And We're Live! Buddys 75g Setup

[Ulta]

So jealous of the coralline in your tank! :o)

And OMG your coral pics make me wanna put LEDs on my Tank like NOW! ;D

Looks great!

 

[buddy08]

i out of town for the alabama, lsu game.... letting lady take care of everything. hopefully all looks well when i return in a few days

 

[buddy08]

might have been drunk in that previous reply.. not sure, anyways. Update!

Guess he didnt like my coral placement so he decided to rearrange some things.

new favia

encrusting grape monti

FTS

and concerns about these guys..
3 or 4 heads of this torch are white, not the normal tan color.. they have been like this a few weeks before I swapped to LED's... Any ideas whats going on? I found a few flatworms on it but removed them asap and treated the tank since then. Heres a photo

and also my colony polyps, when I first got this, it had roughly 30+ heads on it.. Now maybe 15... They are slowly vanishing and not invading my tank like I was told they would. If I lift the rock up that theyre on, there is roughly a 2 inch bristle worm in the holes Its pinkish red with white furs on it almost like a common fuzzy caterpillar. This the good type of bristle worm? And could he be the reason for me loosing some polyps? The coral is in the middle of the tank and is a high flow area. Whatcha think?

And lastly, my LFS is still in the process of ordering my Anthias (3 Carberryi Anthias)... I am having trouble removing the damsels and really theyre not hurting or bothering anything. If I cant get them out, how overstocked would I be and what will be my side effects aside from the possibility of adding unwanted stress on the fish (in which if signs were showing i.e. : ich spechs, aggression, and finicky eating habbits; then of course I would remove some fish)?

 

[NanoReefer]

build a fish trap for them

 

[buddy08]

i doubt they will go in it to be honest

 

[little_fish]

I would start feeding them from the net, get them used to eating from there. Then after a few weeks, scoop them up.

 

[buddy08]

any clue about the corals?

 

[little_fish]

Oh, didnt see that questions. Sometime that just happens with a particular coral, for some reason they just can no longer flourish in our tank. Right now this happening to me with GSP, both of my huge colonies are dying away. It think its because my water is much too clean for them.

 

[buddy08]

with that being said, my water could be considered pristine but my corals grow slower than other reeferes around me. we can all get frags relatively close in size and yet one guys will grow at least 2x faster than mine based on how fast the frags take over the frag plug... Still cant figure that one out :\

 

[NanoReefer]

btw, do you like just half royal blue and half crisp white leds? would you add a green or two if you had the chance?

 

[buddy08]

the white and blue work well for me in all honesty. i like the color it gives. If anything, i would add maybe 10 more blues at the most making it a total of 34 blues and 24 whites.

 

[NanoReefer]

thanks, im making a 32 ld hood maby ill go 18 blues and 16 whites

 

[buddy08]

make it 20 blues and 14 whites to give you a crisp blue and purple glow. when i have the blues and whites on at equal power, the tank is well lit up and everything stands out but if i had a little more blues, i think the coral colors would pop even more and give me that color most people aim for with t5 light combos (like fiji purple and such)

 

[itzmekev]

very nice tank

 

[NanoReefer]

my plan was 32 leds on my 37 gallon so i have more power than i need so i can make the color i like

 

[buddy08]

I finally got some par readings everyone, this is without the optics. I dont know what is considered "good" vs"bad" but these were my results. If I add the optics, Im sure my numbers would increase a decent bit so im debating on if I should add them or not. I will let yall be the judge. When the lady gets home, im going to put the optics on and take more readings to see the difference. also, i have a little salt creep on the splash guard which is blocking out some light so i will clean that as well and get a more accurate reading.

 

[BL1]

I would definitely add the optics, those numbers are pretty low. They're equal to about a 175w MH with cheap crappy bulbs. I attached a copy of ccCapt's PAR tests so you can compare yours.

 

[buddy08]

1" below the lights the reading is over 1400 and around 600 at the surface of the water. the optics should help increase these numbers so i will tamper with it and see whats up

 

[buddy08]

Have the optics installed now, I also cleaned the splash guard and raised it up as high as it would go; as close to the lenses as possible in efforts to cut back on dust settling on top and saltcreep forming on the bottom. Results are a huge difference! I began to think I wasted my money and should have stuck with the T5's after seeing that link BL posted.... WRONG! Check it out and let me know what ya think. Could I keep anemone, clams, and sps's with these readings?

FTS using optics (removed the frag wrack)

with PAR readings using optics

optic lenses

adjusted the splash guard

I think the shimmer would cause the meters numbers to jump around, the results above are the minimums. Sometimes the numbers would reach mid 600's only 5 inches below the water level which would be 13" below the leds.

average of 585

617: 5 inches below water level :^:

only side effects I can see with the optics is that the light doesnt flood around the center brace like it did before so the Par levels arent as high and the same with the bottom left and bottom right of the tank... But it all still looks great in person. I have a little more spot light effects on the rockwork but its not bad, if anything it highlights the rocks with corals on them making them more of a focal point. Overall, I'm impressed...

Now! :bounce:

 

[NanoReefer]

wow, its even noticeable in the pic how bright it is with the optics