My 120 filled mostly with SPS
- Thread starter jroovers
- Start date
brad65ford
New member
Sub'd. Nice work and dedication.
What are the hairy purple? How old is your green plate?
Some new shots from today:
And this guy/gal has set up shop under the edge of my undata... notice the chewed spot on the top of its entrance:
Interceptor worked for me. I had one in my SPS system that always got away from my tweezers. Then one day after an Interceptor treatment I found it on the sandbed next to the glass. It was an easy scoop because it barely moved. ....BUT later I saw another the same hole in my reef, and I thought what?? Another?? Into the tank with the tweezers...and AGAIN ..easy score. It barely moved as I got it.
Somehow the Interceptor paralyzes them.
Good Luck!!
k_red_raider
New member
Great looking tank!! those are some awesome pictures. Im also not sure what is in the water up there in canada but yall have some great tanks
rowdy29can
New member
Great Macro shots Jordan! Awesome! I got one of those Elusive buggers too!!! Still can't get him/her? Will keep trying tho. All the best! Cheers!
SchnitzelReef
Active member
Tank looks great! I just switched my tank over to a SPS dominant tank. I'm currently running 90-3w LEDs and2-t5s. I def need more light. I was considering adding 2-250w mh to get some extra par for a couple hours a day. But I noticed how u have 4-t5s and LEDs. I can easily add 2 more t5s, are u happy with ur current light setup? Do u think its as good as ur metal halides? What u think about coral color? And growth?
I was originally running only LEDs, and my Lps and soft corals were doing great. Once I added more SPS, I was def not happy. Decided to add the 2-t5s and WOW what a diff. It made. I'm thinking had I added 4 I might have been good to go.
Appreciate all ur help
Sent from my iPhone
I was originally running only LEDs, and my Lps and soft corals were doing great. Once I added more SPS, I was def not happy. Decided to add the 2-t5s and WOW what a diff. It made. I'm thinking had I added 4 I might have been good to go.
Appreciate all ur help
Sent from my iPhone
jroovers
New member
Damn the crab! I have hunted 4 out of my tank so far. I think they are all gone now, no more random stn
Nice shots! Crisp focus
Thanks guys.
I think the one you are referring to is the Palmer's Blue Millepora. My cap I would say is about two years old now, but it may be a bit older or younger, I can't remember specifically when I added it.
Interceptor worked for me. I had one in my SPS system that always got away from my tweezers. Then one day after an Interceptor treatment I found it on the sandbed next to the glass. It was an easy scoop because it barely moved. ....BUT later I saw another the same hole in my reef, and I thought what?? Another?? Into the tank with the tweezers...and AGAIN ..easy score. It barely moved as I got it.
Somehow the Interceptor paralyzes them.
Good Luck!!
Bill, the weird thing is that I did a series of Interceptor treatments about 10 weeks or so ago, and haven't added anything to the system since then. So he must have survived the treatments. He is in a spot where I think I can get at him with tweezers, but what I might do is remove that whole rock and not take any chances. The rock has my hawkins and a confusa on it as well, so I don't want to remove it if it can be avoided, but I think in this case worth the effort.
Thanks guys. Patrick, I'll let you know when the deed has been done.
There is definitely enough light with the 4 x 54 T5's and the 48 RB crees. At first, I was bit reluctant to make the move, but I needed to make a new hood and Darryl (dvanacker) talked me into it. I don't know if I'd ever go back to MH's. There is less heat, less energy use, and less physical space required for the lighting. My growth has suffered recently but that is due to a nutrient issue and water parameters, not lighting. IMO, there is great growth and colour to be had with this combo. There are a lot of options in terms of colour given the LED's and all the T5 bulb options. I would say add two more T5's before adding the MH's. If you put them on a separate driver you can always adjust your lighting by leaving two on longer and two on shorter. I run my T5's at present from about 4 pm to 10 pm, with my LED's on from Noon to Midnight. HTH.
I had very little luck, maybe 1 out of 10 tries, getting those crabs out of my reef with tweezers. It was when I used Interceptor they were easy to nab because they barely moved.
Good Luck!!
jroovers
New member
Gotcha, I mis-understood.
SchnitzelReef
Active member
I noticed in the beginning of the thread u said u were running
1-Coral plus
1-Purple plus
2-AB special
Did u end up changing it? I can see how u think its too purple with just LEDs. Those royal blues give off a very dark blue, almost purple color.
Right now I have..
2-Blue+
2-coral+. I really like the color of the coral +. Really gives a good blend. To me the AB special is too white.
Sent from my iPhone
1-Coral plus
1-Purple plus
2-AB special
Did u end up changing it? I can see how u think its too purple with just LEDs. Those royal blues give off a very dark blue, almost purple color.
Right now I have..
2-Blue+
2-coral+. I really like the color of the coral +. Really gives a good blend. To me the AB special is too white.
Sent from my iPhone
jroovers
New member
Yes, I did swap out the purple plus for a Blue +. As you noted, it was way too purple. Those RB's do crank out a lot more magenta/purple than I was expecting. If anyone locally wants a very lightly used purple plus T5 bulb, let me know. I like the whiteness of the AB special and Coral+, I was running two 12k 250w MH bulbs as my full spectrum daylight lighting, those bulbs are meant to replace that look.
SchnitzelReef
Active member
Also I was wondering if u figured out ur skimmer problem?
I have an SRO XP3000 and it works awesome. The pump just took a crap on mine,(come to find out I had one of the original 3000 bubble boasters and they were faulty from the get go) and Coralvue sent out a new pump right away. When I received the new pump, the volute was flipped and so the pump was sucking from the same side as the skimmer output. I knew this was not a good idea, but I was in a rush, so I just threw it together. After a week of my cup overflowing, I took the pump out and flipped the volute and BOOM problem solved.
Also Coralvue recommended like 6-7" of water for my skimmer. I had an acrylic stand built for my skimmer and it was like 6" and that was still not enough. My skimmer barely skimmed, it mostly overflowed. Had a new stand built at 6.5" and problem solved. I think the biggest con to the SRO skimmers is they are very finicky with correct water level.
Sent from my iPhone
I have an SRO XP3000 and it works awesome. The pump just took a crap on mine,(come to find out I had one of the original 3000 bubble boasters and they were faulty from the get go) and Coralvue sent out a new pump right away. When I received the new pump, the volute was flipped and so the pump was sucking from the same side as the skimmer output. I knew this was not a good idea, but I was in a rush, so I just threw it together. After a week of my cup overflowing, I took the pump out and flipped the volute and BOOM problem solved.
Also Coralvue recommended like 6-7" of water for my skimmer. I had an acrylic stand built for my skimmer and it was like 6" and that was still not enough. My skimmer barely skimmed, it mostly overflowed. Had a new stand built at 6.5" and problem solved. I think the biggest con to the SRO skimmers is they are very finicky with correct water level.
Sent from my iPhone
Last edited:
SchnitzelReef
Active member
That's cool. I figured that. I noticed in ur t5/led setup, u did 1-t5,led, 2-t5, led, 1-t5. Was there a reason for this?
I have 3 rows of c channel with 30 LEDs on each. My plan was to put 2-t5s, all 3 of my LEDs together side by side, then 2-t5s. I noticed ATIs new led power module I setup that way. With the t5s on the outside and a row of LEDs down the middle.
Just wondering what made u choose ur way.
Sent from my iPhone
jroovers
New member
I spoke with dvanacker, who helped me with the lighting and did all the soldering (and who knows much more about this lighting than I do), and that is the config we settled on to give the best overall spread of light front to back. My LED lighting is meant to be more the supplemental, dusk to dawn lighting, with the T5's providing the full spectrum peak daytime lighting (for about 6 hours a day). I thought 2 in the middle would provide the best daytime lighting for this. I wouldn't put all three LED together.
If you are using the LED's as supplemental/actinic accent lighting, I'd go with this:
LED
T5
T5
LED
T5
T5
LED
or:
T5
LED
T5
LED
T5
LED
T5
This second config may be harder to wire though.
SchnitzelReef
Active member
That setup does sound good, but I am worried that I am spreading my LEDs too far apart. I feel like I lose par with LEDs spread all around the tank. Look at radions, AIs, etc. all of these lights cluster LEDs closely together. I feel like there must be a reason for this. My original build was 100% led, but after a few months I hated the color of my SPS and got very little growth. My theory is by placing all three led strips together, I will get some more par from them. Maybe ur buddy who helped u setup urs can chime in.
Ur idea makes sense, and it was my original plan prior to adding the t5s. Now I'm thinking maybe I placed my LEDs too far apart. I prolly needed to do like 40 led to each strip. For a total of 120 LEDs.
Thanks again for ur help. I'm actually about to add the 2 other t5s right now. I picked them up this week after seeing ur tank and talking to u
The good thing about this setup is I will be able to move the lights if I don't like Them.
Sent from my iPhone
Similar threads
