Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

[Myka]

I just looked over at my tank to admire the new bulbs and the stinkin tank is all mucked up with detritus floating around. That stinkin Yellow Coris is always digging in the sand making a mess! I had one before for several years in a BB so he never had this chance. :lol: The detritus in the water column drives me nuts, but I'm betting the SPS enjoy it.

Hmmm, I was thinking of switching to something similar. Right now I'm equal blue and coral (Geisemann versions). That combo is recommended by ATI for the 6 bulb fixture.

Yeah, for now I'd like some growth rather than color, so I'm ok if it fades a bit from going to a lower Kelvin spectrum. I still like the tank best with all blue bulbs. (not straight blue LED though, that's just too much lol)

You may be able to use the Euroquatics "Blue Pop" T5 replacements to get some Royal Blue without hotspots. That is, if they ever release the dang things. They were supposed to be released by now.

Ah yes, I was looking at those! I thought they weren't supposed to be released until January? They do look interesting. I'm not sure I want to give up a T5 bulb for LED though.

 

[markalot]

I don't think those T5 LED's are going to perform very well, but what do I know.

One fo the nice things about BuildMyLED fixtures is their lenses. Not as much shimmer but they spread the light out horizontally along the fixture and you can select what angle to use, uh, vertically? I have a 90 and a 75 of the MC fixtures and the 90 is much better for spreading out the light, the 75 is brighter and can provide more shimmer. I haven't noticed any hot spots with either.

The reef brights are very shiny and kind of garish IMO, but provide a LOT of shimmer.

 

[Myka]

I don't think those T5 LED's are going to perform very well, but what do I know.

One fo the nice things about BuildMyLED fixtures is their lenses. Not as much shimmer but they spread the light out horizontally along the fixture and you can select what angle to use, uh, vertically? I have a 90 and a 75 of the MC fixtures and the 90 is much better for spreading out the light, the 75 is brighter and can provide more shimmer. I haven't noticed any hot spots with either.

The reef brights are very shiny and kind of garish IMO, but provide a LOT of shimmer.

Ah interesting. I haven't looked at BuildMyLED at all. I will check them out.

I also agree the ReefBrites are a bit much, and too much shimmer.

 

[biggles]

I'm glad you're being careful with the addition of LED strip lights Mindy, great idea and they work a treat but high output 3W strips will fry your acros quickly if you aren't careful.
Hope the new T5 bulb layout works well for you

 

[Moser]

Thank you.



Thanks Perry. It's coming along. I'm using the old ATB 840 right now. Assuming the BK is probably more efficient, I'm too scared to put it online right now since there is hardly a whiff of nutrients.

Agreed! There are lots of us who've had quite a run for it in the last few months, cheers to new found successes! [emoji481]

Here's a pic of what I'm thinking is a bacteria growth on the rocks:

Hi Mindy,

That stuff is an algae caused by your sponge power.
I had it for months when I started my tank. I cycled it on the 14 day zeovit method, but was dosing way too much sponge power as I had no corals.

Everyone told me it was Dino's, but I realised it was related to my Sponge Power dosing and disappeared when I stopped it.

It was a greasy brown/ transparent layer, that former longer strands as it got worse.

I'm pretty sure Sponge Power has a nutrient source in it that is either silicate or nitrate related. The trouble is they don't tell you what is in it. I much prefer Aquaforest as you basically know what you are dosing.

Stop the Sponge Power. I'm pretty sure it will disappear Over a few weeks.

Mo

 

[Myka]

I'm glad you're being careful with the addition of LED strip lights Mindy, great idea and they work a treat but high output 3W strips will fry your acros quickly if you aren't careful.
Hope the new T5 bulb layout works well for you

Yes, thank you for confirmation Andrew. So many people think because they're blue they won't fry anything (that's not my experience! haha). I was also looking at the TrueLumen Pro 36" strip in Deepwater blue (453 nm) that's 23 watts (216 diodes), but I'm not sure if that's too careful. :lol:

Hi Mindy,

That stuff is an algae caused by your sponge power.
I had it for months when I started my tank. I cycled it on the 14 day zeovit method, but was dosing way too much sponge power as I had no corals.

Everyone told me it was Dino's, but I realised it was related to my Sponge Power dosing and disappeared when I stopped it.

It was a greasy brown/ transparent layer, that former longer strands as it got worse.

I'm pretty sure Sponge Power has a nutrient source in it that is either silicate or nitrate related. The trouble is they don't tell you what is in it. I much prefer Aquaforest as you basically know what you are dosing.

Stop the Sponge Power. I'm pretty sure it will disappear Over a few weeks.

Mo

Hi Mo,

Thanks for sharing your experience with me. I did stop the Sponge Power a few days ago. I also dosed Coral Snow a few times. The CS knocked it bad significantly, and as of this morning it looks much better.

I am planning to make the switch to Aquaforest as soon as the full line is available in Canada. Currently, only the 3 salt mixes are available through Amazon.ca.

Mindy

 

[markalot]

I was dosing spongepower as well. Looks like we have the culprit. :|

 

[Myka]

I was dosing spongepower as well. Looks like we have the culprit. :|

...And the plot thickens! :hmm4:

 

[Moser]

...And the plot thickens! :hmm4:

Well, as long as your algae doesn't, you're ok! :lol2:

Mo

 

[reefmutt]

Mindy, have you ever tried blue plus and pure actinic as the dawn/dusk combo? I love the look of those two bulbs together. Not as bright to the eyes but it makes the corals look cooelle!!

 

[Myka]

Matt, I used to use UVL Super Actinic bulbs for my dusk/dawn, but they've been hard to acquire in the last couple years. I don't like the ATI or KZ actinic bulbs as much (they aren't as powerful).

 

[BigJohnny]

Hey myka, check out 21ledusa. I have their blue reef bar pro, it's basically a reefbrite xho for half price. The reefbar standard would be the tech equivalent. I have one mounted on my 6 bulb sunpower and love it. I got it with the dimmable controller for 150 total. I had to mount it on my own though as they don't make a bracket for the reefbar pro.

 

[Henry Colf]

What an amazing build thread!!! Will definitely be following!!

 

[Myka]

Thanks for the idea Johnny, I'll check that out ASAP.

Henry you're too kind! Thanks for following.

I was going to do a photo dump today since I did a big cleaning yesterday (even scraped the back glass) and mounted a bunch more pieces, but my laptop froze and I got mad at it. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[plyle02]

Alright Mindy,
That laptop needs to be fixed like yesterday, thaw that bad boy out, I need to see some pics dangit!!!

 

[Myka]

Some pics from New Years' Day. I took the closeup pics and then proceeded to do a water change and big clean up; I took a toothbrush to the rocks scrubbing and siphoning the Bubble Algae, and the bacteria (algae?). I also scraped the back wall real good and cleaned the powerheads. Plus I did another round of glue/epoxy/glue to the frags that have been doing well and I've decided where to put them. After that cleared I took a new FTS at the end.


I'm liking where this one is going:

I don't care what anyone says, I love the blue and green contrast on the Montipora "crapitata".

For a mariculture piece, it has really held it's color well. Only faded a sniff at first, and I think it's back to the color it was when it came out of the bag at the LFS. I need to try to get an ID on it, and maybe get another one with different color:

A bit bleached and not sure why.

Hawkin's "Echinata" mostly recovered from the mini-crash:

The corallites on this papillare are neon, but my camera didn't pick it up well:

This SSC has always been super fussy for me - the first one to lose color and the last one to gain it back, but it's tough as nails! At least it's showing some color again. It's been turd brown ever since the mini-crash and grows sooooo slow that it hasn't covered the STN'd tips yet.

FTS after scrub/clean.

 

[Myka]

What kind of lighting do you guys keep your SSC under? I have it at the top of my rock formation on the right-hand side. After reading "The Farm" journal and seeing that SWEET Yellow Acro, he mentions BLASTING yellow Acros to get the nicest color. So I'm kinda thinking I want to put a yellow Acro in that top spot. The left side is only for tabling Acros, so a Wolverine or other bush-type yellow would have to be on the right. I have stags mingled around in the back of the tank, so a yellow stag could go on the left and be blasted, but they grow upright so fast that I don't think yellow is a good option for a stag. Plus, I still want an exquisita for a stag, and I've never seen a yellow exquisita. I'd love to find a Banana Lokani, but I don't think there is one in Canada yet.

Oh, and how the heck do you guys get nice FTS???? This has ever eluded me! Mine always look washed out, never colorful. My tank looks a lot better than my FTS.

Alright Mindy,
That laptop needs to be fixed like yesterday, thaw that bad boy out, I need to see some pics dangit!!!

Haha, that's the first time it ever froze. I think I just had too much going on. Firstly, my laptop is circa 2008. I had about 10 Firefox windows open, BitTorrent was DL'ing, Picasa was open, and then I opened Photobucket. My lappy HATES Photobucket. See above though, I got'r dun.

 

[reefmutt]

Beautiful shots, Mindy.
I really like where that first one is going as well!
I recall Andrew saying ssc does best with medium light.. That's where I have mine.. Although I've never had a ssc at any other level.. It has kept its green body and red polyps very nicely.

 

[Myka]

Beautiful shots, Mindy.
I really like where that first one is going as well!
I recall Andrew saying ssc does best with medium light.. That's where I have mine.. Although I've never had a ssc at any other level.. It has kept its green body and red polyps very nicely.

Well that gives me hope. My SSC grows very, very slow, so I don't want it buried anywhere. If I put it in the center of the tank down low it would get "medium" light as far as my tank goes. What's "medium light" in PAR to you? 250-300??

 

[Myka]

I was ID hunting on Corals of the World website, and I think this is Acropora pulchra. It looks VERY close, even in color, to an A. pulchra posted by Quality Marine. I see the "clumps" of growth tips at each branch end is typical, and a strong feature on mine. Plus the long corallites with the upper side open. Thoughts?