FarmerTy Posted March 29, 2015 Author Share Posted March 29, 2015 Do they look like they are about to melt? Or do they look pancaked against the plugs? How is the color on them? Normal or drab? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 They look noticeably smaller and the color is blah. This started when I reduced the light intensity These are half the size now and the color is drab. That is how big they were Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 29, 2015 Author Share Posted March 29, 2015 Got a picture of how they look now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I will shortly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 lights have been set to the new profile, following closely to what SAMs is running. Alk is at 8.5. I was at 8.2, set the dosage and boom 8.5 on the dot. let's see what happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Great! It's nice to have his input on the LEDs and for you to be able to mimic his settings. Did you find out his actual height above water line and above the corals to set that similarly as well? What percentage does this have you running at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 SAM is running his lights at about 12" above the water, I am at about 8". 4" inches can make a difference so I am going to watch and see how it goes. I am at 80% so if need be I will either raise my lights or reduce the intensity to about 75% to compensate. I know it was only one day but things seemed to look ok. In fact my devils hand leather didn't seem to bat an eye and it is the highest coral in the tank. Overall the light spectrum looks great and of the corals I do have the colors looked much better as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Just a thought, but I had a long conversation with Reburn over LEDs yesterday and he mentioned height over the water column to be a huge factor with LED placement. It seems like you are getting potentially better results very early in the new lighting setup but if it stalls or doesn't look any better, perhaps try to mimic the height that Sam has his fixtures at and see if that may help as well. Sorry I'm just throwing ideas out to you but I am deficient in the firsthand experiences with LEDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 I have room to move them and it wont be hard to do. I am working to day and then two days off so I can give the tank some close attention too see how things are going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Perfect. I'm not saying move them yet but if you find yourself with stalled results, maybe give that a try as an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Things are stalled right now lol. I am going to leave the SPS I have in there to see what happens, but I am not holding out any luck for them, they aren't looking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 When/if they perish, hit me up and I'll give you some screaming green birdsnest frags to use as an indicator coral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 So the lights have been set to the new profile with no ill effects so far. In fact my devils hand leather is doing great. Still way too early to see if the SPS I have will rebound or perish, they were in a sad state already. I do however have a frogspawn and a zoo colony that aren't doing great. Overall I am happy with the way the lights. Alk - 8.2 Po - 0.03 Mag - 1320-1340ish Calc - 400 - 420 based on API Sal - 1.023, a little low. I wasn't happy with the reading so I calibrated my refractometer and boom a little low. I will be adding salt through my top off over a few days to bring it up Ph - 8.37 All in all not too bad in terms of the way things are holding and looking. Time for me to find those tester pieces and start to see what I can do. On a sad note, I lost my flame angel and my flame wrasse and yellow tang don't look great spots are showing up again. This time though the tangs fins have milky post on them and some spots on the body. I would say it for sure but the fins are what I am not too sure about. These tow are at least eating well and are very active. I have to be honest the flame angel never really looked it be 100% when I put him in the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Hopefully this new lighting regiment will clear up some of the issues with the corals lately. I heed with caution to change the lighting so much. We've gone from 60%, down to 40%, and then up to 80%. If it were me, I'd had made a more gradual transition to 80% just for caution sake but I can't really see how the corals are reacting so you can judge best how they are taking it. Levels are all looking pretty good! Now with time... the corals will acclimate to these levels and hopefully stabilize from this point. How long ago did you add a flame angel? I can't remember how long ago you added it. Do you think it brought something in that could be spreading with your fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 So nothing new to update really, things are still status quo. I have lost a couple fish recently though. I lost two dispar anthias and one green chromis. It is very possible that they just weren't eating enough and we all know how green chromis can just disappear. The one anthias I found showed no signs of illness. As far as the other fish go they all look healthy and are all eating well, doing great. I have seen what appears to be some ich here and there but it soon disappears. I feed the fish well and add supplements so I am not worrying too much about it, welcome to reefing I added two pieces of coral from the first Friday sale but they aren't really doing much, just sitting there all blah. Parameters alk between 8 and 8.5 it moved a bit so I adjusted the doser calc was 380 so I dosed for that - first time in almost a month mag was 1180 so I dosed for that - first time in almost a month po was 0.02 sal - was 1.023, now 1.024 - slowly increasing back up to around 1.025 to 1.026 nit - was about 0.5 ph - varies between 8.2 and 8.4 temp - varies between 77.2 and 77.7 There have been no big swings in my parameters and movement has been slow and corrections have been slow as to cause as little stress as possible All in all I think my paramters look pretty good. I just can't seem to figure out why I can't get any good corals to actually show some signs of actual growth. My soft corals and LPS just seem to be stagnant and SPS well....... blah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 11, 2015 Author Share Posted April 11, 2015 I'm still astonished at the rate your Mg drops but I guess I've been running a CaRX for so long that I really can't remember how often I used to have to dose Mg. I'd just keep doing what you're doing... keeping those parameters stable. I will say that your lighting changes I would consider to be a "big swing" so just give the corals some time to acclimate and I'm sure everything will be happy again. The toughest job you have now is just to leave things alone and not mess with anything. Just keep those parameters stable and it'll reward you in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 The tank is still hanging in there. Nothing to speak of in terms of coral change, all parameters are still in check. I did however calibrate my ph probe and now I am running a bit lower on the ph side, not much though. Jake from RCA was super cool yesterday and hooked my up with a piece of birds nest to test. I am going to place a piece of it at three different levels in the tank to see how they react over the next few days. I am basically doing a light test to see what happens at the three different levels. Perhaps my lights are too high, if so I would expect to see bleaching from the higher coral faster than the lower corals. Right now I can't even seem to get SPS to survive at the lowest level in my tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 That was pretty cool of Jake to hook you up with tester pieces. So everything has been pretty steady as far as parameters go? You have the dosers dialed in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 How are the non-SPS corals doing? Zoas and LPS happier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 The dosers are doing their thing, I still have to make adjustments every few days or so but overall, they are doing ok. My calcium does not drop much at all so I usually set the doser manually. Current parameters Alk - 8.8 Calc - 360 - didn't think it had dropped that much so the doser is running Mag - 1400 Phos - 0 Nitr - 20 maybe a bit higher. It has been a while since checked. I guess some water changes are in order Ph - 8.21 Sali - 1.024 Amo - 0 Ni - 0 Temp - 77.4 All soft and LPS corals seem to be doing ok. The two pieces of LPS do not seem to growing as well as i would like them to. I know my nitrates are too high and that will definitely affect my SPS corals. I have a high bio-load so I am sure that is keeping my nitrates high. Without doing doing large water changes, what are your thoughts on carbon doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 I'm a big fan of carbon dosing... it helps me maintain near zero nitrates without any additional work... at least with biopellets. With vodka dosing, it's a lot of work. I'd recommend lowering your alk to 7.0-8.0 range though before biopellets. I'd read what we were discussing in Sascha's thread about biopellets before you begin. Just to see if it's for you. You will need to get a reactor and figure out how to plumb it into your skimmer either directly or at least have the eflluent in the same chamber of the sump. Honestly, you'd probably be in the same boat as Sascha as both skimmers are running close to max on your current systems and an upgrade may be in order. So, something to think about cost-wise... ideally you'll need a biopellet reactor... but also a skimmer upgrade may be ideal as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I'll start dropping the alk over the next few days or so. Carbon dosing sounds expensive right now lol so it looks like water changes for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 I always look for a cheaper DIY route of doing things. I actually modified a TLF 150 reactor and used that for biopellets on my old tank. Worked like a charm. For my current tank, I just traded someone for a TLF 550 and removed the bottom grate and cut slits in the tubing and viola... biopellets tumbling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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