Imisky's Sticks and Colors Reef (Nov.12,2012 A years worth of growth)

[imisky]

Individual reflectors make all the difference...how high is your fixture off the surface?

 

 

ya they work well, T5s are 7" away LEDs 8.5"

[Builder Anthony]

i wish they rented par things i think i read there expensive

[imisky]

i wish they rented par things i think i read there expensive

 

roughly around $460 if you can manage to get them to give a discount. otherwise its $460 before taxes for us Canadians.

 

Edit: I'm sure someone local to you has one, check around your local forum if there is one.

[Paigee]

haha Paigee, ya I live in langley, around the brookswood area. I do recall something like this came up before I dont mind it.

 

Ah yes I just went back and found my previous comment. I still haven't made it out to Oceanic corals! I keep meaning to but I never get there.

 

Also - nice PAR readings Those T5s have surprisingly decent readings considering their age

[imisky]

Ah yes I just went back and found my previous comment. I still haven't made it out to Oceanic corals! I keep meaning to but I never get there.

 

Also - nice PAR readings Those T5s have surprisingly decent readings considering their age

 

 

haha, its ok we all forget things! If you want to drop by Oceanic Corals dont do it until at least the 22nd of March. He is on vacation and there is no one there except for the weekends so the store isnt open. Just so you know so you dont get disappointed . If you ever want to meet up and chat I'm usually there talking to a friend on Sundays around 1pm-3pm.

 

I wonder how much more PAR I would get if I was to switch the T5s to new ones, but then again they are just there to fill in the spectrum that my LEDs dont have.

[Paigee]

haha, its ok we all forget things! If you want to drop by Oceanic Corals dont do it until at least the 22nd of March. He is on vacation and there is no one there except for the weekends so the store isnt open. Just so you know so you dont get disappointed . If you ever want to meet up and chat I'm usually there talking to a friend on Sundays around 1pm-3pm.

 

I wonder how much more PAR I would get if I was to switch the T5s to new ones, but then again they are just there to fill in the spectrum that my LEDs dont have.

 

Hmm thanks for the tip ! I'll probably find time more towards the second half of April, cuz that's when my semester ends. Plus I plan on switching up to a 20L, so I'm trying not to add stuff.. But it's hard

 

Do you have any plans for new additions in the near future?

[Rehype]

I wonder how much more PAR I would get if I was to switch the T5s to new ones, but then again they are just there to fill in the spectrum that my LEDs dont have.

 

Well more importantly as bulbs age the lighting spectrum shifts from blue to red. Red wavelength light will increase the growth of algae and provides less of the energy corals need to grow.

[imisky]

Hmm thanks for the tip ! I'll probably find time more towards the second half of April, cuz that's when my semester ends. Plus I plan on switching up to a 20L, so I'm trying not to add stuff.. But it's hard

 

Do you have any plans for new additions in the near future?

 

Another university/college student?

haha I know its hard to not add anything new! I might switch out my talbots the only reason is they are too aggressive as a pair. well the female is at least, so I am thinking about nano fish, a huge group of mini darts or red spots wouldnt be bad. But I'll have to see if I can get anyone to bring in enough and or if the price is good to not bankrupt me.

 

Well more importantly as bulbs age the lighting spectrum shifts from blue to red. Red wavelength light will increase the growth of algae and provides less of the energy corals need to grow.

 

The spectrum shift is perfect in my opinion. LEDs cover the blue spectrum much better than they can on the red spectrum side. So letting the T5s shift shouldnt be a problem as suppliments to purely cover the lack of spectrum on the LEDs. The main light is still LED and thats what delivers the most PAR to them, whatever the T5s throw off in spectrum is a plus on top.

 

One thing I have found when I frag is that when I move the corals to my sump (same water and same PAR38 bulb) the corals will lose some of the coloration they had in the sump over the course of 3-4 days with PAR of 275ish at where they sit. This makes me believe that LEDs even though are good for growth and certain colors (due to the spectrum we use) is lacking in diversity for all types of corals. It might be ok for those corals that utilize specific spectrums we have chosen but since we dont know which ones they actually need we cant target the specific ones to put into our fixtures unless we start doing trail and error which is a HUGE cost commitment.

[MedRed]

I think you did it right with LED's and T5s. That would be a perk if you didn't have to change your T5 bulbs as often since they are just being used as supplements and not necessary par.

[imisky]

 

I made a Vlog to show everyone the tank in action, it'll be a way for you guys to see and ask questions regarding the system as you'll be able to see things in motion rather than just a photo. Let me know what you guys think of this approach. I might do unboxings for products and etc later on as well on video but that'll have to wait a bit.

 

I think you did it right with LED's and T5s. That would be a perk if you didn't have to change your T5 bulbs as often since they are just being used as supplements and not necessary par.

 

my thoughts exactly, I love both of the technologies but hate having to fork out the money to use one of them efficiently by itself (T5). This way i get the best of both worlds

[Paigee]

Cool I like it when people do narrated video so you can hear and see what's going on!

[Asureef]

 

I made a Vlog to show everyone the tank in action, it'll be a way for you guys to see and ask questions regarding the system as you'll be able to see things in motion rather than just a photo. Let me know what you guys think of this approach. I might do unboxings for products and etc later on as well on video but that'll have to wait a bit.

 

I would like to see a "DIY" build/write up on the bio-pellets reactor. It looks quite efficient and a space saver as well.

[Deleted User 4]

Nice video, what kind of lighting do you have? heard you mention you had leds and t5, so what brand are those ones that you have?

[chippwalters]

Great vid. #coolbeans on the 3d printing of little parts. I 3d printed up LED fixture parts and the turned out great. Looking forward to affordable consumer 3d printers.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[imisky]

Cool I like it when people do narrated video so you can hear and see what's going on!

 

thanks for the feedback Paigee, gives me a reason to continue the vlog type videos

 

I would like to see a "DIY" build/write up on the bio-pellets reactor. It looks quite efficient and a space saver as well.

 

I'll get the friend to make me another one for another tank of mine. Its pretty simple, the clear parts are poly carbonate and the rest are PVC joints that you can find at your local hardware store. Nothing is glued in place either, everything is pressure fitted .

 

Nice video, what kind of lighting do you have? heard you mention you had leds and t5, so what brand are those ones that you have?

 

Its 5x PAR38 LEDs 5 blue 4 whites on those, and 4x T5 that I use purely for for filling in the spectrum.

 

Great vid. #coolbeans on the 3d printing of little parts. I 3d printed up LED fixture parts and the turned out great. Looking forward to affordable consumer 3d printers.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

3D printing as come a long ways, and finally started to trickle down to the consumer level, its happening quite fast. With a few 3D printers and a full blown laser cutter at work, I have access to quite a bit of unique tools to prototype and design/make stuff with. Once the 3D printer addon is made I'll post a picture up for you guys to see.

[MedRed]

any update on your mini darts?

[imisky]

any update on your mini darts?

 

Still trying to breed them, though Im now down to 4 even with aggressive feeding of live baby brine. The eggs hatch but nothing services as I have no idea what they eat at the start of their lifecycle, live phyto doesnt work, and no luck with rotis too.

 

on another note....first major disaster of the build. The pump on the SWC decided to stall on me while I was at work..the result was not pretty. A full tank of stressed corals + no skimmer = even more stressed corals for who knows how many hours...Im glad I kept my chiller running, otherwise the damage would have been worse. Lets just say, I drove 20minutes to my LFS and when I got their, the motor was still hot. But on a brighter side a new pump from my LFS (oceanic corals) The owner met me at 8:45pm just so a can grab a new pump, from now its recovery.

 

The damage has been done, the only thing left is to see which corals live.

 

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

Ouch, good luck my dude. I think they'll make it.

[imisky]

Ouch, good luck my dude. I think they'll make it.

 

Aside from the very zeo like colors are far, nothing seems to be RTNing or even remote signs of it, but knock on wood...maybe I'll get a more reliable skimmer and pump combo soon.

[Deleted User 4]

hmmm good luck, I'm sure they're fine, they just lost a bit of color but it'll come back in no time

[Paigee]

Glad to hear you made it through mostly unscathed

[imisky]

Glad to hear you made it through mostly unscathed

 

I wish that was the case, the damage so far, there is a pretty high chance I'll lose my ponape colony and pink lemonade and possibly my ORA rose milli and 20k lokani. But we'll see, perhaps there will be a turn around.

[Joe Dirt]

I wish that was the case, the damage so far, there is a pretty high chance I'll lose my ponape colony and pink lemonade and possibly my ORA rose milli and 20k lokani. But we'll see, perhaps there will be a turn around.

Sucks man. I'm crossing my fingers for you.

[Paigee]

I wish that was the case, the damage so far, there is a pretty high chance I'll lose my ponape colony and pink lemonade and possibly my ORA rose milli and 20k lokani. But we'll see, perhaps there will be a turn around.

 

Gah! That's horrible

[imisky]

Gah! That's horrible

 

update!, so it seems everything is settling down now. The coral that took the most damage was the ponape birdsnest, a bit of STN but I do see polyps so it should recover. Everything else is just extremely bleached but should come back with time.

 

I'd like to share the fact that I didnt take any drastic measures such as 50% water changes or throwing tons of carbon into the system. I simply replaced my carbon with the same amount, did a 20% water change like I normally do during my weekends and continued on as if nothing happened. I think that made a difference in how things went, the last thing you would want to do is shock the system even more by stripping out as much nutrients as possible and also shock the parameters that the corals are accustomed to. So I'm now following up with amino acid dosing to give the corals some more food, but the event didnt have too much casualties