jolt Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Thanks Shawn. The skunks are just constantly annoying my corals by climbing all over them. And they steal everything I try to target feed my LPS. I don't think they are eating the corals or anything like that, but the irritation seems to be preventing full polyp extension on several of my corals. I just want to remove that source of irritation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Shawn, It's no problem bud I know you have tons of information coming in from all angles. The leds are deceptive. They don't have as many lumens but in terms of radiation they are the strongest light source. That's why an accurate measurement for leds isn't par but umols. JimH and I are corroborating to measure par and umols with an apogee meter on our kessils to try and get a better handle on how intense our lights are actually running. I can tell you this. SPS pieces have a habit of bleaching really really slow if your light is just dialed up a little bit too much. It's so slow that your brain can't even process it when you look at your tank on a daily basis. That's is why I am going to start taking bi monthly pictures so I can reference specific pieces and their color development. and it's funny I am pretty sure I have heard TY preach this before. I'm glad that you can have the lights turn on at 1%. My kessils won't turn on until they get 1v or 10%. With that being said if you can drive your lights at 1-5% I would. I have reworked your schedule with new percentages which should give you a more pleasing 18k spectrum look during the daylight hours. I would not under any circumstances run any light more than 10% and not more the 20% total. I am not familiar with your fixtures but be prepared to dial them back further if bleaching continues. 1400-1500 blue ramp up to 10% 1500-1600 ramp up whites to 10% and ramp down blues to 5% 1600-2000 whites at 10% and Blues at 5% 2000-2100 whites ramp down from 10% to 0% and Blues ramp up to 10% 2100-2200 Blues ramp down to 0% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Just wanted to check in to see how your corals were acclimating to the LEDs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 Hi Reburn. Thanks for checking in. I have been a very busy reefer this weekend. With a bunch of stuff that I am aiming to post on my mentor thread soon. However, the lights have been down at 10% for the last week or so. I think that everything in the tank is pretty happy right now. Everything has polyps and seems to be growing slowly. I think that the lone star leather, the birds nest, and the jack o lantern are doing the best. The tank does look pretty dim to my eye. How long do you suggest before I start bringing the LEDs up a bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 I would give everything another 3 weeks to acclimate to the light and the spectrum before you start to slowly and I mean SLOWLY ramp up two percent a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted November 18, 2014 Author Share Posted November 18, 2014 This is not intuitive Heh. I know you described the different between the PAR and the visual light that I see, but it looks so dim comparatively to what it was. The reason it is hard to navigate is because anytime I go to look at a coral or clam or something people are always like, "Are you sure there is enough light in there... These things need intense light." But then the light acclimation process starts so low. Think about it, I am 10% right now and for the next 3 weeks. Then we are talking about ramp of 2% a week. That means in 6 months I will be at around 55% I mean half a year to acclimate to around 50% seems like a long time. I know that everyone preaches patience in this hobby, but yikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Shawn, If you make it to 50-55% I would be surprised. I made it to 45% on my kessils and started to see ill effects. I am now back to running at 30% and I doubt I'll go much higher. Depth plays a huge role in led fixtures. Your bio cube isn't that deep. Remember that when you read about people running 50-75%. If you look closely at their tank depth you will generally see 24" deep plus. Alot of this is you seeing how your corals respond. That takes time. As you get more comfortable you can ramp a little faster and acclimate new pieces a bit faster. But I'm a firm believer that it takes 30-90 days to acclimate a coral from purchase to stable and growing well. You will see some color shift 0-30 days, 30-60 color change and growth starting and 60-90 another color change and growth really start to stabilize. This is from coral coming from any other tank that isn't running your exact light. I see this going from other LEDs to kessils even. It takes the coral a hot minute to adjust to the spectrum of light. Some corals do it faster, some slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 Ah! Very interesting. See I thought I was trying to get to 80-100%! Okay, well that makes a lot more sense to me. Thanks for the insight. --Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 It's no problem. For the record I wanted you to start low because you were coming from PC lights. And your whole tank needed to adjust to the led spectrum as well as the intensity. You will find after a month or so of slowly increasing that your coral will be asking for more light so you ramp a little faster, then you hit max intensity and bleach a couple pieces and have to back down. For the time being though low and slow is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Shawn, you posted pics on your mentor thread...the clowns and another fish...what is that other fish? It is so cool looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 It's a pencil wrasse James. There have been a lot of different varieties of them popping up in LFSs lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Hey Jim! Ty is right, it is a pencil wrasse it is a great fish and I think that is very cool myself. :-) They had another at AquaDome two days ago , which is where I got it. --Shawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Just my luck...no QT tank set up right now. :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted November 28, 2014 Author Share Posted November 28, 2014 Any one want a softball sized Chaeto? Free! Although it may come with some guests... I just looked back in my refuge today and saw this: Sigh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Thought I would make a quick update to the tank outside of my mentor thread just to keep this thread going. Overall, the tank is doing great. My parameters seem to be staying in check because of my weekly water changes. Corals seem to be doing alright as well. The only ones that were struggling were the softies for some reason. I suspect a chemical warfare. I recently added a rainbow bubble anemone to the tank and it seems to be doing very well and my clown immediately hosted which is neat. So, one question to the group. I am leaving for vacation out of the country for a couple weeks starting on the 15th. Are there some people or services that cover South Austin who will come in every couple days, check on things, and maybe do a weekly water change? I think that I can get a neighbor to feed them once a day and I have an Apex auto feeder on the way, so that should be alright, but I will be keen to keep up with my water and filter changes. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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