Lets see those Kobayashi's of the Reef tank

[Steve1714]

Thanks Carl,
The article in the July issue of FAMA turned out pretty good, could have been better if i had a chance to proof read his work, but that's how things go with writers and magazines i guess. I especially like the cover "Confessions of a backyard coral farmer"
here is a Link to the article.

The blue filter does two things, first it reduces the light intensity by some 70% and at the same time it shifts the spectrum to the blue, if i would guess it is like a 15K color temperature. Believe it or not full sun right now peaks around 110,000 LUX measured 90 degrees to the ground with a hemispherical meter, the lids have a 30% shade cloth on top right now that further reduces the light intensity so that during the peak the corals are getting from 15,000 to 17,000 lux. checking with my books it states that is roughly a depth of 10 - 15 meters in clear water, it also seems to be what one gets with a 20k light bulb within the first 24", I know that Lux is just a rough measurement and PAR is more accurate when dealing with different K ratings so i am simply using a LUX meter to tell me when to add or remove extra shade layers. I like the look of the blue filters and the colors of the corals aren't washed out from the yellow of the sunlight. I want to keep a diverse selection and to do this i can't do full sun, besides who has 1000 watt 10k halides over there tank 3-6 inches from a coral? As far as color goes, there are pigments there, but they are just not as noticeable until they are placed under actinic lights, However with Halide lighting you will develop different pigments over time that may be much more vibrant than that of my filters, I can only speculate that it is due to the spike of blue versus the shift to the blue spectrum.

Carl, what readings are you looking at right now in your system with the sunlight?

Steve G

 

[Reefski's]

Steve-thanks for the answer.

here is a link to some of my PAR readings and discussion with Eric Borneman and Chuck Raabe. i am getting some direct sun down the sun tunnel right now.
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic85132-9-1.aspx

what do you do for chilling?

it is going to be very hot again. good timing for the discussion this friday evening, or maybe not as it will have already been 100 degrees by friday night.

the article alluding to supplemental lighting. do you use it?

what do you feed the fish? do you only keep algae herbivors except the Mandarin?

what do you feed the corals?

the article said natural methods, what is your phosphate export, anything besides the macroalgae?


Carl

 

[Steve1714]

Those are some awesome PAR readings, did you say they were taken at the bottom or at the surface of the water? that's allot of light, for comparison hold it up to a 400 watt 5500 or 6500K halide and bring it closer to see when the readings equal that of your system in direct light. (I'm Curious)

For chilling i use two 70 watt fans blowing on the surface to cool the water. if you have a sump in your garage i would recommend this, don't do it in your house or it will start raining inside from the humidity buildup. I'll try to bring an extra fan to the SCMAS meeting this Friday to demonstrate the cooling power.

For supplemental lighting i am using two 150watt DE 20K bulbs on the last 5' of the system, This was mainly to help corals out in the winter but i decided to keep it through the year to help color up certain corals. It is on a light mover so that there are no corals stuck in the shade from the reflector during the day.

I feed the fish right now exactly two 12 x 12 sheets of nori a day, I am currently not feeding anything else to the system. the natural filtration method has no particulate filtration and in doing so allows plankton to flourish, there are plenty of copepods and mini shrimps allover the system for the fish to snack on.

Most of the exporting of the phosphates is from removal of tufts of algae in the refugium and sumps, on average my PO4 level hovers from .03 - .04, however i did add a small Phosban reactor that holds 15 TBSP of Phosphate remover and have been able to get that number down to .01 and .02 ppm. I mainly added the phosban reactor to aid in the removal of Silicates for i am always above .7ppm and the sponges growing seem to keep it below 1.2 but never bring it much lower than .6ppm

Steve G
I'll try to bring some corals to the MASLAC meeting to show the colors i am getting. I may be using a 50% shade cloth by then on top of the blue filters, it all depends on the LUX readings i get.

 

[Reefski's]

the readings were taken about 24" underwater.

reading 6" underwater under my 18month old 400 watt SE halide is about 400 PAR i think, maybe a bit higher, failing memory sucks. i need to start writing this stuff down.

i don't now but i will have a sump in the garage under the tank where i can have fans, and all the other equipment.

i love the idea of only being able to cool with fans.

have you tried less shading? if so did you get bleaching?

how do you know you needed to shade?



Carl

 

[Steve1714]

Captain Quirk was nice enough to start a thread for fallow up questions here
If anyone has any more questions, if you could be so kind as to post them there.
More light to me = too much light for the average reefer to simulate IE 1000watt halides, I wouldn't say bleaching would happen but the brown tones(zooxanthellae) would get very light on upper surfaces. Of course the colors would be crazy vibrant and all, but The whole point of shading is to bring the light levels down to numbers that the average reefer can achieve in a tank lit with artificial lighting. Now in your system you don't need to be as concerned with this as much me, so give the setup a try without any filters and see what ya get and document how it changes as summer and winter come and go. You can always add a filter later if needed.

Steve G