My SPS propagation setup, in progress
- Thread starter JB NY
- Start date
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
yeah VERY jealous!!
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
djquestion
New member
my head is swimming with ideas now.
jeez. i need to stop reading this board
jeez. i need to stop reading this board
i1justin
New member
great job with the prop tank, the theories behind the idea work great
-each bend will slow the flow however the pressure that it creates behind it counters that creating an equilibrium throughout the raceway
the design looks similiar to what is described in the coral prop book. if this topic intrigues you i seriously recommend buying this book
Book of Coral Propagation, Volume 1: Reef Gardening for Aquarists
now the challenge is to create this design so every couple of minutes the flow changes direction! let the engineering begin
Justin
-each bend will slow the flow however the pressure that it creates behind it counters that creating an equilibrium throughout the raceway
the design looks similiar to what is described in the coral prop book. if this topic intrigues you i seriously recommend buying this book
Book of Coral Propagation, Volume 1: Reef Gardening for Aquarists
now the challenge is to create this design so every couple of minutes the flow changes direction! let the engineering begin
Justin
JB NY
Active member
i1justin said:
The idea came from Calfo's book. Anthony has actually been to my house and took a look at the raceway.
I don't think changing the direction is that important now that I have the spray bar installed. The flow is very turbulant as you see the polyps whiping around in all directions.
JB NY
Active member
OK thought I post a little update.
I ditched the XM20K. I wasn't happy with the growth or the colors. I've had really good luck with 10K lamps on my tank for a number of years and the 20K, while the corals looked pretty good with the lamp on. I didn't think it looked too hot when the lamp was off or I moved the frag to the main tank. So I put on one of the Sun Aquatics 10K lamps I had left over from the light testing.
The Sun Aquatics 10K was more than twice as bright as the 20K. Luckily I had my PAR meter
. So I measured the PAR from the 20K lamp at the water surface, then put the 10K lamp on and raised the pendant till it I got the same reading from the new lamp. Didn't change the photo period at all. I was a little nervous about not changing the photo period, but everything worked great. No bleaching or anything, then over the next week or so I moved the pendant lower to it's final place.
After about two weeks I felt I wanted some actinics, so I added two 24" VHO URI actinics a few weeks ago. Colors are really starting to take off, and I'm now really happy with the lighting.
Here are some pics of the raceway with the new lighting, more corals and more spray bars in the channels.
click for larger images
I ditched the XM20K. I wasn't happy with the growth or the colors. I've had really good luck with 10K lamps on my tank for a number of years and the 20K, while the corals looked pretty good with the lamp on. I didn't think it looked too hot when the lamp was off or I moved the frag to the main tank. So I put on one of the Sun Aquatics 10K lamps I had left over from the light testing.
The Sun Aquatics 10K was more than twice as bright as the 20K. Luckily I had my PAR meter
. So I measured the PAR from the 20K lamp at the water surface, then put the 10K lamp on and raised the pendant till it I got the same reading from the new lamp. Didn't change the photo period at all. I was a little nervous about not changing the photo period, but everything worked great. No bleaching or anything, then over the next week or so I moved the pendant lower to it's final place.After about two weeks I felt I wanted some actinics, so I added two 24" VHO URI actinics a few weeks ago. Colors are really starting to take off, and I'm now really happy with the lighting.
Here are some pics of the raceway with the new lighting, more corals and more spray bars in the channels.
click for larger images
melev
Well-known member
Joe, thanks for the update. I can't believe you had to add all those powerheads! It might have been better to use one Mag pump with 4 spraybars perhaps.
I like the lighting configuration, and found it interesting that you could lower it just one week later. :thumbsup:
Are you keeping hermits or snails in that section to keep your corals algae-free?
How long do you keep them growing in your frag tank before they go into the system typically?
I like the lighting configuration, and found it interesting that you could lower it just one week later. :thumbsup:
Are you keeping hermits or snails in that section to keep your corals algae-free?
How long do you keep them growing in your frag tank before they go into the system typically?
JB NY
Active member
pi said:
Like this?
melev said:
I'm actually really happy with the setup this way rather than a closed loop. Each power head is only 12 watts, so the total electricity used is fairly small. Right now there is about 900 GPH going through he raceway from the overflows alone, adding the power heads with the spraybar makes sure there are no dead spots anyplace. I would rather have not put in the powerheads, but I'm happy with the amount of flow I'm getting.
melev said:
I've always been aggressive on my lighting schedules. I've found mostly through trial and error, that you can change the amount of light pretty quickly as long as you ease into it. I ended up with about 2x the light and I lowered the pendant down over about 9 days. Having the PAR meter really helped as I could see exactly how much light I was adding.
melev said:
I've got about 15-17 astria snails in the tank. The thing is spotless, even the eggcrate has no algae in it. I was actually worried about not enough for the snail to eat and took about 4 out a few weeks ago and put them in the main tank.
melev said:
I don't know, I haven't really moved anything into the main tank yet.
I'm actually really liking this tank. Things that are growing, as long as I don't need the room, I've been leaving there. I can easily view them and really seem to be enjoying watching them grow or color up. It's only been three months and the first 6 weeks was a lot of playing around so the tank was not working it's best. But I've been thinking 2-4 months or waiting until a piece is large enough that I can frag it, keep a piece in the frag tank and then move the other to the main tank.
