Question Tegarding Led Placement
- Thread starter Seasquirt
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC
I run lights about 12" off the surface of the water. That said, my goal is to have practically translucent sps with florescent highlight colours. A lot of guys prefer deep colours to their corals, so aren't as aggressive with light distance and overall par. I think if I counted it out I'd have a total of about 600 watts of lighting, about 108W of that being T5, and the rest LED. 165W -may- not be enough to keep sps happy, but you'll have to try it and see. Sps is really tricky, it demands really good quality water, good water movement, low phosphates and high light. Any one part is out and you end up with RTN/STN and a puzzled look on your face. In fact, I can tell when my DI resin needs replacing by how the sps reacts to water changes. If it starts to look unhappy, it's almost inevitably excess "whatever" in the makeup water. Anything but 0TDS and mine starts complaining. That's also why I'm so set on using only one type of salt... changing things has always led to problems for me.
- Joined
- May 23, 2016
- Location
- Kitchener
Keep things easy. I have a RedSea Reefer 170 (43g total) running T5 4 bulb Aquaticlife hybrid with a radion Gen4 pro set about 9" above the tank and use IO Reef Crystals. Water changes every few weeks and dosing Alk, Cal and Mag. Don't have lots of time to play around with the tank so I try and keep it simple. Here's a couple tank shots of my 170 reefer.
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This only get as hard or challenging as you want them to be. There are easy corals, and harder ones. There are delicate ones and hardy ones. Many people start with easier muchrooms, leathers, zoas and euphyllia. Others want to have a huge challenge with an SPS dominant tank.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC
I don't know as if I'm coming off as a jerk or not, not my intention, HOWEVER, for the first ~10 years of this hobby I tried the cheap ways, the easy ways, the lazy ways, and each and every time I ended up with tank crashes that wiped out $$$$ corals. So I kind of want people to skip the mistakes I made, as while I'm certainly not an expert, I CAN grow sps like weeds, and I more or less know why I had every crash that I did.
It's an expensive hobby, and for beginners, soft coral is probably your best bet, it's "almost" impossible to kill off softies, no matter how hard you try. Softies can flourish in dirty water with questionable levels of trace elements and excesses of nutrients. SPS wants perfect water, good light, reasonable water flow, and low low nutrients. I recommend big tanks with as much water as possible to avoid sudden fluctuations that might wipe out a small tank. I also recommend auto water top offs, but ones that are in buckets or reservoirs, so that you can't fill your tank with fresh water if a valve gets stuck (I've seen that happen). It's all about keeping the water as stable as possible.
Reefkeeping is an incredibly rewarding hobby BECAUSE it's hard. There's lots of people who buy a tank, throw a bunch of african cichlids in it, and are quite content, but I like the challenges of the reef tank because it keeps your attention (or everything dies). Usually when your coral starts to die, it's usually too late to save them, and before you know it your stock is nothing but bleached bones. So you have to be pre-emotively conscious about your tank, and keep it healthy before any problems show up. So I guess I'm saying that yeah, it's hard, but is it worth it? I think so
It's an expensive hobby, and for beginners, soft coral is probably your best bet, it's "almost" impossible to kill off softies, no matter how hard you try. Softies can flourish in dirty water with questionable levels of trace elements and excesses of nutrients. SPS wants perfect water, good light, reasonable water flow, and low low nutrients. I recommend big tanks with as much water as possible to avoid sudden fluctuations that might wipe out a small tank. I also recommend auto water top offs, but ones that are in buckets or reservoirs, so that you can't fill your tank with fresh water if a valve gets stuck (I've seen that happen). It's all about keeping the water as stable as possible.
Reefkeeping is an incredibly rewarding hobby BECAUSE it's hard. There's lots of people who buy a tank, throw a bunch of african cichlids in it, and are quite content, but I like the challenges of the reef tank because it keeps your attention (or everything dies). Usually when your coral starts to die, it's usually too late to save them, and before you know it your stock is nothing but bleached bones. So you have to be pre-emotively conscious about your tank, and keep it healthy before any problems show up. So I guess I'm saying that yeah, it's hard, but is it worth it? I think so
Nice tank Steve, thanks for sharing, no you’re not a jerk but I’m not as dumb as you might think lol, my tank will be void of any Coral for awhile, I know that stability is important for SPS so I’m not about to load up my tank with them. Softies don’t interest me, Euphelia is wonderful but I doubt a Torch or Frogspawn will be able to handle the flow I plan on,
I know it says I’m a newbie but I’ve had tanks before and although I’ve never tried SPS I have had my share of disappointment and Triumph, I know like Torx said there are easy and hard type, one of my favourites is Montipora Capricornis in Grn or Purple, a Bird nest is very nice as well and others,
Salty yes you kinda made me feel inadequate and I suppose my reply said that I was put off but I understand what you’re saying, I’m not going to be another yangman if you follow me,
And Steve you’ve got a beauty set up with the Led Pendant and the T5 so we shouldn’t be surprised with your tank.
I haven’t been able to do anything with my setup because it’s just too cold in the basement to work on it and I haven’t got my steel stand yet, once I do I can start the cycle, nope I have to wait til the Newyear, the tree is in my spot, lol thanks again for everyone’s input, I do appreciate your comments, C
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I know it says I’m a newbie but I’ve had tanks before and although I’ve never tried SPS I have had my share of disappointment and Triumph, I know like Torx said there are easy and hard type, one of my favourites is Montipora Capricornis in Grn or Purple, a Bird nest is very nice as well and others,
Salty yes you kinda made me feel inadequate and I suppose my reply said that I was put off but I understand what you’re saying, I’m not going to be another yangman if you follow me,
And Steve you’ve got a beauty set up with the Led Pendant and the T5 so we shouldn’t be surprised with your tank.
I haven’t been able to do anything with my setup because it’s just too cold in the basement to work on it and I haven’t got my steel stand yet, once I do I can start the cycle, nope I have to wait til the Newyear, the tree is in my spot, lol thanks again for everyone’s input, I do appreciate your comments, C
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- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC
Yeah don't be insulted or offended, I just don't sugar coat anything, and generally when i answer a question in here it's because I'm stuck on a conference call and am splitting my attention between my answer and the conversation. Either that or souped up on liquor. Either way you just get the facts "as I see it".
I'm actually a really nice guy, ask....well don't ask anyone on here, they're all jackasses....
***EDIT***
EXCEPT TORX!
*Laast edit today at 13:02:03 by Torx.
I'm actually a really nice guy, ask....well don't ask anyone on here, they're all jackasses....
***EDIT***
EXCEPT TORX!
*Laast edit today at 13:02:03 by Torx.
I did not approve this message lol.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC
Well I find that it's best to believe what you hear about others before meeting them in person. Best of luck in your hobby!
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC