africangrey
Active member
so you are not running at zeo stone in the special reactor or dose zeostart right?
DivingTheWorld's Custom Leemar 80g Rimless Reef
- Thread starter DivingTheWorld
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DivingTheWorld
Active member
No, neither of those.
It seems that during the past decade, there was a giant push in Reef Tank culture towards ultra low nutrient tanks. People were running Bio-Pellets, Phosphate Reactors, Algae Turf Scrubbers, Carbon Dosing, etc. These devices effectively solved the perceived problem of high nutrients.
Then folks started noticing a new problem, pastel acros. This lead to new findings that ultra low nutrients weren't actually a good thing. Acros need Nitrates (and some Phosphates) to eat and maintain health and colors. So there was then a big push towards dosing (ex. ZEOvit, Acropower, etc.).
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd think that aquarium companies are making money off our lack of knowledge in the actual science (myself included).
I started noticing that some of the best tanks with ridiculous acros and growth either don't bother to check Nitrates or run them very high (20-50ppm). They're not dumping a bunch of stuff in their tanks or carbon dosing. They just add enough fish to maintain Nitrates and enough filtration to keep the water clean.
I've had saltwater tanks for over 30 years, but only in the past couple years with the build of this "serious" reef tank have I really been reading and studying the keeping of corals (primarily acros). In my limited research I've found a few things:
1. If your tank is less than a year old, don't waste your time with Acros. You might have some success, but most don't.
2. Dosing of foods, aminos, supplements etc. are good for those tanks under a year old which can't maintain levels.
3. Add enough fish to maintain levels. Do this slowly, one at a time. Don't over do it!
4. More water changes! I was doing 20g/m on my est. 90g of water. I changed this to 10g/2 weeks and have seen improvement.
5. Don't waste your money on expensive salt. I use IO and it works great. I adjust my WC water (Alk, Mag, Cal) to very close to tank levels before changing water.
So what does this all mean? Keep it simple. There is no need to spend a bunch of money on expensive salts, additives and foods. I test all my levels once a week (Alk 2-3 times/week). If I find my Nitrate starts running a little low, I'll probably dose a little Pohl's Xtra Special, but that's about it.
Note: I am not a biologist, expert, or even that smart. So take my advice with a grain of IO. :lolspin:
DivingTheWorld
Active member
If anyone's interested, here's some pics from a dive trip the wifey and I just took to Fiji for our 10 year anniversary:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2606745
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2606745
nanomarine
Member
Those tables are awesome Mike.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
WLachnit
Active member
Hey Mike, I do remember that you said that were planning this trip. Awesome pics. Haven't dived the south pacific yet and am planning on going to Fiji on our next dive trip. I will hit you up for recommendations, etc. How many days did you do and how many do you recommend? Looks fantastic.
DivingTheWorld
Active member
We were in Fiji for 8 days, 7 nights. I think that was enough for the area we were in. But I know there are other parts of Fiji known for other things, such as big sharks, etc. If you had the time, best would be to stay on different islands for a 4-5 days at a time, or do a Live-aboard.
I loved diving the Somosomo Strait and we will definitely go back some day. We were a little mixed on our resort, we'll probably stay at a different resort next time.
DivingTheWorld
Active member
A big Black Friday change is coming to DTW Reef Tank...
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WLachnit
Active member
A big Black Friday change is coming to DTW Reef Tank...
So...what is prompting the change?
DivingTheWorld
Active member
For now I'm keeping them to see how my corals do with the transition. Assuming they like it, I'll be selling them. One option is to keep one for my frag chamber to replace the Kessil I'm using.
DivingTheWorld
Active member
The XR15's just don't provide enough light for difficult sps in a tank my size. They do work, the corals overall have good color and they do grow. It's perfectly fine for birdsnest, montis and zoas. But I'm looking to take it to the next level with excellent color and growth. From my research only Halide or T5 will do that. Whenever I see outstanding sps tanks on Reef Central, they're almost always running T5. My tank is 90% sps and it needs A LOT more light.
The negatives are really what's been stopping me from making the change. I'll now have expensive bulbs I need to swap out every 10 months and these won't be nearly as configurable as my Radions. The Radions are infinitely configurable. I'll likely also lose the "pop" my LEDs provided for the corals, so I added a Euroquatics Blue Pop bulb and I'll see how that works out.
I think if I had swapped them out for a pair of XR30 Pros, I'd probably have enough light, but it was a $1600 experiment I just wasn't willing to take. I also like that T5 is essentially a set and forget and I won't have to take the first year configuring to find the sweet spot like I did with the Radions.
africangrey
Active member
are they all blue plus, do you run any super actinics. or you think the Euroquatics Blue Pop would add the punch like the URL's T12 VHO super actinics do. Reefers claimed that Giesmen's come close to it but from my experience they don't even come remotely close. Even the sucky Corallife's T8 beats all the SAs from T5's.
DivingTheWorld
Active member
I'm starting off with 4 Blue+, 2 Coral+, 1 Purple+ and one Blue Pop. I have an extra Blue+ in case I need to swap it in.
africangrey
Active member
Let us know how you like the blue pop
DivingTheWorld
Active member
The light is installed and running. I haven't tried it without the Blue Pop, but I can say there is MUCH less florescent glow than with the Radions. The color of the light looks good, just a tinge of blue (the pics below are untouched and look much bluer than the tank looks to the eye). It is VERY bright! I must say that I preferred the dimmer look of the Radions, but if this makes for more colorful and faster growing corals, I can get used to it.
I'm starting with 5 hours per day to acclimate the corals, 100% intensity for the first 50 hours.
I'm starting with 5 hours per day to acclimate the corals, 100% intensity for the first 50 hours.
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maddhugan
New member
Looks awesome
Looks awesome
looks fantastic. So the intensity could be incrementally increased and decreased in this T5?
I should say you are the first person whom I have seen switching from LED to tubes. Curious to know the results in few months.
Thanks for sharing the info, and now this is officially a study on the light subject. haha.
Looks awesome
looks fantastic. So the intensity could be incrementally increased and decreased in this T5?
I should say you are the first person whom I have seen switching from LED to tubes. Curious to know the results in few months.
Thanks for sharing the info, and now this is officially a study on the light subject. haha.
DivingTheWorld
Active member
Yeah, this is a dimmable model, so there are two channels, one with two bulbs and one with 6 bulbs. Both channels can be dimmed based on several set points but I only plan to use the two bulb channel for dimming. We'll see how the dimming works...I know it won't be anywhere near as awesome as Radion dimming.
This will definitely be a case study. I took a bunch of before pics of individual corals so I can see how they grow. There are several others who have switched from T5 to LED and back and others who have switched from LED to T5. But I'm keeping my Radions for now just in case.
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