14K or 20K for better SPS coloration

[J Rog]

The Hannah checker really blows but but it's prolly more accurate than any test kit out there... A search on here will reveal that for ya I have a 20 something page with some extensive testing I did with lab grade mixtures of po4... While not perfectly accurate I guess it's safe to say it does get us close enough for what we do...

So do you think the Hanna is more accurate then the Salifert? One of my LFS might have the Salifert in stock.. I was going to call around when they open and maybe go pick it up on my lunch break from work if they have it..

 

[Troylee]

Hard to say... If I still had mine I could tell ya I have some controlled samples from a lab I could have put them up against... Prolly gonna be fine with either something is better than nothing haha...

 

[J Rog]

Hard to say... If I still had mine I could tell ya I have some controlled samples from a lab I could have put them up against... Prolly gonna be fine with either something is better than nothing haha...

True

 

[J Rog]

Loos like WWC has the kit. Its about 20mins from me. Im going to swing by there but man do they mark it up in price.. But i love that place.. lol Good excuse from me to go there since i couldn't go over the weekend do to working out of town. I usually go there almost every weekend.. haha

 

[VegasRick]

Not sure how much those led strips add for coloration, speaking about both intensity and coverage. I have best results supplementing with VHO actinic, but am considering going with diy led setup. With good lighting, brown usually indicates too many nutrients while pale faded colors indicate lack of nutrients

 

[Troylee]

Loos like WWC has the kit. Its about 20mins from me. Im going to swing by there but man do they mark it up in price.. But i love that place.. lol Good excuse from me to go there since i couldn't go over the weekend do to working out of town. I usually go there almost every weekend.. haha

Lucky!!!! Someday I will get walk into a store like that and see big name corals... For now I'll just keep spending every last penny I got to have them shipped to me so I can sneak a peak and see all the fuss haha..:tongue: btw agreed Rick that is very true....

 

[J Rog]

Not sure how much those led strips add for coloration, speaking about both intensity and coverage. I have best results supplementing with VHO actinic, but am considering going with diy led setup. With good lighting, brown usually indicates too many nutrients while pale faded colors indicate lack of nutrients

Ya, I think its a nutrients thing now.. I going to change a couple things in my weekley things to do and see if it helps.

 

[J Rog]

Lucky!!!! Someday I will get walk into a store like that and see big name corals... For now I'll just keep spending every last penny I got to have them shipped to me so I can sneak a peak and see all the fuss haha..:tongue: btw agreed Rick that is very true....

Ya, im super lucky to have them so close!

 

[J Rog]

whats weird about the whole PO4 side of things is not only do a do a decent water change weekly but I also have the BRS dual reactor for carbon and GFO. I am having some green hair algae in a couple areas.. So i upped the carbon and GFO media and the green hair algea seems to get worse.. Also my skimmer does a great job getting lot of crap out.. So I don't know whats up.. I have a freak tank..

 

[VegasRick]

So many variables its often hard to pin point it. Maybe its time to change out the DI resins, or have you started feeding the tank more or new suppliments.

 

[Troylee]

I would say it has to do with your water most of the time... Even with a 0 Tds reading that doesn't mean the water has zero p04, a Tds meter doesn't actually recognize p04... Feeding can contribute as can rocks bound with it and even heard some carbon can leach it.... How often do you change the media in the reactors??

 

[J Rog]

So many variables its often hard to pin point it. Maybe its time to change out the DI resins, or have you started feeding the tank more or new suppliments.

Just got new DI Resin from the filter guys. I got the 2 stage one. Also, I just changed out the filters on the RO unit. Maybe it will take a couple more water changes with the new stuff to help. I have only done 2 20 gallon water changes with the new filters..

 

[J Rog]

I would say it has to do with your water most of the time... Even with a 0 Tds reading that doesn't mean the water has zero p04, a Tds meter doesn't actually recognize p04... Feeding can contribute as can rocks bound with it and even heard some carbon can leach it.... How often do you change the media in the reactors??

I change carbon and GFO every 2-3 weeks. I have heard the carbon can leach as well if you don't change it often enough..

 

[J Rog]

Well, I ordered the XM 20K's and put them in my 120 gallon. I also ordered a Radium 20K 150 Watt for my sunpod on my 29 gallon biocube. Well I was taking the old bulb out and it broke.. Tried to put the new bulb in and that broke!! Not to happy right now.. On both bulbs it was the ceramic ends that broke not the actual bulb..

 

[Troylee]

That really sucks!!!!! Any way of returning it???

 

[J Rog]

Not sure if I can.. I ordered it from Marine Depot. Im nervous to buy another expensive bulb for it just to break again... But im just going to have to do it.. I have been thinking about going T5 on that tank though.. But i have always had MH.. I wouldn't even know where to start with T5's.. Any advise on a good fixture for a 29 gallon biocube?

 

[J Rog]

Ok, so this is what i did about my whole sunpod not wanting me to put bulbs in it.. lol I was going to see if I can get a new bulb locally over the weekend.. I went to a couple stores that I usually don't go to.. Just because they are a little further then i usually go. I stoped by OCeans Direct in Longwood, FL. I was talking to the owner and told him what was going on. He said he did have some bulbs but nothing i really wanted.. I think he only had 12k's and I don't even remember what brand it was.. I mentioned i might want to eventually do LED's. So it turns out these guys have there own LED units. He also uses some on his holding tanks. So he buts out his Par meter. In line above his long tank he had a 250Watt MH then he had a Cree LED fixture, then he had there fixture. He measred the Par of each unit and placed sensor of the meter at the botton of the tank for each light. The LED fixture they sell blow all the other units out of the water!! One 120W unit read 216 Par! And it was a good 1 foot or more above the tank. He offered to sell me the Cree unit they had which I thought I would want but the unit they make was really so much better. It looks amazing over my tank as well. Im really happy with it! It was at a great price to! It saved the day for me as well. I think they have them in 120W and 240W units. They look great. Super stoked!! My BTA had a really good response to it. It seemed a little more bubbly rather then kinda of stringy.. lol It's a great unit! i have to start posting more pics but I only have my phone cam and it sucks. I will borrow a camera and post picas of both tanks ASAP.

 

[arotbart]

cracked HQI ends

I just set up my frag tank and was modifying my old fixture that has two HQI's...so I decided to put an Ushio 10K on one side for growth and a radium 20K on the other side to color it.

Putting in the Ushio, same thing happened, the ceramic broke into like 2-3 pieces...i though man, 70 bucks down the drain...well, I thought a bit more about it, and looked at the bulb, and ceramic really does not do much other than when you add/remove the a bulb....so I took the largest piece and put an ever so slight amount of glue on it and slapped that sucker back on and there you go..saved me a bulb!

just have to remember not to use that cracked end when I pull the bulb out to replace it!

 

[Troylee]

Yeah a thin superglue would hold that ceramic back together in a second if the pieces are big enough to glue back on...