Ms. Peacock

[Islandoftiki]

Good deal,once you get them dialed in LEDs are the way to go.

Oh yeah, I'm already sold. I started with LED's on my 2 gallon pest tank with a Par 30 BoostLED bulb back when LED's were just starting to become mainstream. It's quite a bit cheaper in the long run since you don't have to replace four T5HO bulbs at $20.00 every year.

I like the Maxspect Razor for it's programmability, passive cooling, fairly decent Cree LED's and on top of that, it's also pretty sharp looking. It also allows me to open up an outlet for something else on my Reefkeeper since it handles all of the lighting controls itself.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Double post

 

[kegogut]

Yea I was replacing 8 48" T5 per year so I figured they would pay for themselves after a few years. My LEDs are also controlled with its own controller and although I dont have a RK or Apex YET,it will be nice to not have to use 3 plugs on it to control the lights. lolz

 

[Calappidae]

I got Evergrow dimmable full spectrum 120watt LEDs off ebay. The corals are growing and the par values are there so I got a good deal!

Only thing bad is the 2 red leds on it which helps the algae grow..

Three are on my 125.. and I'm still trying to figure out how to mount the fourth on my ten gallon and get rid of this t5..

 

[kegogut]

From my understanding the UV helps colors pop but cuts back on growth a bit.

Ive got 3 Pharos LEDs on my 5ft. 120 and 1 on my 60 cube. I only have one T8 bulb over the mantis tank but then again I dont have anything in there other than rock.

Not sure what I wanna do in there yet. I might do corals but Im thinking of a bunch of cool macro too. Just havent decided yet~

 

[Calappidae]

When I was researching light spectrums; red, yellow, orange, weaker 8000k whites, etc help macro and micro algae..

The bad thing about having a 25,000k full spectrum light or under a window is it will have that red or yellow spectrum to help algae grow. Also when bulbs go bad and need changing they weaken from 10,000k to 8,000k for example which also is a good cause of a sudden algae bloom. Usually coraline would have it choked out in that case by then or you'll have no nutrients in the tank to support growth. (Phosphates, nitrates)

and CUC..

The color in the corals is from it's symbiotic zooxanthellae (spell check?) which grows off the atinics, UV, 10,000k white, etc etc.. Hence why not the proper lighting can "bleach" a coral white.

I'm not a coral expert, I'm still researching. However from what I read does make sense with the whole "why a tank shouldn't be near a window" and "why certain spectrums are a must in certain fixtures" theories.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Your light is really close to the surface of the water,but I see you do have a acrylic lid which diffuses some of the light some but Im sure its still putting out alot of PAR. You might wanna make a screen top for the tank youll get alot more light out of your fixture.

I raised the light up to the maximum height that the bracket will allow, so it's several inches higher now. The cover on the tank builds up a lot condensation on it which I'm sure will reduce par a bit, but I'm pretty sure even with that, it'll get plenty of light once the light is ramped up. I've got it running at 60% white and 65% blue for now and all of the corals look totally normal at this point. No bleaching or browning of the SPS so far.

One bonus I see from the LED's. Since they tend to shadow more than the T5's, Betty's den is quite a bit darker inside.

 

[H.reidi.MN]

I'm sorry but there is nothing bad about having a few red,yellow or green LEDs in a full spectrum fixture and are certainly not going to make a difference on your algae growth in an established tank. Maybe a single red or yellow bulb or combo like you see for refugiums...

 

[Islandoftiki]

I'm sorry but there is nothing bad about having a few red,yellow or green LEDs in a full spectrum fixture and are certainly not going to make a difference on your algae growth in an established tank. Maybe a single red or yellow bulb or combo like you see for refugiums...

I haven't heard of anyone having algae problems with full spectrum LED's. Especially with extremely low phosphates and nitrates.

 

[kegogut]

I raised the light up to the maximum height that the bracket will allow, so it's several inches higher now. The cover on the tank builds up a lot condensation on it which I'm sure will reduce par a bit, but I'm pretty sure even with that, it'll get plenty of light once the light is ramped up. I've got it running at 60% white and 65% blue for now and all of the corals look totally normal at this point. No bleaching or browning of the SPS so far.

One bonus I see from the LED's. Since they tend to shadow more than the T5's, Betty's den is quite a bit darker inside.

Good to hear its a smooth transition for you. The other bonus is the shimmer you get from the LEDs that T5s lack. It was one of the main selling points for my wife. lolz

 

[Calappidae]

I haven't heard of anyone having algae problems with full spectrum LED's. Especially with extremely low phosphates and nitrates.

Most of the time a full spectrum light is used on an SPS setup where, like you said, there is extremely low phosphates and nitrates. Water quality before lighting with algae, but it has been proven and experimented on that plants and algae grow better under certain spectrums of lighting than others, including those not nessecary to most corals.

Chlorophyll and Zooxenthellae (auto-correct..) are two different things to my knowledge.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Now that I have had some time to get a read on this tank, I'm going to start adding Kalk into the ATO water to assist with maintaining alk and calcium. More specifically, I'm using Brightwell Kalk +2.

I use a 5 gallon bucket for my ATO reservoir and I'm starting off with a modest 1 tsp of kalk per 4 gallons and see how that goes. I'll ramp it up if necessary.

I cut a piece of lighting diffuser and put it on 1/2" stanchions so the ATO pump will be sitting at least 1" off the bottom and won't be sucking up any of the settled kalk. I doubt there will be any at 1/4tsp/gallon though. I do suspect I'll need a stronger kalk mixture, but better to err on the conservative side at first.

Other than that, the tank is going super awesome. Water parameters couldn't be better. The new light is performing admirably. I'll start ramping it up 1% every 2 or 3 days this weekend.

Betty and Barney are two of the most entertaining characters you could ever hope for.

SPS growth is awesome. I've been dosing AcroPower on top everything else which really does make a difference.

 

[Islandoftiki]

A couple of videos...






And... We've got some new goodies!

Because I'm not a fan of daily alkalinity dosing...

And now I will always have 30 gallons of RO/DI on tap, ready to go. No more making 5 gallons at a time. No more forgetting to shut off the RO/DI unit and letting it run all night.

Auto shut-off float valve.

 

[Islandoftiki]

... and a full tank shot. Lights up to 75%

 

[H.reidi.MN]

Looking good.

 

[Kharn]

I get your pain with the RO/DI water Top Offs....it's a real pain in the *** for me mostly cause of my systems designs (better to rebuild then fix). Having said that to overcome this problem and still something I can easily hookup to my future altogether system remake, I plan on converting a rain water tank (500L-1000L) which can Top Up my systems and hopefully hold enough water for months .

Miss going on holidays :'(

 

[Islandoftiki]

I get your pain with the RO/DI water Top Offs....it's a real pain in the *** for me mostly cause of my systems designs (better to rebuild then fix). Having said that to overcome this problem and still something I can easily hookup to my future altogether system remake, I plan on converting a rain water tank (500L-1000L) which can Top Up my systems and hopefully hold enough water for months .

Miss going on holidays :'(

If I had a little more room, I would have used a rinsed out 55 gallon (208 Liter) food safe barrel that was originally used for distilled white vinegar, but it would have taken up more space than I would have liked. However, I rarely need more than 10 gallons at a time and this will automatically fill itself without me having to do anything if I take some out. I should have done this a while ago. My RO/DI unit came with the float valve and has an auto shut-off built in to the system. It was only about $30.00 for the food safe trash can and plumbing fittings and an hour to build the stand.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Woohoo! Fun things happening in the peacock mantis tank!

The BRS alkalinity dosing pump is dialed in and going online tonight!

I picked up some new corals from Cuttlefish and Corals:

This is Red Planet:

Not sure what this is exactly, but it is kind of a dark forest green. (the color in the picture isn't quite accurate).

And, thanks a million to Bicyclebill for these beautiful additions to the tank:

 

[Nightwitch]

That coral is amazing! I'm super impressed by how you were able to turn a ho-hum peacock tank into something so special.

 

[Islandoftiki]

That coral is amazing! I'm super impressed by how you were able to turn a ho-hum peacock tank into something so special.

I'll post a new full tank shot when everything settles in and opens up fully. Most of this stuff was just fragged today, so it's going to need a couple days to heal. It all got dipped and mounted this afternoon. This tank has really become a showpiece. Which is nice since it's right smack dab in the middle of the living room.

Two more upgrades coming. 120 degree optics for the light and longer mounting arms to help move it forward another inch or two. After that, there's not going to be much else to do but let it grow out. I don't have much free space for corals now.