slief
RC Sponsor
They are in the Pygmy Angel family. As with any Pygmy Angel, they can be hit and miss but I've never had an issue with any of my Pygmy Angels and I've got a flame, Bellus, lemon peel and these two.
My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics
- Thread starter slief
- Start date
They are in the Pygmy Angel family. As with any Pygmy Angel, they can be hit and miss but I've never had an issue with any of my Pygmy Angels and I've got a flame, Bellus, lemon peel and these two.
slief
RC Sponsor
Unfortunately not. I want to get a male but they are hard to come by and usually pretty expensive. I had kind of forgotten about that one too. I do however need to put that on my wish list again. I could probably go with another female as it would likely change to male but I'd hate to have agreession issues.
Not sure that Genicanthus Angels are considered Pygmy Angels, but regardless, IME the largest Genicanthus female in a tank with other females will usually turn male..and I've had male Genicanthus Angels revert back to female coloring if a more aggressive 'geni' becomes the dominate male.
Personally, I don't think the male Bellus is anything to be excited about, and not worth the extra cost, but that's my personal opinion .
slief
RC Sponsor
I agree. The male Bellus angles aren't nearly as pretty as the females and their high cost for a pretty boring looking fish is what's kept me from getting one.
slief
RC Sponsor
So... you buy 2 females, wait for 1 to become male and then sell it for the cost of 2 females...then you buy another female....
LOL. Yea, if only it were easy to catch one of those in a 500 gallon display with several hundred pounds of live rock. I thought about getting another female but my only corncern was the potential of them fighting though that is unlikely since they are pretty mellow as angels go.
ReefKeeper64
Wanna be a reefkeeper
Tagging along
smatter
Active member
I bought a Kessil A360WE for my REEFER Nano almost solely based on your untiring cheerleading for it. So far I like the light better than other LEDs I have used but the tank is really new so time will tell. I have it dialed way back at 30% color and 30% intensity for a 4 hour peak. It's a 12 hour photoperiod and the light is at 15% intensity 0 color outside the peak time. The red goniopora, hammer, and yellow leather seem happy. I'm scared to turn it up because I'm pretty sure I fried my now deceased bubble tip when I first got the Kessil.
I have to say I'm a little bummed to see that you have added the Mitras. It was great to see such and inspirational all Kessil tank. Don't get me wrong it's still inspirational and the Mitras look awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.
I have to say I'm a little bummed to see that you have added the Mitras. It was great to see such and inspirational all Kessil tank. Don't get me wrong it's still inspirational and the Mitras look awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.
slief
RC Sponsor
You will love the Kessils. I still love them and still have 8 of them over my tank in addition to the Mitras. I wanted more control over the coloring. Especially since I have a fair amount of SPS. The SPS grew like weeds under the Kessils to but as I said, I wanted more control over coloration so that is in large part what motivated me to add them. That said, I still think the Kessils are great lights and will grow any corals. They also do a great job of bring out colors in them so don't be dismayed by my choice to add the Mitras. I love to tinker and stay up on technology and when the opportunity came up to get the Mitras, my OCD kicked in. I expect you will love the Kessils just like I do.
slief
RC Sponsor
I could grow coral with any lights assuming the spectrum is dialed in correctly. Coral need the correct spectrum and they get most of their photosynthetic radiation from 420-460nm which is the blue spectrum. Kessils cover that spectrum very well. What many don't understand is all the other variables that go into growing corals from system stability, sufficient nutrients, water quality, calcium, alk, mg, strontium etc. Just because you have the right lights and the correct ca, alk and mg levels doesn't mean you will grow all kinds of corals. It used to be assumed that you needed a virtually sterile system devoid of nitrates, Po4 etc. That has long proven not to be the case. In fact, people are now having to resort to dosing nitrate sources to keep their corals happy. It also use to be assume that having a fish tank and reef tank are two separate types of systems because a large number of fish will pollute the water. Again, i't a fallacy in my experience as I have the best of both worlds. My Po4 levels regularly hit .15 to .2ppm. I have a ton of fish and feed like crazy. I have what I consider to be a high nutrient system and my fish thrive. Despite this, I do have good water quality and a very stable, consistent and mature system which allows me to maintain a very high load with minimal water changes while also maintaining good water quality. I don't dose anything and allow my calcium reactor to maintain the needed levels of Ca, Alk, and Mg. My corals grow like weeds though and I attribute that not only to the quality lights that provide the correct spectrum or consistent alk, ca and mg but also to the nutrients in the water from the fish feedings and their waste.
smatter
Active member
I used to grow corals with 55K halides and some URI actinics back in the late '80s and early '90s. I thought 10K bulbs were too blue when they came out. I had much better tanks back then when I read books and looked forward to what Julian Sprung had to say in the next issue of SeaScope. Things went South when the number chasing and buying into the sterile tank nonsense started. I'm going pretty much classic Berlin system with my current little tank. There's nothing like the magic of fish poop 
pmrossetti
Active member
Hi Scott. Is Jim OK? Long time no video.
reefzone123
New member
love the dimension layout of your tank. beautiful setup. great attention to detail and natural look. wow lots of color. fish are magnificent.
slief
RC Sponsor
Hahah.. Jim just finished up the video on my Mitras install!Hi Scott. Is Jim OK? Long time no video.
Thank you very much!!
We did an LA Fish Guys video series on my Mitras LX7 install. It covers setting them up for my light rack as well as setting up the Wifi network connection basic programming. It's 3 parts. This was shot early this year and just now released to YouTube.
Part 1 discuses the Mitras LX7's and prepping them for my light rack.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lxJ_zTbvjqQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Part 2 covers installing them on my light rack.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A5gdhkmnwlI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Part 3 covers basic setup and programming.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/koVfhf2cXKs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
sfsuphysics
Active member
Holy crap, it's been a while since I've seen those videos and just to say my speakers were turned up pretty high... damn, brought me back to my childhood with the thumping 
pmrossetti
Active member
Hi Scott, Was just wondering how you have been managing your tank temps lately. Any problems? Thanks
slief
RC Sponsor
No issues. I let my tank run the gauntlet so to speak in terms of my temp. I max out at 82 during the summer which is fine by me. In fact, my coral growth during the summer when the tank temps are 80-82 is better than any other time of the year.
Here is a screen shot showing my temps. They are no different than they have been every summer for the last several years since unplugging my chiller and my tank seems to thrive with these temps.
