Switching to MH from LED--advice
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Topic: Switching to MH from LED--advice
Posted By: kevin.st
Subject: Switching to MH from LED--advice
Date Posted: February 13 2016 at 9:39am
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Since I started this hobby, I have only used LED lighting. I am interested in giving MH a shot because I want to see some better growth. Right now I am using a china box LED--165 watts. I use this at about 80% blue and 50% white. Can you guys offer any advice on the switch and what else I should know? I am not a total noob-I have been doing this for a couple of years. I have all the test kits needed, run a skimmer, sump and I have a bunch of SPS and a large anemone.
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Replies:
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: February 13 2016 at 11:33pm
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I ended up getting a 250-400 watt selectable ballast and fixture. I think I will be getting a new radium bulb for it and I will install it this week. If anybody cares, I will update this post with results. I am excited to see if there's any difference.
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Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: February 14 2016 at 8:30am
| I'm very interested in seeing what you find out. |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: February 14 2016 at 1:18pm
| Good choice - I went from MH to LEDs when all the craze started 4-5 years ago, but am back to MH. I like the deeper coloration MH produces in my sps corals - nothing beats a Radium bulb in appearance. Enjoy the plug and play lighting. |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: February 14 2016 at 9:00pm
My advice: As with any change in lighting, acclimation, acclimation, acclimation.  Elevate the MH fixture and shorten the photoperiod. Coral can go a long, long time with subdued light and be just fine, as in a week long tropical storm, but too much light can quickly sunburn all your coral and kill them. I've learned that lesson the hard way.  Aloha, Mark  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: February 15 2016 at 1:10pm
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When I first started looking to change, I could barely find anyone selling MH setups. But I know a lot of the old timers still use them. Some of the nicest aquariums I have ever seen were running MH. I know that acclimation is going to be an issue. I am running my current LED at 100%, but I know the MH is going to bright as hell. How high should I start? What is the ideal height after acclimation? I really appreciate the advice, guys. I took photos of a bunch of my corals so I can do a before and after comparison.
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Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: February 15 2016 at 2:43pm
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if you could provide wattage, bulb name/brand, fixture/pendant type, ballast, and tank size/depth, type of corals - I can give you a pretty good idea of where to start. |
Posted By: dmcrete
Date Posted: February 15 2016 at 9:43pm
| I Also am going back to MH Lighting, I have Been Doing Salt Water Now for Over 20 Years, and have used all different Equipment, I Thought the LED'S Were The Answer,,, BUT,, They are lacking Something,, Can't Put my finger on it ,,, BUT,,, Something bout the LED'S,, Any ways,, just switched Back To Metal Halides,, I Was always concerned about the Heat they put off,,, Im just going to have to buck up and Purchase a chiller,, I have them back on my 180 gallon system now for 4 days and can see a noticeable difference already,, in my corals, AND, Just all around looks of the Aquarium,, That Halide Shimmer (I MISSED) CANT BE BEAT, I THINK WHEN A NEW AQUARIUM hobby CRAZE COMES OUT FOR SALE,, everybody JUMPS ABOARD thinking ,, THIS MANY PEOPLE CANT BE WRONG,,, well,,, IN THIS led VS HALIDES,, yes,, WRONG,, LOVE MY METAL HALIDES,, IM GLAD TO BE BACK using THEM,, I CUT DOWN ON THE WATTAGE By Burning 175 Watts instead of the 250 watt bulbs ,, but,,, UPGRADED THE REFLECTORS TO PFO REFLECTORS,, 99 percent LIGHT REFLECTION RETURN,, AND LESS WATT'S MEANS LESS POWER BILL,, AND I HOPE NOT AS HOT,, All of us in this Aquatic hobby are looking to upgrade and better our Equipment,, BUT,, LED"S Are not for me,, |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 12:35am
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I love metal halides! If I didn't go with my ATi T5 I would have went with this fixture: %20" rel="nofollow - http://www.reefbrite.com/reefbrite-halide-hybrid/ Only because I love the extra pop that the reefbrite gives me on my T5:) ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 6:50am
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What LEDs were you using? ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 8:26am
Coral need more than that. A very intelligent hobbyist here, that has since moved away, spent about Don't get me wrong, I still believe that LED's are the future lighting of this hobby. I said it 10 years ago, when white and then blue and white LED's began hitting the market, and I still believe that LED's will be developed which do provide what coral need to grow robust. The high end, very expensive LED's (Radion and Aqua Illumination), which now are made with about 7 different spectrum LED's, including Ultraviolet, are getting closer. Aloha, Mark P.S. Look at the colored bar at the bottom of the graph, which represents the more complete spectrum emitted by the sun, as compared with the narrow peaks of 14(  ) individual LED's. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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dmcrete wrote:Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 8:43am
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Oh, I need to add that for about 3 months I was running one of those foreign made black box LED's, an upgraded one with blue and red on one circuit, white and green on the other, on one of my tanks. This tank had previously had fluorescent lights(50% blue, 25% actinic, 25% pink/purple with t5 tubes). It wasn't looking as good under the LED's, so I put the fluorescent fixture back over it. Within a few days, coral were hydrating(expanding) better, had better polyp extension and started showing better overall color. Aloha, Mark ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 9:42am
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Thanks, Mark. I always appreciate your posts. I have used a 2nd gen radion, then went to a pair of AI vega colors and now I am using a china box. I thought I was all set with the AI's, but when I moved to SLC, I sold everything. I was broke when I got here, but still needed to have any aquarium, so I went with the china box. Its bright, but I miss the programmability and the color isn't quite as nice the pricier fixtures. I am hoping to not run a chiller-I will try the fan thing. |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 9:45am
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That reefbright halide hybrid looks awesome!! Someday when I have some cash, I might look into that. |
Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 10:06am
Mark, This post offends me on about 500 different levels; you crossed a line. Once again you took your own personal *lack* of information and twisted it around to make it fit your preconceived notions about a topic. I apologize to the rest of the club for this bit of *drama*, but I've sat in somewhat silence for years. I'm done. First, the cost is blatantly wrong. I spent $1132.40 in parts, and that number was posted explicitly in several places. Once again, you've exaggerated something to fit your belief system. Second, I have no idea where you got "10 different LED's" from. I built one single setup for my tank, and I used only five different LED "colors" in that build. My intent was to make a fixture that would reduce costs over MH, help maintain a more stable temperature in my tank, and replicate coral PAR/spectrum needs more closely than other fixtures. This was all explicitly stated in several places. You never heard me rave about my fixture because I finished it in Dec 2013. That was about the same time that I pretty much left the club because of how you were treating me and others. You made the social aspect of this hobby miserable for me. If you had read my few posts, you would've seen how my growth increased dramatically, how much the colors better the colors appeared, etc. Of all the things I sold in my move (including my tank), I kept the lights. I never even listed them for sale. I am happy with them, the growth/coloration I got, and my power bill was especially nice. However, I did sell my MH's. Please do not ever bring me up again or contact me. Nikki ------------- www.reefdup.com Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987 200g, 75g, & 15g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: February 16 2016 at 11:42am
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I was wrong and had incorrectly recalled the cost, but I never intended to offend. Please forgive me. I cannot help but refer to the good stuff that was shared here for a while which was very intelligent and informative. I recommend to anyone that would like to DIY their LED's, to find that thread from around 3 years ago and follow the build. Aloha, Mark P.S. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 10:05am
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I did some more reading on the LED lighting topic. While I focused specifically on the lights that I am using I found some very interesting information provided to Ecotech Marine by Reef Wholesalers. Reef Wholesalers (RW) is in the business of growing corals fast and producing the best colors possible to allow them to sell quality corals. They used to use MH and T5 lighting and had spent years coming up with the bulb and color combinations to provide fast growth and great color in their corals. They are very well known for this feet and many others have tried to replicate what they were able to achieve. Three years ago (when the Radion G3 Pro models became available) Ecotech teamed up with them to provide research on lighting as well as try and find a way to replace the MH and T5 lighting with LED. It worked and RW is now an LED only wholesaler. I found one specific sentence in their report to be very strong in comparing T5 with LED "Although the visual appearance of the light output was different between the T5 bulbs and the Radions�, coral response was similar if not identical. From there further adjustment of the spectrum and fortnightly reviews resulted in a spectrum that outperformed the T5 benchmark." So while this may not be true for all LED's, there are some out there that can outperform T5 lighting in both growth and color. Here is the link to the full write up. http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf" rel="nofollow - http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 11:04am
| Bingo, Krazie! |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 11:20am
| uhh, major conflict of interest for that type of research/statement...research sponsored by the LED manufacturer, lol |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:17pm
Wow strong statement. Would be wonderful to find LEDs perform better than T5 in terms of the growth I obtained in my tank throughout the course of a year.              Don't get me wrong. Leds work just fine, but it is quite the stretch to say they currently are capable of outperforming T5 or MH in terms of color and growth. If so, I would have kept my Radions. I would say they are capable of outperforming T5 and MH in terms of heat and efficiency. I would love to be proved wrong so I could save on bulb replacements and heat. Research sponsored by an LED manufacturer doesn't help me too much. I am anxiously waiting to finally see LEDs do to corals what I know corals can achieve in an enclosed box of glass. Once that happens, I will try them out again, but for now - royal blue leds will continue to serve as my actinic pop, but not as stand alone lighting. Even Vivid Aquariums who posted the famous youtube video comparing Metal Halide vs. Radions on their show tank have since gone back to full metal halide on both sides. Sanjay Joshi, the unbiasied reef lighting expert in the hobby for the last 20 years, currently runs 8-10 radion units over his tank but states clearly the growth and color is not as good as it was under Metal Halide (see his facebook page). So I think we need to be careful in recommending to fellow hobbyists light sources as being better than others, when in fact that is not true. From a bigger picture, Leds will serve most casual hobbyists just fine. I just didn't like how they paled my coral colors out, which often requires dosing nitrates to counter. In terms of SPS, Deep purples became light tan, blues turned sky blue, etc. Leds require lots of fiddling and dialing them in. The shadowing they produce can also be difficult to deal with, which often requires most SPS junkies to utilize T5s as supplements. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:19pm
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I see no sponsorship. They are to claiming that their product is better than other LED fixtures. They are comparing their results with proven lighting to a specific brand of LED lighting and recording their results. RW is not trying to sell you on a product. They are reporting what they were able to achieve and providing you with the details to achieve it yourself. The original report was for RW customers and was not reported to Ecotech. Ecotech using it after the fact could definitely be seen as a conflict. However, the initial time and effort was a collaboration and for me did not impact my decision to purchase any product. It does, however make me want to try and achieve these same results with my own setup. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:39pm
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But- I don't have anything to add except to say that your growth and documentation are beautiful! ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:40pm
Well I didn't make the statement Reef Wholesalers did. The comparison between LEDs and other forms of lighting is very hard to make in the first place because MH and T5 and not adjustable spectrum lighting methods. They are on off and whatever color you choose to put in them. LED's have an almost infinite combination of colors and spectrums that they can put out. This alone means that for every one success there could be a million or more failures with the same light just due to the adjustability. It took over a year for RW to come up with their combination that they claim works and that was created by running other proven lighting types side by side until they got the same results and then due to the adjustability, were able to push them even further. This also doesn't account for the fact that RW is not trying to adjust the lighting to what is pleasing for us to view the tank and corals. They were adjusting for growth and coloration. In our home tanks that is not generally the case. The SPS junkies utilizing T5 supplements may just not have taken the time to figure out how to adjust their setup for their system and turned to a plug and play mechanism to try and remedy that. Maybe the fact the RW hangs their lights 24" above the tank make a difference? I'm by no means saying that T5 and MH won't give you great looking systems and they have been researched to death so that finding the combination that become plug and play is quite easy. I think the same will happen with LED's once they have been around as long as T5's and MH. If it didn't work for you then I'm glad you found something that did. Part of the draw to this hobby for me is the challenge and believe me there is plenty of challenge in getting the right LED's to give you the desired result on your tank. Challenge accepted. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:43pm
100% agree! ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:44pm
Ecotech Marine recently started their "Ecotech Marine Lab" which is the new division that overseas all of their research. The publication you highlighted was Ecotech Marine's Lab first publication. They "partnered with Canadian distributor Reef Wholesale in this investigation." According to Reefbuilders. They are also partnering with other coral propagation groups. This was not an independent study done by RW and later fed to Ecotech out of consideration... The original study was in support of Ecotech Marine Lab, not RW customers. I would be okay with it if RW conducted the study by themselves and was not provided the radions for free. I am just a little paranoid with this stuff as I work in pharmaceutical research and have experience with many different entities pushing their new drugs, skewing the results. Doesn't really matter anyways, way off topic from the original poster's needs. |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 12:50pm
Thanks for the intelligent conversation and your statements are helpful. I don't think we disagree all that much. I may have took some statements you made out of context. I wish the original poster luck with their lighting change. |
Posted By: Corey Price
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 1:00pm
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Oh boy, another LED battle. Eyes glazing over... |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 2:19pm
I saw no battle. I saw an intelligent conversation pointing out aspects of a discussion from both sides. There was no name calling, yelling, typing in all caps, or any such nonsense. Just a good friendly discussion about a topic that all to often gets heated. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 10:47pm
That is an awesome light!! ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 11:10pm
What I have seen I disagree with their statement. While there a couple of LED's on the market that preform well, with even some SPS (Montipora) corals responding and growing astonishing well. I haven't seen any LED's that will even come close to growing/coloring up SPS like my "Old School" Metal Halide/T-12 combo. ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: February 17 2016 at 11:14pm
Radium's are the best halide bulb on the market, great choice. Keep us updated. ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: February 18 2016 at 12:28pm
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bur01014, your growth is insane!! That is what I want! |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 23 2016 at 11:02am
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So, I ended up using a dual 250 watt halide setup over my tank. I used it for about 3 weeks at 4 hours per day. After about 3 weeks of using this light, I started noticing some corals were not doing well. My mille colony, about 5 inches in diameter starting losing color and actually turned white. But not at the tips. It was turning white from one side of the coral and over the course of 3 days, turned completely white. I also had a couple of torts and chalices that have started turning white as well. Once I started noticing these things, I took the halide off and put my ai vega back on the tank. At this time, my ca was at 420, alk was at 7 at mag around 1250. Nitrates and phosphates are very low. But, I am wondering if my test kits were not reading correctly. I have since bought a new Red sea pro test kit and levels seem to be OK. I am dosing kalk through the ATO and 2 part as necessary. I have about 25 frags, mostly small stuff. 40 gallon system. I don't know, I tried to keep the lighting to a low photo period and had the light about 14 inches over the water. I am not sure if I burned them or if I had that rapid tissue loss. I'm honestly contemplating ditching SPS at this point. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 23 2016 at 11:06am
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A Dual 250 over a 40gallon system? Holy easy bake oven batman! That would be way too much light. A single 250 over a 40 at 14" would be ok but duals was just cooking the corals even with just a 4 hour photo period. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 23 2016 at 11:23am
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well, darn it. Why is everything else still alive, then? I have a 30 head Duncan, 7-8" monti, huge GBTA and those are all happy as ever! This is why I think I am done with SPS. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 23 2016 at 11:40am
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SPS are first to respond to lighting situations for a couple of reasons. First their need for higher light to begin with and second because they are generally closer to the light source than the other corals. I have no doubt that as you started to increase your photo period those other corals would have started showing signs of lighting stress as well. The monti next and then the duncans. Duncans can retract into the skeleton inf the lighting is too much. SPS can't do that. Your GBTA can probably handle the 4 hours but it would probably start looking for a place to hide as the time increased as well. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 23 2016 at 11:42am
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Ok. I really appreciate the help. I will keep the MH setup for another setup in the future. Back to LED's for while, since I already have a couple. |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 23 2016 at 11:46am
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Can you run the HM with only 1 bulb turned on or are the bulbs both running off of the same ballast? Running a single light might be a good option if they are separate. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 24 2016 at 7:36pm
| I actually was doing that quite often as this also held the temp a little more stable Didn't matter. Still had baked coral! |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 24 2016 at 7:50pm
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How much was your temp fluctuating? ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: March 25 2016 at 3:54am
It was the combination of: 1. the change of lighting, 2. the broader spectrum of the new light, 3. the extreme intensity of the new light, 4. just one single day of fatal exposure to the intense full spectrum light(including UV) and the final blow, 5. Alkalinity below safe range and who knows what other parameters were on the edge for Acropora  I'm really sorry for your troubles. I've been where you are. Lethal coral sunburn is hits quickly and is hellish in its aftermath. One final thought. When you decided on this dual 250W MH as a replacement to the LED light over this 40 gal tank, did you seek our advice about it specifically? In asking this question I'm not trying to offend you or anyone reading this, just observing a recurring problem with hobbyists coming here to the forum for help; lack of follow through. It makes me sad. Aloha, Mark
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 25 2016 at 3:00pm
| Mark, you're correct-I should have asked here. I honestly thought I was being careful. It turns out I wasn't careful enough. It's all good, though. I don't have thousands of dollars in coral and this won't ruin my day. I've been in this hobby long enough to understand the possible ups and downs. It could have been much worse. |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: March 26 2016 at 9:05am
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Se la vie. Aloha, Mark ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 27 2016 at 1:25pm
Couldn't have said it better myself. Live and learn.
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Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: March 28 2016 at 3:36pm
I have only ever used LEDs (Radion Gen 1) and have had really good growth and color (maybe it could have been better with MHs) but its been good enough for me. I agree with Bur in that the colors can be different (a coral in my tank can look diff than in a MH/T5 tank) but my growth rates seem good. The 100 billion ways you can set up the programmable LEDs are a big issue when switching as you can run anything you want and people mess with them to get a good "look" which might not be good for growth and real color not fake LED color (i.e. blue lights = blue coral but coral flesh is white when it should be blue), and almost no two people run the same settings and people just mess and play with them too much, vs the tried and proven plug and play MH and T5s (know your depth, coverage and time), it would be great if there were better presets on Radions or LEDs that are backed by results vs. trial and error. I don't mess with my lights at all, I used graph that Ecotech sent out on the forums when it came out, tweaked it a bit based on other forum feedback a year later and that was it. I don't have them hooked to a phone/ipad/reeflink, or anything that would allow me to easily play with them or adjust them.       ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: March 28 2016 at 3:45pm
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Bryce, what is the time frame from start to now, in the images? ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: March 28 2016 at 4:07pm
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From time I added coral until now is 3 years. That being said I have cut, hacked, replaced, sps like crazy, sometimes fist size colonies, some have gotten so big I have just given them away (Bob comes to mind). I also ran 1 light only for 1 year before I added a second. Like that red planet, got too big so its gone, kept a few frags as you can see when comparing the 3rd and 4th pics. ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: March 28 2016 at 6:04pm
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Bryce is one that I place in the group of hobbyists that has a "wet thumb". From the start he seemed to have a very good handle on keeping a reef tank. I visited and saw his tank around the time of the second pic. Cheers to Bryce. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: March 28 2016 at 8:11pm
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Awe thanks Mark, someday I do want to try a metal halide set up just not on the tank I currently have. ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: kevin.st
Date Posted: March 29 2016 at 9:37am
| Bryce, I am impressed with that growth. You must be doing a bunch of things correct as well. I think I will probably stick with LEDs for the foreseeable future. Although adding some 150w halides to a much larger tank than I have now might work! |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: March 29 2016 at 11:18am
My buddy Evan127 motivated me to post up my settings vs email them out  . It is not all the night data points as I do have some settings for a moon effect that change a little through the nite but it is the main daylight settings. I sometimes change the start and end times for daylight savings and I may have bumped each data point Brightness (not the color%) up buy a few % (1%-5%) since I took these screenshots. These settings are not going to give you those color popping blues in the middle of the day, you only get that in the morning and night (typically when I am looking at my tank). Late morning to late afternoon its going to be pretty white. I have two lights on a 65gallon 8 inches off the water.           ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: March 30 2016 at 8:31am
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Dang, that is a great amount of growth! ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |