Update of my 20H

[Travis Savant]

Hey guys, here are some update pictures on my 20H SPS tank.

This A. Validia frag bleached after I moved it to the top back. It's in a new spot now and I hope it makes a good recovery.

The following two pictures are of an Acro that I bought that had a green base and pink polyps, now it's has a creamy colored base and purple/blue polyps!

My Purple Bonsai turned into a Brown Bansai, not sure why...

This digitata was brown, but as you can see the polyps are turning pink

Bush Acro

 

[Travis Savant]

Cali Tort, it's grown alot and you can see where it is shooting up to make mor branches from the base.

Efflo/Soli

An Encrusing Montipora

Green Slimer

Orange Digitata, this thing is a FAST grower.

Yellow/Green Tennius

Pink/Orange Monti Cap (I accidently broke it [several times] so there are piece of it scattered all over that area)

 

[Travis Savant]

Small frag of a Bush Acro

Brown/Green Tennius

Table Acro

And finaly, the FTS

 

[AIMFish]

I like the full tank shots best. Is the PVC across the top for closed loop? What outputs/nozzles are you using on it?

 

[Travis Savant]

Yes it's a closed loop. I am running a Mag 9.5 on it and it has 4 outputs via Loc-line fittings.

 

[hahnmeister]

Your corals look like they are getting too much light...no doubt with a 250wattDE on a 20H! I know because I have a few of those corals that you do, and when I ran a 250wattDE 10,000K over a similar size tank, I had the same problems (bleaching, browning, the only corals that grew were digis).

You have plenty of light to spare, and no blue light as is. I would swap the bulb for a 20,000K or 14,000K. Your corals will color up just like that. My GARF bonsai was a slow grower & brown when I had 10,000K as well...then when I switched to 14,000K...it lit up like 'barney the dino purple' and kermit green polyps.

www.illuming.com sells the 14,000K pheonix for $50 shipped. Or, you could get just about any other bluer bulb you want and still have plenty of output to spare for that tank.

Sweet tank otherwise, nice clean look.

 

[dogstar74]

I love what you've done to the place, But drill that sucker and get that box outta there! It's too nice to have that distraction.

But the rest is awe inspiring! Keep up the great work!!

 

[Travis Savant]

hahnmeister, thanks for the advice.

Thanks dogstar74, but there will be no drilling on this tank because I am starting to get that upgrade bug :lol:

 

[jlehrer]

Your tank reminds me a lot of my 20L when I was BB and with a 250watt metal halide as well. IMHO You've got too much light, causing bleaching, and too little nutrients. I had the exact same thing. The corals grew well, but frankly, looked like crap compared to some of the pics online. So I actually went down to a 150watt metal halide and started dosing frozen rotifers and cyclopeez (which I know, sps arent supposed to eat, but hey, it added nutrients to the water) and within a month all the color came back.

Try either a lower PAR or lower wattage, or feed more, and I;m sure you'll see the same thing.

Btw, how often do you scrape the glass for algae? When my water had too low nutrient levels (I never thought I'd see that) I could go for over a month without having to scrape the glass. The corals started coloring back up when I added enough food to cause me to have to scrape the glass every week or so.

Also, if you want a more professional opinion on sps, food and lighting, check out www.reefvideos.com and listen to Anthony Calfo's seminar to the toronto marine aquarium society. It has some interesting tidbits on this in it.

 

[Ti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7224558#post7224558 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
Your corals look like they are getting too much light...no doubt with a 250wattDE on a 20H! I know because I have a few of those corals that you do, and when I ran a 250wattDE 10,000K over a similar size tank, I had the same problems (bleaching, browning, the only corals that grew were digis).

You have plenty of light to spare, and no blue light as is. I would swap the bulb for a 20,000K or 14,000K. Your corals will color up just like that. My GARF bonsai was a slow grower & brown when I had 10,000K as well...then when I switched to 14,000K...it lit up like 'barney the dino purple' and kermit green polyps.

www.illuming.com sells the 14,000K pheonix for $50 shipped. Or, you could get just about any other bluer bulb you want and still have plenty of output to spare for that tank.

Sweet tank otherwise, nice clean look.

Site says $55 and they charge shipping on top.
Did I miss out on a special?

 

[DarkXerox]

Hey Travis couple questions:

How long is your photoperiod and how high is your temp? I found that my temp was getting pretty high in my tank due to a faulty heater thermostat and faulty thermometer. So that ended up bleaching my superman and one of my acros.

I actually am keeping my stuff relatively low in my 29 despite having a cover on the tank and keeping the bulb about 9-10" from the surface.

You can get nice colors with a 10k, but I think that with this size tank, a 14k would work better. I really like how the phoenix looks on mine since it gets a really nice ice-blue color after it burns in.

 

[Travis Savant]

Photoperiod is 6 hours

 

[aural]

isnt that kind of a strange photo period? I mean, think about how plants at your house would act if they only got light 6 hours per day...

 

[Travis Savant]

I experienct bleaching and RTN at 8 hours per day.

I think that I have TOO much light. I am going to switch to a higher K rated bulb with less PAR. See if that helps things along.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

i would go with a 20k, but thats just me

 

[hahnmeister]

I just tried the illuming, $55 was including shipping according to my cart. Sorry that I did say $50, that was a special from a little while back. Hey, even at $55 its a steal. But the pheonix is one of the brightest 14,000Ks out there...almost as bright as many 10,000Ks... so you could go duller. Like Cutiewitbooty said, you could go 20,000K and still have oodles of light.

I would go EVC 20,000K from oceanencounter, or Helios 20,000K from reefer madness....besides the pheonix that is. All great options.

 

[Pillz]

I would go down to a 175 and go with the 20k.. 250 on a 20h is too much IMO, unless you raised it up, then it would be the same as having a 175.

 

[DarkXerox]

I vote for a 14k and possibly raising the light a little. I had a 6500k bulb over my old nanocube and it got craazy growth, but it totally burned a few of even the higher light acros. I think that your tank is about the same depth as mine and my 14k seems to be workin great.

 

[Travis Savant]

Sand added, still cloudy...

 

[DarkXerox]

Sand! Well I bet that will help add some nutrients as the critters start to colonize.