Mark's 40B and 46 bow

[GtTap]

Are you running t5 on all your tanks.

[markalot]

Are you running t5 on all your tanks.

 

No, the 40 is the only one with T5's, everything else is LED. The 40 will be all LED in a year or so, once I run through all my T5 bulbs (I have way too many at the moment).

 

I have an AquaticLife LED fixture ( http://www.aquaticlife.com/light-fixtures/led-10w-marine ) plus 2 custom BuildMyLED strips over the 46, and a Current Reef LED fixture plus a BuildMyLED strip over my 20. I got the color I wanted via T5's and then worked with LED strips until I duplicated it. Now that I have found the perfect mixture I see BuildMyLED is introducing brighter strips and a 20K lookalike spectrum.

 

That AquaticLife lamp was on sale for hundreds off the original price. It's a crazy combination of white, blue, and pink, but it does a great job of duplicating blue+, coral+, and purple+ bulb combination. I would never buy one at full price and never put one on a shallow tank due to the disco effect this thing has.

 

All my tanks have cheap blue LED strips as well for morning / evening lighting.

 

 

In other news.

 

I think I have found a replacement for the 46. Marineland makes what they call a 40 high 36x13x20 that has an empty weight of 50lbs. This plus a slightly taller stand than the 46 sits on will look good in that spot. It's narrow, but my current scape is narrow so all I'll lose is some sand in the middle area. I looked at a Deep Blue 50 gallon, which is the same footprint as a 40 breeder but 2 inches taller, but the empty weight was up near 100lbs, which is more than I care to handle.

[GtTap]

I just wish my LEDs came with a controller so I could program it to run a full day cycle by ramping up through out the day. Its so hard to find a scape that works for me because I'm always worried about what corals sting each other, having a shallow tank don't help either.

[Arkayology]

I think I have found a replacement for the 46. Marineland makes what they call a 40 high 36x13x20 that has an empty weight of 50lbs. This plus a slightly taller stand than the 46 sits on will look good in that spot. It's narrow, but my current scape is narrow so all I'll lose is some sand in the middle area. I looked at a Deep Blue 50 gallon, which is the same footprint as a 40 breeder but 2 inches taller, but the empty weight was up near 100lbs, which is more than I care to handle.

[markalot]

I could not hold out any longer. I've had it with these T5's.

 

CV-RAZ-16016 Maxspect 27" Razor 160w 16K LED Fixture - shipped from Premium Aquatics, should be here tomorrow.

 

Maxspect Razor R420R 120 Degree White Reflector CV-RAZ-RFLCTR 3 (from CoralVue, not yet shipped).

 

Main reasoning?

 

I placed this light over my 46 bowfront -> http://www.aquaticlife.com/light-fixtures/led-10w-marine

 

This is not a very good LED light, but they are being cleared out now at cheap prices, so I got one. Since placing it over my 46 my monti's have increased coloration dramatically. I feed this tank at the same time as the 40, same amounts, same combination of food. I now believe the secret to LED coloration is the fact you can dump a crap ton of blue light into the tank and then make it appear more white with just a few white LED's. Overloading my 40B with blue light makes it look like a tub of Windex. I even tried running 5 Blue+ and one 10K and the colors looked like crap. 5 blue+ and one Coral+ looked a little better, but still too Windexy for my taste.

 

We'll see if this works out. It's a great light and it will also fit over the 46 (soon to be 40).

[markalot]

The Razor is up. I actually hung it once I realized the tank just happened to line up with a sturdy ceiling brace, right down the middle. This is with the stock 90 degree lenses.

 

cell pic

 

 

Unfortunately the back side of the tank is now visible and Ugly! 2 years of salt creep and all kinds of nastiness I'll need to clean up.

[RnMB1988]

The Razor is up. I actually hung it once I realized the tank just happened to line up with a sturdy ceiling brace, right down the middle. This is with the stock 90 degree lenses.

 

cell pic

 

 

Unfortunately the back side of the tank is now visible and Ugly! 2 years of salt creep and all kinds of nastiness I'll need to clean up.

 

Looking good!!! Love LED's.......to me there is no reason (to me!) to run anything else.

[markalot]

Did a pretty big rescape tonight to open up some more space for acros. I also cleaned the glass which gave me my first chance ever to take some top down photos with lights on.

 

I moved my 1.5 year old pink bird up in a new more prominent position. This was my first birdsnest and I killed all but a small sliver. My goal here was to mix up the colors and place the higher light loving corals closer to the center of the tank.

 

The green Birdsnest is now the largest coral. It's scary big and I'm going to have to find a way to trim it back without destroying it. Most of the branches have welded together so that it's a big mass of polyps with very little space underneath.

 

The slimer is also quite large and I'm having trouble making it look right no matter where I put it.

 

FTS. Still cloudy from rescaping

 

 

This acro has been in the tank for 2 months now. I'm hoping for more of that blue and less green!

 

 

I just purchased this next one from the local fish store. Labeled Fuzzy Purple Acro.

 

Top Down

 

 

[Arkayology]

Looks good Mark!

[gena]

Has the green slimer had a big growth spurt recently???? It looks so much bigger than I remember. I it .

[markalot]

Looks good Mark!

 

Thanks!

 

 

Has the green slimer had a big growth spurt recently???? It looks so much bigger than I remember. I it .

 

Nope, it's just been steadily getting larger and larger. The beast never slows down. I had him in the back for a while because I assumed it would get killed by AEFW, but I seemed to have killed that pest. I lucked into a very hardy slimer.

 

It's also extremely aggressive. I know it killed an aptasia by sliming it, and I stink up the entire basement whenever I touch it. So much slime!

[slowngreen]

Looking great as usual!

[BattleAthletics]

Wow everything looks nice! I'm going to have to read through tons of pages in order to catch up.

[markalot]

Wow everything looks nice! I'm going to have to read through tons of pages in order to catch up.

 

Thanks. The entire thread is not worth it, trust me. This tank has been through mistake after mistake until finally, after 2 years, I might be a competent reefer. Maybe.

 

Are you running t5 on all your tanks.

 

So, just to update this, a few days later, no, I am no longer running any T5's. I will miss the color options, but I'll get over it. Going to try and sell my lights plus numerous 4 month old T5 bulbs locally (Cincinnati area) for cheap to someone who has a 36" tank and needs a quick lighting solution.

[gena]

 

 

 

 

Nope, it's just been steadily getting larger and larger. The beast never slows down. I had him in the back for a while because I assumed it would get killed by AEFW, but I seemed to have killed that pest. I lucked into a very hardy slimer.

 

It's also extremely aggressive. I know it killed an aptasia by sliming it, and I stink up the entire basement whenever I touch it. So much slime!

I love it's growth shape. I'm hoping mine does the same. Mine is always trying to kill the immediate surrounding monticap areas. They seem to be doing ok together though. Monti recovers and slimer tries to kill again, it's a circle LOL.

[RollaJase]

My LFS just put two razors over their display tank, they looks great but they are having a few issues with them. The units were purchased at the same time from the same vendor and the serial numbers are within 3 final digits of each other but the hue on the blue channel is completely different. One fixture is much darker blue and the other is more turquoise with nothing but blues on and at max setting. Maxspect even sent a third to them to try and this one is different as well. I find this really bizarre, I would still buy the fixture because I think they look great both aesthetically and visually but it has made me think twice about sticking two over a tank.

 

The re-scape looks great though Mark, some of those SPS colonies are huge!

[markalot]

My LFS just put two razors over their display tank, they looks great but they are having a few issues with them. The units were purchased at the same time from the same vendor and the serial numbers are within 3 final digits of each other but the hue on the blue channel is completely different. One fixture is much darker blue and the other is more turquoise with nothing but blues on and at max setting. Maxspect even sent a third to them to try and this one is different as well. I find this really bizarre, I would still buy the fixture because I think they look great both aesthetically and visually but it has made me think twice about sticking two over a tank.

 

The re-scape looks great though Mark, some of those SPS colonies are huge!

 

Interesting. Mine is a very odd blue, not like any other blue I've seen. I would say more turquoise than blue. It still looks good, but not what I expected. I wonder if their source for blue LED's is having quality control issues?

[RollaJase]

Interesting. Mine is a very odd blue, not like any other blue I've seen. I would say more turquoise than blue. It still looks good, but not what I expected. I wonder if their source for blue LED's is having quality control issues?

My thoughts were different batches in the blues causing the discrepancy but I can't believe that three identical units would have 3 different hues of blue. Quality control issue definitely seems like a likely reason.

[markalot]

Snapshot of the neglected 46, coraline on the front glass.

 

I've got a cleaner called The Flipper being shipped that will hopefully allow me to scrape the glass without having to swim in the damn tank. If it works I'll probably continue to put off purchase of a new tank.

 

[markalot]

First attempt at a real photo of the 40 with the Razor. Blues at 95%, Whites 75%.

 

[gena]

I have The Flipper. It may have trouble with that coralline. You are probably better off with a razor blade initially and then The Flipper to maintain. I am happy with mine .

 

Tanks are looking amazing .

[markalot]

I have The Flipper. It may have trouble with that coralline. You are probably better off with a razor blade initially and then The Flipper to maintain. I am happy with mine .

 

Tanks are looking amazing .

 

Thanks Gena. I figure I'll have to do an initial scrape and then see if I can maintain clean glass.

 

Your tank looks amazing, mine is ok.

[vlangel]

Hey Mark, I haven't been on this forum in a long time but your tanks are looking real nice. Good job!

 

[markalot]

Hey Mark, I haven't been on this forum in a long time but your tanks are looking real nice. Good job!

 

Thanks Dawn.

 

Some picture love for the 46. First, I took a full hour to carefully scrape the glass. Since I scratched the glass last time I was careful to only scrape horizontally which meant I had to move some rocks around and ... well ... one key rock fell and cracked a lot of my monti caps so I went ahead and re-scaped to move the large broken pieces of cap to the very back.

 

Naturally the anemone got pissed and started to walk so I waited until he found a spot he liked then finished.

 

The tank looks damn good when cleaned ... really good. The wifes favorite tank. Hopefully "the flipper" will help me keep the bowfront clean.

 

So, pictures.

 

 

 

I almost got the entire side cleaned before I got fed up and quit.

 

 

Tried for some fish pics. Took a hundred, these were the best, and not that great.

 

 

I only see the clowns when they think it's feeding time. I've had the female for about 2 years now, the male for about 6 months.

 

[gena]

Scraping coralline is a labor of love, for the tank . Looks great...it's always worth the effort when you're done, and a PITA during the process .