50 Gallon Kessil A350/Sol Blue LED Reef

[Diver35]

Hey guys I’m new to this forum and decided to do a build thread on my tank! My tank is a 50 gallon tall that has been set up since February 1, 2012. I’ve had many tanks in the past and just set this one up after being out of the hobby for about 9 months. LEDs had become extremely popular during that time so I decided to go with the AI Sol Blues. With the Sol Blues, I have noticed certain corals that haven’t been affected by them, while others tend to be progressing in ways that they normally don’t under metal halides (some are not doing as well as I’d like). I keep my tank parameters pretty stable:
pH- 8.2
Alk- 7-9
NO3- 0
NO2- 0
NH3- 0
PO4- 0-.25
Ca- 440-480
Mg- 1320-1400
Temp- 77-80
Salinity- 1.024-1.025

I use Brightwell Aquatics Liquid Reef Calcium and iodine, Seachem Ph Buffer and Alk Buffer.

I have about 48 lbs of Reef Substrate and probably about 50 lbs of live rock.

Corals are fed 2x a week with Brightwells phytochrome, phytoplankton, zooplankton, phytogold, vitamin C, microvore, as well as direct feedings once a week of Mysis and coral food.
Fish are fed 6x daily between the hours of 5pm and 9pm ☺

Let me know what you guys think!! Questions and comments are appreciated and follow along if you’d like since I’ll be updating! Enjoy!



Equipment:
-20 gallon, 4 chamber sump
-filter sock
-Eheim 150W heater
-ASM G2 Skimmer
-JBJ Auto top off
-Next Reef MR1 XL Media Substrate reactor with rowaphos
-Quiet one 6000 return pump
-2 EcoTech Marine MP10s
-2 AI Sol Blue LEDs
-25 Watt Aqua UV Sterilizer

Fish:
-1 purple tang
-1 longnose hawk
-1 highfin perchlet
-1 Multilined Basslet
-1 female Golden Rhomboid Wrasse
-3 Red Saddled Anthias
-1 prawn goby

Inverts:
-1 long spine urchin
-2 tuxedo urchins
-1 tiger pistol shrimp
-5 emerald crabs
-1 pom pom crab
-2 orange spot nassarius snails
-10 tongan nassarius snails
-2 blood shrimp
-1 skunk cleaner shrimp
-1 scarlet reef hermit
-15 banded trochus snails
-1 squamosa clam
-1 black sea cucumber
-1 imperial shrimp (hosts the sea cucumber)

Corals:
SPS:
-Montiporas (Red/Green/Purple capricornus,) (sunset and mystic sunset encrusting)

LPS:
-Echinophyllias (watermelon, bubble gum monster, Oregon mummy eye, jayda’s watermelon, pink green and yellow [don’t know the name], orange and green)
-Scolymias (Orange/purple, green)
-Acans:
-Orange/Green/Blue echinata
-Blue with orange mouth echinata
-orange Acan hillae
-red Acan hillae
-green Acan hillae
-4 different variations of Acan lordhowensis
-Euphillya:
-Yellow frogspawn
-Green and purple frogspawn
-2 Aussie gold torches
-Aussie grape coral
-Green hammer
-Gold hammer
-Yellow/blue hammer
-Lobos (orange and teal, pink/yellow/purple)
-Favias:
-Baby’s Breath
-Prism favia
-Raptor’s peace
-Pink and purple
-2 large Duncans (one is tan and green, other is green and purple)
-1 Riddler’s Mycedium
-2 Pectinas (Gold/blue, green and purple)
-2 Cynarias (green, red)
-1 Micromussa
-1 Open Brain coral
-1 Orange fungia

Mushrooms and Ricordeas:
-Orange, green, blue, and yellow ricordeas
-Red and blue mushrooms

Zoanthids:
-Assorted zoanthids
-King midas
-Spidermans
-Goblins
-Orange Bam Bams
-Tubb’s Blues
-Space Monster palys
-Darth Mauls
-Sunny D’s
-Lakers
-Rastas
-Purple Death Palys
-Yellow button polyps
-Blue and Green button polyps
-Red People Eaters
-Joker People Eaters

Here's some pics from when I first set it up:






Here's what it looks like now:












Blue hammer and Yellow/green Hammer:






Zoas:








Red and Green Cynarias:




Scolys:






Blue/Gold Pectina:




Some views from the top :








Orange Plate Coral:




Aussie Grape Coral:




Bubble Gum Monster Echinophyllia (my favorite!) :



Australian Gold Torch:






aaanndd here's some pictures of my fish/inverts:

Imperial Shrimp hosting my sea cucumber






Red Saddled Anthias:



Highfin Perchlet:




Thanks for looking guys! Let me know what you think,questions and comments appreciated! And follow along for updates (especially after Reefapalooza this weekend )

[Anna576]

Great pictures and your corals are amazing!

[Diver35]

Great pictures and your corals are amazing!

 

Thanks!

[Dmarmontello]

Beautiful pictures! - great color!

 

Red Saddled Anthias - awesome too!

[Diver35]

Beautiful pictures! - great color!

 

Red Saddled Anthias - awesome too!

 

Thanks, I love the red saddled anthias. there starting to be a little more adventurous these days!

[saltt]

BEAUTIFUL!

[tinctorus]

Wow your tank looks GREAT man!

I seriously cant believe you feed your fish SIX times a day!!LOL

 

I really like that Imperial shrimp, Can you let me know a little bit of info about the care of him?

I.E any special food it need's like the harlequin shrimp and there starfish or will it just grab the same food you give the fish?

[Angel<3Nanos]

Marvelous Tank!

Those anthias are gorgeous!

[tinctorus]

Whats the deal with the Imperial shrimp??

I am REALLY interested in some info about them as I wouldnt mind getting a couple

[Diver35]

Fo

Whats the deal with the Imperial shrimp??

I am REALLY interested in some info about them as I wouldnt mind getting a couple

 

Hey sorry I haven't been on in a little bit, been busy, his care is pretty simple, when I first got him I thought it was gonna be a little tricky but he hangs out on the cucumber most of the time until the cucumber goes places he doesn't want to, then he just hangs out on one of my ricordeas. Feeding wise he catches mysis shrimp out of the water column or he'll leave the cucumber and find food on the sand. The best part is he's always somewhere in the front of the tank and always somewhere visible! If you have the opportunity to get one (with a cucumber) I would highly recommend it. He's my favorite invert I've ever owned good luck!

 

And thanks for all the nice comments guys!

[jlcable]

Hey man you have an awesome tank. hey i was wonder how you have your drain set up in your over flow and how big?

[Diver35]

Hey man you have an awesome tank. hey i was wonder how you have your drain set up in your over flow and how big?

 

Thanks for the nice complement! I have a center overflow with a 1.5 inch drain. The over flow measures 6 inches in the front and 8 inches in the back. i will post some pictures in the next few days!

[Diver35]

Reef-a-palozza

 

25 new corals

 

 

-Candy Apple Red Polyps

-Purple Hornet zoanthids

-Purple and Green Striped Death Palys

-Blue Caribbean Palys

-Red and White People Eater Palys

-Pink and Purple Clove polyps

-Nuclear Green Death Palys

-Magician Palys

-Captain America Death Palys

-2 colonies of Dendrophyllias

-Red and Green Favia

-Green and Orange Favia

-Space Invader Pectina

-Multicolor Lord Acan colony

-Blue with yellow polyps Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

-Green with Orange polyps Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

-Blue with Orange polyps Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

-2 Orange and Green Bowerbanki Acan

-Orange Leptoseris

-Jayda's Watermelon Chalice

-Eye of the Storm Chalice

-Original Mummy Eye Chalice

-Mycedium Robokaki

[jlcable]

Thanks for your response looking forward to more pics.

[hypersnyper694788]

beatuiful tank, tons of great coral!!

[Diver35]

beatuiful tank, tons of great coral!!

 

Thanks!

[iamgant]

Your tank looks amazing!!! Can you share the timer settings for your sol's?

[Mr. Microscope]

Very nice tank! Can't wait to see more.

[Diver35]

Your tank looks amazing!!! Can you share the timer settings for your sol's?

 

I just replaced my AL SOL Blues with 2 Kessil 350's, I still have the SOL's hooked up for Dawn, Dusk and Moon cycles.

[Diver35]

Hey Guys, I went to Reef-a-Palooza this past weekend and completely fell in love with the Kessil Blue Tuna 350's! I have been having some problems with my AI SOL Blues lately. They seemed to make my corals look really nice for the first 6 months but for the past two months however my corals have slowly deteriorated. They have become very spotty and inconsistent. I installed my new Kessils today and they have been on my tank for 4 hours and i have already started to see a difference in my corals. I still have my SOL's mounted on the sides to simulate dawn,dusk, and moon cycles. Below are some pictures of my new lighting system. I will post new pictures of the corals this weekend when they have had more time to adjust! Im really hoping i have found the perfect lights.

 

Tell me what you think, and if you have had experiences with the Kessils please let me know. Thanks for viewing my thread!

 

 

 

[Diver35]

Heres an look at my tank under my new lighting! 2 Kessil tuna blue a350's and 2 AI SOL Blues for dawn, dusk and moon lighting. All new corals from RAP are glued down as well

Let me know what you think!!

also heres a link to my youtube video of my tank filmed on 10/28/12.

Enjoy!!!!

 

 

[Pjanssen]

Stunning tank set up and corals. Inspiration! Thanks for checking out my thread.

PJ

[jedimasterben]

I have been having some problems with my AI SOL Blues lately. They seemed to make my corals look really nice for the first 6 months but for the past two months however my corals have slowly deteriorated. They have become very spotty and inconsistent.

Any details on this? Adding more light of the same spectrum most likely will not help, you're already giving them high light.

[blizzardscout2]

Beautiful setup. How do you like your Kessil A350s?

[Diver35]

Beautiful setup. How do you like your Kessil A350s?

 

So far they blow the AI SOL Blues out of the water. A few months after placing new corals under the AI Blues polyp extension had increased by 1000% of all corals, Zoas had very long stalks, Montiporas and Acros had zero chance " Started bleaching and losing color after just a week under the lights". With the new Kessils all corals have shrunken down to there normal polyp extension, Montiporas have started returning to there original color and i just added another acropora a couple days ago, It has good polyp extension and good color so far. The kessils a350s have a metal halide look, a lot of shimmer and shadows. I still have the AI Blues on at 5% White 5% Blue and 10% Royal to give the corners and caves in the tank a little bit of light. The lights are still new and this info is based on the lights on the tank for less then a week. I will keep my thread updated on the progress with these lights.

Thanks for viewing my thread!