Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

I got around to cleaning the splash guards and took the feet off the light. It’s being supported by two pieces of wood closer to the ends.

It’s noticeably brighter but strangely the front to back coverage is clearly less than the side to side coverage.

I’m worried about the nepthea but it’s still holding on. It looks wilted. It’s become droopy. There’s no discoloration or anything. My understanding is that high phosphates cause this. Just in case my feedings really are causing the phosphate problems I’m cutting back a little.

So far the nem hasn’t felt the need to move. That makes me feel better about the par situation. I’m going to have to raise the light though which may drop par in there too far.
@Lost in the Sauce what do you think? How about everyone else?

 

[Goaway]

Are the t5 bulbs new?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I like this light a Lot more, visually. Still too white for me, but that's a personal preference.

Leathers are synonymous, with Drama Queens. They don't love being moved and can seriously Pout. I've also found them to always do better in higher flow. My sinularias and toadstool are up with the acro. This allows them to quickly remove mucus from the tissue as well as shed when they want. Polyp extension is also fantastic.

 

[Fishy888]

Are the t5 bulbs new?

No. They all really need to get replaced but the actinics especially. I have it in mind to get ATI blue+ lamps. If raising the lights doesn’t have a too negative an effect on PAR I’ll probably replace the halide with a 14000k halide and get all blue+ lamps or I might also get actinics. I know I had too much PAR for what I was keeping. I just don’t want to go to the other extreme.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

No. They all really need to get replaced but the actinics especially. I have it in mind to get ATI blue+ lamps. If raising the lights doesn’t have a too negative an effect on PAR I’ll probably replace the halide with a 14000k halide and get all blue+ lamps or I might also get actinics. I know I had too much PAR for what I was keeping. I just don’t want to go to the other extreme.

Come to the Windex world. It's nice here

 

[Fishy888]

I like this light a Lot more, visually. Still too white for me, but that's a personal preference.

Leathers are synonymous, with Drama Queens. They don't love being moved and can seriously Pout. I've also found them to always do better in higher flow. My sinularias and toadstool are up with the acro. This allows them to quickly remove mucus from the tissue as well as shed when they want. Polyp extension is also fantastic.

Ok I just want to make sure. I’m going to get a 14000k lamp. The lamp I have now is a 10000k. It and the T5s are the original lamps and really need to be replaced anyway.

 

[tbrown]

I want to run more blue than I do. I need to add more lights to do so though. Blue makes more pop - a lot more. White makes more algae - a lot more.

 

[Fishy888]

Come to the Windex world. It's nice here

That’s a little too blue for me. I’ve considered 20000k though. With this light even soft corals might have trouble at 20000k.

 

[Fishy888]

I want to run more blue than I do. I need to add more lights to do so though. Blue makes more pop - a lot more. White makes more algae - a lot more.

I’m looking forward to having more blue both for the pop and for less nuisance algae.

 

[Fishy888]

I looked in the tank and realized that the green nepthea’s not wilted, the “rock” (a branch from a dead branching candy cane coral) fell backwards. I had it standing up straight yesterday. I’ll have to mount it to a bigger rock soon. That’s a relief. I know I have high phosphates though and that might be why they’re not open. I’m still dosing LaCl but I’m hoping to see signs I’m truly near the bottom soon.

 

[Fishy888]

Tonight I mounted the new light in the canopy. The sun is gone… well it’s just going to storage for now. This picture was taken about an hour and thirty minutes ago.

I’ll have to see if I accidentally knocked the good lamp on the left side out of the contacts while I was mounting the light. That will happen later today.

The metal halide at that height almost covers the whole tank nicely. I can see an inch or two on each side where the light dims a bit but it’s not bad. If I go 14000k I think it will be even less obvious.

Concerning the T5s the spread is surprisingly even especially with the two lamps out on the left side. Honestly I didn’t expect them to make a dent from their current height but the fluorescence is just as good as before. The lights are dimmer towards the bottom but they’re a foot off the surface of the water give or take. They’re also in desperate need of replacement too. The T5 lamps are 24”. The length and width of the cube are 29”. I’m truly amazed at the coverage considering that only two of the lamps work and they’re both on one side.

If worst came to worst and the corals didn’t do well with the T5s as high as they are I could always modify the lights to keep the halide where it is but move the T5s down closer to the surface. It wouldn’t be ideal but it can be done. I want to see how things look when I replace both the T5s and the halide. I think the overall PAR will jump a bit when I replace the T5s. Even though I’m going 14000k with the halide I’ll be getting a brand new lamp so the PAR should stay the same and maybe even increase.

I took these pictures about an hour and fifteen minutes ago. These were taken under just the T5s.

 

[Fishy888]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the green cyano has all but stopped growing in the display tank but it’s growing in the sump as expected. As long as that’s where it stays that’s good.

I noticed that one of the lamps on the left side came on for a second then cut out. I’ll swap the lamps on the right with the ones on the left and see what happens.

I’m finally going to remount the sump’s lights today since I have all my tools out at the moment.

 

[Fishy888]

Even though I didn’t get the sump’s lights mounted or the DT’s lighting taken care of I did get a good chunk of the green cyano out of both the DT and the sump tonight. I also topped off the system while I was at it. I’ll have to get the rest done tomorrow.

I think I know what my anemone wants to be when it grows up… a periscope!

It’s been like this most of the day today. I’m wondering if it’s going to move because of the change in lighting. Hopefully this is just the nem doing nem things. It has me concerned a little especially the way it’s turned like this. I’m not anxious but I’m going to be watching it very closely. I fed it several hours ago and it readily ate. I’d be anxious and then some if it hadn’t taken food so readily.

You all probably remember the coralline that was growing like there was no tomorrow on a Mexican turbo snail shell. I kept posting pictures about it, comparing each new photo with the one before it to show how fast it was growing. Around the time the green cyano went nuts a month or so ago the coralline thinned out and turned white. Well I began dosing LaCl at that point so I could deal with the phosphates. I knew the 400 watt metal halide putting out more PAR than the system could handle was also a contributing factor.

I’ve had the new light for three days now. In just those three days the bleached coralline turned completely pink again! That amazed me since it’s normally a slow grower. There must have been more spores than I expected there to be despite the bleached state it was in. I didn’t get a picture of it while the halide was on but I’ll post one tomorrow while the halide’s on.

The many tufts of algae that were growing on the rocks are finally losing their grip since I got the new light. I was able to get a bunch of it off the rocks tonight. Previously it was nearly impossible to remove. I’m pretty sure reducing the phosphates helped with that also.

I stopped dosing phosphat-e since getting the new light. It seemed like a good time to stop the dosing and watch things. I know I’m pretty close to where I need to be, especially considering how quickly the coralline on the shell bounced back and how easily the tufts of algae came off of the rocks.

 

[crusso1993]

Hey bud… (James I think… sorry if I’m wrong… dain bramage) did you ever order those MH bulbs from that funky website?

 

[Fishy888]

Hey bud… (James I think… sorry if I’m wrong… dain bramage) did you ever order those MH bulbs from that funky website?

No because the lamps were horizontal mount only. The light I’m using now is double ended instead of mogul. You got my name right, no drain bramage lol.

 

[Fishy888]

I finally got the sump’s lights mounted again.

The chaeto, despite being full of detritus and the like, looks pretty good.

I’ll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to check the T5s that aren’t lighting. I’ll have to swap both sets of lamps because I suspect that one lamp is completely burnt out and that the other can’t light as a result.

As I look at the light from the 10000k metal halide I have to say the color looks just like the color of the old halide which was rated at 6000k. I have a feeling it’s shifted its color significantly over time. I’m going to try a 14000k and see how it does. I know there’ll be even less PAR with the 14000k lamp but I’m going to be replacing the T5s too. Despite the lamps being about 20” above the surface, and approximately 50” from the sand bed; there’s still enough PAR from the two lamps to make my corals fluoresce. Of course with only the two lamps that are working the lights nearby have to be out to really see the fluorescence.

Thankfully the nem stayed put and looks normal. I guess being a periscope didn’t suit him.

As you can see in the picture I still have green cyano hanging on and even growing slightly. My next moves in the war against cyano is to rinse out the chaeto and to do a water change. I’m also going to keep removing as much cyano as I can each day. I’ve also started cutting back a bit on food. I’m still feeding quite a bit for what I have in the system but I think this will help alleviate the phosphate input a bit.

Tomorrow I’ll resume the LaCl dosing. With the lights actually mounted ABOVE the sump instead of to the side my chaeto should start growing big time. I’ll have to watch my nitrates closely but the chaeto should take up some phosphates too. I’ll take the additional pod real estate too.

Although this isn’t the shell with the pink coralline that I talked about in my last post this is the one with the most blue coralline. It looks grayish in the pics but it’s really a royal blue color. The shell I was talking about last night was flipped over by a hermit crab presumably and I need to flip it back which I’ll do tomorrow.

The mushrooms are starting to open more now with the reduced PAR. Especially this one.

The cabbage leather is looking much better today with awesome PE.

My GSP are doing great as well.

 

[Fishy888]

I’ve been thinking long and hard about whether I want to keep the lights I have now or if I want to go back to my 400 watt halide.

There are pros and cons to both. I keep looking at how dim this light is compared to before. I want to go to 14000k or even 20000k but with PAR as low as it is now, would I really be able to afford the PAR cut?

I want to be able to keep clams and at least easy SPS. I really want to keep acros but I can’t see a way around going back to the old light. There’s another option I need to look into but there’s a Chinese brand of mogul lamps that I can get in either 14000k or 20000k.

If going LED would really be the best option I might consider it. The reality however is that I can’t dump $1000 plus into this. Chinese black boxes, of which I’d need two, would still be $300 plus. That’s not counting the T5s I’d need either since LEDs don’t have good spread by themselves.

I know I need a major water change soon. The yellow water isn’t helping here. That said even for keeping soft corals 150 watts is going to be inadequate and I doubt the nem is going to be happy. The coralline bouncing back could just as easily have been caused by drop in phosphates as much as the lower PAR.

Which of the two lighting systems would you go with knowing what I want to keep?

 

[crusso1993]

I’ve been thinking long and hard about whether I want to keep the lights I have now or if I want to go back to my 400 watt halide.

There are pros and cons to both. I keep looking at how dim this light is compared to before. I want to go to 14000k or even 20000k but with PAR as low as it is now, would I really be able to afford the PAR cut?

I want to be able to keep clams and at least easy SPS. I really want to keep acros but I can’t see a way around going back to the old light. There’s another option I need to look into but there’s a Chinese brand of mogul lamps that I can get in either 14000k or 20000k.

If going LED would really be the best option I might consider it. The reality however is that I can’t dump $1000 plus into this. Chinese black boxes, of which I’d need two, would still be $300 plus. That’s not counting the T5s I’d need either since LEDs don’t have good spread by themselves.

I know I need a major water change soon. The yellow water isn’t helping here. That said even for keeping soft corals 150 watts is going to be inadequate and I doubt the nem is going to be happy. The coralline bouncing back could just as easily have been caused by drop in phosphates as much as the lower PAR.

Which of the two lighting systems would you go with knowing what I want to keep?

I’m a MH and T5 fan and know it would work well for anything you want to keep. In a perfect world, MH + LED.

 

[Fishy888]

After thinking about this a while I’ve decided to go back to the old light. I’m going to get a bluer lamp for it and be done. After the lights go out tonight I’ll take the canopy down and put the old light right back in the canopy. I left the old support in the canopy where it was so I could mount the original light back in easily and quickly.

Fortunately my corals are used to the light. This should make my anemone stop reaching for the light and it will look less dim. Sure a bluer light is darker but at 400 watts it’ll still be bright, especially at 14000k but even at 20000k.

 

[Fishy888]

Whelp Kathy just scored me some free live rock, ~50 lbs worth. It’s full of phosphates but I’ll get that taken care of.