Woo Hoo! It's happening now!
- Thread starter scolley
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OK... Here's pics from a little over a week ago. First the FTS:
Sorry about the glare on that pic. Hard to take shots in the room the tank's in except at night.
A couple of shots from the top, starting with my SPS that I'm proud of.
My curious (hungry) blood red shrimp:
And to the left of this pic is a paly that has destroyed several nice corals, in it's slow progress of trying to take over the tank. First I hoped it would at least stay on one rock. But it has crossed over to two more rocks. The day after I took these pics I set out to rid the tank of it - I figured I had no choice. But I don't yet have post-paly extraction pics yet.
That dead SPS on the left was a nice piece of birdsnest that snapped off, and I just stuck it off to the side to get it our of the way. CLEARLY there were not enough light over there.
Sorry about the glare on that pic. Hard to take shots in the room the tank's in except at night.
A couple of shots from the top, starting with my SPS that I'm proud of.
My curious (hungry) blood red shrimp:
And to the left of this pic is a paly that has destroyed several nice corals, in it's slow progress of trying to take over the tank. First I hoped it would at least stay on one rock. But it has crossed over to two more rocks. The day after I took these pics I set out to rid the tank of it - I figured I had no choice. But I don't yet have post-paly extraction pics yet.
That dead SPS on the left was a nice piece of birdsnest that snapped off, and I just stuck it off to the side to get it our of the way. CLEARLY there were not enough light over there.
One of my maxi-mini nems:
Another one that hosts my sexy shrimp...
And my rock flower nem. I love my nems...
Oh... BTW that is NOT an Aptasia at the bottom right. Obidad gave me that. Was more yellow when I got it, browned up in my tank. LOOKS like an Aptasia now.
Hammers and frogspawn...
One of many acans:
A nice little blasto and my first chalice:
A trach (open brain) and some zoas... acan too I guess...
And a completely different kind of open brain (Symphyllia agaricia) wedged in a corner:
An odd but very healthy chalice-like coral, a Lithophyllon sp.
Another one that hosts my sexy shrimp...
And my rock flower nem. I love my nems...
Oh... BTW that is NOT an Aptasia at the bottom right. Obidad gave me that. Was more yellow when I got it, browned up in my tank. LOOKS like an Aptasia now.
Hammers and frogspawn...
One of many acans:
A nice little blasto and my first chalice:
A trach (open brain) and some zoas... acan too I guess...
And a completely different kind of open brain (Symphyllia agaricia) wedged in a corner:
An odd but very healthy chalice-like coral, a Lithophyllon sp.
And a clown being hosted by a Duncan...
(BTW for those that persist in saying the clown is hosting the duncan need to spend a little time with a dictionary)
And the absolutely NUTS cluster of life that is my mint-maxi/maxima/GSP. The clam looks like it's being smothered, but it will not move, and just insists on sticking it's mantle out just far enough to get enough light to make it happy. And the GSP is on a single rock with its edges in the shade - so it does not spread.
And another FTS that shows my DIY LED. I'm really proud of that custom design. I set out to make something that looked close to being manufactured - not cobbled together. How did I do? :dance:
Later I'll post pics of the results of my removing that d*mn paly. Thanks for looking!
(BTW for those that persist in saying the clown is hosting the duncan need to spend a little time with a dictionary)
And the absolutely NUTS cluster of life that is my mint-maxi/maxima/GSP. The clam looks like it's being smothered, but it will not move, and just insists on sticking it's mantle out just far enough to get enough light to make it happy. And the GSP is on a single rock with its edges in the shade - so it does not spread.
And another FTS that shows my DIY LED. I'm really proud of that custom design. I set out to make something that looked close to being manufactured - not cobbled together. How did I do? :dance:
Later I'll post pics of the results of my removing that d*mn paly. Thanks for looking!
Thanks! But send what to you? The palys? Trust me, you don't want them.
I indulged in quite a few pics here. But honestly I did it to document how the tank looked after two years growth. And before the PROFOUND damage done in the paly removal. But more on that later...
I indulged in quite a few pics here. But honestly I did it to document how the tank looked after two years growth. And before the PROFOUND damage done in the paly removal. But more on that later...
Thanks!
Those photo's were not very "shopped". What you see in the pics is what it looked like under the LEDs.
Originally I had 12 Cool White and 12 Royal Blues. It looked like crap. But after much research I finally settled on:
IMO the switch from using too many Cool Whites to fewer Neutrals made a huge difference. And keeping a couple Cools in the mix seemed to help some colors. And the 2 plain old Blues helps a lot. Not so much that the tank ever looks like a bottle of Windex. I guess the trick is knowing that a little goes a long way.
The LED being that standard multiple row of evenly spaced (2" apart) means that I do get the inevitable color banding, especially in shadows. But it doesn't really bother me.
IMO overall there is a small loss of some color over my old MH Radium + Actinics. But that is more than offset by the subtle fluorescing of many of the corals, appearing much brighter in an overall color balance that is dramatically similar to the Radium. Frankly I was shocked at how good it looked when I finally set up the fixture with the new LED mix. Never for a minute did I think I had moved backward esthetically. A little different, and maybe a little better overall. But definitely not worse.
Those photo's were not very "shopped". What you see in the pics is what it looked like under the LEDs.
Originally I had 12 Cool White and 12 Royal Blues. It looked like crap. But after much research I finally settled on:
6 Neutral White
2 Cool White
2 Blue
14 Royal Blue
They are all XR-Es.2 Cool White
2 Blue
14 Royal Blue
IMO the switch from using too many Cool Whites to fewer Neutrals made a huge difference. And keeping a couple Cools in the mix seemed to help some colors. And the 2 plain old Blues helps a lot. Not so much that the tank ever looks like a bottle of Windex. I guess the trick is knowing that a little goes a long way.
The LED being that standard multiple row of evenly spaced (2" apart) means that I do get the inevitable color banding, especially in shadows. But it doesn't really bother me.
IMO overall there is a small loss of some color over my old MH Radium + Actinics. But that is more than offset by the subtle fluorescing of many of the corals, appearing much brighter in an overall color balance that is dramatically similar to the Radium. Frankly I was shocked at how good it looked when I finally set up the fixture with the new LED mix. Never for a minute did I think I had moved backward esthetically. A little different, and maybe a little better overall. But definitely not worse.
Thanks. Did you run optics on all LEDs? Wondering if running no optics on the couple odd colors would help with banding? Amazing pics.
Thanks!
I AM using optics. The normal Blue and Cool White have 80 degree, and everything else has 60. I'm sure that it would help with the banding if I removed them. But then I'd get light spread beyond the tank (which I don't want) and the fixture itself would not look as good. I didn't take a pic of the light with the LEDs off, but I'm using these optics. The bottom of the fixture - as you might be able to see - is not open. It's a "box" around the heatsink with holes where the LEDs are. And rather than looking into the holes and seeing electronics (a look I don't like) you can't see in the holes at all because the lenses of the optics are there instead.
Thanks for the kind words.
I mentioned in prior posts that this is what my tank "used" to look like. True enough I'm afraid.
I took th above pics just over two weeks ago. The next day I tried cutting some palys out if the tank and had a major crash because of it. It will take a couple of years to rebuild, as I killed more than half of my corals, and much of the critical micro fauna that sustains a mature tank.
Here's a thread that documents it all.
I took th above pics just over two weeks ago. The next day I tried cutting some palys out if the tank and had a major crash because of it. It will take a couple of years to rebuild, as I killed more than half of my corals, and much of the critical micro fauna that sustains a mature tank.
Here's a thread that documents it all.
Man, this is awful. So sorry this happened. I remember you pointing out the paly's with disdain when I saw the tank in person a few weeks back. It was a gorgeous tank and will be even better rebuilt, I'm certain. It's a shame you can use this as pity-fodder on the wife to let you do that 180 up for real. That planted tank is gorgeous and tranquility incarnate - but it screams for a reef. Just sayin'.
Thanks pal. I was shattered when it happened. It was by far the worst mistake of years of dedicated aquarium keeping. But rebuilding will be fun.
Unfortunately there's no budging on that 180. Which IS a shame because I designed it, and had it custom built. And a part of that design includes being reef drilled. It was always the plan to got reef once I go my feet wet on a smaller scale. Not gamma happen though.
That's ok. It'll be big fun re-doing my small tank. I'm going to try to capitalize on what I've learned and make this next incarnation a dead-serious, killer good looking' nano. A new challenge is always fun!
Unfortunately there's no budging on that 180. Which IS a shame because I designed it, and had it custom built. And a part of that design includes being reef drilled. It was always the plan to got reef once I go my feet wet on a smaller scale. Not gamma happen though.
That's ok. It'll be big fun re-doing my small tank. I'm going to try to capitalize on what I've learned and make this next incarnation a dead-serious, killer good looking' nano. A new challenge is always fun!
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