Initial planning stages for tank and fish room
- Thread starter Bilk
- Start date
Bilk
New member
Thanks
To be honest with you, I have no idea what the zoas are. I bought a small frag of them a few years ago. They were in the 50g I had and they spread to some rocks they were placed near. Here's the colony in the 50
Here they are presently
They've pretty much morphed into the color they are now. Maybe I should give them a cool name like Hooterzooters since I think Orange Crush is already taken :lolspin:
FernandoReef
New member
I can tell by just looking at it, this is going to be a nice looking tank.
Congratulations man!
Congratulations man!
BrklynArch
New member
Amazing set up and a fellow Brooklyn reefer to boot! Def subscribed
Im in bay ridge and work near park slope.
Im in bay ridge and work near park slope.
sfsuphysics
Active member
Nice job with the black background, I was wondering what was different about the tank just from the picture, couldn't quite put my finger on it, did you change the lighting... (decided to read what you typed) oh that's it!
Bilk
New member
Thanks Mike. The background is shelf liner thickness. I can actually still use the magnet cleaner with no issues. Speaking of which, man I never thought I would ever spend over a hundred bucks for a magnet cleaner, but the Magnavore really lives up to the claims. With the brush attachment, it makes cleaning the glass so much easier. No need for an algae scraper either, well maybe to get the sand line, don't want to pick up sand grits wit the magnet cleaner, but it makes short work of those tough spots, including the start of coralline. So props for Magnavore.
Aqualund has been guiding me with dialing in the LEDs. So a thanks goes out to him/her? Some corals that paled and turned brown a bit are regaining their colors. I had too much light over the tank. So they're dialed down to 250par where most of the SPS sit. Actually someone once called me out in another thread claiming that corals couldn't get too much light and wouldn't brown from it after I stated I thought my corals were getting dull and brown from too much light and needed to figure out the fixture, which was a Mitras. That was the 50g I had running before. I suggested he look at tide pool corals for an example. I think we're all learning that LEDs can do some damage if not dialed in properly.
Since starting with pappone, the water clarity has been amazing. Not sure how it influences clarity, but others have made that claim too. ORP now runs between 430 and 450+. The water smells the same as when I used ozone years ago on another tank. I just thought I'd report that in case anyone was inclined to try it. I melt a small cube in a cup of tank water and add it just after lights out. I have the return pump on feed for an hour and the skimmer off for 2 hours. It's all anecdotal, but the pappone seems to have really improved the biological process.
This tabling acropora is really doing well with the feeding.
The background is shelf liner thickness. I can actually still use the magnet cleaner with no issues. Speaking of which, man I never thought I would ever spend over a hundred bucks for a magnet cleaner, but the Magnavore really lives up to the claims. With the brush attachment, it makes cleaning the glass so much easier. No need for an algae scraper either, well maybe to get the sand line, don't want to pick up sand grits wit the magnet cleaner, but it makes short work of those tough spots, including the start of coralline. So props for Magnavore.Aqualund has been guiding me with dialing in the LEDs. So a thanks goes out to him/her?
Some corals that paled and turned brown a bit are regaining their colors. I had too much light over the tank. So they're dialed down to 250par where most of the SPS sit. Actually someone once called me out in another thread claiming that corals couldn't get too much light and wouldn't brown from it after I stated I thought my corals were getting dull and brown from too much light and needed to figure out the fixture, which was a Mitras. That was the 50g I had running before. I suggested he look at tide pool corals for an example. I think we're all learning that LEDs can do some damage if not dialed in properly. Since starting with pappone, the water clarity has been amazing. Not sure how it influences clarity, but others have made that claim too. ORP now runs between 430 and 450+. The water smells the same as when I used ozone years ago on another tank. I just thought I'd report that in case anyone was inclined to try it. I melt a small cube in a cup of tank water and add it just after lights out. I have the return pump on feed for an hour and the skimmer off for 2 hours. It's all anecdotal, but the pappone seems to have really improved the biological process.
This tabling acropora is really doing well with the feeding.
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sfsuphysics
Active member
yeah I know what you mean about the lighting. All my stuff is in a temporary tank while I get my big boy up, but I have my DIY fixture over that and a couple montiporas looked absolutely stunning on the bottom of the tank, I decided to change things around and mount them about half way up on the overflow, man they went from good to bad in no time, I kept chasing around that something chemically changed and it didn't even occur to me that maybe I just over blasted them with light. Oh well that's really the purpose of the temporary tank (well other than just keeping my stuff) is finding out what likes my LED lighting, what can't get enough, etc. I have to say my LPS absolutely loves it! Acans, brains, blastos, favia... chalices are kind of so so.. a some browned a bit (but look like a million bucks when only the blues come on!)
Bilk
New member
Made a slight change to the lighting by removing the heat sinks from the Cannons. The plate they're mounted on is 1/4" Al. I used the thermal pad that was between the fixture and heat sink when making the change and have not noticed any heat buildup at all. However they're only running at 20% which certainly reduces the heat. But they're doing what I want by providing a warmer spectrum and helping the reds pop a bit more than they were with just the Kessil white light. They're 5" higher too, than they would be with the heat sinks. I feel getting them higher was important for spread and to reduce the hot spot intensity they exhibited before the change. These are very powerful LEDs as are the Kessil. However the Kessil are tuned for mostly blue with only 10-15% white. I almost considered adding the T5s back into the mix, but l I think I've balanced the lighting with the help of Aqualund and an Apogee Quantum meter
BrklynArch
New member
Thanks glenn, fernando and BKYN
Bkyn I'm in Prospect Heights. From the look of your screen name and avatar, I think we have a similar professional background
very cool! yeah i assumed you were in the construction / building industry by the level of detail in your home.
I work in architecture, I have a design/consultation office on Court street.
Not really the fun type of architecture but more the construction documents / DOB approval kind.
If ya ever need an architect or someone local to talk reef drop me a line sometime, i would love to check out your set up in person one day.
Bilk
New member
Oh you're not too far away during the day. Maybe come by on your lunch hour or better yet, I'm somewhat committed to hosting a NY Reef Club open house. I'll let you know when that will be so you can see the tank and meet other local reefers.
Architect/developer here. Well mostly landlord/developer now
Can always use someone to handle those pesky violations in our wonderful and efficient building department :hmm4:
BrklynArch
New member
Oh you're not too far away during the day. Maybe come by on your lunch hour or better yet, I'm somewhat committed to hosting a NY Reef Club open house. I'll let you know when that will be so you can see the tank and meet other local reefers.
Architect/developer here. Well mostly landlord/developer now
Oh very cool! im am actually a proud member of the NY reef club (been a while since my last meeting)....great bunch of guys and very cool group to chat all things reef with.
Tank tour is would be killer! especially since its going to be in Brooklyn this time around.
haha dont get me started on the DOB.....real bunch of winners over there...lol
we try and avoid dealing with violations because of the amount of time and running around involved....but we do pretty much everything else. We are still a pretty young office, only been open for @ 3 years but landlord/developer is what i hope to become in the future...only so many condos a person can take lol
Bilk
New member
Well in discussion with Aqualund, he suggested I turn everything down - all the lights are dimmable. < sp >? Then fire up the strips as they are dimmable, but cannot change the color balance. Then fire the Kessils, blues only, and reach somewhere around 200par where the corals are prominent. Then start to bring up the white to attain 220-250par where he feels is a good starting point for LED. His thoughts are that 300par with LED is the target and most across will do well at that number under LED.
So I followed the procedure and started to see some color come back in the few corals that weren't responding well to the light - well it now seems it was the light - wasn't sure if it was that or low nutrients. Some color has returned pretty quickly too. Just a few days. Recently I added in the Ecoxotic lights, which I had taken offline, to add some lower kelvin color and so the sand and everything else didn't look bluish/purple
They're only firing at 20%, but they did add about 20-50par depending upon where the measurement is taken. So now the light is somewhere around 250-280par, again depending upon the location where the reading is done. This number is mid tank vertically and a little more than 3/5ths of the center, lengthwise. The outer edges get less as do the lower portions. I was just guessing before obtaining the meter. It may not be perfect, but it does give an idea of where things are and changes can at least be measured and a relative assessment made. None of the lights are at 100% to allow for some movement. Also, getting them at a height above the tank where the spread was reasonably even was only achievable with the meter. So far so good I guess. Now I'm playing with the placement of the corals. Unfortunately that sometimes comes at a price when they are not permanently affixed to the structure. One acro tumbled over during the night and was found engaged in battle with the frogspwan - sitting flesh to flesh
Now they're both recovering. Ah white sand that isn't purple? LOL Well it's a little brown in some areas, but that seems to be abating too. Not sure if it's the change in the lights or just better biology happening as things progress.
Bilk
New member
Some new pics. Tried some new camera settings, but not getting the results I would like I imagine the 3/4" acrylic effects the picture, but there is obviously some way to overcome that and the effect actinic spectrum as others have posted some really beautiful pics.
Well here goes. Corals are really regaining their colors after reducing the intensity of the lights.
I wish I could better capture the colors of this tabling acro. It had turned a beige/brown, but is now teal with purple tips, which is what it was before I got it. Well this is the best I can do with the pic
Fuzzy pic of a fuzzy ORA birds nest. It's really growing well.
The growth on the Red Dragon continues and it regained the nice red color it had when it arrived.
Made a few upgrades in the fish room. Added some switched power bars and cleaned up some wiring in prep for starting up a Ca reactor. I have to pick up a CO2 bottle to get started. Reactor is a GEO612 and an Aquarium Plants regulator.
The system is sort of running on auto-pilot now. Nutrients are consistently low and just plain consistent in their readings. Nitrates hover around .5 and PO4 .02 and they pretty much stay there no matter how much I feed, which is 4 cubes of mysid, two or three pinches of flake of one variety or another, two cap fulls of Marine Snow and one cube of pappone dissolved in tank water. I've also started to dose Prodidio Reefbooster. Started with once every two weeks, but I've reduced the dose by half and dose once a week. Have not yet tried the Bioclean package. The corals noticeably respond to the Reefbooster.
Well that's the update. I'll post some more pics on the fish room this weekend.
Have to have a fish pic in here too
I imagine the 3/4" acrylic effects the picture, but there is obviously some way to overcome that and the effect actinic spectrum as others have posted some really beautiful pics.Well here goes. Corals are really regaining their colors after reducing the intensity of the lights.
I wish I could better capture the colors of this tabling acro. It had turned a beige/brown, but is now teal with purple tips, which is what it was before I got it. Well this is the best I can do with the pic
Fuzzy pic of a fuzzy ORA birds nest. It's really growing well.
The growth on the Red Dragon continues and it regained the nice red color it had when it arrived.
Made a few upgrades in the fish room. Added some switched power bars and cleaned up some wiring in prep for starting up a Ca reactor. I have to pick up a CO2 bottle to get started. Reactor is a GEO612 and an Aquarium Plants regulator.
The system is sort of running on auto-pilot now. Nutrients are consistently low and just plain consistent in their readings. Nitrates hover around .5 and PO4 .02 and they pretty much stay there no matter how much I feed, which is 4 cubes of mysid, two or three pinches of flake of one variety or another, two cap fulls of Marine Snow and one cube of pappone dissolved in tank water. I've also started to dose Prodidio Reefbooster. Started with once every two weeks, but I've reduced the dose by half and dose once a week. Have not yet tried the Bioclean package. The corals noticeably respond to the Reefbooster.
Well that's the update. I'll post some more pics on the fish room this weekend.
Have to have a fish pic in here too
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