Evansimp
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Thanks again everyone! Glad you all liked the video and all these kind words keep me motivated to keep making the tank better!
which hydor koralia should i get on marine depot? how many gph for a 20 gallon
I have 2 of the koralia nanos 240 gph I believe! That works great for my tank!
what should i feed a sw reef
If it's dimmable, turn it down to it's minimum setting which is around 20% or there 'bouts. If it's not dimmable move everything down to bottom of tank and make sure to hang it around 10"-12" if possible. Adjust the percentage up about every week. If it has Optics on the LED's then you will probably want to remove them to make the light less focused which concentrates the light. Too much focus will actually bleach the corals on the bottom of a 20 gallon tank... i have seen that happen to others I know. They just put the lights on the tank and didn't acclimate them at all just BAM 100% of the light and then WHAM bleached corals and some zoas on the bottom in the middle of the lights melted (1 day is all they were under it). So take care locate Mr.X on this board and ask him about acclimation he is very knowledgable about the LED fixtures. ( Is this light one of the TaoTronics available on Ebay? ) or a copycat one? If so there is a nice thread to follow.. Best Bang for your Bucks- Lighting your reeftank....
Link: www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/lighting-your-reef-best-bang-for-your-buck-239661-50.html
Read it and you will learn A Lot!
I am venturing again into LED's. I did my own LED setup on my old 12gallon BioCube (I actually had over 30 Watts going in that tank.) I installed Dimmers and also the LED Drivers I used were dimmable as well. I had Excellent Growth and was very impressed with them.
I now have that tank for sale since I want to run a Sump/Fuge w/ everything except the overflow and returns and my wave system, hidden in the sump/fuge for a cleaner look and also to keep parameters in check better and hide my Auto Top Off unit under the tank in the Stand I am building.
OK, enough rambling on and on... You need to get busy reading that link above. Believe me you will enjoy the read and also will get an education to boot.
Best Regards,
Tom
It's not dimmable :/ I'm going to be putting it a foot above my tank and hope its not to much light. I'm gonna only do blue for a bit then turn on the whites! Let's hope for the best
Thanks for the help everyone! got my lights up and they are a foot above the tank! Im going to start by having the lights on 4 hours a day and move up from there! Let's hope for the best!!
Here are some pictures!
Keep in mind that Just using the Blue lights will not really stop your corals from bleaching. It's just a different spectrum of light and the LED's are going to be far sttronger than ANY actinic lighting you have used in the Past on other fixtures, Ie.. T5HO, Compaact Fluorescent, even Metal Halide 20K bulbs don't match the intensity of the Blue LED's.
Hanging the Unit 12 inches from the tank is a good start but you will definitely need to move your corals lower in the tank maybe all the way down to the sand bed. Also, you probably should limit the time of the unit being on and gradually incease the time over 5-7 days increase it by 30-minutes to an hour NO MORE than an hour increase until you reach your actual total photo period. put the blues and whites on a timer and have the blues come on 30 minutes before the whitesl and 30 minutes after whites go off. I would run the lights in the beginning about 3 1/2 to 4 hours total. If you notice the light is still too strong. you can always use sheets of screen, like 6 maybe 7 sheets and remove 1 sheet every week as you in crease you photo period this will aid in deflecting the light directly and will help the acclimation process go smoother.
other LED owners Please chime in if you have a better Idea or if I am way off here. I just want to help Mr. Evan and I am sure he would appreciate your help. ( Not taking over Evan, just soliciting more help for you.
Best wishes!
Tom