Rovster's Custom Reef Savvy build......FINALLY!!!

[itz frank]

Maybe you need to stop giving bad advice and start taking good advice:headwally::spin2:



This will make you feel better. Not long ago my tank was a graveyard. I'll post it again to keep myself in check...

I have been taking your advice

I've found that I have every problem known to man because of you.

 

[rovster]

Lol, at first you did not take my advice and it ended up biting you in the arse! Just admit it!

 

[itz frank]

I did too! it's still biting me in the ***. I now realize that my phos is too high.

 

[firemedix911]

Ross what was it that caused all those corals to die?

 

[rovster]

Bacterial bloom. Tank one day just went cloudy. Few days later all my acros dead, well most of them anyway. You can read about it earlier in the thread.

 

[rovster]

Small update, I installed the 4th Radion. It is SIGNIFICANTLY brighter. I cut back the lighting intensity 20% to prevent from frying anything. The ends of the tank look so much brighter. I'm hoping that this will help bring those acros on the sides a notch up in color, I think it will. I did not run the cable with the others because I'm waiting until I get the pair of T5's mounted to the front of the rack. I have to remove the sump unfortunately to access the cables so want to wait until everything's finished before running the cords behind the wall. Quick FTS, I need to redo the hanging points on the ceiling as well. I'm competing with Matt to see who wins the title "Mr. Overkill", lol....

 

[AquamanE]

go on folks. keep spending $600 on each of those pendants. Convince your selves that it is better for electricity, convince yourselves that in the end it will be bettter. :deadhorse:, LMAO

Ill sit here with the same old MH ive had for 10 years, growing better, no concerns over heat if you use the right fans, and it cost me $100 per set up x 2 for a 5 foot tank.:debi:

And Mr. Rovster has seen my tank many times, and cant debate.:blown:

 

[rovster]

Got it half off E, used, can your MH do thunderstorms and cloud cover....????.....I didn't think so:lol2:

 

[maxxII]

go on folks. keep spending $600 on each of those pendants. Convince your selves that it is better for electricity, convince yourselves that in the end it will be bettter. :deadhorse:, LMAO

Ill sit here with the same old MH ive had for 10 years, growing better, no concerns over heat if you use the right fans, and it cost me $100 per set up x 2 for a 5 foot tank.:debi:

And Mr. Rovster has seen my tank many times, and cant debate.:blown:

Electricty here in Missouri is cheaper than pretty much anywhere else in the States. I went from running 1800 watts of light (MH's & VHO's), to right at 600 watts on my system.
Since our electricity is so cheap, it's taken me 3 years to "pay off" the Gen 1 Radions and DIY LED light's I have now.

The remaining 10 years of life I have left on my lights is pure profit in terms of 1/3 electricity used and not having to buy bulbs yearly.

I prefer the look of MH's but my Gen 1 Radions replaced 250 watt Phoenix 14k SE's powered by HQI ballasts without missing a beat, and will be doing it for less money overall.

 

[itz frank]

Got it half off E, used, can your MH do thunderstorms and cloud cover....????.....I didn't think so:lol2:

Disco does it for me every time.

 

[rovster]

Disco does it for me every time.

LOL, of course I was joking. I don't want to turn this into another LED debate. You guys can see the results I post and decide for yourselves if LEDs belong in the discussion. I NEVER said I use LEDs because of cost, electricity, etc. The biggest plus is the controllability, and like I've mentioned before can be viewed as its disadvantage, because people like....well I won't mention any names....mess around with the settings too much.

For the record, I don't use cloud cover or lightning storms, I think its stoopid and freaks the fish out unnecessarily.

Again, for the record, Halides are King when it comes to SPS. Doesn't mean you can't get good results with other lighting systems. In my opinion, choosing a light for your tank involves weighing out all the pros and cons of each system, and picking the one that best suits you. And Eddie, no way in hell a pair of halides with reflectors bulbs and good ballasts are $200 for the set. At that price you are buying a beat up piece of crap. Yes you can get a pair for the cost of 1 Radion, but lets not exaggerate.

There is no perfect light. All have good and bad. I've said my peace. By the way, that turdcake is becoming one of the nicest corals in my tank. Its so bright now, you need polarized sunglasses to look at it

 

[itz frank]

. The biggest plus is the controllability, and like I've mentioned before can be viewed as its disadvantage, because people like....well I won't mention any names....mess around with the settings too much.

Me. He means me. This was definitely me.

 

[AquamanE]

LOL, of course I was joking. I don't want to turn this into another LED debate. You guys can see the results I post and decide for yourselves if LEDs belong in the discussion. I NEVER said I use LEDs because of cost, electricity, etc. The biggest plus is the controllability, and like I've mentioned before can be viewed as its disadvantage, because people like....well I won't mention any names....mess around with the settings too much.

For the record, I don't use cloud cover or lightning storms, I think its stoopid and freaks the fish out unnecessarily.

Again, for the record, Halides are King when it comes to SPS. Doesn't mean you can't get good results with other lighting systems. In my opinion, choosing a light for your tank involves weighing out all the pros and cons of each system, and picking the one that best suits you. And Eddie, no way in hell a pair of halides with reflectors bulbs and good ballasts are $200 for the set. At that price you are buying a beat up piece of crap. Yes you can get a pair for the cost of 1 Radion, but lets not exaggerate.

There is no perfect light. All have good and bad. I've said my peace. By the way, that turdcake is becoming one of the nicest corals in my tank. Its so bright now, you need polarized sunglasses to look at it

:lolspin::love1::love1:

Sorry, didnt mean to derail.

 

[doggydoc]

OMG!
Can you guys get a room?

 

[Chrisq0904]

Rovster's Custom Reef Savvy build......FINALLY!!!

Talk about a lot of lighting! Glad to see the tank looking full again (sorry to bring up bad memories). Did you decide what T5 you are going to use? Are you going the DIY route or an actual fixture and still plan on doing 48", is that the actual length of the tank? Sorry for all the questions just curious. I think you'll like the T5 I just switched to full T5 after having led/T5. I'll spare those details for another thread.

EDIT: PS did you end up getting an icefire frag?

 

[sahin]

Tank is looking great buddy. With respect to the addition of the extra Radion; I've always felt that one needs 1.5-2 units more than Ecotech's recommendation in a full blown sps tank. I've seen this first hand from my buddies who have Radions etc. There is no doubt that the gen2 Pros and above can colour up SPS pretty well and close to even Radiums IMO.

In the next couple of years I think I will be leaving my T5's behind and buying LED's.

Do you get as good colour on the sides of the SPS (compared to from above)?

 

[rovster]

Tank is looking great buddy. With respect to the addition of the extra Radion; I've always felt that one needs 1.5-2 units more than Ecotech's recommendation in a full blown sps tank. I've seen this first hand from my buddies who have Radions etc. There is no doubt that the gen2 Pros and above can colour up SPS pretty well and close to even Radiums IMO.

In the next couple of years I think I will be leaving my T5's behind and buying LED's.

Do you get as good colour on the sides of the SPS (compared to from above)?

Absolutely to your first thought! Absolutely not to your last When I did my tank initially, Ecotech recommended 2 units for my tank. I knew I was going SPS dominant, almost exclusive, so I thought I'd be "overkill" and do 3. What I came to notice over time was that any coral I put within the spread of the radions (directly underneath) would color up awesome. Anything out side of the lights not so much. They still grow, and have some color, but there was a pretty significant difference.

The realization that I needed more came to me one day when I was looking at my tank, and it had been a while since I cleaned the back glass. Well what I saw was there was coralline algae growing on the back and it was ONLY between the spread of the radions. I wish I had taken a picture of it! It was so weird, and looked totally unnatural. It looked like I scraped only the outermost 10-12 inches of back glass. That's when I started looking into supplementing with T5 or adding a Radion. I got a decent deal on another radion so I went for it.

I did drop my percentage from 65% to 45% but this weekend I plan on bumping it back up slowly. I'll go to 50%.

I still plan on adding 2 T5s to the front only, and that is to get some filler light from the viewing direction. Top down the colors look great. From the front, because of the shadowing, some corals look like crap and its because those areas are not getting lit.

Yesterday I noticed a few of my corals are really kicking it up with the growth. My Frogskin is developing polyp extension not that the angel is gone and the growth is starting to scare me to the point I may have to frag it in a couple months to let some of my smaller pieces nearby have some room to grow out as well.

My Upscales Microclados also seems like it tripled in size overnight as well as my bonsai. I'm definitely excited about this and Eddie can make fun of my LEDs all he wants, but the proof is in the pudding. My corals are super colorful and growing slowly but surely.

Only thing I've considered is possibly tweaking my schedule to favor more growth than color, but things are going so well I'm afraid to mess with it. You know what they say, you can have good growth OR good color. I feel like I have great color so that tells me maybe if I tweak I can sacrifice a little color for growth:uhoh3:

What do you think?

 

[sahin]

Thanks for the input. I was hoping you'd say that the colours on the sides are very decent (not as great as top down...but very decent). But deep down seeing my buddies tanks and my LFS tank (SPS tank with Radions) the colours from the side are no way as good as from top.

I wish Ecotech were to make a sleek T5 unit for the front...the fill in light at the moment can only be provided by T5/VHO's etc.

Anyway, your tank and corals look great; I'd raise the whites maybe a small amount; but would prefer to keep thing as they are; with things going in the right direction and SPS colour being as wonderful as they are; within a year you'll be trimming loads anyway.

 

[rovster]

Thanks for the input. I was hoping you'd say that the colours on the sides are very decent (not as great as top down...but very decent). But deep down seeing my buddies tanks and my LFS tank (SPS tank with Radions) the colours from the side are no way as good as from top.

I wish Ecotech were to make a sleek T5 unit for the front...the fill in light at the moment can only be provided by T5/VHO's etc.

Anyway, your tank and corals look great; I'd raise the whites maybe a small amount; but would prefer to keep thing as they are; with things going in the right direction and SPS colour being as wonderful as they are; within a year you'll be trimming loads anyway.

They are decent on the sides, but some corals look like they want more light. My bonsai is on the side and looks phemomenal, but I think the lower light is working in my favor with that one. Everyone that sees my tank that's the first coral they gravitate to. DEEP purple with bright polyps. I have a feeling it will fade out a bit with the the increased light. I do have other corals, SC Orange Passion, PC Rainbow, Shades of Fall and an unknown loripes that are on the side that look like they are begging for light. Another thing that did it for me is that I have a getting to be large colony of montipora capitata that when I put it in the center of my tank looked brilliant. Bright green almost yellow and pinkish/purple polyps. I moved it to the outer part and its a drab green. After a few days with the new light it looks like its glowing more.

I also wish someone would make a sleek 2 unit T5. There are some out there, but the reflectors suck. If I'm going to do it , I want it right so I got a DIY LET kit that seems to be the best as far as T5 go with good large reflectors. I plan on fabricating a nice rack and painting it to match my Radion hanging kit. Not sure exactly how I'm going to do it yet, but it has to look decent. I even thought of skinning it in black acrylic. We'll see....

As far as raising the whites. What I thought about was increasing the time I'm at my peak white and reducing the blue periods. I may do that down the road, but maybe not. I'll get some new pics up soon!

 

[rovster]

Was taking pics of the turdcake this weekend so I snapped a few others....

I've noticed all the corals around the edges are lightening up and reacting like you'd expect given they're getting a lot more light. Some look borderline bleachy but nothing too crazy yet.
This guy I've had forever and never really did anything. Was in the bottom corner and getting little light. Over the last couple of weeks I've seen positive changes in glow and growth.....still needs a long way to go....


My bonsai has gone from a deep purple to a much lighter bluer base. Not sure I like this change so much. Growth on this thing has been great the last month....


Eddies spongodes. This thing is also in hyperdrive. It's flanked on one side by the nem so it won't let it grow in that direction, which is a good thing....



When I sold off a few crayola frags this was a tiny nub not worth selling, like 1/8". Over the last few months it's been basing. It's under higher light than my colony and it shows. Base is much lighter and tips much deeper.



Mommy. Will be getting much more light so curious what this on looks like in a couple months...



Not sure I've shown this before but polleti yellow tip finally got a yellow tip...