Orion September 27, 2014 Author Share September 27, 2014 Added a Reefbrite (non-xho) strip to the T5 fixture last night. Wow I forgot how much more pop is added to the coral under royal blue LEDs. Swapped the Coral Plus for an Aquablue Special due to the tank looking too "windex-y" with all bulbs on. Light schedule is now close in line with World Wide Corals in Orlando - 10am Reefbrite on 12pm Actinic T5s on (2) 3pm All bulbs on (2 blue plus, 2 actinic, 1 Purple Plus, and 1 Aquablue Special) 8pm 4 bulbs off 9pm Actinics off 10pm Reefbrite Off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime September 27, 2014 Share September 27, 2014 Nice! Will follow suite once I get the 180 up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion November 10, 2014 Author Share November 10, 2014 Picture update! Broke out the DSLR. Thinking of upgrading it, and getting a Macro lens. These were all taken on a standard 18-55mm FTS Tri-Color Acro and Male Pylei Wrasse Ice Fire Echinata WWC Pink Passion WWC Purple Bonsaii Mini Ricordia garden and Female Pylei Wrasse - Notice her belly isn't so big anymore! Left side view - Ignore the ghost Right side - Male Pylei posing, Blue-Green Chromis, One-Spot Foxface, and Green Slimer Acro The colors on the corals have really come out in the last couple of months. They were nutrient starved with 0 nitrate, and very little phosphate. Solution? I added more fish, and removed GFO. I only run a little carbon now to polish the water, a filter sock, and do a 5% water change once a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia November 10, 2014 Share November 10, 2014 So what are you nitrates at now? The tank looks amazing Ryan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion November 10, 2014 Author Share November 10, 2014 (edited) So what are you nitrates at now? The tank looks amazing Ryan!Thanks! Red Sea kit is reading 0.2ppm now. Used to be undetectable. I haven't tested for PO4 in awhile so I'm not sure what it's at. Edited November 10, 2014 by Orion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoelace November 10, 2014 Share November 10, 2014 Awesome, Ryan. It's really cool to see the progress after a year. I remember that tank before it had holes So you think it's the fish and no GFO or is it the lights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos November 10, 2014 Share November 10, 2014 Great pictures, the tank looks awesome! I bet you have a few new options on corals now? You know....with the new job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion November 10, 2014 Author Share November 10, 2014 Awesome, Ryan. It's really cool to see the progress after a year. I remember that tank before it had holes So you think it's the fish and no GFO or is it the lights? You know, there are some awesome LED tanks out there, and there are some awesome T5 & MH tanks. I believe its more of the fish & no GFO combination that really brought out the colors. Most of the acros were pale looking. It wasn't until I added more fish, and took the GFO offline that I started to see a drastic improvement in color. The corals were still growing, but just bland in color. I think the advantage of T5 over LED is that I don't have any shaded areas anymore, and coral growth looks more "even" to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion November 10, 2014 Author Share November 10, 2014 Great pictures, the tank looks awesome! I bet you have a few new options on corals now? You know....with the new job Thanks!! And, um, uhhh... no comment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia November 10, 2014 Share November 10, 2014 Thanks!! And, um, uhhh... no comment Probably also knows when Marco gets in all the cool new fish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion November 10, 2014 Author Share November 10, 2014 Probably also knows when Marco gets in all the cool new fish! I do, but my tank is completely stocked! Time for me to let things grow out a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos November 10, 2014 Share November 10, 2014 I do, but my tank is completely stocked! Time for me to let things grow out a bit. Or upgrade........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion November 10, 2014 Author Share November 10, 2014 Or upgrade........... Not anytime soon. Will plan on upgrading when we eventually move into a bigger home down the road. Want a fish room with the next tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime November 10, 2014 Share November 10, 2014 Looks awesome! Really nice to see this since you were debating the 57 and overflow style! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion January 8, 2015 Author Share January 8, 2015 Wow. Time sure does fly by. I think its time to update this build thread with a year in review. This system has been up and running for about 13 months now. I'll list below the things I have learned over the past year! Bubble Algae sucks, but it can be controlled/mostly eliminated - with help. A few months ago my tank started to get overrun with bubble algae. It got really bad. I tried emerald crabs, they nibbled a little, but didn't really help. It wasn't until I actually started removing it by hand, AND adding a Foxface that the bubbles seemed to start disappearing. This particular fish wouldn't eat the big bubbles but he does eat the tiny ones when they start to form up! So after a few months this pesky algae is almost gone out of my system! Corals look pale? Maybe your tank is *too* clean! Yep, that's correct. Your tank might be too clean - nitrates and phosphates in particular. Contrary to recent popular belief corals actually need some of these to color up! (light helps too ). I ran into this issue 6 months ago. SPS looked pale, LPS were slowly dying - chaos! Nitrate was undetectable, and Phosphate was way on the low side. I was running GFO, and had very few fish. What did I do? I stopped using GFO, and added more fish to the tank. What happened? LPS stopped dying, and SPS started coloring up in a couple months! Now my corals look better than ever. Lighting - Less is More I am really enjoying the look of T5s over LEDs on my tank. LEDs are great, and the high end fixtures (some of the low end too) can produce any color and intensity you could imagine. This can be a bad thing. Sometimes having too much control can tempt you into constantly changing things. I have found that the less you "mess" with your tank the better off it will be. With T5s there really isn't much to control except the bulb combinations, but that costs money just to buy more bulbs to play around with so I'm less tempted to do so. Quarantine! Early on I had an outbreak of ich in this system. I just remember a few fish being covered in white spots breathing heavily on the sand, and feeling like a total piece of crap for letting it happen. I knew better. I knew that quarantining fish was highly recommended in this hobby, but I didn't listen. Well I learned my lesson the hard way. I caught all the fish with the help of Flieger, put them into a 20g for treatment, and my tank was fishless for almost 10 weeks. I just set this tank up a couple months prior and it was empty again. Ouch! Well enough rambling. Pictures!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime January 8, 2015 Share January 8, 2015 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoelace January 8, 2015 Share January 8, 2015 Awesome pic dude! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos January 8, 2015 Share January 8, 2015 You do a great job with photography! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami January 8, 2015 Share January 8, 2015 Awesome. Love the color on the Bonsai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilRams January 9, 2015 Share January 9, 2015 Sweet tank and great pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef January 9, 2015 Share January 9, 2015 Looking great and sounds like a great come back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 9, 2015 Share January 9, 2015 Very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HgrReefs January 9, 2015 Share January 9, 2015 Looks great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia January 9, 2015 Share January 9, 2015 Sigh. Beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf April 17, 2015 Share April 17, 2015 How bout some updates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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