Thanks Burton. Too bad corals can't be shipped over the border. Or can they?


Are we doin that trade? Sounds good. PM me?


Ha, yeah. It's on one of those racks. LOL.

Nice! The VD palys are looking really good now, getting bigger and the color is looking great! Let me know when you think the MH is healed up enough to swap

Wow! That is an incredible FTS. If I can create something that looks even half as good as this with my next tank I will be very happy.

Wait...you have fish in there? Hard to find them amongst all the eye candy in there. You sure they have any room to swim around anymore

Looks fantastic....I think I see one more spot where you could squeeze another frag rack in there

-Adam

I'd say another week should be good. You can pick the one you want.


Ha Thanks Matt. I'm glad you think so. But I think they're all packed like sardines in there. Need to create some open space and get rid of those horrid racks! or at least use black ones. LOL. It's also not a very good pic. Blues becomes over saturated with the inadequate video camcorder I use to take stills.


Hahahaha. Unfortunately, no room to swim. Look at the female clown, she's swimming through zoas!

Courtesy of ScottyReef...






Thanks Scott!

Nice new additions Randy. I can't wait til I can save up enough money for a couple of dosing pumps...I can only imagine how much easier it makes things.

Dosing pumps are so the way to go. My skimmer produces skimmate the entire day now, bc the alk/Ca are added sloooowly. Now I dose half as much, twice per day, instead of just one big serving of chemicals in the AM. Talk to Scotty. He might be able to hook you up with one for cheap.

***
So I forgot to put the UV glass shield back on yesterday, when I moved the frag light up to the display - [nope, replacement halide bulb still hasn't been delivered yet]. The SPS located in the upper part of my display were a bit irritated to say the least from 8hrs of constant UV. I'm sure they'll recover okay, but my small mistake may have stunted their growth/color for a good week.

Awesome tank man....Your FTS is background worthy

Thanks man. With or without the frag racks. LOL

***
It almost looks like this in person.


Let the experiment begin.


Progress...

Awesome Pix Randy! hope that monti does what you want it to do.
also that icfire looks HOTTTT.

WHAT!? WOW

Still think it's an icefire huh? Whatever it is, it's a hawteee. Quickly becoming one of my favs.


Yeah man. You're getting a piece of it. FNF "RedBug" Monti. Almost looks like a cartoon.

Dear Purp,
Your tank is absurd in the best possible way.
Sincerely,
Matt AKA Paleo.

P.s. Enjoying the phoenix?

Uhm...what else would it be?
someone inform me!

Thanks! But I'm still waiting on the Phoenix 250. Still have my 150 Phoenix over my display, which is nice. Adds the nice actninic look that was missing with my SPS BLUE LIFE. I should have ordered through MarineDepot instead of SOSLighting. UPS ground takes a full 5 business days from TX and only 2 from CA. I better get it tomorrow


Yeah, me too! I haven't the slightest clue.

True Undata. Same with this one. Fragged it quite a few times already.


Once again, some more really, really good looking corals.

This Undata is looking soooo nice!

It's true. I never really saw what the big deal about the Undata was until I saw yours. It is a fantastic piece! The purple outer rim is

Randy's is fabulous. He generously gave me a small frag of this one at a local frag swap a few months back, but I can't seem to snap it out of a 'brown-out' phase. However, with time and proper positioning I hope to one day see it looking sweet like its parent.

Everything looks super happy and healthy Randy. Can't wait to see what happens with the Cap experiment.

Did you just place the frag in the middle or is it on a rock that you placed in the middle? Wondering if I can try the same with the Idaho Grape you gave me on my Orange or Green Cap.

Mornin Adam. Don't know if I did the right thing, but I just dropped the frag in the middle. No mounting. No glue. Seems to fit like a puzzle piece though.

Praise the heavens. Light has come down upon us. Phoenix 250W 14K in its full glory. Almost the same color temp as the SPS BLUE LIFE. Definitely more crisp white than its Phoenix 150W counterpart. Looks like they're gonna get some good growth and color out of this bulb. (if it only stays ON. Haven't had much luck with bulbs lately)

AMAZING.

You need to start treating your corals better. Imagine you living in a cramped space like that. I have plenty of space in my tank, I'll give them some room to stretch their legs and give them some room to breath.

Your 250watt Phoenix bulb is still bluer than my 150watt Phoenix bulb...at least in your pictures they look that way.

Haha. I might take you up on that if I don't get a new tank soon!

Nah, my camera can't capture the crisp white of the bulb. There is a blue cast to it but not as blue as the pic. I'm looking at the pic and the actual tank right now, and the pic is much much darker. The mid-tones are darker than real life and it shows 50% brighter in person. Perhaps an SLR would better capture what the naked eye sees. But that's the last thing on my list. It goes NEW TANK, CORALS, MORE CORALS, then SLR.

Holy Moly!

You've got enough corals in there to start your own fish store

Light from the new bulb is perfect. Makes the colors look positively vibrant.

Oh and the pendant is hanging 12.5" above the water surface. The Phoenix 150W was only 5". The 250 is definitely brighter, if not less blue. Although I like the 150 as well. It is lighting my frag tank.

You should keep the tank as is and do progression FTS. It'd be interesting to see those pics in a year or so.

Are you using an underwater housing for your camera? Just wondering how you're taking those close-up macro shots.

I feel you on showing the progression over time. That's why I will make it a point to keep the aquascape the same when I upgrade the tank to a larger size.

I wish I had an underwater housing for the cam, and it's not even a camera btw, it's a video recorder that takes stills. All I do is submerge the lens in the water and snap the photo. I'm surprised it still works, bc it's not only the lens that gets wet!

Let's start up a biz, Ralph. Out of your garage?

that would probably be my new favorite LFS

You stick the lens of a camcorder in the water and it still hasn't died on you? I get a little milk on the LCD screen on the back of my camera and it stops working...hahaha!

I bet if you wanted to, you could start your own coral business with all that you have in your tank atm.

Sounds like a plan, but I don't think my wife will go for having her car sit outside all day in the sun.

[quote name='PurpleUP' date='Sep 19 2009, 11:46 PM' post='2439605']
Thanks Burton. Too bad corals can't be shipped over the border. Or can they?

I have no idea if they do ship corals but if they do that would be awesome, there's so many corals that i would want to get shipped to me.lol

I noticed that you were using a 150W and went to a 250W, Witch one do you like better because im still deciding on what light would be better for my 30 gallon I just started?

Thanks in advance Daniel

All depends on what kind of corals you want to keep. 250s are noticeably brighter, as you would expect with higher wattage, but the intensity could be overkill for corals that prefer less light. For SPS, I'd say 250 all the way OR perhaps you can opt for a 150W 10K for higher par? Oh yeah, and your energy bill on a 250 will be noticeably higher as well.

I once thought a 250W would get good results with a 20K bulb, but they would brown out no matter how clean the water. 14K seems to be just right without the need for actinic supplements (although bonus actinic LEDs wouldn't hurt).

FWIW, I won't be switching back to a 150 anytime soon

Lookin' real sporty Randy. I've always been into the color of the Phoenix 14k bulbs....here's to hoping that the bulb/fixture/ballast keep it up and burning bright.

BTW...took some pictures of my chalice for the thread and left the CF card on the table at home. Cripes....will post some later for sure.

Adam, the 250 Phoenix 14 just kicks A$$. There's just no other way to put it. 12.5" above the water surface and it's NEVER been brighter in my tank. Don't let the cheap price fool you. This is a quality bulb. I believe they have become so popular that Phoenix has been able to mass produce to keep up with demand, thereby cost cutting the competition. I might buy a couple more to keep on hand, in the event this one burns out too soon.

Yeah, let's keep the chalice thread goin!@#! That's one type of coral I can never get bored of.

You should do a side by side shot of the 250 watt vs. 150 watt Phoenix bulbs...you've got me inching closer to upgrading my lighting to 250 watt rather than buy more frags at the moment...you and your tank is not good for humanity. It makes us all want to spend more and who knows if that's a good or bad thing...

Hahaha. I'd be happy to take a side by side comparison, but my camera compensates for too little or too much light. Basically, both shots will look the same. LOL. You're just gonna have to take my word for it on this one. 250 is much brighter.

"It makes us all want to spend more and who knows if that's a good or bad thing..." Funny, I feel the same way about other people's tanks on NR. It must be this site that makes us all want to spend more!

A 250 over a 20" tank would greatly improve the color and the growth of your corals. Trust me. This summer I went from 150 phoenix to 250 phoenix. Growth rate went WAAAY up and so did the color. Some of higher light corals were browning out under the 150, but under the 250? The colors are back!

My experience has been the same. And it is proven on a daily basis. My display and frag bin are plumbed together. The only difference between the two is the wattage of light. Bulbs are the same brand and color temp. While the SPS in the frag bin struggle to color up, the same ones in the display are showing more color and growth every day.

Let me put it this way, the Phoenix 150/14 is like my daughter's "night light" compared to the 250/14. But don't take my word for it, I might just be trying to justify the extra utility expense. LOL.

But if you're already getting spectacular color/growth with the 150/14, then why change it?

I was getting good growth with on my 20H...but when I upgraded to my Solona tank a little over a year ago, all of that stopped...I even tried lowering my light but that didn't do much other than slowly brown out my corals, so it is now raised back up (for the time being).

How high do you have your light hanging again?

Hmmm. Was the color good on your 20H? If so, it could be a water issue in the Solana. Is a 20H also 20" in height? My tank is 18" high with the pendant 12" higher than that. When I had the SPS BLUE LIFE bulb, I had the pendant a little lower at 10". But I immediately raised it when I changed to this Phoenix 250/14. Might bring it down slowly, but maybe not more than 11" from the surface.

12" from the surface might seem high, but I see the 400W moguls at the LFS raised higher than 2' from the water. Scott also said to me the other day that 19" seems to be the most desired distance from SPS coral. Many people are gonna tell you what they believe is the correct thing to do, but you may have to experiment by trial and error. Does sound to me like you might want to try a higher wattage bulb, especially if it's SPS that you keep. Have you also thought about switching to a 150/10K? Too yellow for me, but I'm sure the corals would appreciate that spectrum more than the 150/14.

This digital lumatek ballast might also have something to do with the increased light intensity. Fires up quietly, unlike the old magnetic one I used to have. I believe it's making more efficient use of power. At least, that's what the manufacturer has led me to believe. LOL

150/10k is too yellow for me too. I like the color of the 14k Phoenix...I also have a 20k Radium waiting for the day the 14k Phoenix is ready to be replaced but who knows if it'll ever see the inside of my Sunpod.

As for water, I was living dangerously while I had the 20H (it's shorter than my Solona)...I wasn't using RO/DI water at all because I was living in an apartment at the time. To be honest, I was just using straight up tap water because I didn't want to carry RO/DI water from the LFS up 2 flights of stairs. Now that I look back at it, I'm thinking it was the stock 10k bulb that came with my light fixture.

Are you using any other light suppliment or is it just the MH? I'm thinking about getting the same ballast to go with a Lumen Bright DE Pendant and sticking a 14K Phoenix in it.

Sounds like you've already made your decision. Didn't want to twist your arm, but I think you're making the right choice to switch. Especially if the Solana is deeper. You must have had some CLEAN tap at your other place. Any GHA problems there? Yeah, I think a 10k on a 150W works nicely to color up SPS. I may be switching my Phoenix 150/14 frag bulb to a yuck 10k soon. LOL. No other lighting supplements, but I might integrate blue LEDs.

You can't go wrong with the Lumatek ballast. Sounds like a crazy combo with the Lumen Bright DE. I'm planning on upgrading myself to a Lumenmax Elite! Need to maximize the power and widen the range of our halides!

Ironically I had no GHA problem with the 20H and tap water...just cyano. I did however get a huge GHA outbreak in the Solona with RO/DI water. Don't really know how to explain that one. I've been going back and forth about the light upgrade for a while now...your 250/14k Phoenix just made the itch to upgrade even worst. I really need to stop reading your thread.

How are you planning on integrating the blue LEDs onto your current fixture or the Lumenmax Elite once you get it? I was thinking about that too with the Lumen Bright DE but can't seem to figure out a way to keep it a clean/sleak look without having exposed wires screws all over the place.

That one baffles me too. Maybe you should bother the new tenant and stock up on that apartment tap water!

I just changed my mind. Switchin to the Lumen Brights instead. Different company right? See it goes both ways. People posting on this thread make me spend more money. LOL. I almost forgot about upgrading my pendant until you courteously reminded me. The pendant looks more attractive than the other one and covers a wider range. The Phoenix 250/14 has a very crisp whitish blue color, not nearly as blue as the 150/14. I am okay without the LEDs. They would only be for aesthetics anyway. I have a swing arm LED moonlight which satisfies my need for actinics at night. hehe.

Well, I just bought one! Can't wait till it arrives. Imagine the amount of light that's gonna come out of that thing.

Wow, did I just help persuade Purp rather than Purp persuading me and everyone else?

The Lumen Bright has two models...a DE and SE. I've only ran across a couple places online that carries the DE. From all that I've read over the past couple of months is that it should cover up to a 24" foot print...give or take and a majority of people hang it high for it to cover your tank without it giving the "spot light" effect. I'm too anal about aesthetics, that's why I'm considering the Lumen Bright versus all the other Lumen-whatever pendants...it's gotta look nice and perform too. They might all be from the same company, but I could be wrong. I'm still torn between that setup or a MH + T5 light combo.

That tap water still mystifies me to this very day. I might just have to go back and fill up some jugs.