RocketEngineer
Space is big.
I used RTV108. I got it from McMaster Carr (part number 7545A472). It only took one tube to do the sump.
RocketEngineer's 75g/125g Setup
- Thread starter RocketEngineer
- Start date
I used RTV108. I got it from McMaster Carr (part number 7545A472). It only took one tube to do the sump.
moondoggy4
Team RC
Thanks
I wonder what happen. I just put together my LEDs too and had a similar problem but I just lowered the intensity. My RBTA don't look at great at night anymore but they look ok in the morning. I am thinking about removing the uv/green/red channel and see what happens.
Let me know if you figure out what caused it.
It seems that lowering mine somewhat fixed the problem. They are at 45% blue, 30% white, 15% uv/green/red.
Let me know if you figure out what caused it.
It seems that lowering mine somewhat fixed the problem. They are at 45% blue, 30% white, 15% uv/green/red.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
I was running mine at 175ma blues and 300ma whites. The uv/green/red wasn't used much. I think one of my problems was being too close to the tank. I had a lot of shimmer but the blending was poor. It might have been too much white, not enough acclimation. For now I'm going back to what works. I still have the LEDs so I may play around with them in the future but for now, they go in the closet.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
Tonight the entire gang was out and about in my 30g FW setup:
Six clown loaches and a red tail black shark. The pleco is hiding (typical). This tank was started because I had one clown loach left from my tank at work. Since he didn't have any fins but was still getting around, I didn't want to just kill it. So I set up the 30g and added a few friends. He is now the biggest one in the tank with all fins grown back.
Once I get the light situation on the 125g fixed, the old 75g will become their new home. The idea is to use my old MD5 in a closed loop through the old drain bulkheads to create a river tank. Then add more clown loaches.
Six clown loaches and a red tail black shark. The pleco is hiding (typical). This tank was started because I had one clown loach left from my tank at work. Since he didn't have any fins but was still getting around, I didn't want to just kill it. So I set up the 30g and added a few friends. He is now the biggest one in the tank with all fins grown back.
Once I get the light situation on the 125g fixed, the old 75g will become their new home. The idea is to use my old MD5 in a closed loop through the old drain bulkheads to create a river tank. Then add more clown loaches.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
July 2013 FTS:
While some corals have started to recover, others are still in sorry shape. Time will tell.
While some corals have started to recover, others are still in sorry shape. Time will tell.
Lochi02
New member
I had a similar experience with LEDs. I did not see any growth and all my corals were very sad, until I turn both blues and whites down to 10%. Things started to rebound from there. I like the leds but I may end up supplementing with T5. I recently found out about a federally funded study that compared and LEDs vs T5. In summary the T5 frags added 25% more mass than the LEDs at the same measured PAR, until I can cite the source thats the best info I can provide. So take that for what its worth.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
I had 74 LEDs (48 blue and 26 white). I had the blues at like 25% and the whites at 40%. Given that mine were spread across the 6' of tank, it was still too much light. What I'm thinking of doing is transferring the LEDs to a pair of single row heatsinks and using them for actinics. Otherwise the T5s will do the bulk of the lighting.
If you watch This Video about Mike Paletta's 75g LED tank, you will see he also had an issue with red acans, same as I did.
Live and learn.
iwishtofish
Active member
I'm sorry to hear about your LED troubles and the losses. I'm eager to see if the T5s resolve the problem completely.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
iwishtofish, I'm not sure if it completely solved the problem. My SPS might still be having issues. However, the LPS are doing noticeably better.
One of my small acans showing decent extension:
One of my two big acans looks fairly good considering:
The other one has lots of missing polyps, a very sorry state.
The hammerhead:
What Damage?
Right now its a matter of determining what I lost and keeping the rest going.
One of my small acans showing decent extension:
One of my two big acans looks fairly good considering:
The other one has lots of missing polyps, a very sorry state.
The hammerhead:
What Damage?
Right now its a matter of determining what I lost and keeping the rest going.
moondoggy4
Team RC
The silicon you used for the sump Did you buy from the web site of McMaster Carr? I tried to buy form them and they sent me the wrong tube, glad I read the label because it was not for underwater use. Did you have any difficulty navigating there web site? Thanks again
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
Yeah that's where I got it from. The one I got is 7545A472. The tube reads "RTV 100 Series Adhesives" and under that is
"High Performance
MIL-A-46106B Compliance
UL/FDA/NSF"
The MIL spec is the important thing as that means its food compatible.
moondoggy4
Team RC
That is the same tube that I got. But it reads quote NOT FOR USE ON STOVEPIPES, FIREPLACES OR UNDERWATER. It does have the MIL-A-46106C compliance. UL/FDA/NSF
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
Not sure why it says that. I used it on my last sump and that ran for 2 years with no problems. I used the same stuff on my new setup. Just make sure you let it cure properly. The longer the better.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
What do you do with an old tank?
What do you do with an old tank?
Put it to use of course:lolspin:. Since the 125g is on autopilot until the new lights show up, I decided to go ahead with setting up my FW upgrade.
This is my old 75g that I replaced with the 125g. I re-purposed the drain lines into a CL driven by an old pump I got along with the 125g. The light is a simple 4' shop light mounted in a gutted light I got years ago. So far, it has cost me about $50 between the pipe fittings and the gravel. Its always nice when I can set up a tank without having to spend an inordinate amount of money.
What do you do with an old tank?
Put it to use of course:lolspin:. Since the 125g is on autopilot until the new lights show up, I decided to go ahead with setting up my FW upgrade.
This is my old 75g that I replaced with the 125g. I re-purposed the drain lines into a CL driven by an old pump I got along with the 125g. The light is a simple 4' shop light mounted in a gutted light I got years ago. So far, it has cost me about $50 between the pipe fittings and the gravel. Its always nice when I can set up a tank without having to spend an inordinate amount of money.
iwishtofish
Active member
Very nice look - what's going to go in there?
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
It will be a clown loach tank. I have the six in the 30g now with a red tail black shark and pleco. Once everybody is in the 75g then I will add more clowns. They are gregarious so the more the merrier. The CL acts like the flow from a stream like they would have in the wild.
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
Another month since I went back to T5 and the casualties continued on the damaged corals.
The biggest tragedy was loosing my big brain coral. That thing grew from a 1" frag into a ball almost the size of a baseball. It had been in my care for two years. I thought it might pull through but over the last month it continued to retreat until nothing was left to frag :sad2:.
SO, with the setback caused by the LEDs, I have taken the opportunity to evaluate what I have and where I want to go. I still want to do a mixed reef with mostly LPS and some SPS. While I could do this with T5s, the yearly bulb cost on a 6 foot tank adds up. I still want to go with LEDs but I don't want to go all or nothing. This leads me to a combination of T5 and LED. I've settled on a BuildMyLED 12000K and will use a 60" fixture with dimmer. On either side of that are two 36" T5 bulbs for a total of four bulbs. Initially I will be running one pair of T5s as ATI Aquablue Special bulbs and the second pair as ATI Actinic. By using the T5s in combination with the LEDs I hope to minimize shadowing, get the color combination I want just by swapping out bulbs, but not have to spend $170+ on bulbs every year. And as always, I will post pictures of the progress as things come together.
The biggest tragedy was loosing my big brain coral. That thing grew from a 1" frag into a ball almost the size of a baseball. It had been in my care for two years. I thought it might pull through but over the last month it continued to retreat until nothing was left to frag :sad2:.
SO, with the setback caused by the LEDs, I have taken the opportunity to evaluate what I have and where I want to go. I still want to do a mixed reef with mostly LPS and some SPS. While I could do this with T5s, the yearly bulb cost on a 6 foot tank adds up. I still want to go with LEDs but I don't want to go all or nothing. This leads me to a combination of T5 and LED. I've settled on a BuildMyLED 12000K and will use a 60" fixture with dimmer. On either side of that are two 36" T5 bulbs for a total of four bulbs. Initially I will be running one pair of T5s as ATI Aquablue Special bulbs and the second pair as ATI Actinic. By using the T5s in combination with the LEDs I hope to minimize shadowing, get the color combination I want just by swapping out bulbs, but not have to spend $170+ on bulbs every year. And as always, I will post pictures of the progress as things come together.
iwishtofish
Active member
You may have covered this, but why aren't you just incorporating T5s into your existing LEDs? They dim, correct? I assume you'd be running any LEDs low intensity...at least much lower than last time?
RocketEngineer
Space is big.
The problems caused by my DIY LED setup occurred while I WAS running the LEDs at their lowest dim level and I STILL burned the corals. The blue LEDs were just above the 10% driver cut off level while the whites were only a little higher. The other issue with my DIY fixture was very poor blending which caused very noticeable color rings on the sandbed. The BuildMyLED fixture seems to use lower wattage LEDs while still having a dimmer and uses a diffuser panel. Hopefully these solve both of the problems that my setup had.
