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One problem I've also seen come up is since rescaping, I hadn't realized how much rainbow montipora I had, and I see bits of it growing everywhere. I may have to go kalk paste crazy to control it. I'm ok with it growing on the overflow but not everywhere in the tank Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have no clue what they're called. Traded some photosynthetic gorgs for them. They're really nice looking though I hope they grow well. Zoas have been hit/miss for me. Some grow out of control and others don't make it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you sir! So far I've been real happy with it. I'd lie if I didn't say I was nervous about adding acros again Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had to move my anemone rock to the opposite end of the tank. As my lighting and flow is perfectly symmetrical I don't expect it will react at all. And so far it hasn't. My clarkii clown is remarkably strong and can pick up and throw rocks that are bigger than my fist. She has decided no other rocks are allowed near her anemone and has been sending rocks flying. So...I moved the anemone and it's now surrounded by much larger rocks so she is dealing with it fine. I actually like it better. It's in a spot where it shouldn't cause trouble. Water is also clearing up a bit and I was able to mount some Lps down to more permanent locations. Had to get some off the sand because my sleeper goby was burying them. Overall I'm loving the whiter look, and may even swap out some coral+ bulbs with some 6500k bulbs to get even whiter. The fish colors are so much bolder. I'm still maintaining a ton of fluorescence as well so all in all I'm pretty happy. The color now is nearly identical to when I was running radiums (which on m80 ballasts, to me, are NOT a 20k color like they're assumed to be) Here's a couple pics after things have settled some Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And from the other end. Yes it's bare but my goal was to create as much real estate as possible and leave as much room as I could for vertical growth. I want some tall stags. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow this tank is bare! I've never quite had my hands in the water for so long. Despite its extreme simplicity, this aquascape took me about 3 hours to get in place. On the surface it appears very simple. But the inside is largely hollow with space for the fish to retreat inside, and I really took my time trying to get the rock work as flat and gently sloping as possible based on what I had at my disposal. I would say I've probably removed roughly 20-25% of the rocks in the tank, and the ones left were addressed individually? Many were modified with bone cutters and a masonry chisel one at a time. I achieved a fairly flat low lying aquascape. The downside is there is less sandbed to use and look at, but the up side is despite having less rock, I have easily doubled my coral mounting real estate. It was kind of difficult getting rid of some pieces that have been with me since the beginning. Here's the result. Bear in mind also, at the conclusion of this I was at about the 36 hour mark of being awake. The joys of being on-call in the healthcare industry It's still a LITTLE hazy after a few hours. So what's a good time line to wait before trying out some tester acros? I did just really stir the tank up and shuffled around the rock. 2-3 weeks? A month? More? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Temperature issues easily handled by a fan over the sump. Staying between 78-79 now which is nice. Everything has reacted so well to the change in lighting. I'll reiterate that I do believe LEDs can work, it's just a level of patience and learning curve I'm not up for. I'll pay for my bulb changes and simplicity. I'm absolutely loving the color and cannot wait till I work my way up to the 8 hour photoperiod of bright white. Another positive side effect has been that my ph hangs out up around 8.3 now as opposed to 8.0 before. More light more photosynthesis. Big plans tomorrow for a major rescape and selling off some colonies to make room. I'll pair that with the first of a few 30 gallon water changes to try and reset my water parameters to low no3 low po4 and balanced trace elements. I'm considering buying a Hanna alk checker as my last alk batch from the Red Sea test kit was bad. The Hanna looks much faster and easier. Also looking into picking up an MTC minical reactor instead of a Neptune dos. The MTC looks like it doesn't require a feed pump based on their recommendation. It looks like the circulation pumps inlet is split to suck water into the reactor as well as seen here. Thoughts on that? And one last FTS before the big change up. Color is about as accurate as I could get it in Lightroom from a cell phone pic. I really need to break out the DSLR and macro lens when I start getting new livestock Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll add. I underestimated the heat that this would put out. I've been keeping my temps on the low end between 78.5-78.5 and today at the end of peak photoperiod the temps had climbed to 80.2. It'll only go higher as I approach the 8 hour intended photoperiod for daylights. I'll try out a fan on the sump to see if that helps a bit Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Man oh man I forgot how much I love the look of pure actinic bulbs. It's a look you just can't replicate. Dawn dusk looks just delightful now with a combination of blue+, true actinic, and the BML actinic strip. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh nice I'll admit I've missed a couple pages of updates on your thread so I didn't know you were running t5 supplements. Did you do the DIY kit or one of the Giesemann/Hamilton retros? What bulbs are you running? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol it absolutely does. Here's how it works. Tank: 48"X18" even rim to rim Canopy opening at the top 47"x17.25" Actual fixture dimension 46.5"x17.5" But...that's the fixture itself. The housing. There is 1.5" of metal housing on the outer edges (lengthwise so actually from reflector to reflector is 14.5" for all 8 bulbs. So I actually had to install some metal L brackets in each corner on the canopy to rest the fixture on, because it is beveled, so it kept wanting to tilt and fall in without the brackets, I also have the hanging wires on the hooks with the existing light rail I installed previously and wouldn't you know...they're JUST the perfect distance to where the wires can hang on the hooks and it lifts the fixture enough to keep pressure off the canopy rim but it still touches. It's truely flush. But...since the reflectors themselves aren't truely spanning the entire width of the fixture I have about 2" or so to play with, which is conveniently the size of a bml strip. I angle it back too so it takes up even less space. So it's not shading anything. I have it mounted inside the canopy right at the front on the tank rim. I was planning on selling it, and I still may eventually but for now...if it fits it sits. No reason to get rid of it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Started with the originally intended 2 True Actinic 3 Blue+ 3 Coral+ AND I have decided to continue running my buildmyled super actinic strip also. Mainly for increasing the photoperiod to the full 12 hours I'm used to so I can get some royal blue early dawn/late dusk action. My photoperiod right now is as follows 10:00-11:00 buildmyled begins ramping - will ramp from 10% to 40% over 3.5 hours 11:00 - 13:30: True Actinic and Blue+ on, buildmyled still ramping 13:30-18:30: all remaining bulbs on, buildmyled drops to 25% for mid day photoperiod 18:30-21:00: True Actinic and Blue+, Buildmyled begins ramping back down 40% to 10%/off 21:00-22:00 BML only until the ramp is done So it's basically 3 phases. I turn the LEDs down for the main photoperiod for two reasons. The canopy DOES warm up a touch and I am not using a fan in the canopy right now so I'm preserving their life by lower operating wattage. Also...I know those of you who use this fixture will say "duh", but man this thing puts out some light. I'm blown away. Even 12" off the water I could easily see myself cooking things on the sandbed. The LEDs quite frankly could even stand to be turned off entirely during the main photoperiod because they're basically not even noticeable unless they're at 100%. I had to take the canopy down and do some mods to it which took me a couple hours of working so the tank was dark during that time. When I put the fixture back up and turned it all on, it was a lot like walking outside mid day mid summer after sleeping in a dark room. All Zoas and Lps immediately closed as tight as they could, so I couldn't get a decent picture. I immediately commenced a blue/actinic only profile for the remainder of the day with only two bulbs plus LEDs. I didn't even keep the full light profile on long enough to get a look at the fully warmed up bulbs. I need to get a gel filter or something for my phone because pictures just get the blue wash despite the color being fairly white. Right now I am only doing 5 hours of main light intensity, which may get reduced further if I see stress when I get home from work. I'll eventually work my way up to a 8 hour main viewing period. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Let there be light Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It would be nice to have a realistic comparison between the $15 GE Starcoat 6500k bulbs and the $25 Giesemann Tropic 6500k. I wonder how the performance and look compares. Why the massive price difference. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Odd. Neither lowes or Home Depot website is showing the GE bulbs. Aquarium specialty has them for $16 a pop. I seem to remember getting them for cheaper a while back Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now there's a plan Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Man I wish my Home Depot carried GE 6500k t5ho bulbs. Sadly neither lowes nor Home Depot carries them in my area. Not even Bulbs & Batteries carries T5HO bulbs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had some more time to play with bulbs. While our Bryan/College-Station reefer crew is small, there are some very solid tanks in the area that can go toe to toe with some of the nicer tanks in some bigger cities. A few T5HO users in the area were kind enough to loan me some of their well used/past their prime/backup/just in case bulbs so I could play around with combos until I decide what I like. So far I'm starting off with 2 ATI True Actinic 3 ATI Blue+ 3 ATI Coral+ It's a really nice overall hue, very modern American reef looking if that makes sense. Strong blue undertones with just enough reds in there for some reflective color to show. It's a violet weighted 18000k-20000k look for sure. About as blue as Radiums but with more purple/violet to it. I would expect a ton of vibrant fluorescence with this look. Having said that, while it looks cool, it may not be the exact look I'm aiming for. My favorite look is the classic 10000k metal halide with blue/actinic supplements. Bright vibrant white with just a dash of blue to cool it off. Like 12000k. Something like this I know the only thing that looks like MH is MH but I want something closer to that hue. I have some other bulbs on hand that I will try and see how that goes. Other combos I will try are... 2 ATI True Actinic 2 ATI Blue+ 2 ATI Aquablue Special 2 ATI Purple+ 2 ATI True Actinic 3 ATI Blue+ 2 Giesemann Tropic 6500k 1 ATI Purple+ 2 ATI True Actinic 2 ATI Blue+ 1 ATI Coral+ 1 ATI Aquablue Special 1 Giesemann Tripix 6500k 1 ATI Purple+ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After much much much inactivity of this thread, it's time to revive it. I had some good momentum built up but fell flat on my face. Short term plans: Pull down canopy, make some modifications. Remove most montipora colonies, as well as some Lps and larger rocks. Rescape. Do 2-30 gallon water changes in short succession in an attempt to "reset" trace element levels Replace lights Load up on acropora Long term goals: Replace BRS dosers with a Neptune DOS...I know some people will say why not go big and get a calcium reactor. My reasoning is, at this point I don't mind doing water changes, and I know I can keep up with even a large demand by using 2 part. The DOS is pretty much the best quality 2 part doser out there and a fairly safe product. I may get a calcium reactor one day, but the startup cost is prohibitive. I wouldn't do one without a nice co2 regulator, and a nice reactor. No cheap or entry level gear. So I'm going to stick with 2 part/kalkwasser, as my tank size wouldn't really give me much long term savings of a CARX vs 2 part. Second...replace my bubble magus skimmer with a Lifereef. And eventually I'm sure my apex will need replacing too. It's approaching 4-5 years old I think A pic teaser....can't start using it just yet, because I need to do some canopy mods. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mother of God. I don't know why but this last update is like being choke slammed with awesomeness. Well done. That sump is the definition of clean engineerinf Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh people like to claim it's good for corals and fish to ease them into the photoperiod. But...the best most amazing tanks over the past decade or so have just used MH or T5HO without any ramping. It's just hobbyist theory based on a logic set that can easily be proven otherwise. I honestly would rather view a perfect spectrum all day rather than a constantly changing one, anticipating some end point constantly Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm using a mixture of many salts currently. Which comes out at 420 ppm ca and 9.2 dkh. Previously I would notice big alk fluctuations as a response to a halt in growth. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree also Kim that there's something to be said of 2+ years maturity of this rock and I would hate to start ALL over again. I was just worried if it was maybe something in the rocks causing problems. Something else coincided with my tank struggles....might be nothing. Might be something. I never used a brute can before to store my water. With this tank I've been storing water in a brute can....come to think of it. I started getting a lot of stn on my 55 gallon right before I shut it down. And it was when I went from No water changes to doing frequent water changes with water I had stored in this brute can. Y'all think it may somehow be connected? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm with you on that Ty. I had clear bite marks and aefw damage on several species. What is perplexing me is the steady Zoa decline and pitiful Lps growth and expansion. That could be a result of poorly tuned/too frequently adjusted leds Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To answer your question zero algae issues of any kind. Urchins, foxface, and tang pretty much keep the rocks and glass picked spotless. Coraline doesn't even get a chance to get going on my rock because the urchins clear it out. Sandbed stays perfectly white too. Like brand new sand Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk