My 280g Custom upgrade.....
- Thread starter SPotter
- Start date
Rotknee
Member
Steve, glad to hear you are ok and everything thing (and everybody) is doing well. My company is based out of Princeton and Sandy hit us pretty hard as well. I was trying to convince one of our IT guys to move out West to enjoy the sun and smog of sunny Southern California lol.
Following your thread with even more interest given the fact that my Cardinals are expecting. The male has a mouth full ATM and I'm waiting for him to release the babies. Not sure what I'm going to do with them but it would be nice to raise a few. I'll be following your lead.
Following your thread with even more interest given the fact that my Cardinals are expecting. The male has a mouth full ATM and I'm waiting for him to release the babies. Not sure what I'm going to do with them but it would be nice to raise a few. I'll be following your lead.
SPotter
Active member
Hey Rodney....did you get your mitras yet? Of the four baby cardinals i found, theres only two left now. The other two could have found another hiding spot that i cant see. the two survivors are getting bigger and eating cyclopeeze as it floats by the opening to their cave. Im hopeful that at this point they have a really good chance of survival in the tank.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
coralreefdoc
New member
You lost the Goldfish !?!
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I thought that was ironic too. All your fish/coral survive but you lose the goldfish
Your son needs to make the leap Steve, FW to a personal Reef!
Your son needs to make the leap Steve, FW to a personal Reef!
nightOwl
Premium Member
Steve, that is great news. Glad to hear all is well except the goldfish.
Rotknee
Member
Got the Mitras a couple of weeks ago. They are everything I could ever want in an LED: nice software package, multiple color temps to choose from and the power to grow my SPS. The geek factor is also pretty high given the ability to do left to right sunrises and sunsets too.
I was trying to take some pics of the cardinal with the babies in his mouth but he's hiding and I can't get a good shot. I just hope I can save a few of them before they get eaten.
I was trying to take some pics of the cardinal with the babies in his mouth but he's hiding and I can't get a good shot. I just hope I can save a few of them before they get eaten.
SPotter
Active member
So I guess it was a good decision to send back the other fixture you had? I wish my light had simplistic software to work with so I could create a more customized look. I honestly think my lights are just too bright and its been a struggle to find a good intensity and combination of t5 bulbs with the leds. I am thinking about using the t5's on my fixture for the white lights and then supplement the colors with the rest of the colored leds. I can than add a little of the white led lights as needed.
Rotknee
Member
I still think LED's and T5's give you unlimited options. The challenge is in effectively controlling all of those options to reach a balance where you are pleased with the aesthetics of your tank AND the fixtures impact on your tanks inhabitants. Simply put, it's a win-win when you have a lighting system that makes your corals look good and grow well. In order to look good you have to be able to dial in the colors to your liking. From the pics you posted I'd say you reached that point.
With almost three full weeks with the new LED's my acans are actually turning more red and I have a tri-colored acro that is showing some nice red tips that I hadn't noticed before.
With almost three full weeks with the new LED's my acans are actually turning more red and I have a tri-colored acro that is showing some nice red tips that I hadn't noticed before.
coralreefdoc
New member
Steve. Not familiar with the specifics of which LEDs you are running i.e. brand, unit, intensity, optics, etc; but one of the key disadvantages of LEDs is their narrow/limited spectral output, particularly in the lower nm range ...
Therefore, greatly dependent on specifics of the LEDs and quantity of T5s, I'd suggest to consider doing the opposite of what you have proposed above. Stated thus, instead of running whites for the T5s and blues for the LEDs, utilize the 400-430nm of pure actinic T5s and specialty bulbs such as the KZ Fiji Purple, allowing the LEDs to do what they do best ... 450+nm blues and high intensity/PAR whites !
To make this more feasible for your specific situation, given that you stated having problems with too much intensity in the white LEDs, consider switching out the optics in favor of a more broad degree of optics. Surely you would also be able to decrease intensity with custom programming as well ...
JAT,
SPotter
Active member
CRD...thanks for the input. My fixture has 10 different led colors that are controlled over 8 channels. The whites are cree xm-l 10w leds so they seem to pack a pretty good punch and it has 4 x 150w led banks plus 4x80w t5's. I went with this fixture because of my wide tank and thought the t5's would give me additional flexibility. I have to work on creating my lighting program as I have just been using one that was created by the manufacturer.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Thats some serious growth. I heard they were slow growers but it seems that you proved that theory wrong.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
What have you been struggling with?
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Steve, Setosa looks really good and would call it a slow/medium grower for me in the past but yours looks like it's taking off fast. Have any recent full tank shots?
DeepBlueZoas
Member
Yea that was some fast growth
Alex T.
Active member
You haven't given up. You're just reloading.
Come on man. You know that once you're in there's no way out.:headwalls:
