Evan's SPS 120

[evan127]

I'm switching out the bulbs. I'm going from 4 Blue Plus, 1 Coral Plus and 1 Purple Plus. The new combination will be 2 Coral Plus, 2 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, 1 actinic.

[evan127]

A whole month has gone by. Time to update this thread!

 

December Update

Settling in:

The rocks have colored up nicely. I am seeing coralline algae popping up literally everywhere. The eggcrate I put down as the protective base for my rocks is getting very purple.

Lighting:

I tweaked the bulb combination and duration. I am running four Blue Plus bulbs and two Coral Plus bulbs now. Getting great color and growth with that combination.

Chemistry:

I took the refugium offline as it was absorbing nitrates too quickly. I am nitrate dosing with potassium nitrate. Last test result was about 3ppm. My goal is 15ppm. After I hit 15ppm, I will test daily to see what the daily consumption will be.

Feeding:

I am feeding a ton too. Lots of Reef Frenzy, Reef Chili, Pohl's Coral Vitalizer, Marine Snow and of course flakes. Mornings are flakes, evenings are Reef Frenzy and Reef Chili, nights alternate PCV and Marine Snow.

Fish:

All of the fish are doing great. One of my clownfish has disappeared without a trace. Not in the sump, rock work, overflows, etc. I think it jumped and a certain fuzzy four legged 11 pound hunter got to it. A single chromis has been outcast. It hangs out in my bunch of montipora digitata. At first I thought it was going to strip some tissue off the coral in preparation for laying eggs. That's not the case. It's just been rejected from the school.

Coral:

All of my corals are doing great. I have two that are taking a lot longer to acclimate to the light or the change in spectrum. My blue milli is bleaching and my acropora caroliniana is browning. Other than those two, everything else is doing spectacular. I added some ORA frags that are so bright! Great Christmas present

[evan127]

Pictures! Finally!!

 

 

 

Please ignore the frag rack and really cheap ATI hanging kit

 

 

I made this shot more blue in post. My tank is very white during the day. Kind of like the blue look.

[evan127]

Well, woke up this morning to my ATI fixture having two bulb channels not working. I switched the bulbs out with ones that work and I think its those two bulb slots that aren't working properly. Literally happened overnight. Last night they were illuminating just fine. I have my fan setting at 9 too. Not the best way to start the new year. Any trouble shooting ideas that wont void my warranty?

[markalot]

It has two plugs or just one?

[evan127]

My fixture has two plugs. It's the 48" Sunpower 6 bulb.

[markalot]

So for the heck of it have you tried switching what outlet the plugs go into? IF nothing works it's one of the ballasts. The 6 bulb has one ballast for 4 bulbs and another for 2 bulbs IIRC.

[evan127]

I did try swapping the outlets. I even plugged the ATI into a normal house outlet and not my Apex.

The weird thing is is its not the two bulbs on one ballast. Slots 2 and 5 are on one ballast (I'm assuming) and 1, 3, 4, and 6 are on the other ballast. Looking how I have my ATI positioned, its slot 4 and 6.

[markalot]

That is odd. If 1 is the front bulb and 6 is the rear bulb 2 and 5 are on the same ballast.

[evan127]

Right? Its like half the ballast quit on me haha. I'm not really sure what to do. I researched a little bit online about it and it could be a loose bulb. I don't know how a bulb has come loose. I will try that after dinner. This is all kind of a big bummer. The fixture hasn't even been used for 3 months.

[DaveFason]

Your unit has three ballast. It sounds like one is not working as it should.

 

Check the loose T5, sometimes the connections can be finicky with those end caps. You don't have much moisture that you can see, do you?

 

-Dave

[evan127]

Hey, thanks for the response! I learned there are three ballasts while taking apart the fixture and replacing one with a new ballast ATI sent me yesterday. Still no luck. With the power cord oriented on the right, bulbs 6 (far back bulb) and 4 are still not firing. I checked my work twice. Correct wires into the appropriate ballast. I've taken the bulbs out, twice now, and used some compressed air in the slots. I've used new bulbs, known working bulbs, as well as different outlets other than my Apex. Still no luck. I'm incredibly disappointed with this fixture. Its literally 3 months old. I'm starting to worry about my livestock now as its been a week since this fixture crapped out. Not the best way to start the year.

 

Edit: I just checked my Nest cam and watched the fixture turn on and off three times in a row. Awesome.

[markalot]

Sounds like a bad bulb. Have you tried different bulbs in those slots? I bought an ATI actinic once that caused all kinds of issues until I removed it from the fixture. One dead bulb will keep both on the circuit from firing.

[evan127]

Well, I got the light working. The fan is not working now. Could be loose wiring. I'll have to check it tomorrow. It was either a bad bulb, bad ballast, or a combination of the two. What ever the case may be, all of the bulbs are firing now. I will check the fan wiring again tomorrow. Don't know why they aren't working now though. I've spent more time on this light fixture the last week than I ever have with the years of use with LEDs (programing, lens changes, etc.)

[jstuver]

I had a ballast go out on my brand new dimmable ATi that I had only a few months after buying it. You have to be really careful with all the wiring and while putting the housing back on to not break any other wire connections. Also I know with mine the bulbs do need to have the end that has the writing on it normally towards the side where the cord is as there are holes that cool the bulbs on that end not sure if yours is the same as mine was

[evan127]

Well, effaroo! Things have not been going my way in the slightest. The one time, the ONE time I don't empty my skimmer collection cup that day the whole thing overflows. So that's great. Good amount of brown algae sprouting up everywhere.

 

I'm being overly dramatic. It did overflow and I am seeing some algae popping up because of it. I did however get a steal on an ORA Tri-Color that is huge. Like, larger than my hand huge. So stoked. Now that my lights are working I will get a picture of it later today.

[jstuver]

Well, effaroo! Things have not been going my way in the slightest. The one time, the ONE time I don't empty my skimmer collection cup that day the whole thing overflows. So that's great. Good amount of brown algae sprouting up everywhere.

 

I'm being overly dramatic. It did overflow and I am seeing some algae popping up because of it. I did however get a steal on an ORA Tri-Color that is huge. Like, larger than my hand huge. So stoked. Now that my lights are working I will get a picture of it later today.

Haha that sucks when that happens! Can't wait to see the new coral!

[evan127]

I thought I would make a small update.

 

Lighting: I have decided that I need to reduce my photoperiod a bit. Lights are on from 12:00 to 19:00, full spectrum on from 13:00 to 18:00. I was seeing some corals brown and some bleach a tad. I think it was just too much light for too long, even with my high nutrients.

 

Nutrients: Things are tough when you don't have a ton of fish in your system. With such a low bioload, I am pouring in gallons of potassium nitrate. No, not really gallons, but upwards of 25ml per day erherm... Phosphorus is literally not showing up on each test result. I guess it might be time to look into phosphate dosing.

 

Flow: To be honest, either its user error or I made a bad choice based on technical information, I don't care for the Gyre by itself. Thus why I am looking to trade it away. For whatever reason, in my system, the flow is just not great. I have tried positioning it high, low, to the left a bit, angle the cages up, down, left, right, tilted opposite, everything. I can not get a gyre to circulate in my tank well. Even with my shallow aquascape.

 

Filtration: I am trying to keep a dirty tank. Its more difficult than I thought. I have always had issues with keeping my inevitable ULNS in the past. One of my new years goals regarding reef keeping was to keep a nutrient rich system. Besides dumping in buckets of potassium nitrate every day and feeding fish 3 to 4 times a day and corals once a day, I am struggling to keep nutrients high. Which brings me to my next point.

 

Fish: What anthias should I add? I am thinking of adding 2 groups of anthias. One group of 2 females, one male of lyretail. The second group would be maybe 4 female and 1 male of bartlett's. I have thought about adding 8 to 9 more blue green chromis. But that seems kind of boring.

 

TLDR: Light too much, nutrient difficult, flow no good, add more fish. *caveman grunts*

[markalot]

Good luck with the nutrients. It's amazing how they can vanish in a growing tank.

 

I've had great luck with the Lyretail, just two of them, and I've heard nightmare stories about the others.

 

I like big schools of Chromis, Lyretails, and the little cardinals that I have.

[evan127]

Thanks Mark. I need it. I feel embarrassed to say how much KNO3 I am using per day. Maybe I need to concentrate it. I've been mixing 1 tablespoon of KNO3 with 2 cups of RODI. Might decrease that ratio down significantly if I am going to continue to dose so much of it.

 

You've heard nightmare stories about other anthias or the bartlett's? I like big schools of chromis too. I just worry that by adding more, the one that is singled out with create a new school and there will be turf wars. Just kidding. I do worry about there being to schools of chromis though. Not the aesthetic I am going for. I definitely want to have small fish to make the reef not seem so small over time. I like banggais. I've never had a school of them before. My girlfriend loved the one banggai we had years ago. I also like the fact most of them are captive bred.

[evan127]

Looking at my reef when the lights are off is very important to me. Checking out my little seeds this morning with my coffee and I've noticed that all my corals are deep brown. If I took a picture without a flash, the corals would look dark brown and might even look like they are on a natural reef. But the disappointing thing is that they are equally brown across the entirety of the coral. The tips and bases of the frags are not white at all, which is disappointing and concerning.

 

I added a shell of a lot of snails (pun ) last week and its fascinating to watch them move about when the lights are off. They have done a great job cleaning my algae from my skimmer mishap.

 

I think this weekend I might go fishing for my clownfish and move him into the anemone tank I have in my office.

[Slowtwitch]

Enjoying the chronicle. Can't wait to see it mature.

[evan127]

Enjoying the chronicle. Can't wait to see it mature.

 

 

Hey thanks! I can't wait either! I should take some pictures today.

[evan127]

I didn't get to photos today. I definitely will tomorrow. I might add just 5 lyretail anthias and, probably against my better judgement, a yellow eye tang. I believe its one of the smallest ones in the trade.

 

Between Christmas, my birthday and some extra gear I am selling, I might get an MP40 and a boat load of more frags fairly soon. I am going out of town for 4 days at the end of the month so frags might have to wait until I get back. Though part of me wants to get them, cut them, glue them and forget them.

[evan127]

I didn't get photos today either haha. The day got away from me. I've been drinking some beer and looking at the reef. I'm thinking I need to add doors to my stand (finally). I'm also contemplating....sand.... Cut me off! I've been watching a few (a lot) YouTube videos and I am sand envious. But I am not envious of the upkeep at all.