My 120 filled mostly with SPS
- Thread starter jroovers
- Start date
André Silvestre
Reefaholic
Very nice JRoovers!
As a photography lover, I´ve been following your work here on RC and let me congratulate you for such skills! Excellent photographer and great reefer. The latest macros and fts show some really happy corals!
I think your tank is a great example of what an hybrid illumination with T5s and leds can achieve regarding sps keeping. I think you have the good of both worlds right there.
I don´t know if you have mentioned it earlier and sorry if I missed it but, are you using lens with your leds?
Thanks,
André
As a photography lover, I´ve been following your work here on RC and let me congratulate you for such skills! Excellent photographer and great reefer. The latest macros and fts show some really happy corals!
I think your tank is a great example of what an hybrid illumination with T5s and leds can achieve regarding sps keeping. I think you have the good of both worlds right there.
I don´t know if you have mentioned it earlier and sorry if I missed it but, are you using lens with your leds?
Thanks,
André
billyzbear
Active member
Love the pics. The detail is amazing.
Coral+ bulbs in the middle?
Coral+ bulbs in the middle?
jroovers
New member
Sorry, I forgot I was supposed to let you know that. This is what I have:
Blue + (22k?)
RB
Aquablue Special (14k)
Coral + (15k)
RB
Aquablue Special (14k)
I think I'm going to move the T5's over to 2 UVL AquaSuns (10k) and two Coral +'s.
madkeenreefer
New member
Wow thoes pics you posted on page 11 are extremely cool, nice effect.
Your FTS is looking very clean also.
Your FTS is looking very clean also.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
I now run the following:
3 x ATI Coral Plus
2x ATI Actinic (True 03 Actinic, not Blue+)
Cree Royal Blue LED's.
The look is a nice 20K look with pinks and oranges still vibrant. The Actinic tubes and Royal Blues "pop" colours very well. The use of both 450nm LED's and Actinic T5 tubes pops different ranges of the flourescent ranges and so everything looks VERY nice. The Coral plus is a standalone tube according to ATI and I think it works very well. Will see how things turn out in a few more months.
I have tried soooo many combos...got so many tubes lying around. Will stick to this combo as long as I use T5/LED.
jroovers
New member
Thanks for that info. I never thought about actinic bulbs. How many RBs do you have? I have two rows of 24 so I have a ton of blue/magenta. The coral pluses and aquablue specials are pretty white, but even then the RBs give the tank a bluish purple hue. I'm thinking a move to include some 10k bulbs will give my growth an extra push and won't yellow out the tank too much with all those RBs.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
I have 24 Royals running at 350mA for a total of 24watts. I am using 80degree lens. That is plenty of blue at the 450nm end and provides a huge spike. The Radium bulb has a huge 450nm spike.
The 2 Actinics cover the 420nm and below; whilst not a large output, there is still enough to at least make a difference on my PAR meter and visibly make a difference too. Halides generally have a good percentage of available spectrum below 420nm and below.
The above image from Sanjay work over at Manhatten Reefs demonstrates what I am trying to mimic.
So with the ATI Coral Plus tubes I am hoping to hit the rest of the specctral range. Whilst there are probably gaps in the spectral output for the CoralPlus tubes, I think it is working.
I bought a few frags over the weekend. The frags were from a very established tank with beautiful SPS corals. I am seeing that some of the frags have even improved colouration since going in my tank. I've added frags just a week before; I didnt get this effect. All parameters are the same; the only difference is my T5 tube combo.
I think that trying to hit a broader range of spectrum has improved the SPS colours in my tank. My Red Planet looks really really nice. I have another blue green Acro that looks amazing.
I used to have use:
3 x ATI Blue Plus
1 x ATI Aquablue Special
1x ATI Purple PLus
Cree Royals
What I have now, is so much nicer looking; pops all the colours and reds etc dont look washed out.
Going to 3 Coral+, 2 Actinics alongwith the Royals is working for me.
Anyway, enough ranting from me. Post up some fresh photos when you get the new tubes.
trueblackpercula
New member
Latest is the one that is on page 10, this one, same that I posted on TFT:
The new FTS will be minus the acans, apparently my regal thinks they are delicious now.
Truly an inspirational aquarium you have. I can only hope my tank looks like yours some day.
Would you say your lighting is close to the 20k spectrum?
jroovers
New member
I have 24 Royals running at 350mA for a total of 24watts. I am using 80degree lens. That is plenty of blue at the 450nm end and provides a huge spike. The Radium bulb has a huge 450nm spike.
The 2 Actinics cover the 420nm and below; whilst not a large output, there is still enough to at least make a difference on my PAR meter and visibly make a difference too. Halides generally have a good percentage of available spectrum below 420nm and below.
The above image from Sanjay work over at Manhatten Reefs demonstrates what I am trying to mimic.
So with the ATI Coral Plus tubes I am hoping to hit the rest of the specctral range. Whilst there are probably gaps in the spectral output for the CoralPlus tubes, I think it is working.
I bought a few frags over the weekend. The frags were from a very established tank with beautiful SPS corals. I am seeing that some of the frags have even improved colouration since going in my tank. I've added frags just a week before; I didnt get this effect. All parameters are the same; the only difference is my T5 tube combo.
I think that trying to hit a broader range of spectrum has improved the SPS colours in my tank. My Red Planet looks really really nice. I have another blue green Acro that looks amazing.
I used to have use:
3 x ATI Blue Plus
1 x ATI Aquablue Special
1x ATI Purple PLus
Cree Royals
What I have now, is so much nicer looking; pops all the colours and reds etc dont look washed out.
Going to 3 Coral+, 2 Actinics alongwith the Royals is working for me.
Anyway, enough ranting from me. Post up some fresh photos when you get the new tubes.
I will post some photos when I make the swap. My colours are good right now, and are rebouding after my recent nutrient issues - some colour up quickly, others take longer to come around. My strawberry shortcake for example is taking forever to colour back up, but it is making progress slowly but surely.
I have exactly twice the RB's as you, and one less T5 bulb. I'm going to give the 10k UVL's a try with the coral +'s, and see if I can trigger some significant growth. Now that I've rescaped and pretty much gotten most corals where I want them, I want to focus on my corals filling out and looking more like a mature SPS tank. After I've achieved some more growth (hopefully within the next year), hopefully I can focus on lighting specifically to enhance colour.
Hindsight is 20/20. I would make my pillars more pyramidal in shape for one, and not so vertical - it is a challenge to fill out the rock work with SPS because there are so many shaded spots. I'm going to have to be diligent about pruning on an ongoing basis to help fight this. In making the pillars, I used hydraulic cistern cement, a masonry drill to put a hole in the centre of the rocks, and fiberglass driveway markers. If I had to do it again, I would have used epoxy instead of the cement. The cement has broken down with time and there is a lot of cement detrius in the system. I blast as much off and out as a I can, and siphon a small amount out with each water change. At some point however I expect it will eventually level off as growth of algae, sponges, etc completely covers its and everything sort of just sticks together.
Other than that, the system is pretty straightforward. Right now it is just the 120 with a 40 breeder sump and baffles... skimmer, return section, refuge (just some rock, no longer have a DSB), and biopellets and some carbon/small amount of GFO. Less is sometimes more. My dream tank is to have a peninsula system that is viewable from three sides and divides a room on a main floor with a fish room below - however, that will have to wait until we move to different house - in other words, not any time soon!
Thanks for the compliment. I would say it is pretty close to 20k. I'm not too certain however as to what the exact colour would be - to my eye, it is pretty blue. The RBs kick out a lot of blue, no doubt about it! With my photos on the computer, when I upload them before processing, it really becomes apparent just how much blue there is.
Big E
Premium Member
I have 24 Royals running at 350mA for a total of 24watts. I am using 80degree lens. That is plenty of blue at the 450nm end and provides a huge spike. The Radium bulb has a huge 450nm spike.
The 2 Actinics cover the 420nm and below; whilst not a large output, there is still enough to at least make a difference on my PAR meter and visibly make a difference too. Halides generally have a good percentage of available spectrum below 420nm and below.
The above image from Sanjay work over at Manhatten Reefs demonstrates what I am trying to mimic.
So with the ATI Coral Plus tubes I am hoping to hit the rest of the specctral range. Whilst there are probably gaps in the spectral output for the CoralPlus tubes, I think it is working.
I bought a few frags over the weekend. The frags were from a very established tank with beautiful SPS corals. I am seeing that some of the frags have even improved colouration since going in my tank. I've added frags just a week before; I didnt get this effect. All parameters are the same; the only difference is my T5 tube combo.
I think that trying to hit a broader range of spectrum has improved the SPS colours in my tank. My Red Planet looks really really nice. I have another blue green Acro that looks amazing.
I used to have use:
3 x ATI Blue Plus
1 x ATI Aquablue Special
1x ATI Purple PLus
Cree Royals
What I have now, is so much nicer looking; pops all the colours and reds etc dont look washed out.
Going to 3 Coral+, 2 Actinics alongwith the Royals is working for me.
Anyway, enough ranting from me. Post up some fresh photos when you get the new tubes.
A couple things to note aobut that Radium plot is that most guys that used those also used some 03 antinics to supplement, as the Radium to the eyes looks more of a crisp white when overdriven by the HQI ballast.
Another key thing is that it's not the big spike as much as the percentage of the other colors in reference to that spike.....that's where a lot of the earlier generations of stand alone LEDs failed. Their percentage of the the 480-600 range was too high.
Sahin, it looks like your current new combo is gonna be a hit. I'm very interested in both combos of what you guys are going to try. They look good.
Sahin do you have a tank thread to track what you're doing? If not get one going now
---------------
JRoover..........lookin good as always. One question I have is how are you dealing with heat from the bulbs? Any concerns over whether they are affecting the LEDs?
jroovers
New member
A couple things to note aobut that Radium plot is that most guys that used those also used some 03 antinics to supplement, as the Radium to the eyes looks more of a crisp white when overdriven by the HQI ballast.
Another key thing is that it's not the big spike as much as the percentage of the other colors in reference to that spike.....that's where a lot of the earlier generations of stand alone LEDs failed. Their percentage of the the 480-600 range was too high.
Sahin, it looks like your current new combo is gonna be a hit. I'm very interested in both combos of what you guys are going to try. They look good.
Sahin do you have a tank thread to track what you're doing? If not get one going now
---------------
JRoover..........lookin good as always. One question I have is how are you dealing with heat from the bulbs? Any concerns over whether they are affecting the LEDs?
Thanks for that info. I think I've got pretty good spread with my current setup, but I'm eager to make the above noted adjustment and see if I can really stimulate some growth.
As for the bulbs (I'm assuming you mean the T5 bulbs), they really don't produce that much heat. They are spaced out pretty well and if you look back earlier in my thread, you can see from the photos that my canopy top is essentially a rectangular frame with mostly open space. The strips of LEDs and the T5s have nothing but air overtop of them other than the individual T5 reflectors and the heat sinks. The tank is in my basement, which is always the coolest spot in the house. Even in the summer the basement stays pretty cool. I've never thought of running a fan over the lights - I guess I could do that, but when my hand is over the lights I never feel any untoward heat. I'm more worried about stray voltage than anything.
Hi
how do you like the 2x tunze 6105 in your tank? how's the flow? is it too powerful or just about right? I am thinking of upgrading my tank from 75 to a 120. I have been going back and forth trying to decide between 3x6095 vs 2x6105. Do you think two powerful pumps are better than 3 weaker ones?
What kind of controller do you have to control your pumps?
Thanks,
Bao
how do you like the 2x tunze 6105 in your tank? how's the flow? is it too powerful or just about right? I am thinking of upgrading my tank from 75 to a 120. I have been going back and forth trying to decide between 3x6095 vs 2x6105. Do you think two powerful pumps are better than 3 weaker ones?
What kind of controller do you have to control your pumps?
Thanks,
Bao
jason angel
New member
great read. tagging along.
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