jedimasterben Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 How you gettin your ponape to not grow so dense? Mine is like all nubbed out. Mo' flow Yea, it's going to be a challenge. I can hang them in front of the LED fixtures as well, and I already have some uneven lighting due to the center brace combined with the gap between the Razors. It's not as noticeable with the BML providing fill but you can really see it when measuring PAR. That's why i'm doing what I'm doing 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 One of my tricolors has corallites that look like AEFW nibbles.. it'd be toast by now if it was FW's. Had me lookin reaaaal hard for a bit. How you gettin your ponape to not grow so dense? Mine is like all nubbed out. No clue on the Ponape. It's lower in the tank but still above 200 PAR. This was on an ORA plug, if that means anything. I broke it off the plug when mounting and now I have two of them, one in my little tank. Quote Link to comment
4x5 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Those top downs are awesome Mark. Everything's looking great. 1 Quote Link to comment
MikeTR Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Mo' flow Him or me? Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Those top downs are awesome Mark. Everything's looking great. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Him or me? He has it in more flow, yours needs more flow Kinda like kat's pink birdsnest that she got rid of. Quote Link to comment
Arce Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Great top down shots, everything looks awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Nice new pics- that rainbow Milli is SWEET!? 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Great top down shots, everything looks awesome. Nice new pics- that rainbow Milli is SWEET! Thanks! If only they looked that good from the front. I did forget to mention on other annoyance. I drifted out of my comfort zone with Kalk and am paying for it. I started adding vinegar to the Kalk mixture at a rate of 45ml per gallon. My Alk has drifted up to 9.3 before I did this and a couple of days later was up to 9.6 and I dropped 2 part dosing by 5ml. Yesterday it was at 10, a rise of .8 over 4 days, so I dropped 2 part by 10ml this time to try and reverse the rise. Annoying, but it will save me some money. Previously I was adding maybe 10ml of vinegar per gallon just to avoid shocking the tank by introducing a carbon source. When I upped it to 45ml per gallon I did have a one day bacterial bloom but the tank is clear again. This is documented to increase Kalk potency by 33% so theoretically if I was dosing 90ml of 2 part a day I should be able to reduce this to 60ml a day. I'm currently at 65ml because I never trust the math. . If I still test high tonight I will go to 55ml and it damn well better start slowly dropping. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 The other interesting thing is that PH has risen a little since adding vinegar to the Kalk. This is probably related to the higher KH, but I though it was interesting and confirms that at my evaporation level Kalk really doesn't do much for my PH. The straight line on the 18th is when I added the temperature probe and module for the 29 gallon. Silly Apex can't handle the added input for some reason. Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 How lame is it if you use some online room planner for a lighting layout? Those aren't microphone stands, those are Halide pendants! Oh, and Feet are Inches 1 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Uneven lighting still sucks 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Uneven lighting still sucks Why do you think it will be uneven? If anything this should solve the current dark spot in the middle. Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Why do you think it will be uneven? If anything this should solve the current dark spot in the middle. You'll have one kind of light on just the outsides (you said that they are not wide reflectors, just pendents, right) and then in the middle the R420R will have a very different light in the middle. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 You'll have one kind of light on just the outsides (you said that they are not wide reflectors, just pendents, right) and then in the middle the R420R will have a very different light in the middle. Yea, it might look odd, or it might not. This is the current layout, and remember I have a BML strip in front as well, angled back. There is more space between the 3 + 3 clusters of the bigger Razor than I show here. The two pucks between the brace are too close to the brace to give good spread, and the hole on the right ends up causing a significant dark spot in the middle/right of the tank. I think with the combination I can at least get a better brightness spread, even though the lights may look different. It comes with 10K bulbs so until I get some 14K there will be a color difference, that's for sure. Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 http://www.marinedepot.com/Maxspect_Razor_R420R_120_Degree_White_Reflector_Reflectors_for_Aquarium_Lighting_LED-Maxspect-0M1511-FILTACRALD-vi.html Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 http://www.marinedepot.com/Maxspect_Razor_R420R_120_Degree_White_Reflector_Reflectors_for_Aquarium_Lighting_LED-Maxspect-0M1511-FILTACRALD-vi.html I own six of those and if anything it makes the shadowing worse. They are a bad solution to the problem and frankly they don't make any sense. I ran with those and then without reflectors (just an acrylic shield over the pucks) and there as no difference. PAR, measured at the same distance from the light, dropped from 500 to 200. It's very odd that they call them 120 lenses when in fact it merely reduces the focus of the LED but you are still restricted to basically a 90 degree angle due to the construction of the honeycomb around each LED. /rant I might need more of these pendants if I like them, then have the wife kill me for abandoning my huge LED light. Quote Link to comment
Arkayology Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I own six of those and if anything it makes the shadowing worse. They are a bad solution to the problem and frankly they don't make any sense. I ran with those and then without reflectors (just an acrylic shield over the pucks) and there as no difference. PAR, measured at the same distance from the light, dropped from 500 to 200. It's very odd that they call them 120 lenses when in fact it merely reduces the focus of the LED but you are still restricted to basically a 90 degree angle due to the construction of the honeycomb around each LED. /rant I might need more of these pendants if I like them, then have the wife kill me for abandoning my huge LED light. I see a slow MH takeover happening here 1 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 If he's gonna do that, though, then I would at least do the tank a favor and get some good reflectors 2 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 I see a slow MH takeover happening here Ha. If he's gonna do that, though, then I would at least do the tank a favor and get some good reflectors Yea, bigger real reflectors, but not pretty and I probably couldn't pass them off as no big deal. I've only ever seen Halide once, at a local fish store, the Radion 20K bulb run on who knows what ballast over an empty tank. My immediate reaction was the bulb belonged in a department store, not over a tank. Obviously I am at odds with the majority of Halide lovers here. 14K Phoenix bulbs should be here Saturday (priority mail), pendants with 10K bulbs arrive tomorrow. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Alk 10.2 ... fine, 50ml 2 part a day. 1 Quote Link to comment
RollaJase Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Your SPS are looking great Mark. Your photo editing settings are pretty much the same as mine but I tend to aim at around 14-16k with my white balance and I increase the clarity setting of the raw by 10-15% as I found it helped with the colour a little. I only tweak the red/blue/green channels if I am really trying to make a particular colour stand out against the rest. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 Good grief, these pendants are HUGE. Wife is not happy. The Razors look so cool, these things look like upside down cauldrons! 3 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 25, 2014 Author Share Posted October 25, 2014 The light of the 10k bulbs that came with these fixtures is indescribably ugly. I could not turn it off fast enough. I'll try with the 14K bulbs, and let them warm up properly, but I think I bought a couple of unusable fixtures. A fool and his money .... Though they would light up the 29 nicely .... Now on to something I need HELP with. Alk is 10.5. 9.1 two weeks ago, 9.3 Monday, 10.1 yesterday and 10.5 today. Take out the noise from the different times and such and it appears I'm gaining about .25 KH no matter what I do. WTF. I broke out a new KH kit just to make sure, and then tested again taking water from a different location. 10.4 to 10.5 every test. The doser is turned OFF for now. Calcium is 460, 10 higher that it tested Monday. Coral color is bout the same and the big purple stylo is healing remarkably fast from the wound I gave it when breaking off a branch. I'll have a pic later. So what changed? Monday I refilled the topoff and changed the way I mixed Kalk. 1. I started adding 45ml vinegar / gallon of water before adding Kalk 2. I added 6 teaspoons of Kalk to 2 gallons of water 3. After reading an article about not mixing Kalk too long I shook the jug for just 5 seconds, then poured the mixture into my topoff container. I did notice it appeared a bit unmixed after pouring it in but it cleared up the next day and looked normal. So is my Kalk mixture that much more potent than before? I'd be thrilled because this will save me a lot of money in 2 part. I was dosing 90ml per day, dropped it all the way down to 50ml yesterday and now it's off. I was dosing each part 24 times a day, Alk at the top of each hour and Calcium 10 minutes later. I see no precipitate in the sump and I can't imagine 10 minutes would be an issue. Thoughts? 1 Quote Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 Interesting- this is good reading - it will be good to see where you end up with two part. How much do you evaporate a day on your system? 1 Quote Link to comment
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