My 120 filled mostly with SPS

You won't lose total par by having the LEDs closer together or further apart. The light will be more or less concentrated though over that given spot in the tank. The T5's crank out a lot of light, so I wouldn't be concerned about the par. What I think you want is relatively even coverage, which the configurations above will give you... the three strips of LED's grouped together in my opinion won't look right and isn't going to give you even spread over the entirety of your tank. You've got lots of light, so I wouldn't worry about figuring out what your par is... the advantage with the T5's and LEDs IMO over MH's is more even spread without hot spots and less shaded spots... I like the idea of maximizing the spread over the entirety of the tank with the T5s/LEDs. That gives you the most options to place corals and expect that they will get the light they need.
 
very nice tank sir!! i had the same problem you had with nutrient balance and cyano. i started using "dr tims waste away" and it has cleared up my tank of cyano. i have sps dominant 150g tank and ran ecobak bio pellets(recently changed to dr tim's bio pearls). hows the cyano battle going.
 
very nice tank sir!! i had the same problem you had with nutrient balance and cyano. i started using "dr tims waste away" and it has cleared up my tank of cyano. i have sps dominant 150g tank and ran ecobak bio pellets(recently changed to dr tim's bio pearls). hows the cyano battle going.

Thanks! The cyano battle rages on, but I'm slowly winning. I've got some bubble algae too that I'm trying to get back under control. I've been using coral snow to try and get it eliminated, which seems to be helping, as well as hone in on the nutrient level in the tank. I think taking my DSB offline will help - I did that within the past week. It was possibly becoming more a nutrient trap than a nutrient reducer, and with the biopellets, I figured I'm getting enough nitrate reduction anyway. So things are looking up.

In the past I've used chemi-clean once, when things were dire, but other than that it is just a long patient road and persistence. Never heard of the waste away, will have to check that out.
 
waste away has been a nice fix, also everything in my system is fine coral all look great still. yea i dont like deep sand beds for that reason i dont see any real reason for them with technology and better equipment. i run a bare bottom fuge. i got a couple local guys to try out waste away and they are very happy with it.
 
great thread you have going here.

My T5/LED combo is pretty much dialed in and im happy with the lighting!

Now for nutrients. you have been a real inspiration to start looking at this as being a factor in the coloration of my corals. My growth continues to be decent but my colors are poor at best.

I have drank the truf scrubber coolaid in hopes of being able to increase my organics in the water colum without increasing my N or P significantly. I invested in a Hanna P meter and an getting reading of O. No mechanical filtration for now. Skimming and ATS.... we shall see how I fare.

Unfortunatly now my battle is with bryopsis. Going to treat with Tech-M Mag as soon as it arrives. O-yea, forgot to mention i just got done with redbugs.

This hobby is a real treat!

Thanks again fot the great Pics and thread. Time for another FTS please!
 
Assuming the bryopsis is on rocks, if you had P in the rocks, as the P comes out it will feed the bryopsis until the P in the rocks equals the P in the water. So the bryopis (and any other algae on the rocks) might go away on its own.
 
Well finished my lights today. (The pic has some loose wires I hadn't zip tied yet.)
natahe8y.jpg



Surprisingly the LEDs cover the whole tank. If I turn off the t5s, the tank doesn't have any shadows. So luckily it ended up working out. The tank color looks awesome. Thanks alot for inspiring me!
vavubamu.jpg



Sent from my iPhone
 
First off great tank and thanks for sharing. You lighting has got me interested in the T5 LED combo. My tank is a 60 cube so its half your tank. I tried all LED with no luck. Currently I am running a single 250 phoenix with 2 24w Blue +. I am having good luck but would rather lower my electric bill and even out the lighting a little. Would you change any of RB LEDs to Blue? Also what brand of T5 retro did you go with? I was thinking once I burn through all my MH bubls I would make a retro canopy with 2 banks of LEDs and 5 T5,s.
Maybe in this order
T5
LED
T5
T5
T5
LED
T5

What are your thoughts
 
waste away has been a nice fix, also everything in my system is fine coral all look great still. yea i dont like deep sand beds for that reason i dont see any real reason for them with technology and better equipment. i run a bare bottom fuge. i got a couple local guys to try out waste away and they are very happy with it.

I'll keep the WA in mind. So far no problems with removing the DSB (knock on wood)!

great thread you have going here.

My T5/LED combo is pretty much dialed in and im happy with the lighting!

Now for nutrients. you have been a real inspiration to start looking at this as being a factor in the coloration of my corals. My growth continues to be decent but my colors are poor at best.

I have drank the truf scrubber coolaid in hopes of being able to increase my organics in the water colum without increasing my N or P significantly. I invested in a Hanna P meter and an getting reading of O. No mechanical filtration for now. Skimming and ATS.... we shall see how I fare.

Unfortunatly now my battle is with bryopsis. Going to treat with Tech-M Mag as soon as it arrives. O-yea, forgot to mention i just got done with redbugs.

This hobby is a real treat!

Thanks again fot the great Pics and thread. Time for another FTS please!

Good luck with your battle. I did the RB battle myself, they seem relatively easy to deal with in terms of whole tank treatments, but interceptor isn't as easy to find as it used to be. The water and carbon changes and skimmer issues is a PITA though. As noted below, the bryopsis may take some time even after you are measuring 0 in the water column, but sounds like you are on your way.

Assuming the bryopsis is on rocks, if you had P in the rocks, as the P comes out it will feed the bryopsis until the P in the rocks equals the P in the water. So the bryopis (and any other algae on the rocks) might go away on its own.

Wow great tank and photo skills!

Thanks!

Well finished my lights today. (The pic has some loose wires I hadn't zip tied yet.)
natahe8y.jpg



Surprisingly the LEDs cover the whole tank. If I turn off the t5s, the tank doesn't have any shadows. So luckily it ended up working out. The tank color looks awesome. Thanks alot for inspiring me!
vavubamu.jpg



Sent from my iPhone

Looks wicked! Very nice tank. Glad to hear the spread is fine. What degree optics you have? I should have asked that earlier.

First off great tank and thanks for sharing. You lighting has got me interested in the T5 LED combo. My tank is a 60 cube so its half your tank. I tried all LED with no luck. Currently I am running a single 250 phoenix with 2 24w Blue +. I am having good luck but would rather lower my electric bill and even out the lighting a little. Would you change any of RB LEDs to Blue? Also what brand of T5 retro did you go with? I was thinking once I burn through all my MH bubls I would make a retro canopy with 2 banks of LEDs and 5 T5,s.
Maybe in this order
T5
LED
T5
T5
T5
LED
T5

What are your thoughts

You could probably get away with 4 T5's and 2 strips of LEDs, or even 3 T5's and 2 LEDs. What are the dimensions of your tank? The all RBs are really blue, you may want to do RBs and Blues. My T5 ballasts are the Sylvania Quicktronics I picked up at a lighting store, and DIY'd with end caps and standoffs. Either way, I really like the LED/T5 combo, I don't think you'll miss your MH's if you decide to change.
 
Anyhow, quick update, I had to do some major rescaping on one pillar as the rock second from the bottom split apart. Tank is going to look quite a bit different, but it is going to open up a lot of space, which is a good thing I think. I'll post some pics soon.
 
Thanks for the compliment, but obviously it's no match for ur amazing tank!


I'm running 80* optics. And my LEDs are bridgelux



Sent from my iPhone
 
Tank size is 24x24x24. Can't wait to see the new aqua scape.

I can't see why you couldn't do 4 T5's and 2 strips of 24 LED's. Your tank is essentially half of mine. You could add another T5 or strip of LED's, but you may get short on space, and I think it would maybe be too much light.

FTS..... its time

You have qutie a few fans/followers/minions

Feed our addiction!

Ha ha, I will do so shortly. This weekend I was pretty stretched to the max between commitments, childcare, and rescaping! I did snap a couple of shots of the mess the tank became when doing the scape. It is almost there though. Tonight I need to place a few more items and do a water change, but I will post a FTS in the next couple of days. I did post a separate thread in this section, my SPS all got really ****ed off as best I can guess from some type of reaction from the corals I put in the sump. My theory is when I moved them around (they had been in the sump overnight), their secretions got into the display and peeved off everyone else. Anyhow, things looked a bit better this morning, but not terrific. Hopefully it will just take a bit of time and everyone will bounce back.

Thanks for the compliment, but obviously it's no match for ur amazing tank!


I'm running 80* optics. And my LEDs are bridgelux



Sent from my iPhone

Okay, 80 degrees is the same I have. Glad to hear the config worked out, it does look good. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
 
Here are some snaps of the re-scaping process, and the after FTS. Things got a bit dicey there, I think the corals I temporarily put in the sump slimed up significantly and caused a system wide defense response. Also, it stirred up a lot of crap and I think my nutrients spiked. I lost my pocillipora and a couple of other pieces were dicey, but all are rebounding nicely. Anyhow, my new year's resolution is to stick to once weekly water changes and twice monthly parameter testing to ensure everything is in order.

8406196203_0c5c3c90a2_c.jpg


8406195345_b07c0c7b95_c.jpg


8407288058_52342abafe_c.jpg


8406193019_b903593f56_b.jpg
 
Thanks Dwayne. The pillar coming apart forced my hand a bit and I didn't have a lot of options in terms of where I could place specific corals, but I think it turned out alright considering. There is more room now and it is more "open concept", the fish appreciate the extra space I think.
 
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