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KimP - 47 gal column


KimP

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Here are the pictures I have so far of my new lights. Not too exciting though because the box containing the mounting rail is a day late, so I can't do anything but wonder what it will look like :hmm: The hanging kit I ordered didn't come with any instructions. It wasn't too hard to figure out how most of it goes together, but I have no clue how the thing hooks up to the toggle bolts that go into the ceiling. I'll probably be posting soon in DIY if I can't figure it out on the internet.

So tomorrow will be the big day!! (here's hoping :) )

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Tank looks awesome. Can't wait to see what it looks like with the new lights, hope that the mounting rails show up today... You must be very excited to get those set up!!!

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cool! Hey Kim, where do you purchase your gorgs from? I want some for my tanks but live-plants.com is out and I never see them on reefcleaners - is there another site you use?

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Looks awesome, Kim. I can't wait to see those lights on this tank. That's the fixture I just HAD to have, but I simply couldn't justify the cost for my first tank when I have already been planning an upgrade. Next year when I go from my 60 to a 150 or 180, I'm going to give that fixture another look.

On your 47, though, I think they will look amazing and really make your colors POP! Let us know how you like the fixture. You've done an awesome job, so far!

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I'm glad the lights are OK... That box looks like Ace Ventura delivered it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V64r3q4FuA

Oh my gosh, that was too funny! I haven't seen that in ages :D Looks like he did deliver the box! That's actually the only reason I had a picture of it, was because of the beat-up box. It was a big box though and the contents were small with a ton of bubble wrap and packing paper, so hopefully all is well. We'll see!

Thanks for all the nice comments! Y'all are making me even more excited! I'll get pictures up asap.

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It was tricky figuring out how to make sure it hung like I wanted over the tank, but I think I got it. I still haven't decided on the height. There's a lot of light spill, so tomorrow I'll play with it more. First are 2 pictures of the whole thing, then just the whites, just the blue, just the royal, and the blue and royal blue only. It's very easy to use, but I haven't tried to program it yet, so I might change my mind on how easy it is!! I have to make sure not to shock anything. I'm pretty worried about it actually. Might have to borrow a par meter again to match my old light. Oh, and I put the legs on backwards in order to basically lock the light into place. It slides on the rails and can slide right off! There are reports all over of people who've done that. I might leave them like that because I actually don't mind the way it looks ^_^

So, lots of tweaking to do tomorrow, then after I get the coral I ordered from Mr. Cob on Sunday night, I'll get the corals moved around that I've needed to do for a while.

Oh yeah, one more thing, I still had the glass tops on when I took the pics, so I don't know if that contributed to the light spill from reflection. I don't usually have the tank covered.

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Well unfortunately I haven't had any time to play with it. I just have it on manual W20% B25% R25%. I did notice most of my corals staying closed like it was still dark :/ I'm kinda lost at the moment as far as the light. I don't know what corals do if exposed to too much light, so I don't know what to look for. What I need to do is borrow a par meter again. The last thing I need is to fry all of my coral! I've read several people starting their light at like 20% then moving up 2% per day. Then I realized last night that they probably don't have a 30"deep tank and may have more than one unit.

Anyway, I will get a chance to play with it this weekend and I'll keep this thread updated. Thanks for asking :)

Did you have any trouble acclimating your tank to the new light?

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sometimes staying closed up is a sign of too much light. I've placed the white plastic "eggcrate" a few layers tall over the top of my tank before and then removed one layer a week. Then of course, I didn't have super cool lights I where I could simply change the percent output :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Love the whole rocks on the walls of the tank!

And as for new lights, whenever I replace my MH bulbs, I generally cut my light cycle in half, and then each week bump it up by and hour. Even this can be too fast for some corals, as I have had some zoas melt off.

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Well things are looking great with the light even though I've been too busy to borrow a par meter again. I've been slowly increasing the % output maybe once a week. Right now I'm up to W 44% B 40% R 40% It turns out my corals were staying closed at first because it was way too dim. Everything opened right up once I got it into the 30% range. I have to remember my tank is deeper than most and I'm only running one unit, not two. I don't know exactly when I'll stop increasing. I guess I'll need a par meter by then. I'm going to bring it up 2% per week for a while. I want to supply enough light to support coral growth while running the fixture less than 100% to preserve the life of the unit, if that makes sense. I just have to find that balance.

One thing I love about it is how cool it runs! Way cooler than my t5's even. When I touch it, it feels room temp :) I'm also really enjoying the controller doing all the work of gradually increasing the light all day until 2pm, then gradually decreasing until 9 when only the royal blues are on, then they gradually fade into the moon cycle at 2%. This way when I actually get some time to play with my tank around 9pm, I can enjoy the incredible pop of color :D

I've been really busy lately, but I have an update on corals and my basket star, plus pics coming soon!

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Love the whole rocks on the walls of the tank!

And as for new lights, whenever I replace my MH bulbs, I generally cut my light cycle in half, and then each week bump it up by and hour. Even this can be too fast for some corals, as I have had some zoas melt off.

Did the zoas melt right away, or how long did it take for you to realize you increased the intensity too fast?

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Just a quick update on things. I have sun coral polyps popping up in nooks and crannies. At first I was worried they might be aiptasia or something, but they are very clearly sun polyps now :) Pretty neat! I certainly never expected that. My basket stars are getting lots of new splits on their legs, which I'm assuming means they are not only surviving, but growing. I'm very happy about that! Two days ago the biggest one moved off of it's spot on the gorgonian and I haven't seen it since :hmm: That kind of sucks but hopefully it'll pop up again somewhere. My only concern is I can't spot feed it if I don't know where it is.

I acquired 2 scolys this week in not-so-great shape. I'm hoping with the feeding my tank gets that they will heal right up. They seem to be good eaters so far :lol:

I'm just about done stocking it with corals, so I still have some placement to do, mostly with zoas, and I can finally just sit back and watch everything grow. It's been tricky to get the zoas glued in place because they are so low in the tank. It's like playing the game Operation every time I try to work in there these days. That's why there are still frags sitting in the sand, and scattered around. Eventually it'll be all cleaned up, glass and all. And I will remember to turn the darn livingroom lamps off for the next fts :doh:

Oh! and I picked up an mp10, so hopefully this weekend I can figure out where I want to place it and be able to get rid of some of the koralias I have in there.

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