480g sps shallows + 1000g build

[CoralWealth]

anything new happening? Hope everything has been going good!

 

[Recklessryan904]

anything new happening? Hope everything has been going good!

Both tanks have completed cycling , my wife transferred over some fish from my 180 into the 480. Unfortunately not much will change with the tanks until I return home at the end of August . Their is a lot to do still , dosing /apex cabinet , water change closet plumbing , purchasing /mounting lights . I will be adding 2 gyre 280s when I get back , the main thing next is to get the calc /alk/mag up to be ready for some acros . I’ve also figured out the fish list for the tank . Sorry for the lack of updates , their is much I can show being out at sea . I think letting the tank stabilize for a few months will really benefit the acros going in .

 

[Recklessryan904]

My wife transferred over a Red Sea Sailfin tang,yellow flanked fairy wrasse, Melanurus wrasse , 3 blue chromis and a yellow torch coral to see how it does until I get home .i want this tank to be a mix of beautiful fish and acros . As for the fish stocking list ;Woot(wrasse obsessed )
- Red Sea sailfin
- chocolate/mimic tang
- maucileps tang
-tomini tang
- Male blue jaw triggerfish
- male/female swallowtail angel pair
-Red margin fairy wrasse
- Australian Scott’s fairy wrasse
- black fin fairy wrasse
- labouti fairy wrasse
-African exquisite wrasse
- Hawaiian flame wrasse
-yellow flanked fairy wrasse
-melanurus wrasse
- 4/5 lyretail anthias

 

[CoralWealth]

Looks good!

Hope everything goes smoothly till you get back. Do you plan on starting with frags or getting some colonies to start too with such a large tank?

 

[Recklessryan904]

Looks good!

Hope everything goes smoothly till you get back. Do you plan on starting with frags or getting some colonies to start too with such a large tank?

Thank you !
Luckily my wife is just as passionate with this hobby and if not more consistent than I am haha . She takes care of the tank very well while I’m gone . We have a notebook where she documents water parameters/feedings every day so I can help her adjust things if needed . I will be starting this tank off with 100% frags . My goal is to heavily document growth as share my journey /parameters with you guys . I’ve already made a list of some signature acros that I want to put in when the tank is ready . I’m also still on the fence with lighting , my lfs has a pretty insane acro tank with all radions . I also came across sanjays tank and might take the plunge and go 8 radion pros .

 

[Recklessryan904]

 

[CoralWealth]

Thank you !
Luckily my wife is just as passionate with this hobby and if not more consistent than I am haha . She takes care of the tank very well while I’m gone . We have a notebook where she documents water parameters/feedings every day so I can help her adjust things if needed . I will be starting this tank off with 100% frags . My goal is to heavily document growth as share my journey /parameters with you guys . I’ve already made a list of some signature acros that I want to put in when the tank is ready . I’m also still on the fence with lighting , my lfs has a pretty insane acro tank with all radions . I also came across sanjays tank and might take the plunge and go 8 radion pros .

Thats awesome she helps out a ton, I will have to try to get my girlfriend to do the same when I am gone on business trips haha. She is good at feeding, thats it as of now haha. The calcium reactor really makes things really easy though.

I think you can grow SPS pretty easily with T5 or LEDS as long as the tank is mature and everything is stable. I just like how easy the T5 are.

 

[Recklessryan904]

Thats awesome she helps out a ton, I will have to try to get my girlfriend to do the same when I am gone on business trips haha. She is good at feeding, thats it as of now haha. The calcium reactor really makes things really easy though.

I think you can grow SPS pretty easily with T5 or LEDS as long as the tank is mature and everything is stable. I just like how easy the T5 are.

I think the best way to start is have her watch you do the general maintenance a few times then guide her through it . Also in the notebook we have troubleshooting for everything like lights ,skimmer ,pumps and parameters where if I’m out of cell range and can’t answer a sat email she can start figuring out what’s wrong . The tank has everything labeled on the power strip and valves . Once the apex is hooked up she can control everything off the tablet . Even though it a big tank we have made where it super easy to take care of . Their is proof with leds that they can grow acros no doubt , I think having a PAR meter will give you the beat chance of success with leds . T5s are super simple but I’m just concerned with how much heat 20 54w bulbs would put out . With the radions I can raise them up higher off the water and lower the intensity according to the PAR meter .part of the reason why I might just stick to my ghl is that she can make small adjustments easily on the doser versus the reactor .

 

[CoralWealth]

I think the best way to start is have her watch you do the general maintenance a few times then guide her through it . Also in the notebook we have troubleshooting for everything like lights ,skimmer ,pumps and parameters where if I’m out of cell range and can’t answer a sat email she can start figuring out what’s wrong . The tank has everything labeled on the power strip and valves . Once the apex is hooked up she can control everything off the tablet . Even though it a big tank we have made where it super easy to take care of . Their is proof with leds that they can grow acros no doubt , I think having a PAR meter will give you the beat chance of success with leds . T5s are super simple but I’m just concerned with how much heat 20 54w bulbs would put out . With the radions I can raise them up higher off the water and lower the intensity according to the PAR meter .part of the reason why I might just stick to my ghl is that she can make small adjustments easily on the doser versus the reactor .

that is a good idea, thanks for that!

Yup I may try LEDS over my next frag tank down the line but right now, noone could convince me to take the T5s off my display haha

 

[Recklessryan904]

that is a good idea, thanks for that!

Yup I may try LEDS over my next frag tank down the line but right now, noone could convince me to take the T5s off my display haha

That’s why I haven’t pulled the trigger on any lights yet haha . The tank has 3 radion pros from my 180 on it and I have no doubt they can grow acros from my last tank . Why’s holding me back on t5s is the heat from 20-22 bulbs and bulb replacements if I have to do a long trip it would be hard for my wife to do . The downside to the leds is the upfront cost . I could easily start out with 6 but down the road when the frags turn into colonies I will need 8 otherwise I will have shadowing .

 

[CoralWealth]

That’s why I haven’t pulled the trigger on any lights yet haha . The tank has 3 radion pros from my 180 on it and I have no doubt they can grow acros from my last tank . Why’s holding me back on t5s is the heat from 20-22 bulbs and bulb replacements if I have to do a long trip it would be hard for my wife to do . The downside to the leds is the upfront cost . I could easily start out with 6 but down the road when the frags turn into colonies I will need 8 otherwise I will have shadowing .

Yup its a tough decision for sure. I know you were previously thinking about a combo between the two, did you ditch that idea?

 

[Recklessryan904]

My plan originally if I went the radion route was to do 6 g4 pros with 3 rows of 2x54 t5 retrofit . I’m trying to be as cost effective as possible on this build and for that many retrofits it’s almost as much as radion . It’s not out the window yet but after seeing sanjays , wwc tanks the g4s alone are very capable of growing large colonies . The main reason I’m leaning towards all radions now is the simplicity /heat . I’m trying to keep Maintence as minimal as possible for my wife and not having to do bulb changes definitely cuts down on yearly cost / monthly maintenance.

 

[CoralWealth]

My plan originally if I went the radion route was to do 6 g4 pros with 3 rows of 2x54 t5 retrofit . I’m trying to be as cost effective as possible on this build and for that many retrofits it’s almost as much as radion . It’s not out the window yet but after seeing sanjays , wwc tanks the g4s alone are very capable of growing large colonies . The main reason I’m leaning towards all radions now is the simplicity /heat . I’m trying to keep Maintence as minimal as possible for my wife and not having to do bulb changes definitely cuts down on yearly cost / monthly maintenance.

Yup makes sense, I think Vivid runs only on G4s too.

 

[bubbaque]

My plan originally if I went the radion route was to do 6 g4 pros with 3 rows of 2x54 t5 retrofit . I’m trying to be as cost effective as possible on this build and for that many retrofits it’s almost as much as radion . It’s not out the window yet but after seeing sanjays , wwc tanks the g4s alone are very capable of growing large colonies . The main reason I’m leaning towards all radions now is the simplicity /heat . I’m trying to keep Maintence as minimal as possible for my wife and not having to do bulb changes definitely cuts down on yearly cost / monthly maintenance.

I believe WWC only uses radion only on the grow out tanks where everything is pretty flat. The tanks with rock use t5 supplemental.

 

[Recklessryan904]

I believe WWC only uses radion only on the grow out tanks where everything is pretty flat. The tanks with rock use t5 supplemental.

I know their 900 g has blue plus supplements along with their 500g I believe . I’m not throwing the retrofits out the door yet as t5s would give perfect coverage mixed in with the radions it’s just going to come down to what’s going to give me the best bang for my buck along with keeping yearly cost / maintenance down to a minimum.my ideal setup is t5s but I’m scared of how much heat 20-24 54w bulbs would put out into the room .

 

[Recklessryan904]

Yup makes sense, I think Vivid runs only on G4s too.

I have been really researching the big name shops running radions , the one plus to me being gone is it’s giving me time to really sit back and take my time to decide on the best lighting setup for my tank . This is vivids tank they posted yesterday running all radions now .

 

[wowkingjames]

Beautiful set up, and thanks for the info....

 

[bubbaque]

I am setting up a frag tank and went with radions and t5 supplement. I am pretty excited to give the radions a try, as I have never used led before.

 

[Recklessryan904]

Awesome ! I would love to see some pics . I was very happy with the setup I had on my 180 3 radion pros with t5 supppelment . I believe 6 g4 pros would be a good start but over time I would either need to add 2 more radions or t5 supplements . I think this is the one downside to having a 48 in wide tank is getting full coverage with lighting ...

 

[bubbaque]

Coverage was my biggest concern also. I am sure I will post some pics.