mindeeo February 22, 2012 February 22, 2012 (edited) For the last 5+ years, George (Rubberfrog) and I have had a wonderful fresh water planted tank with Australian rainbows, a breeding pair of kribensis, etc. It was a center piece of our house, and then... a tree fell on our house! About 1/3 of our house was destroyed. The house was condemned and the power and water were shut off! After a few weeks, we were finally able to find a moment to check on the tank, and only our plecostomus (no surprise!) was alive and loving his new algae rich environment. After being dislocated for over 3 months, our family (George, me, and three young children) were able to move home. Below is a picture of our house with the tree, and then one of our son dreaming of what our new saltwater aquarium will be. This thread will follow our journey in converting from fresh to saltwater, actualizing our new vision. The picture does not show or seem to look as destructive as it was Edited February 22, 2012 by mindeeo
dave w February 22, 2012 February 22, 2012 Holy cow! That tree looks like it really walloped your poor house. Your base of dead corals has a lot more interest than the typical dead pieces of limestone rock that most people start out with. Good luck with your journey.
Der ABT February 22, 2012 February 22, 2012 (edited) Wow thats not a twig that fell, sorry to hear bout the losses but sounds like you guys got a great tank started. i hope the house is better than ever and the kids im sure are happy to get their rooms back. though i gotta ask, is your son a robot? looks like he has a blue LED indicator light in the back of his head....he must be in night mode or lagoon mode if he is sitting that still....if so where did you get the controller, my almost 2 year old could really use a lagoon mode or even and on off that came with the new ES model.......only a fish person would get this i think.... Edited February 22, 2012 by Der ABT
CaptainRon February 22, 2012 February 22, 2012 If a lagoon mode is ever made for two year olds, I'll be the first in line!! Great start so far, looking forward to future updates.
mindeeo February 26, 2012 Author February 26, 2012 We started to cycle and aquascape our tank in November, but it wasn't until late December or maybe even early January that we acquired our very large (and ever growing in size and number) clean-up crew of snails, hermit crabs and emerald crabs (first move, first mistake). These critters provided our kids hours of entertainment. Like "Where's Waldo?", we played where's that crab? No longer is that game a challenge with these every-more-bold critters! The only time we cannot seem to find the crabs now is when we threaten to remove them. Shhhhh....for the exception of the snails, they are all going to be relocated! We also had our first hitchhiker - a Stometella.
mindeeo March 19, 2012 Author March 19, 2012 We did a PAR mapping of our tank. Although we gained much data from this, and it appears to all be good, we thought we'd share it to see if others have any insight. Feedback, thoughts, ideas, etc. welcome!
mindeeo March 19, 2012 Author March 19, 2012 Also, I could not resist adding a few pictures of our new corals. (Easy on the photographer... I have much more practice capturing kids and dogs!)
RubberFrog March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 Looks great!! What watt MH and T-5's are you running? 2 x 250w Radiums, 2 x 54w ATI purple plus, and 2 x 54w ATI blue plus.
RubberFrog March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 How old are the bulbs? How long do run the lights? The halides are at least 9 months old, we got them second hand. The t5s are less than a month old.
Ryan S March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 If you put 2 new bulbs in, I bet you'd see a substantial increase in PAR.
mindeeo March 19, 2012 Author March 19, 2012 Do the PAR readings seem low? We have great coral growth (or seem it seems without having a comparison model), but more would be great!
Ryan S March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 Here are some comparisons for you: http://www.melevsreef.com/par_readings.html
mindeeo March 19, 2012 Author March 19, 2012 His numbers actually aren't that far off from ours. Points A and S in our tank are about 11" under the surface with readings of 315 and 300 respectively. In comparison, he gets readings at 12" of 349 to 283 (depending on method used). It's also worth noting that the numbers quoted are from a 400w radium, whereas we have 250w radiums. No doubt I need to replace the bulbs due to age! I plan to swap them in the next month or so and I will remap and share our findings.
mindeeo March 19, 2012 Author March 19, 2012 (edited) I also found, as did Melev, that surface water movement had a significant effect on par. With my powerheads off, PAR was much higher. However, since we don't run our tank without water movement (obviously), we only shared the readings based on our powerheads set to their normal flow. edit: I just realized I am posting on my wife's account. Darn, I wanted to be Smart Brother and now she gets all the credit! lol Edited March 19, 2012 by mindeeo
Coral Hind March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 I don't think your numbers are low and they are right on for bulbs that are about 9mo old. I don't think you need to replace them any time soon. The corals that you currently have are not high light corals. Duration is also a factor so how long do you run the lights for? Do you run carbon or ozone?
RubberFrog March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 The halides are on 6 hours a day and the t5s are on 8 hours a day. No carbon or ozone, but we are looking at an mr5 reactor from avast to run carbon. We haven't decided on ozone.
Ryan S March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 melev's readings are with 250w 400w 250w, just look above the tank. If you want to try some new bulbs that cost a fraction of new radiums, 14k bulbs for $25 each; 20k for $25 each, etc. You can compare their PAR with your current ones.
RubberFrog March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 I did look above the tank, at all of his pics. The numbers I quoted are from the center bulb (400w radium) at 12" depth.
Ryan S March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 I did look above the tank, at all of his pics. The numbers I quoted are from the center bulb (400w radium) at 12" depth. I know. Why are you comparing his 400w numbers with your 250w numbers?
RubberFrog March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 To show that my numbers didn't seem low to me. Also because I didn't want to compare my 20k bulbs to 12k bulbs.
Coral Hind March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 Plusrite bulbs are even cheaper then those Ebay ones. Check them out. If you run some carbon the numbers might go up some as the water clears. I think your numbers are fine already.
Ryan S March 19, 2012 March 19, 2012 To show that my numbers didn't seem low to me. Also because I didn't want to compare my 20k bulbs to 12k bulbs. his 10k bulbs do kick the 20ks butt, even though its 400w http://melevsreef.com/pics/08/05/par_wflow_old_bulb.jpg have you considered a 14k like i linked above? more par, but a nice mix of white and blue, as opposed to the blue of a 20k? and if everything is growing, you are fine. just something to keep in mind should you want faster growth/start to see nuisance algae growing, etc.
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