SkullV's Aquarium Adventures
- Thread starter SkullV
- Start date
SkullV
New member
Tank is filling out nicely. Gotta figure out how to take better videos, until then I'll stick with pictures! Everything seems to love the flow I have going on. Also tested the PAR and pretty much the entire tank is 300-500PAR with the exception of the left rock on the outside only gets up to about 120.
Short video:
[video=youtube;c9t9PQ12RNA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9t9PQ12RNA&list=UU551F4BbeShYcRKDBoYug3A[/video]
Short video:
[video=youtube;c9t9PQ12RNA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9t9PQ12RNA&list=UU551F4BbeShYcRKDBoYug3A[/video]
SkullV
New member
Thanks, and yeah he is! He's actually larger than the one I got from Live Aquaria that came in injured. Time for him to move on to his new home though, he has cleared up the algae issue on that CeramEco rock and I don't want to deal with feeding Nori. At this point I think the normal CUC can deal with any algae growth that may come about.
SMACKERS4
Member
Dat flo
SkullV
New member
Thanks Chad! Ordered a couple Giessman Actinic + to replace one ATI Blue+ and one ATI Actinic in my fixture. Hoping the higher blue peak of the Actinic+ will give more "pop" than the Blue+ and give more PAR than the ATI Actinic without taking too much "pop" away.
(Spectral charts sourced from www.reefgeek.com)
steveo9043
New member
They work with you!? Damn I asked if they would finance a led powermodule and just got ignored lol. Glad you got your wrasse.
pensiveone
New member
Man, that looks like one sweet setup Ted!
SkullV
New member
Thanks Wilson, sorry I missed you today when you were in the city. I'll be down in Munster again in a couple weeks, maybe one evening this week. I'll let you know as soon as I do.
Changed to the Giessman Actinic+ bulb in front today and absolutely love what it has done to the color in the tank. It used to be the same as the ATI Blue+ (even the same factory) but eventually DD came up with their own "phosphors" and allowed them to get a little more blue out of it without losing any of the spectrum that was there before. Probably a bulb that I will always want to run in conjunction with Blue+ in any T5 setup in the future. It also has ~200 more PAR than the ATI Actinic 03 that was in the front slot before, so hopefully the corals in front will be getting some even better light. I took measurements before I switched out the bulbs and was getting 300+ everywhere but the outside of the left rock and 500+ on the entire middle rock. Hopefully now I'll be getting that 300+ everywhere and closer to 600-700 on the upper portion of that middle rock.
Probably going to need to move the ATL Cherry Bomb to one of the side rocks since it is starting to get a little pale up on top. Here are some pics I took today after changing bulbs. You can REALLY see how much better coral looks under T5 in some of these comparison shots. I have said it over and over, SPS can look great under LED, but it will always look better under T5 or Halide in my opinion:
UWW Rainbow Sunburst Monti from early on until now (4/8/14 - 6/4/14 - 8/16/14):
Cool plate from [MENTION=433]AACorals[/MENTION], still hoping the base keeps getting redder:
Red Milli from [MENTION=2509]rockhead[/MENTION] (this is the one I was talking about [MENTION=1277]jrpark22000[/MENTION]). Original on the left (4/7/14), new on the right (8/16/14), broke it in half at some point, but what really matters is that all new encrusting and growth is BRIGHT YELLOW lately!:
Yellow "Highlighter" Acro from [MENTION=433]AACorals[/MENTION]:
Garf Bonsai from @jrpark2200. First pic when I got it originally (4/8/14) under LED, second pic now (8/16/14) under T5. You can also see in this photo how much better the Orange Monti looks under T5:
Another cool Acro from [MENTION=433]AACorals[/MENTION]. This one has the potential to be incredible. It is starting to develop a little more blue in it now that I have moved it up in the tank. If it keeps going at this rate, it will have green skin, blue corallites, and red polyps:
This is by far my favorite piece in the hobby right now. Took FOREVER to convince our new CEO here to frag it for me, but it is the Rocky Mountain Frags Extreme Shortcake. Was at the base of his colony, but in only a week or 2 has colored up very nicely, hope it only keeps getting better!:
This is the JF Bugout Stylo that got be back into SPS in the first place. One of the pieces that is supposed to get much much better with age, and I can see why they say that. Hoping that the addition of the higher par/bluer bulb in front really brings out some more of the reds as this guy grows. Old on the left under LED (5/21/14), new on the right under T5 (8/16/14):
This is a cool candlelight-ish acro from [MENTION=9]AQUAPROS[/MENTION] that I picked up during the meet there. Starting to look pretty nice:
Here's the new "Peninsula View". Hopefully I'll be able to do away with the powerhead that is in the way when the rip-tide comes out:
SkullV
New member
This is the same UWW from the last post right after the emerald crab stepped on it to show the different colors the base is getting:
A few people have also asked me about my fuge light. Not much to it, I believe the heatsink is a PC processor heat sink, 120mm fan, 6 CREE solderless LEDs from Rapid LED (was 2RB, 2CW, 2R now 1RB, 3CW, 2R) with 60* optics. Hung it with some coated chain and stainless eye hooks:
A few people have also asked me about my fuge light. Not much to it, I believe the heatsink is a PC processor heat sink, 120mm fan, 6 CREE solderless LEDs from Rapid LED (was 2RB, 2CW, 2R now 1RB, 3CW, 2R) with 60* optics. Hung it with some coated chain and stainless eye hooks:
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ultimatemj
Active member
Very nice. Really dig the garf...
Curious, what's in the fuge? Rubble or a media? And what's in the bag?
Curious, what's in the fuge? Rubble or a media? And what's in the bag?
SkullV
New member
Fuge is all rubble, always found that it is best for growing pods after chaeto. I plan to remove my chaeto in the next few weeks since it is just dying off now that the biopellets are seeded and working well. Since I'll be removing it I actually just added 6 more lbs of rubble to hopefully seed with pods before that.
The bag is just the 100 or 150g bags of aquaclear HOB carbon. It's like $7 for a bag of three which lasts me three months. I know BRS is probably cheaper over time, but hey, I'm lazy and what's $2.33 a month in the scheme of this hobby?
pensiveone
New member
Very nice looking tank Ted. Those are some really pampered corals, because they look great! Ill try again for some of that Cheato. Managed to repair one of those lights I bought off e-bay which arrived defective, and I'm confident I can do the same for the other. Here it is on my ten gallon:
View attachment 4486
I am also building a fixture to go over it and distribute the light more evenly.
View attachment 4486
I am also building a fixture to go over it and distribute the light more evenly.
EricTheRed
No, I'm not a communist..
Looking slick, Ted ! My cycle is almost over and I'm getting really excited after seeing your sticks grow. Also, the color improvement with the T5's is drastic!