My first reef tank.

[Ericwm]

I am pretty excited. It is a really good price to light a 90 gallon for sps. It looks like it will have the same power consumption as my 2 bulb T5 HO I have in my 29. Can't wait for the new tank but I may miss this one a bit, if only the wife wanted 3 tanks.

 

[SeanMonster]

I am pretty excited. It is a really good price to light a 90 gallon for sps. It looks like it will have the same power consumption as my 2 bulb T5 HO I have in my 29. Can't wait for the new tank but I may miss this one a bit, if only the wife wanted 3 tanks.

Don't tell her you have 3 tanks.

 

[Ericwm]

Yeah. I could try that but I think she may find out. I want a third but I would want a FOWLR and I would want it bigger that a 29 so I could add a snowflake eel and a dwarf lion. I think the reef takes priority though. It does help that our planted tank is "hers".

My fish are always happy on Saturday. I spot feed my lps with mysis shrimp and they love to clean up after. I only feed pellets or flake throughout the week.

Should I add another day of frozen in the middle of the week since they like it so much or is this good to keep them healthy?

 

[SeanMonster]

I actually feed various types of frozen when I feed. I use mysis, brine with spiralina, Prime Reef. I put nori on a clip twice a week and feed the coral with Coral Frenzy every 10-14 days. Everything seems to be happy.

 

[Ericwm]

My lights came in today, I am supper excited but i won't have time to set them up until the weekend. I almost have finished programming my controller, it's taking me a while because I'm a little out of practice. I am interested to see how my soldering skills have kept up.

 

[Ericwm]

The rapid led kits definitely are some assembly required but they sure are bright. I should have them hung today and can hopefully get a before and after pic posted.

 

[Ericwm]

I am looking at my tank under actinics only for the first time ever and it is amazing. Worth every penny, I can't get any good pictures because I only have cheap cameras. Here is a fts but you can't see much.



I still need to make separate dimmers knobs for blues and the rest so I have them all on one. This picture is both at ~30%.



And before the LEDs.



I am very happy with them! And the shimmer that pictures don't catch is amazing.

 

[Ericwm]

I added the ability to control the brightness of the blues and whites separately today. I am around 40% with the whites and 50% with the blues. Here is a FTS with the new ratio.



Does anyone think I need to back the lighting down or is this good to start? I came from a 2 bulb T5 HO and now have 3 watt cree LEDs, 10 royal blue at 50% and 9 cool white, 1 red, 1 green and 3 UV at 40%. My coral all seems happy but I don't want to fry them.

Also how gradually should I increase the percentage until it is up where I want it?

Thanks all.

 

[SeanMonster]

I added the ability to control the brightness of the blues and whites separately today. I am around 40% with the whites and 50% with the blues. Here is a FTS with the new ratio.

Does anyone think I need to back the lighting down or is this good to start? I came from a 2 bulb T5 HO and now have 3 watt cree LEDs, 10 royal blue at 50% and 9 cool white, 1 red, 1 green and 3 UV at 40%. My coral all seems happy but I don't want to fry them.

Also how gradually should I increase the percentage until it is up where I want it?

Thanks all.

Eric, it looks awesome (even with the cheap camera). Not sure how to tell you to ramp up as I have a combo of T5 and led.

 

[Cjsanders757]

Black clowns from $40 and $60 sounds way overpriced. I'm in the wrong business...

Is that from fintastic?

 

[Ericwm]

Eric, it looks awesome (even with the cheap camera). Not sure how to tell you to ramp up as I have a combo of T5 and led.

Thanks, I never realized how yellow my tank was until looking at the before and after pics.

Does anyone else know how fast I could turn my lights up? I took them up a bit today, like 5%, all my coral looks good. Is there a way to tell if I am giving too much light or not enough light? I have mostly lps, I'm guessing they will not open up all the way but I have no idea. I just know they seem happy.

Thanks.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I added the ability to control the brightness of the blues and whites separately today. I am around 40% with the whites and 50% with the blues. Here is a FTS with the new ratio.

Does anyone think I need to back the lighting down or is this good to start? I came from a 2 bulb T5 HO and now have 3 watt cree LEDs, 10 royal blue at 50% and 9 cool white, 1 red, 1 green and 3 UV at 40%. My coral all seems happy but I don't want to fry them.

Also how gradually should I increase the percentage until it is up where I want it?

Thanks all.

I would be very cautious, those Cree emitters are bright. Would start out at 1/2 power on everything and wait a week to see what's up before increasing it.

 

[Ericwm]

Sounds good to me. Is there a good way to tell they need more light or less light after I give it a week?

 

[Gregcoyote]

Sounds good to me. Is there a good way to tell they need more light or less light after I give it a week?

Watch polyp deployment. Soft corals and many LPS will pull in if the light is too bright. SPS it's harder to tell as they can go all at once. On of the challenges with SPS. But again, watch for healthy polyp deployment and for any signs of loss of color. If it continues to look fine, crank the light up a tiny bit and watch for a few days. Visually, the LED will look dimmer, but actually producing more usable light for your coral. Why it's so easy to accidentally bleach corals with LED, it just doesn't look that bright.

I find taking IPhone pictures from a marked location of each coral once a week gives me a real feel for what changes help or hinder growth. Happens too slow for you to gauge it visually.

 

[Ericwm]

Random picture.



My shrimp are friends.

 

[Ericwm]

I haven't updated this for a while as I have been focusing on my upgrade. I just looked in my tank and saw my little occ clown in my hammer coral, do you think he is trying to host?

 

[SeanMonster]

I haven't updated this for a while as I have been focusing on my upgrade. I just looked in my tank and saw my little occ clown in my hammer coral, do you think he is trying to host?

Certainly looks like it. Great pic.

 

[Jaketit]

Looks like it. My maroon clown messes with my candy cane coral sometimes, like he is hoisting it. People say its not good for the coral though. Cute though.

 

[Ericwm]

Mine doesn't spend lots of time in it. My other occ moved in as well, maybe eggs are in the near future.

 

[Ericwm]

Sad day... One of my skunk cleaners died today. I have had it about a year. I am hoping it was just his age and not my parameters. Everything was in check but my phosphates showed up in my test. My other two shrimp are doing great as well as my fish and coral. I did have a dip in temperature two nights ago, the tank got 6 degrees below its normal 78. I thought that would have effected it before today. Is a year about the expected life of these guys in captivity?