Sascha D.

Before and after pictures showing the difference between the lighting fixtures. Left is the black box + T-5 and right is only Radion XR30 Pro. Time between pictures is exactly 40 hours.

I modified the canopy to give myself more room to work. I'm also fairly confident the lights were too close to the water and that caused the shortages that I experienced in the past. I'm not an expert wood worker/light installer person, but I did an okay job. Pics or it didn't happen! Before and after from inside the canopy. What a difference! You may also notice that I cut a hole for the automatic feeder chimney. I got this idea after bumping my feeder and shorting it out. Exactly the wrong time for that kind of idea. Here are some build pics. The T-5 were not added back into the canopy, but I'm going to hold them in reserve until I'm confident in the color and spread.

My Radions think that I live in Istanbul and two hours of clicking buttons failed to convince them otherwise. It seems like a systemic problem that's occurred for at least three years. Programmers are all the same, better to make a new product than fix what already exists! I decided that I really do live in Istanbul and now my lights are working! The AB+ was too blue for me and I'm testing the 18k that looks more natural. I'll post some pictures of the progress tonight when the corals open up a little bit.

For anyone interested, here is the Reef Wholesale Coral Lab case study used to determine the custom Ecotech Radion programs. I'm going to go with the preprogrammed AB+ schedule from 10:30 to 9:30. Updating the lights takes FOREVER! Mine has been programming the devices for over an hour! They're also surprisingly hot. *Morning Update* The devices still hadn't written the program after three hours and I decided to turn everything off and go to bed. I tried again this morning and it programmed in less than a minute. I'm not sure what the issue was. Maybe they sat in a box too long or something. The lights are scheduled to come on in at 10:00, so we'll see if they work!

Thanks Jolt! That makes sense. I just called the Echotech tecnhician trying to figure out the coverage of the fixtures. My rockwork is 6" off the back of the aquarium and the tech told me that I should expect good PAR 6" from the fixture in any direction. I think the edge of the light should be 12" from the back and that will give me good coverage towards the front where my corals are. For the sides I'm going to go 11" from the edge of the aquarium. I'm going to install the fixtures and see how it looks before adding the T-5's or anything else back.

85% intensity? How long did it take you to get up to that power? I was thinking of starting with settings that already work for someone and modifying from there. A lot of people seem to like the AB+ schedule, but modify it because they say it's very blue. What do you think of modified AB+? I currently run a 10 hour photoperiod at full intensity, but I'm thinking of adding a two hour ramp to go 12 hours.

Big project tomorrow! This should be... Interesting. Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Hey Everyone, A couple of people asked me about my feeding schedule after the last video so I thought I would post it. Let me know if you have any questions. I installed an Eheim Automatic Feeder with a feeding chimney a few months ago. I have it set to feed one pinch of pellet food, two rotations, twice a day at 12:00 and 3:00. I normally use New Life Spectrum and I'm currently using APBreed Chroma Boost pellets that I won at the last C4 event. I recently dropped my feeder into the water and damaged it beyond repair, but I like it so much that I'm going to order another. My 26 fish get fed 2 cubes of the below frozen items daily on a rotating basis. The items listed are in order of my current rotation, but I'm not really keeping track that closely. V2O Mysis Shrimp - Ocean Nutrition and San Francisco Bay are also good San Francisco Bay Angel and Butterfly Diet San Francisco Bay Brand Frozen Reef Plankton I thaw the frozen food for roughly an hour soaking in RODI and the below food soaking products. I started using these products after having trouble putting weight on some higher energy wrasses. My wrasses now have better weight and coloration after using these soaks for the last six months. I added the automatic feeder around the same time, so I'm not sure which contributed more to the improvement. I use one bottle every six months, so it's around $4 extra a month. Boyd Enterprises Vita-Chem (about 6 drops) American Marine, Inc. Selcon (0.50ml) Twice a week I add powdered or liquid coral food. Right now I'm using Coral Frenzy, but probably will not purchase it again. Some hobbyists have reported success using Reef Snow and Reef Roids. I'm sure there are others as well, but I don't have any experience with them. In most cases coral food is largely unnecessary and not recommended for every system. I started using it when my fish population was low and corals began turning white with muted coloration. One container lasts me about a year. Three times a week I feed 1/2 sheet of Tokyo Nori (roughly 1.25g) attached to a seaweed clip. All of my fish eat Nori and a half sheet lasts about a minute. By this time next year I'll be feeding a half sheet every day along with frozen food.

I think that I'll be free that day to help.

I think one of my lights went out. Can you tell which one? I need to speed up this process of choosing a light! Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

I haven't quite gotten that far yet. It will eventually be a two barrel system, one for salt and one for freshwater. I'm also going to run lines into the wall and through the attic to fill the tank and reservoir from the mixing station in the garage. I like to vacuum the sand bed and I'll continue to do that once a month during water changes.

Two hours before the kids bedtime...Go! Lowe's didn't have all of the parts I needed. Still need two male connectors, a coupler and a grey thingy. Plumbing is so expensive!

Great meeting Ty! Thanks for having us. It was great to meet all of the new people and it didn't hurt seeing your reef again. Keep it up man

PM Sent.

List updated. Please PM me before 11 am today to pick up at the club meeting.

Biopellets and other forms of carbon dosing are primarily used to reduce nitrates. It's not as effective as GFO at removing PO4, but may also reduce phosphates marginally. Other alternatives include natural removal like refugiums or turf scrubbers and manual removal like water changes or filter socks. As far as I know, there are no alternatives to carbon media besides keeping up with water changes. I personally stopped using GFO and GAC in my aquarium and I've been exploring alternatives. The best aquarium that I've kept incorporated a refugium and protein skimmer with monthly water changes. I plan to go back to that method when I figure out the best way to get around my sump problem

Awesome! Your corals look great so it must be working for ya. My corals improved a lot when I added the supplements, so I know that I was lacking in PAR. Right now making sure there's enough PAR and not too much heat are my main objectives.

Sounds good I'll mark them off for ya!

@jolt are you still using the Radions for your tank? I contacted EchoTech to inquite about coverage and they told me that I would need 8 Radion G4 Pro models for my reef. I could probably get by with 5 fixtures and keep the T-5's, but I'm worried about having too many hot spots. The Hydras have the same coverage, so it'd just be a matter of preference. How do you like your models?

Thanks for the feedback, I know you're a pro and appreciate your opinion! I also submitted a question to the email address on their website and never received a response. A lot of good a two year warranty does if they don't have customer service to use it! I also thought it was strange that they have so much inventory on hand at one time. Either they aren't selling any units or they never update the number. Their most advanced unit came out in 2016 and a high inventory tells me that they have devoted most of their labor to building old models instead of developing upgrades. If they don't respond to my questions, then I think it's safe to strike it off the list.

Has anyone heard of SB Reef Lights? I saw them mentioned as viable LED lights along with the Reef Breeders and Vipraspectra. All three brands look like upgraded "black box" fixtures and I wonder what they look like in real life. I would need 3x30" fixtures for full coverage and I would probably keep my 4x54W T-5 bulbs for supplement and to reduce shading.

Pick up is in Pflugerville. Cash or Paypal accepted. Tyree Rainbow Stylophora (Forgot to take a picture) Completely encrusted a frag plug, about 1" x 0.5" $20 SOLD True Undata $10 SOLD Peaf Yellow Stylophora - Yellow skeleton purple polyps, colony about 3" wide by 3" tall $60 SOLD

Is that the secret to In and Out? This whole time I thought it was always marginal at best

Okay, I'm coming too. Where do we submit our frag cut requests?

It's sometimes hard to identify nussiance algae because there are so many different kinds. The good news is that the treatment is the same for dinos or cyano. I've been lucky enough to have them both at some point and neither are very fun! Also, if you want a second opinion you can always email Reef Cleaner some pictures and they will help you identify it. Good Luck! I'm going to go with Calothrix Cyanobacteria. I've attached a picture below. Here is a picture of dinoflagellata that we've all come to know and love.