My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics
- Thread starter slief
- Start date
slief
RC Sponsor
I determined my initial color by matching them to my existing LED lights that I was replacing. I swapped out 1 light fixture, added a couple Kessils and matched the color. It was that simple. I didn't want to make a radical change in terms of color and I liked the color that I had dialed in with my previous Reeftech LED's so the side by side method made it painlessly easy and it only took a minute or two if that to match them. As far as how adjustable, they are very adjustable. You can adjust the color spectrum from a blue to a whiter color with a range of 0-100%. The low end is blue and 100% would be the most white. Within that range is always a constant amount of UV. My intensity ramps up and down from about 12% to 100% with the Apex controller. As such I have a great sunrise and sunset effect. I max out at about 76% as I don't want to shock my corals. These lights put off a lot of intensity. If you take a look at the videos I posted on the previous page (page 48) and most particularly part 3, the programming of the lights was covered as well as I think the color matching. That or color matching was done in part 2 with the main programming in part 3.
Coverage is said to be 24"x24" per light which is very accurate in my opinion. I have 8 of them over my 96"x48" footprint and it's perfect.
This is my current lighting profile as view from Apex Fusion. The orange line is intensity and the blue line is the color spectrum. Sunrise starts off as blue and changes over the course of hours to a more white spectrum. Sunset starts off white and migrates to a bluer spectrum. The sunrise and sunset occur over the courser of about 2 hours. My max intensity of 76% is a 4 hour period with a total light on period of about 12 hours between sunrise, sunset and the gradual build up of intensity. You can see from the profile that my ramps are very gradual and look very natural. You can't notice the ramp at all.
They are great lights. I love mine and my corals have responded very well!
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sandyland
New member
I'm seeing a pattern here.Display fuge upgrade coming.. Just got a 24x24x24 60 gallon cube. It will be replacing my 24x24x12" 30 gallon cube display fuge. Will probably do it this Saturday. To be continued....
slief
RC Sponsor
While I am reasonably proficient at creating profiles, Fusion without a doubt made the task of programming my lights a breeze. While I didn't originally think I would have a use for Fusion since I have no issues accessing my Apex from outside my network via the traditional method, the light programming changed my mind. Fusion definitely is a breath of fresh air and I can only imagine how valuable it is for new users.
Aren't we all creatures of habit??? Bigger is ALWAYS better! So say I with a Napoleon complex. :dance:
Sadly, I decided to put the swap off until next weekend. My plate was kind of full this weekend and I was feeling lazy. Instead I pruned my chaeto mass, swapped my filter socks, cleaned my sump lids and took it easy. Next weekend will also provide me more time to decide on how I am going to aquascape this tank. I'm debating on just stacking the rock to make a larger cave off one corner or getting some pond foam and creating a live rock structure similar to how I did the aquascape in my main display tank. The additional time will allow me to think that through better.
Those are nice looking BTA's. I have to say equal to those I saw in the Monterey Bay Aquarium display they have. They have a dedicated tank with lots of clowns of all sizes hosting and just swimming around. Their RBTA is massive and yours is equal. They make for a great center piece or center of attraction in either case.
Really enjoy looking at your tank.
Really enjoy looking at your tank.
slief
RC Sponsor
Thank you very much!! I'm always surprised at how big these ones get. I attribute that to good lighting and lots of flow. Interestingly, they positioned themselves in about the highest and most chaotic flow spot in my tank and have remained there for a long time now. The bigger of the two has been there for a couple years now and the smaller one split off from him right around a year ago, I think.
Here is a video I just shot of them. You can see how they are in a really high flow spot and seem to be loving it.
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slief
RC Sponsor
The cowfish is a ham. He can't stay away from me when I'm around the tank.
I took another video as the lights were in the middle of sunset cycle and pumps were also in sunset cycle. It makes for a nice effect. The fish were waiting to be fed so they a bunch of them couldn't stay away. It's kind of funny how many of them come up, peek into the video and bow out..
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Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Just finished watching the Kessil upgrade videos and as always very informal and entertaining. From watching your videos from the beginning has influenced me to get a tank that matched the same size as yours. The tank looks fabulous with the new Kessils. Great job sir.
slief
RC Sponsor
The cowfish is probably my most "in your face" fish of all of them. He chases me around the tank and feels to need to photo bomb almost every picture. I like his smile though. :lolspin:
Thank you very much! Glad to have inspired you Wayne! I've been keeping an eye on your thread and have really enjoyed watching your progress and seeing your tank come into it's own! Your's is looking really good too!
glassterbate
In Memoriam
Wow, just went through the whole thread, amazing chronicle of your tank.
slief
RC Sponsor
Gotta love fish with personality!
Thank you!
Thank you very much! That is a lot of reading! Glad you enjoyed it!
slief
RC Sponsor
Yesterday was the display refugium swap. My friend Jim came over to help with his video cameras in hand to cover it for a future LA Fish Guy episode... The swap went extremely smooth. I guess it pays to be well prepared. I had everything on hand for the swap and most of the PVC precut and ready to go in an effort to reduce downtime of the display fuge.
This tank was a clear back so I first painted the back outside of the tank with black Plastidip. With this tank, I decided to stick with a stand pipe drain and return line as opposed to an overflow. I didn't want to sacrafice bottom space for the overflow and figured I could build my rock work around the standpipes. The stand pipes were painted black with Krylon Fusion.
Fortunately this swap didn't require shutting down anything on the main tank except for the skimmer. I had to add 50 or so gallons to the main tank/sump in order to fill the display fuge so I had to temporarily shut the skimmer off to prevent it from overflowing.. I opted not to reuse any of the water I siphoned out of the original display fuge so adding new water to the system and allowing it to mix with the tank water was the best and easiest course of action. Once the new water was transferred to the main tank, we started the tear down. First close off the return valve to stop the flow then siphon some water into to buckets and remove the mangroves soft coral and some rock, drain some more water, remove more rocks, drain more water find any remaining corals on the bottom then scoop out the live sand. Tear down and removal of the original tank took about 40 minutes.
The whole swap took just few hours. Once the new tank was in, I put the original live sand in the new tank and added two more bags of live sand. The we filled it. It took another hour or so for the water to clean enough to put the original live rock back in. Since this tank is twice as tall, I snagged a piece of live rock from my main display as well as a couple pieces from my sump to create the cave and live rock structure off one of the corners of the display fuge. After another hour or so, it was sunset in the tank and clear enough to put the corals, pipe fish, bangai cardinal and scooter blenny in. Since it was getting darker in the tank, I placed many of the corals in temporary locations on the bottom for the night. This morning when the lights were back on I spent more time arranging the corals in what should be their permanent locations.
I took some pictures a little bit ago after letting the water clear after arranging the soft corals. All of the corals in here are from the original display fuge and were originally offspring from larger colonies in my main display. As such, I'd expect them to be fully open within a day or two but should be looking much better later today.
I also came up with a nifty clip solution for suspending my mangroves. My goal is for them to have the roots grown down the sand creating little mangrove caves and structures for fish to hide in. They will also serve as good places for sea horses to hang onto which will be coming in the coming weeks. I do like the look that the roots provide suspended off the bottom. It creates a fairly unique feel to the display. I need to get a lawnmower blenny which I will pick up today. In the coming weeks I will also add a couple more bangais as well as more pipe fish.
Here are a few pictures. I will take some more later today once the corals have settled in to their new home.
First the before.
Now the after shots. Lights are still ramping up so it could be brighter. More pictures will follow later today.
Really hard to see the cave.
This tank was a clear back so I first painted the back outside of the tank with black Plastidip. With this tank, I decided to stick with a stand pipe drain and return line as opposed to an overflow. I didn't want to sacrafice bottom space for the overflow and figured I could build my rock work around the standpipes. The stand pipes were painted black with Krylon Fusion.
Fortunately this swap didn't require shutting down anything on the main tank except for the skimmer. I had to add 50 or so gallons to the main tank/sump in order to fill the display fuge so I had to temporarily shut the skimmer off to prevent it from overflowing.. I opted not to reuse any of the water I siphoned out of the original display fuge so adding new water to the system and allowing it to mix with the tank water was the best and easiest course of action. Once the new water was transferred to the main tank, we started the tear down. First close off the return valve to stop the flow then siphon some water into to buckets and remove the mangroves soft coral and some rock, drain some more water, remove more rocks, drain more water find any remaining corals on the bottom then scoop out the live sand. Tear down and removal of the original tank took about 40 minutes.
The whole swap took just few hours. Once the new tank was in, I put the original live sand in the new tank and added two more bags of live sand. The we filled it. It took another hour or so for the water to clean enough to put the original live rock back in. Since this tank is twice as tall, I snagged a piece of live rock from my main display as well as a couple pieces from my sump to create the cave and live rock structure off one of the corners of the display fuge. After another hour or so, it was sunset in the tank and clear enough to put the corals, pipe fish, bangai cardinal and scooter blenny in. Since it was getting darker in the tank, I placed many of the corals in temporary locations on the bottom for the night. This morning when the lights were back on I spent more time arranging the corals in what should be their permanent locations.
I took some pictures a little bit ago after letting the water clear after arranging the soft corals. All of the corals in here are from the original display fuge and were originally offspring from larger colonies in my main display. As such, I'd expect them to be fully open within a day or two but should be looking much better later today.
I also came up with a nifty clip solution for suspending my mangroves. My goal is for them to have the roots grown down the sand creating little mangrove caves and structures for fish to hide in. They will also serve as good places for sea horses to hang onto which will be coming in the coming weeks. I do like the look that the roots provide suspended off the bottom. It creates a fairly unique feel to the display. I need to get a lawnmower blenny which I will pick up today. In the coming weeks I will also add a couple more bangais as well as more pipe fish.
Here are a few pictures. I will take some more later today once the corals have settled in to their new home.
First the before.
Now the after shots. Lights are still ramping up so it could be brighter. More pictures will follow later today.
Really hard to see the cave.
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