Tank Of The Month - January 2009

[trueblackpercula]

Wow what a great looking tank Con Grats!!!! I was thinkong about your statment about the photo period and I am going to try the same 6 hours of halides and 13 hours of actincs. Lets see if that helps with the colors of my Sps. Once again thank you for an amazing tank it has inspired me.

Michael Anthony

 

[runningnreefing]

Congrats on a great looking tank. I am starting a 90g SPS tank, and I am trying to decide on the sand. Your sand look amazingly clean. What type of sand are you using. Do you have trouble with the flow blowing your sand around in the tank.

 

[RGibson]

What size CO2 tank do you used on your calcium reactor and how long will it last?

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144205#post14144205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by trueblackpercula
Wow what a great looking tank Con Grats!!!! I was thinkong about your statment about the photo period and I am going to try the same 6 hours of halides and 13 hours of actincs. Lets see if that helps with the colors of my Sps. Once again thank you for an amazing tank it has inspired me.

Michael Anthony

Thanks it will probably take a couple of months for the corals to adjust

I'm on my phone responding so please understand the errors and short answers

 

[Michael]

most of us can only dream of a tank like yours, just beautiful, one question, how on earth does it get that great with a ph as low as 7.7, your re-writing the book on marine husbandry, well done its just brilliant

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144415#post14144415 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by runningnreefing
Congrats on a great looking tank. I am starting a 90g SPS tank, and I am trying to decide on the sand. Your sand look amazingly clean. What type of sand are you using. Do you have trouble with the flow blowing your sand around in the tank.

I'm using the sugar sand Carib sea the flow does move it around but not too much

 

[grouper therapy]

Great tank . One ? you said you discontinued cyclops with appreciatable difference could you expand on that

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144427#post14144427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RGibson
What size CO2 tank do you used on your calcium reactor and how long will it last?

I use a 20 pound co2 tank and it last about 3 months

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144488#post14144488 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Michael
most of us can only dream of a tank like yours, just beautiful, one question, how on earth does it get that great with a ph as low as 7.7, your re-writing the book on marine husbandry, well done its just brilliant

Thanks! The ph would be a lot lower if it was not for the Kalk top off. I have to make sure I fill it every week or it drops like a rock

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144503#post14144503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by grouper therapy
Great tank . One ? you said you discontinued cyclops with appreciatable difference could you expand on that

Yeah I stopped using it to see if the coral growth would slow and I could not see a difference so I stopped adding it because it is just one more thing the skimmer has to remove and the tank to process

 

[scott11]

Emster- looks great, do you have any early pics? I would love to get an idea of you rock work and aquascape.

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144618#post14144618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scott11
Emster- looks great, do you have any early pics? I would love to get an idea of you rock work and aquascape.

Sure when I get back home on my computer tonight I will try and post some pics

 

[stigball]

That is a very beautiful tank.. Good job!!!!

 

[Gondore]

First off, congrats. on TOTM Emster. Your tank is a definite inspiration to me.

I found your discussion on light duration and K values very interesting. I have been running 2 x 250 watt MHs with the Reeflux 10K bulb in the Lumenmax 2 reflectors over my 90 gallon. I also have two T5s running Super Actinics for supplementation. Initially I was running my MHs for 8-9 hours and the T5s for 12 hours. I sort of came to the same conclusion that you did, which was that I was simply giving my corals to much light. I have decreased the duration of my MHs down to 7 hrs now and my growth rates are still as good as what they were at 9. Even though my growth is good some of my corals still have a pale appearence. I realize that there are several factors that can contribute to this but I believe it is that I am still supplying my tank with to much light. I am considering moving to Radiums now to increase coloration. I noticed that you had moved from 10ks Hamiltons to Radiums and was wondering if you have noticed significant growth and coral coloration differences.

 

[reefkeeper2]

Congrats Emster! Well deserved TOTM. It proves there's more than one way to skin a cat. The multi colored monti is amazing!

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14144910#post14144910 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stigball
That is a very beautiful tank.. Good job!!!!

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it.

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14145266#post14145266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gondore
First off, congrats. on TOTM Emster. Your tank is a definite inspiration to me.

I found your discussion on light duration and K values very interesting. I have been running 2 x 250 watt MHs with the Reeflux 10K bulb in the Lumenmax 2 reflectors over my 90 gallon. I also have two T5s running Super Actinics for supplementation. Initially I was running my MHs for 8-9 hours and the T5s for 12 hours. I sort of came to the same conclusion that you did, which was that I was simply giving my corals to much light. I have decreased the duration of my MHs down to 7 hrs now and my growth rates are still as good as what they were at 9. Even though my growth is good some of my corals still have a pale appearence. I realize that there are several factors that can contribute to this but I believe it is that I am still supplying my tank with to much light. I am considering moving to Radiums now to increase coloration. I noticed that you had moved from 10ks Hamiltons to Radiums and was wondering if you have noticed significant growth and coral coloration differences.

If I was you I would go down to 6 hours with those 10k. The radiums have just as much growth or more then any other bulb I have tried. I'm not a big fan running the 250watt radiums on electronic ballasts(they are too blue for me)IMO they should be ran on hqi m80 ballasts because that is what they were designed to run on

 

[Gondore]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14145743#post14145743 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Emster
If I was you I would go down to 6 hours with those 10k. The radiums have just as much growth or more then any other bulb I have tried. I'm not a big fan running the 250watt radiums on electronic ballasts(they are too blue for me)IMO they should be ran on hqi m80 ballasts because that is what they were designed to run on

I think I will bump my duration down to 6 hours for the MHs and see how that goes. The bulbs only have about 2 months of life left on them though so I will be needing to make a decision soon on what to replace them with.

I don't want to side track this thread in any way getting into a discussion on Radiums, but I have read in several other threads that the new electronic ballasts (i.e. Gallaxy and new version of Icecap) run this bulb as a crisp whitish blue.

 

[Emster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14145774#post14145774 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gondore
I think I will bump my duration down to 6 hours for the MHs and see how that goes. The bulbs only have about 2 months of life left on them though so I will be needing to make a decision soon on what to replace them with.

I don't want to side track this thread in any way getting into a discussion on Radiums, but I have read in several other threads that the new electronic ballasts (i.e. Gallaxy and new version of Icecap) run this bulb as a crisp whitish blue.

I believe they are talking about the 400watt radiums(they are not a HQI rated bulb). The 250 watt radiums are HQI so they burn more blue on electronic

 

[Gondore]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14145855#post14145855 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Emster
I believe they are talking about the 400watt radiums(they are not a HQI rated bulb). The 250 watt radiums are HQI so they burn more blue on electronic

Hmm..interesting. I am just trying to find out what these bulbs would look like on my Galaxy ballasts and how long they would last. This is one of the sources I got my information from:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1496177&perpage=25&pagenumber=9

If you notice the posts by Todd March he says that the Radiums tend to burn a whitesh blue and that they will last for at least a year on the Gallaxy ballasts. This is also stated a couple times earlier in the thread and a also a couple different places on RC.