Mixed Bag

[Weatherman]

There are always going to be some Acros and anemones which crave brilliantly intense light, but 250-300 umol/m2/s for five hours a day, with lesser amounts of light for around seven additional hours a day should be fine for a lot of sps. Most will adapt well to those conditions.

The Diamond Lights Lumen Arc III did very well in this analysis, although PFO products provided very tough competition:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm


The small Diamond Light didn’t quite do as well in this analysis. Geisemann 250W Nova II performed better for the same watt bulb (although different bulb type):

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...04/feature.htm


XM 250W 10,000K SE bulbs are a good choice. If you go here:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com


And search performance data by ballast, XM 250W 10,000K SE bulbs consistently show up near the top of the list in terms of PPFD with nice high CCT numbers to go with them (the higher the CCT, the bluer the light).

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Brien

Wow unsupplimented XM 10 k's. That's a really yellow look. How about something like Fauna Marin 12.5k wich is bright as a 10k with out the yellow, or the Reeflux 12k wich is getting great feedback. I'm using the Fauna Marin bulb and it's the best looking bulb I've seen. IMO the coral's need that hint of blue for the color's to really pop.

I don't think that they look yellow at all, here is a pic with XM10K only in spider reflectors. I took my atinics off to lower my lights down and I am not looking back.



I think that provided your water is not yellow they have a crisp clear white look.

I know I can't take a good picture no mater how hard I try

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Weatherman

There are always going to be some Acros and anemones which crave brilliantly intense light, but 250-300 umol/m2/s for five hours a day, with lesser amounts of light for around seven additional hours a day should be fine for a lot of sps. Most will adapt well to those conditions.

The Diamond Lights Lumen Arc III did very well in this analysis, although PFO products provided very tough competition:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm


The small Diamond Light didn’t quite do as well in this analysis. Geisemann 250W Nova II performed better for the same watt bulb (although different bulb type):

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...04/feature.htm


XM 250W 10,000K SE bulbs are a good choice. If you go here:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com


And search performance data by ballast, XM 250W 10,000K SE bulbs consistently show up near the top of the list in terms of PPFD with nice high CCT numbers to go with them (the higher the CCT, the bluer the light).

Thanks for the reading Weatherman, I will look through that when I get back, the reason I chose XM10K bulbs was for their look and the fact that the reported par was almost leaps and bounds above the rest. Also I am not a big "blue tank" kinda guy, on something like a 20K it seems to exaggerate some colors, but wash out others IMHO.

Thanks,
Whiskey

[redwinger]

Weatherman it sure seems like you might have found your culprit. Your corals are looking better with every new photo you post.

[Weatherman]

Whatever it was, replacing 80% of the old water with new water seems to have helped. A lot of the old-timers, which survived, are now starting to look better again, although many of them suffered significant damage. Here’s a picture of my little spiky Monti, which took a pretty hard hit. It is, however, recovering with a lot of new growth over damaged areas. The Stylophora in the background also suffered minor damage, but should heal over.




I did a lot more work on my tanks this weekend than I was planning to.

The Iwaki 40-RLT, which powers my Bullet III was starting to make a very annoying buzz, so I replaced it with a new Iwaki 40-RLT (I always keep at least one backup pump lying around in the case of an emergency). In the process of swapping out the pump, I replace all the ¾” plumbing with 1” plumbing. I couldn’t see taking a friction loss hit when I didn’t really need to.

On my 155, I swapped out all six of the Power Compact bulbs. I did a quick comparison between the old bulbs and new bulbs. 12” from a bare bulb, the old bulbs were producing only 75 umol/m2/s. The new bulbs were producing 112 umol/m2/s. I’m going to run four lights instead of six for a while to give my coral a chance to adjust.

I’m also thinking about shifting my 155 to more of a fish-only tank, but I’m not sure what path I want to take. My three-year-old Yellow Mimic Tang is very mean. Any newcomer will have to either be big, aggressive or very well armed. I’ll probably add more than one new fish at a time so the Tang won’t focus its aggression on any one individual.

[REEF-DADDY]

Glad to see things looking on the up. FWIW I've always had good luck with "splitting up the hate" between fish.

[Weatherman]

Well, my four-month period of elevated nitrate has, apparently, come to an end.

Right before I started the big water swap on April 8th, the nitrate level in my 120 peaked at 2 ppm (yes, I know, no big deal…). When I completed the last water change on April 20th, nitrate levels had dropped to around 0.5 ppm (which makes sense, since about 75% of the old water had been swapped out). However, by April 25th, nitrate dropped to barely detectible (somewhere around 0.2 ppm), and I tested this evening and the test water remained clear.

What’s odd is I really can’t explain why nitrate built up or why it disappeared. The water change knocked levels down, but nitrate should have started to rise again once the water changes were over. Instead, it fell. I will admit I have one very happy Crocea Clam, which has put down a big new section of pearly white shell over the past two weeks, and the algae in the overflow chambers has certainly appreciated the extra light from the T5 fixture. I also can't discount the contribution adding a second Tunze Stream has made in keeping the bottom of the tank swept clean.

Replumbing my skimmer this past Sunday with 1” pipe has made a really remarkable difference. The volume of water and air flowing through the skimmer has perceptibly increased. I’ve had to tweak the air intake and drain line gate valves several times in the past couple of days to retune it back to where I want it. I would highly recommend anyone using a skimmer pump with ¾” outlets try 1” plumbing. You might be amazed at the difference.

With heat starting to build down here in South Florida and my electrical costs rising to keep my house cool, I’ve decide to get a Kill-a-Watt Electricity Monitor. I’m very curious as to which of my three tanks uses the most power.


Still haven’t decided what new fish I’m going to add to my 155. It’s a very tough decision. All the current residents are mean little buggers, but they’ve all grown up together during the past three years and tolerate each other. They are not going to be the least bit kind to any newcomer.

[Wiskey]

Definitely let us know what that Kill-a-watt tells you, I've been thinking of getting one myself. I am especially interested in hearing what your pressure rated pumps say they pull VS what they really pull.

Glad to hear things are doing well, I would like to help you out on the fish thing, but every fish I buy either fights with the ones I already have, or eats my coral. I think it would be best if you DON'T buy any fish I ever have.

Thanks for the update,
Whiskey

[gman0526]

I've always liked harlequin tusks, but I need my snails

[Weatherman]

If they didn't get so ridiculously big, mean and destructive, I'd love to get a Clown Trigger.

Back when I first started keeping marine aquariums, Clown Triggers were very rare and very prized fish. They were considered extremely difficult to keep. Now, when I stop by my lfs and see a tank filled with about a dozen baby Clown Triggers I just smile. They're so cute. If I didn't know better I'd want to take about six of them home with me.

[gman0526]

How about a pink tail trigger? Those have great character too and are not as mean as the CT.

[Weatherman]

I just got my Kill-A-Watt. I’m at my office so I plugged it in and attached my laptop computer to it. The laptop only uses about 35 watts. It should be very interesting to see how much power my tanks use. It bothers me a bit that I’m paying an average of $200 per month for electricity just to keep my tanks going (a big part of that being the cost of A/C to keep indoor temps in my house from getting too warm from April through October).

One thing I’m considering is replacing the six 96-watt Power Compact light setup on my 155 for T5s. Supposedly T5s are more energy efficient, PAR for watt consumed, than Power Compacts. In this case, because the T5s are going to be the only light source, I’m going to be very picky on what combination of bulbs, ballasts and reflectors I buy.

[Wiskey]

I have stopped using my desktop in favor of a older laptop I have, it uses far less power. The air coming out of the back of desktop was measured at 170 deg, so it should save power just in heating up the house.

How is your canary doing?

Thanks,
Whiskey

[Weatherman]

It’s doing very well. I’ll have to take an updated picture this evening.

The supplemental T5 lights are having an interesting effect on some of my coral. It’s especially noticeable with the Pavona and an encrusting Monti. They are starting to get florescent green highlights. I’m guessing they are generating protective pigments in response to the T5 light.


I just checked a summary of my electrical usage over the past two years. Since I set up my 120, my total power consumption has gone up by 21.6%. However, my electrical costs have gone up by 35.4%. That's what happens when you have to pay your power company to rebuild the infrastructure after a whole bunch of hurricanes.

[Wiskey]

What do you pay for power per KWH? I pay over $200 for a 700 SQ foot apt.

Whiskey