T5 Lighting May Be For You

Here are some before and after pics(sorry for highjacking RJ)
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3439239523232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2334%3D687%3D527%3DXROQDF%3E23238625%3A6272ot1lsi
 
Make sure none of the powerheads are aimed at any corals. I once had a very hardy colony RTN about a week after I moved the direction of flow. It actually had better polyp extension during that time and then one day I came home from work and there was only skeleton left. It turned out that I had current aimed directly at it.
 
Oh... Yes... I see now... aduhh...

Your right, it does not look very happy at all. Mine is down in the sand and get's a bit of flow that you can see it waving around a bit. (mine is probably in a medium flow area)

So with the Mag 7 in there as well, your pushing around 25 to 27 times your water volume it looks like. I think that that is a good amount and probably about right to do anything in your tank. Just make sure it is not in direct flow, because they like low to medium flow area's.
 
Thanks for the advise. I've been looking for an excuse to move some stuff around. I think I'm going to go with a closed loop system on my next tank. I will probrably use my two Mag7's with a setup similar to melev's
 
Great pic RJ. Do you think my bubble would do ok next to a plate coral
I think it's the only place I have without a lot of flow.
 
Mine is near some frogspawn, not touching each other, but pretty close and they are both doing well still. I think plate corals can puff up and move a little though, my frogspawn can not move at all.
 
I am a little behind on the thread, sorry--- hope you don't mind if I go back a few pages.

There have been some really nice photos on this thread. RJ was mentioning that he had to take a lot of pictures to get a keeper. That sounds reasonable to me.

However, another thing I have heard is that you should change your resolution setting on the camera to the highest resolution/ largest file size (TIFF in my case)-- then you can download the picture to your PC, edit it there, then save it as a smaller file. That will (supposedly) give you the highest picture quality.

That really doesn't work for me at all. Takes way too long; and I can't take a lot of pictures before my memory card fills up (I agree with RJ, taking more than a couple pictures is really the best idea.)

Do you do this, or just take the photos at a lower resolution?
 
Just got my new Aquablue Special bulb for reef geek. I can not believe how they packed it! It came in this 6" X 6" X 60" box filled with the packing peanuts and inside was a 60" piece of
1 1/4" pvc with the bulb in it. Not only did I get a new bulb but a new piece of tank plumbing! Oh ya, can't forget to mention the candy!

I was running the following but did not like the yellow tint.
1 blue +
1 aquablue special
1 6000K sun
1 blue +

Replaced the sun with another aquablue special. Much nicer look I think.
 
Yeh Greg gives Dum Dums.
I didn't find mine in the box till 2 weeks later after I got the shipment and was throwing the box out.
 
Back to the current flow. I am pushing about 20x & I can easily add another Tunze, but was worried about the responses from softies & LPS's. Right now everything seems to be moving/waving nicely. Any more current & I would think I should see some rejection? If I add another Tunze I would get 35x turnover rate.

40-50x sounds extreme for all less SPS's. Should I be worried about pushing 35x in a mostly softy/LPS tank w/some SPS?

Also, I have seen some wonderful tanks using just MJ1200's or AC802's.
 
ratherbediving said:

Do you do this, or just take the photos at a lower resolution?
I use my camera just below the highest resolution, this is because it is a 4x6 picture with no cropping and still a 3 mega pixel picture. The higest resolution possible on my camera is 3.2 mega pixel. I don't think the .2 mega pixel will make a huge diff between the two. I then pull my pictures to the PC and before I post them to my web page, I reduce the size to 800x600 or 640x480 pixels compared to the 2048x1200 pixels.
 
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FastUno said:
20x or so, any more current & I would think I should see some rejection? If I add another Tunze I would get 35x turnover rate.

40-50x sounds extreme for all less SPS's. Should I be worried about pushing 35x in a mostly softy/LPS tank w/some SPS?

Also, I have seen some wonderful tanks using just MJ1200's or AC802's.
I think that 35x is a lot, but if it was done gradually over time, that you would not get as much rejection. This is just my opinion of course, but a gradual water flow change may be acceptible by all your stuff as long as none that like direct flow are in it. I think they would get use to the more flow as long as it was not all at once. If I add another MJ 900 to my tank, I will go from 17 times, to 23 times which I also hope I am not upsetting anything, but I think would be better for my tank especially the SPS Acro's.

These are all tough choices for us that have an established tank, to possibly upset the balance we have strived so hard to get. :confused: :rolleyes:
 
I run a 6060 Tunze and a Rio Seio 1500. Thats 0ver 3000 GPH before the HF 14 on the skimmer and 2 Mag drives:O

I have the Tunze and Seio set so the majority of flow out is blocked or deflected by rocks. Makes for a pretty good current but it is being influenced more by the water being drawn to those beasts rather than being sprayed out.
 
How exactly do you calculate the flow? Im only 15 and my brain isnt working right now with finals coming... so i have some pumps/ canister

return= 300 w head
maxi 900= 230
canister =230
i have a maxi 1200 on my Remora skimmer soo im thinking maybe 100

probably not enough for most sps..
but perhaps a monti?

I plan on getting a Tunze 6060
 
superswimmer said:
How exactly do you calculate the flow? Im only 15 and my brain isnt working right now with finals coming... so i have some pumps/ canister

return= 300 w head
maxi 900= 230
canister =230
i have a maxi 1200 on my Remora skimmer soo im thinking maybe 100

probably not enough for most sps..
but perhaps a monti?

I plan on getting a Tunze 6060

Yeah, sure. Blame it on the finals:D

I think you are a little low on the remora flow estimate so round it up to 900 on the total flow and divide that by your number of gallons, 46. Don't have a caclulator handy but that should be around 19.5 times flow. You wouldn't want to fill the tank with acros but you could add a couple SPS in the right areas.
 
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