Doug's 250, now 300, in wall build

[Gregcoyote]

I want one! I have shafts of sunlight that hit my reef in the mornings and he's right, no artificial light looks that good to me.

 

[mr_X]

But that was in 2006....I wonder if he swapped out those cumbersome halides for LED panels...

 

[Gregcoyote]

Probably would look better, but sunshine is pretty good too. If you can control it. And as we discussed last year, sunlight as only supplemental to the LED panels. Here in the Midwest in the winter we don't get enough sunlight for a tropical reef. (What a shocker...)

 

[Dary421]

If have a question that you might be able to answer,,, regarding lighting and a little more specifically led's .... My question is regarding the led bulbs and the colors.., does the bulb colors do anything differently coral / live stock growth wise or are the colors just for what we want to see our tank to look like? I like running my led's heavily towards the blue side which personally i like better., but others seem to like a more whitish or combo look. I know you discussed awhile back about some of the newer units incorporating a few greens or red bulbs., say you were to run all whites and no blues or vice vera does it really make a difference ? Does the color wave length affect the par ratings at various levels ?

 

[mr_X]

Blue is the only color you need. The rest is for eye candy.

 

[Dary421]

Blue is the only color you need. The rest is for eye candy.

Cool ... Thank you ., ive always wondered about that.... Flor bulbs the same too?

 

[mr_X]

Well, it's a matter of PAR. If you have enough PAR, yes, all you need is a blue bulb, but in the case of say, a T5 fixture, it's the combination of the 6 or 8 lamps that makes up the PAR. If they were all blue lamps and the PAR was sufficient, it would be fine. Florescent and halide lamps have a broader spectrum than LEDs so they put out a little bit of everything.
That said, I brought back a bleached anemone with only a LED spot light that had a color temp of 5000k, so I'm not sure LEDs are as narrow a spectrum as is assumed.

 

[Gregcoyote]

PAR is PAR. Corals below 30' of seawater see very little but the short blue wave lengths of light. They are what penetrate deepest. Corals evolved to use this blue light, but can also use light at lower wave lengths. They are very adaptable. The wave length may influence the color of the symbiotic algae, but the coral will grow fine. Why your anemone did fine under a cheap bulb. It had the PAR it needed to flourish, color temperature meant very little.

But that doesn't mean that a tank lit with just blue light looks pleasing to me. Some love it, but I like to see the coral in all it's glory. That takes a few extra frequencies to pull off.

 

[Dary421]

Thank you guys , you both combined to answer my questions beautifully

 

[Gregcoyote]

If I were going to setup to frag and grow corals I would use Rubbermaid tubs and the cheapest high output led panels I could find, the color temperature would be pretty insignificant. It works beautifully and it doesn't get any cheaper. But in a situation where I am displaying a reef I want to see all the colors, so there I would select a fuller spectrum, probably still on the blue side. But as Doug said its personal preference.

 

[Stlrockguy]

or...you could go to any inner city home depot at 7:00 in the morning and hire a hand full of Mexicans to do it!

Lmao Doug

 

[mr_X]

So, anyone heard of a RODI unit clogging up? Recently my RO unit stopped letting water through. I would hear water trying every once in a while but nothing. The noise seemed to be coming from the Auto shutoff, but I couldn't do without water until I ordered one and saw it to be the definite problem, so I ordered the "4 stage value plus" system from BRS. It came pretty quick and the clear canisters really make me feel the value of bottled water. I ran it overnight and the next day the sediment filter went from white to a sort of gold color.....

 

[Sniperhank]

Was there a dip in the line anywhere? Possible sediment build up that caused a ton of stuff to get caught in the filter. Happens in old pipes so I don't see why it couldn't for this too.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

So, anyone heard of a RODI unit clogging up? Recently my RO unit stopped letting water through. I would hear water trying every once in a while but nothing. The noise seemed to be coming from the Auto shutoff, but I couldn't do without water until I ordered one and saw it to be the definite problem, so I ordered the "4 stage value plus" system from BRS. It came pretty quick and the clear canisters really make me feel the value of bottled water. I ran it overnight and the next day the sediment filter went from white to a sort of gold color.....

It happened to me with that same value plus you just got. I still have it's a great rodi unit. The problem was that one of the pressure fittings went bad found it changed it and never had the problem again. My filter been gold for a few now I still get zero tds and pressure is still the same. Great buy x.

 

[Sniperhank]

Huh. Never thought about the pressure valves and other such.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Yea in one of the fittings the ball was blocking the water from coming out went to HD got new ones and I was good again.

 

[mwilliams]

Two fellow reefers here in houston just had their unit slow way down they could never find the blockage but replaced the membrane and carbon block. BRS told me when I got mine that the membrane needs to be replaced between 2-5 years all depending on the quality of your water and how much you use it and the carbon block needs to be replaced 5000 gallons or 6 months which evers comes first.

 

[Gregcoyote]

My bet is a bad pressure valve. The membranes usually don't clog because the sediment filter and carbon blocks catch the debris. My sediment filter turns deep red within 24 hours because of the iron in our water.

 

[Cichlid-dude]

Ya my sediment filter turns light brown rather quickly in my unit. Im afraid to drink the water now unless i run it through the unit lol.

 

[huma-huma]

x, does your units auto shutoff valve take several minutes to actually close the supply line? after my float valve is switched closed, it takes roughly 7-10 minutes for my ASV to actually stop the supply line (actually I believe it stops the drain line but nonetheless it stops the flow of water through the unit) also I noticed on my pressure gauge that once the ASV actually shuts off all flow, the pressure needle is pinned all the way to the right.. correct me if im wrong but I was under the assumption that anything over 75 psi could damage the membranes. the BRS rep told me the pressure wont hurt anything but if I cant run the unit at that pressure, why is it ok to see that pressure after shutoff??