Jump to content

sturnmeyer

BB Participant
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    348

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by sturnmeyer

    Reef Lighting a 31" Deep 120G cube

    in General Discussion

    Hello all. Just joined back up here after a while away. I'm sure my question has been asked so apologize if I didn't find it in the search. 

     

    I have a 120g 30x30x31 cube from glass cages that is FOWLR. I am debating on keeping it that way and getting a smaller tank to get back into doing a mixed reef again, or just migrating the 120g to a mixed reef. Previous reefs that I had ran successfully were lit with T5s and I had no issues, but this deep of a tank brings different questions into play. 

     

    Now I know right now that MH will be what everyone says go with, and I agree. The problem is that on a budget MH don't help with the initial cost and the raised electric bill. (happy to see metrics disproving this!!!)

     

    With that said, I see my choices at T5 or LED. 

     

    Anyone with a 30" deep tank running either of these? Thoughts? What are you using? 

     

    Oh, I'd like to have the gamit of corals within, so I'm thinking of layering it up the water column with SPS near the top anyway. 

     

    Thanks for any help. 

    Scott

    120g Cube with Par38 and Stunner LEDs

    in General Discussion

    Very Nice lights. Really like the look of them, and you seem to be a better photographer than most taking pics of LED's. On a side note, what type of Trigger is that? Is it really "reef safe"? You may want to watch those frags, and definately watch any inverts you have....Looks awesome either way.

    Thanks. I'm a professional photographer so I'm trying to get just the right settings. I'm actually not happy with them. It still doesn't give the real look, so I'm gonna keep working on it.

     

    Yes, he's a Humu Humu, but he's a good boy. He's been in my tank for about 6 years now and leaves everything alone, except for snails. :) The hermits and all have learned to stay hidden until night, even the peppermint shrimp have been in there a while without an issue.

     

     

    What angle Optics do you have? 40, 60, 80? How is the spread in person?

     

    These are all 40 degree. I'd wanted the spotlight effect rather than the full box of light as zygote has mentioned before. Obviously the spread gets bigger the farther down you go. My tank is 31" deep so I'd say I have a spread of about 10 inches at the very bottom. But these things are certainly bright enough to grown SPS on the very bottom of the tank. I'm so eager to rework the rockscaping to be more attractive and then position these lights to get the full effect.

    120g Cube with Par38 and Stunner LEDs

    in General Discussion

    Okay, so I've been biting at the bit lately waiting for my Par38 LEDs from Nanotuners to come in and have been running my 120g Cube with just 18 strips of the Ecoxotic Stunners. But they came in TODAY!!!!

     

    Here is a pic of just the stunners...

     

    gallery_670_772_325537.jpg

     

    Here is a pic of the Stunners mounted to the canopy...

    gallery_670_772_2606.jpg

     

    Here are the Par38s in the standard track lighting system from Lowes....being able to adjust these things is amazing.

    gallery_670_772_74165.jpg

     

    And here is the tank this evening with Stunners and Par38s going strong. Little cloudy from some tank maintenance this afternoon so I'll get better ones. The look is amazing and it really is so close to the real thing. Photos can't do it justice, that's for sure.

    gallery_670_772_56404.jpg

    gallery_670_772_28653.jpg

     

    For anyone interested, I'm running the following for lighting:

    4 403Nm Stunners

    4 453Nm Stunners

    6 453Nm/8000K Stunners

    4 8000K Stunners

     

    3 12000K Evil66 Par38s

    3 20000K Evil 66 Par38s

     

    Next up is a full rework of the liverock with some bracing so I can utilize the Par38s and the track lighting to its fullest extent.

    Need Help with Camera Choice

    in Marine Photography

    Its not so much the camera as it is the lens. Pretty much any SLR will do the shots you want, but you need a really good Macro lens to do the closeups. I have both Canon 50D and Canon 7D cameras, but I use the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM for my coral shots. This lens is probably one of the top three on the market for doing this type of photography.

     

    Hope that helps,

    Scott

    Backup Options

    in General Discussion

    The deep cycle marine batteries are your best bet. Many people use them. Another thing to look at - much more expensive but more versatile (and I'm going to buy one as soon as I have the money) is the Honda inverter generators. Take a look here: http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/product...amp;category=sq

     

    They run forever on a gallon of gasoline - only generating the amount of power needed at the time. Highly portable and VERY quiet.

     

     

    I have one of the Honda generators and it is perfect. If the power goes out I simply run two extension cords to my two tanks and it will run everything, even lights but I cut them off to save the fuel. They are a bit pricy, but well worth every penny.

    Magnetic Frag Racks?

    in General Discussion

    What size tank do you have? I bought a piece of eggcrate and made the size I wanted, plus had extra to make more down the road. I simply used superglue to attach to a mag float. Works like a charm.

    I've done the same thing and highly recommend it. You have control over how large you want them.

    Lighting Emergency!!!

    in New to the Hobby

    No 2 were working now none of them do we switched out the bulbs but nothing.

     

    Okay, still sounds like a blown ballast, but I wouldn't worry for 2-3 days. I sometimes leave mine off intentionally for that period.

     

    Scott

    Lighting Emergency!!!

    in New to the Hobby

    Sounds like you have a blown ballast. If I am understanding, you currently have 2 bulbs working though, correct? If, then they'll be fine until you get a replacement.

     

    I personally have the Tek T5 fixtures and love them.

     

    Scott

    Hippo Blue Tang has Ick

    in General Discussion

    I purchased a Hippo a couple years ago that developed fin rot and ick really bad. I used garlic in his food, garlic extract actually and it worked great!!! Now I throw garlic in their frozen food every couple of weeks just to help with the immune system.

    Additional Stock Recommendations

    in General Discussion

    Mine is fine with all the corals but sometimes nips on zoas. Never did when she was a baby but since she started changing she sometimes gets into mischief. I do not keep zoas now and everything is good. She never touched ugly brown palys - go figure :eek:

     

     

    LOL...yeah, tell me about it.

    Additional Stock Recommendations

    in General Discussion

    Personally, I would not put in Achilles, Powder Blue and Sohal tangs.

     

    Reason below:

     

    Achilles and Powder Blue are prone to ick and they prefer to be the first tangs in an aquarium tank. Given a yellow and a hippo tangs already established. They both will harrash any of the above constantly and the ick will occur in a few days. Speaking from my own experience. If the sturnmeyer have a tank twice the current size then they might have success introducing a Powder Blue. Achilles on the other hand is a little bit harder to take care than powder blue. I forgot the reason, a quick look up on wetwebmedia.com should help your reading.

     

    Sohal tang needs a large tank when it is fully grown. 125g might not have enough room for its to swim with the other 2 tangs. Just a few thoughts, not in critical meant or tang police.

     

     

    Concur with a juvenile Majestic Angel is a good recommendation with a good chance of success living in a reef tank. When it becomes adult, it has a high chance of not nipping at LPS.

     

    Thanks for the thoughts. I couldn't agree more with what you said about the Powder Blue and Sohal. I wasn't planning on either of those. What about the Powder Brown? Do they have the same issues as the Powder Blue?

×
×
  • Create New...