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Hockeynut's new 90 gal build

hcker99

hcker99

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Hockeynut said:
It's been a while since I last posted, the tank has come a long way. I picked up a ton of pieces at the swap. And got my brs dosers on line about a week ago and am adjusting the levels by testing daily. I'm also trying to decide if the LEDs are really the way to go. I really love a lot about them but there are things that I'm just not sure about. They look great and power usage is low but the shadows are crazy. To the point where one side of a coral looks good and the other is shaded and doesn't look so good. Maybe it's just to soon so I will let them rip for a while longer, (probably a long while) as I do believe things do take time. I have noticed a lot of talk of guys going back to t-5s and the general thought is the coverage is so much better
Also some of my corals look a little bland and have lost some of there color. I really can't figure why they would be loosing color, good light brought on slowly, really stable water parameters, phosphate-0, nitrate-0, cal-420, alk-8.6, mag-1300, sal-1026
A friend said to me that maybe the water is to clean. Can this really be the problem? I'm at a loss
I haven't tried dosing any supplements for my sps I do target feed my lps but not really any sps.
I tried up loading pics from photo bucket but had no luck. Maybe it's because I use an I pad and not a computer, if anyone know how to achieve this please help well here's some new pics

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Sorry for all the blue, the lights started ramping down when I was taking the pics. Also I'm using my I pad to take pics
Click to expand...

Rob,

For the LED shadowing I would try physically raising your lights. That should give you better spread but you may need to increase the light intensity. Another option is change the optics on your fixtures. There's a huge difference between 60 and 120 degree optics in terms of penetration and spread.

As for the colors. Depending on the lighting the sps was housed under prior to buying them there will be and acclimation period. For example if they came from a tank with MH or T5's it's not uncommon for them to go pale or even brown out under led's. Give them a little time to get use to the light. As long as they aren't STN or RTN'ing I'd say your ok.

I would also look into feeding your corals more. I'm not a big fan of 0 N03 and 0 Phos. I like to have the water a tad "dirtier".
 
Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
I did just that about a week ago I raised my lights to 12.5" above the water from 9" ill see in a while if that helps. What about dosing? People dose all sorts of things ie vodka, vitamin C, I don't know enough about any dosing to even try any dosing. I would have to read a lot before I would try anything like that. If I feed my corals more wont I run into other issues and then possibly need bio pellets to combat the over feeding?
I already have a heavy fish load I have 12 fish in the tank and feel if I feed to much I might get myself into trouble.
 
hcker99

hcker99

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Hockeynut said:
I did just that about a week ago I raised my lights to 12.5" above the water from 9" ill see in a while if that helps. What about dosing? People dose all sorts of things ie vodka, vitamin C, I don't know enough about any dosing to even try any dosing. I would have to read a lot before I would try anything like that. If I feed my corals more wont I run into other issues and then possibly need bio pellets to combat the over feeding?
I already have a heavy fish load I have 12 fish in the tank and feel if I feed to much I might get myself into trouble.
Click to expand...

The main reason I feel people dose vodka,vitamin c, or any other carbon source is to help lower the NO3 and Phosphate. Right now you have the opposite going on. I'm not saying dump a whole can of food in but maybe an extra feeding per week of reef roids, rods food, or what ever your favorite coral food might be. But with anything if you up the food just keep measuring your nitrate and phosphate so you don't get into trouble.

Bio pellets are just another form of carbon dosing. Like the vit C or vodka.
 
iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
Agreed, with Mark as been saying in regards to Carbon Dosing.

Rob, start dosing some amino acids and see if that works out with bringing some color back into the corals.

I use Red Sea Reef Energy A+B and Brightwell's Coral Amino. I have had great success with those two products. I would however test PO4 and NO3 after the initial doses to see if they do ant significant changes to your water chem in that regard. Also, always start with the recommended dosage and go up from there.
 
Zippy69

Zippy69

Looking great! You might be better placing those frags somewhere on the rock....superglue em and if you want to remove it, easy to break away. If they love the spot off they grow and encrust. I only say this from my own experience that before you know it your display tank is crammed with frags hanging on racks and that the first thing your eye is drawn to when looking at the tank. As far as browning, I've had frags stay brown for months and all of a sudden the color pops and they start to grow. So long as polyps are out I do not get too concerned.
 
Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
Thanks I agree, I only have them on the rack to get a custom to the lights, off on the side they don't get the full brunt of the light for a couple weeks then I will mount them. Actually it's really hard looking at them there I want to place them really bad but don't want to rush them into the led's.
Every thing is growing great all corals I placed are already encrusted onto my rocks. I'm gonna try feeding a bit to see if that will help color.
 
Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
It's been a long, long while since my last update so here goes,
Ill start by saying the tank is 7 months old and seems to be maturing nicely. I haven't made any significant changes to the mechanical side of the system except for lighting a couple months ago when I switched to the AI Vegas.

I did my first refugium light cleanup yesterday, I pulled some hair Algae that grows in there and not in the display, and scooped a little off the top of the sand. I also changed the ref light to a par 38 last week and my cheato seems to like it I threw away about a softball sized piece.

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Here's a pic of the tank tonight the fish (and my kid were watching Nemo)

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And the other side

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I got a couple new additions over the weekend from Fengs reef in dunellen here's a couple pics

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And this can't tell by bad phone pic but tips are a nice yellow

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Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
Today I'm trying my hand at removing a stubborn nem from a rock. I went online to find a few good ways to remove it and figured I would try the powerhead way. They said it should let go in about a half hour of being blasted and after an hour it's still holding tight.
Here's the nem

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And removal tool

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I hope it works
 
Hockeynut

Hockeynut

NJRC Member
Yea that fish is destined to live in that tank till I upgrade to the 180. It won't come anywhere near a trap. Really smart fish
 
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