Hello, getting back in after 13 years, thought I'd say hi

R

rottielover

Active member
Hi St. Louis folks! I got out of Reef Tanks back in 2010 before my kids were born. My youngest brother started a 32gal nano a few months ago but gave it up and is selling me the entire setup (sans sand rock and anything live). I'm going to pick it all up this weekend and see what can be done with it. Heck now that my kids are 12 and 10, they should be able to help me out with it :) Sure looks like a lot of the technology and techniques have changed over the years... Heck even Marine Solutions moved, and is thankfully pretty close to where I live now. Back in the day I had a 120 gal reef tank which was hooked into a 300 gal "horse trough" which I used for growing coral frags. I also had a 75 gal tank for a puffer back then. Sure do miss that tank... but I don't miss those lights!!! holy cow the LED lighting nowadays is incredible! - Looking forward to being in the community again. Best, Rottie AKA Scott
 
Welcome back!!! Feel free to post if you have any questions. I'm always around, and I know a few of the other guys are on here too.
 
Welcome back! I’m also using metal halide still (on my SPS tank anyway. LED on the rest. I’ve found there’s not enough of an electricity difference for me to make it worth switching to LED currently
 
Thankfully my little brother is selling me a LOT... Auto Top Off, RODI, UV, I mean the works! The light is a Reefi (If I remember that correctly) with a computer interface. It really is everything but "live stuff" (sand rock corals fish etc). I've got a few things on the way and will be picking up the tank and setup this weekend. I figure stage one is getting that RO/DI unit going, as I recall it used to take ages for my RODI unit to fill.

As to long-term plans I am forced around my wife and kids' desires... I have to eventually include a Bubble Tip and Clown (though breed hasn't been decided yet, I also explained that the tank has to be WELL established first). But otherwise I'm going to have fairly free control over the rest.
 
Reefi is a decent brand. If the set up is new enough, it might be the Reefi Uni 2.0 which is pretty quality light from the reviews I’ve seen.

You may want to also make sure the wife and kids understand there’s no guarantee of the clown hosting the nem.
 
Yea is the Uno 2, wayyy more complicated than my old MH setup back in the day, but really cool interface and setting options. Lighting shouldn’t be an excuse I’ll be able to use this time around :)

I was able to layout the haul last night I don’t know all the names of everything but it includes a lot of wifi and Bluetooth enabled stuff. There is a power head with a controller that has all kinds of programmable options. A heater controller thag controls 2 heaters with a temp probe, refug light for cheato I can stick to the back chamber. Intank Aquatics baskets to replace the stock middle chamber stuff. Titanium heaters,

Also got all the buckets and extras, a complete QT tank setup, and complete mixing bucket setup with heater and power head. Plus some extras like fish less fuel for fish less cycling, drip aclimator, extra tubing, upgraded return pump for the cube.

Here’s the initial pic, just leveling up the stand and making sure I have spacing I like from the walls so I can still get behind it.
 

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Telegraham sure pumps that light to the point of extreme bias. Give us your honest take when you know what you think. ;)
 
Yes @telegraham definitely pumps the light. I’ve seen some posts from others too that seem to like the light.

Looks like the power head is a Vortech MP (not sure what size, going to guess 10) which is generally considered a top of the line wavemaker (though does require maintenance like anything else).

The temp controller if I had to guess since I didn’t see it in the pic is likely a Ranco or Inkbird. Looks like a fantastic setup
 
kharmaguru said:
Telegraham sure pumps that light to the point of extreme bias. Give us your honest take when you know what you think. ;)
Click to expand...
Initial thoughts: pretty complex, especially to someone who’s coming from MH and some fluorescent tubes over a decade ago. However, just looking over the videos and playing with it a little bit last night, I can tell this is going to be probably the best part of the setup. From what I have seen so far it’s like having total control over the light, I mean from spectrum to intensity to timing. It’s got moon phase, even a cloud simulation if you have more than one (they “talk” to each other). I have the 90 deg reflectors on it but it came with 120 as well.

I think my problem now is that I really don’t think I would have any “restrictions”, it’s obvious that this thing will keep SPS just fine. Back in the day I started out with softies because my light setup was a limiting factor. It let me build up some experience before I got better lights, and eventually moved to SPS corals back then. I wonder if my old acro is still around in some form in a tank around here someplace. When I sold that thing it filled a 5 gal bucket.

Anyway , I keep reminding myself “it’s been a minute you have to relearn all you have learned”. It’s very hard not to want to jump in with both feet immediately. I gotta keep on the path, start slow and keep slow.
 
Yep. That’s the advantage of LED, many systems give almost total control from having a sunrise/sunset to a thunderstorm feature
 
reefing102 said:
Yep. That’s the advantage of LED, many systems give almost total control from having a sunrise/sunset to a thunderstorm feature
Click to expand...
lol, back in the 90’s I had the Light-Wave. It was a black box about 10”x10”x2”.

9 outlets on the back:
4 light channels
4 powerhead channels
1 moon channel - incandescent blue bulb

I added their IceCast add-on to allow for dimming (sunrise/sunset) of VHO bulbs on an IceCap ballast.

The beauty of the Light-Wave was it would simulate sunrise/sunset, simulate storms (increased wave action with dimming/cycling of lights) and simulate the lunar cycle.

That thing was WAY ahead of its time. Would kill to have another.
 
griss said:
lol, back in the 90’s I had the Light-Wave. It was a black box about 10”x10”x2”.

9 outlets on the back:
4 light channels
4 powerhead channels
1 moon channel - incandescent blue bulb

I added their IceCast add-on to allow for dimming (sunrise/sunset) of VHO bulbs on an IceCap ballast.

The beauty of the Light-Wave was it would simulate sunrise/sunset, simulate storms (increased wave action with dimming/cycling of lights) and simulate the lunar cycle.

That thing was WAY ahead of its time. Would kill to have another.
Click to expand...
Man could you imagine a revolution of dimmable VHO in todays world?!?!
 
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