrate but how about phosphate? I have done what you did. I took out all my sand and went bare bottom. My tank and corals seem to be in better shape now. SPS that I could never keep started extending their polys. However, my Nitrate is at 50 and Phosphate is at .22. I am not sure whether i should run GFO or not. If you could give me advice, that would be great.

Thanks

I run GFO for phosphates. My tank is approx. 89g system volume and I replace 8 tablespoons of HC GFO once a month in my BRS reactor. At the same time I also replace 5 tablespoons of ROX 0.8 carbon in a separate reactor. I do not run any other nitrate or phosphate reduction program such as ATS, Bio-Balls, Carbon Dosing, Chaeto or Refugeum. The GFO keeps my phosphates low and the nitrates stay low on their own. I do agree that the bare bottom helps with keeping nitrates low.

For SPS, I wouldn't worry about your Nitrates, but you should try to reduce your Phosphates. GFO in a reactor works well. I average about 0.03 Phosphate using my reactor. Here's a graph of the past year. I generally test once a week for phosphates.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Sorry for the crazy width of that post! I'm not at home so couldn't photoshop down the size of the photo.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

A few people have asked about my coral dipping regime. So here's the details:

I use Bayer Complete Insect Killer "Concentrated" (lots of threads throughout RC so I won't detail what it is or where to buy).

I add 10ml per 1/2 cup of tank water. So in my case I use a medium bowl and I usually add 40ml to 2 cups tank water. I do this for 15 minutes and use a spoon to agitate the water as much as possible without splashing for the duration. I also use a toothbrush to brush off the plug during this step.

I follow this with two tank water rinses in separate bowls for 15 minute each also agitating with a spoon. Following the second rinse, I put them in the tank.

I've read dozens of different threads on RC regarding Bayer dipping using all sorts of concentrations. My recipe is definitely at the high end of recommended so use at your own discretion. But I have not had a coral losses that I can associate with using this dip recipe.

 

[africangrey]

I've heard the bayer stuff is pretty toxic to human through topical application or oral delivery, hope you are wearing protective gears-goggle, glove and using the disposable spoon so you don't accidentally ingest it.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I've heard the bayer stuff is pretty toxic to human through topical application or oral delivery, hope you are wearing protective gears-goggle, glove and using the disposable spoon so you don't accidentally ingest it.

Yep, all of the above. I also only use one specific bowl for the Bayer dip and wrote "Bayer" on the side so I don't ever get it confused for a clean dip bowl.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Whole tank shot, I tried to edit some of the blue, but it still looks blue! In person I it's a more natural look, not blue, not white, just even.

 

[Mr2KiEu]

Amazing picture!, it looks even more amazing in person!

Also, the Hornets are doing well! Thanks again!

 

[sfsuphysics]

Interesting that your Vortechs are low in the tank, where the flow runs right into the back of the rocks as opposed to near the top where they have more flow. Is this to keep detritus in suspension mostly? Or do they actually get a good amount of flow coming over the top where the corals are?

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Interesting that your Vortechs are low in the tank, where the flow runs right into the back of the rocks as opposed to near the top where they have more flow. Is this to keep detritus in suspension mostly? Or do they actually get a good amount of flow coming over the top where the corals are?

It's an optical illusion that the vortechs are flowing into the back of the rocks. I originally had them at the top of the tank and the direct flow was killing my sps. I find that sps need A LOT of flow, but indirect. So I moved them low to either side of my rock structure. They blow past the rocks and swirl everything around to the center and up. I run them at 85% Anti-Sync. It accomplishes a few things.

1. I don't have Vortechs with cords blocking my side views.
2. It blows most of the detritus up to the overflow, and whatever is left to a couple known spots that I vacuum out during water changes.
3. It provides an even whole tank flow that allows me to place sps almost anywhere I want in the tank.

 

[D-Nak]

That's definitely one of the advantages of having a bare bottom tank! Love the look of your tank.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Thanks, I appreciate it! It's been a long road with tweaking and learning to get it to this point. It's finally dialed and I'm hoping for some big growth over the next year or two.

My goal with this thread is to help people learn as I do, both from things I do right and things I've done wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DivingTheWorld]

So I owe you guys an update on my new T5 lights and it's been just over 2 months. I've selected 11 corals and taken progression shots, Pre T5, 1 Month T5 and 2 Month T5. I hope this isn't too many pictures, but I wanted to give a variety of examples!

I'm seeing improved coloration as well as considerable growth improvement. I would estimate I'm seeing the same amount of growth in 1 month that I would generally see in 6-12 months with my LEDs. I still think that LEDs can grow corals just fine, but it's my personal belief that in order to do so (without T5 or MH supplementation), you need to double the recommended amount for better coverage and light penetration.

If folks are interested I'll update in the future with additional progression shots, but it will probably be more like at 6 months and 1 year, not every month.

Here we go....

Ice Fire Enchinata

Bali Tri-Color

ORA Pink Lemonade

 

[DivingTheWorld]

TCN Red Planet

Oregon Blue Tort

Bubblegum Millipora

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Reef Raft Pink Floyd

JKR Inferno Millipora

Bonsai

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Copps Raspberry Limeade - These pictures are 1 month in which basically just had some additional encrusting. I had this one in my tank for about a year and it just sat there brown. But between 1 month and 2 month T5, it's really started to take off!

ASD Rainbow Millipora - I got this one just over a month ago. So the first picture I have is 1 month in on T5 when I had essentially just mounted it. Second pic is 2 months in (but just 1 month of this coral under T5).

 

[tfp]

Looking good man!