khumquat
New Member
Well, first post here so I will start with an introduction.
I have been in the hobby as a Cichlid breeder for 15+ years. About one and a half years ago, I decided to get into saltwater. I started with a 20 gallon and have grown to love the reefer side of the hobby. I set up a new tank about a year ago, a 46g bow front that I picked up cheap. This is now my main tank and until I really get the hang of it, I will keep it small like this... The setup is overflowed into a custom sump using an Eshopps PSK-75 skimmer, and a little fuge with what little room I have. About 2 months ago, I put a Maxspect R420r 120W 16,000K LED setup over it. Two Hydor 750's and a Smartwave kicking every 15 seconds. SO....
It seems the tank is doing okay, the water parameters are fantastic, everything is where it "should" be for SPS. I have about 12 different little frags in the tank all of which are doing good as far as being alive and pretty happy, however my concern is with the light. I had to go with this light due to costs and the fact that my tank has a center brace which would get in the way of most other lights besides this or the Radion, and the Max won the battle due to costs. It seems that, since this light was installed, one of my nice big green acros that was going great stopped, turned brown (Sunburned?) and things halted... I went ahead and did some reading and reset the light to 100% blue and 30% white for a few weeks, then 40%, and now 3 weeks into it whites are at 50%. The coral got 90% of its color back. Problem is, the light doesn't seem to be enough light somehow and I am wondering if, for SPS on this small setup, I need to supplement with T5HO's... thinking 36" in the back and a 24" in front of the tank, but if I do that which bulbs should I go with? I hear of people using just pure actinics with LED setups and having great success... the light is the only thing that's newer to the tank and the only reason I can think of that things aren't growing fast.
Yes? No? Anyone else using the 420r and what are your settings/time points for comparison? My points are (remembering this, so maybe off a few%)
TP1: 1% blues only until 9am
TP2: 20% White; 40% Blue - 1:00pm
TP3: 35% White; 70% Blue - 3:30pm
TP4: 50% White; 100% Blue - 5:00pm
TP5: 1% Blues Only - 10pm
It is ramping white/blue up from 10am to 10pm, with the peaking between 1-5pm... I set it this way because I want to enjoy the tank when I get home from work around 6pm daily, so I like to see it for a few hours. By 7pm its down to ~75% blues, 40% whites and on its way down till 10pm when it goes to night mode until 9am. I have tried experiments where I leave it at A-50% B-100% for 10 hours long and everything still looks the same... polyp extensions out, colors good, nothing changes, no real growth...
Parameters:
pH: 8.2
Alk: 7.8-8.0
Ammonia: 0
PO4: 0 (virtually none. Lost the battle to GHA on the first tank... never again!)
NO3: 0
Calcium: 480-500
Magnesium: ~1475ish last test last week...
Should be good, right?
I have been in the hobby as a Cichlid breeder for 15+ years. About one and a half years ago, I decided to get into saltwater. I started with a 20 gallon and have grown to love the reefer side of the hobby. I set up a new tank about a year ago, a 46g bow front that I picked up cheap. This is now my main tank and until I really get the hang of it, I will keep it small like this... The setup is overflowed into a custom sump using an Eshopps PSK-75 skimmer, and a little fuge with what little room I have. About 2 months ago, I put a Maxspect R420r 120W 16,000K LED setup over it. Two Hydor 750's and a Smartwave kicking every 15 seconds. SO....
It seems the tank is doing okay, the water parameters are fantastic, everything is where it "should" be for SPS. I have about 12 different little frags in the tank all of which are doing good as far as being alive and pretty happy, however my concern is with the light. I had to go with this light due to costs and the fact that my tank has a center brace which would get in the way of most other lights besides this or the Radion, and the Max won the battle due to costs. It seems that, since this light was installed, one of my nice big green acros that was going great stopped, turned brown (Sunburned?) and things halted... I went ahead and did some reading and reset the light to 100% blue and 30% white for a few weeks, then 40%, and now 3 weeks into it whites are at 50%. The coral got 90% of its color back. Problem is, the light doesn't seem to be enough light somehow and I am wondering if, for SPS on this small setup, I need to supplement with T5HO's... thinking 36" in the back and a 24" in front of the tank, but if I do that which bulbs should I go with? I hear of people using just pure actinics with LED setups and having great success... the light is the only thing that's newer to the tank and the only reason I can think of that things aren't growing fast.
Yes? No? Anyone else using the 420r and what are your settings/time points for comparison? My points are (remembering this, so maybe off a few%)
TP1: 1% blues only until 9am
TP2: 20% White; 40% Blue - 1:00pm
TP3: 35% White; 70% Blue - 3:30pm
TP4: 50% White; 100% Blue - 5:00pm
TP5: 1% Blues Only - 10pm
It is ramping white/blue up from 10am to 10pm, with the peaking between 1-5pm... I set it this way because I want to enjoy the tank when I get home from work around 6pm daily, so I like to see it for a few hours. By 7pm its down to ~75% blues, 40% whites and on its way down till 10pm when it goes to night mode until 9am. I have tried experiments where I leave it at A-50% B-100% for 10 hours long and everything still looks the same... polyp extensions out, colors good, nothing changes, no real growth...
Parameters:
pH: 8.2
Alk: 7.8-8.0
Ammonia: 0
PO4: 0 (virtually none. Lost the battle to GHA on the first tank... never again!)
NO3: 0
Calcium: 480-500
Magnesium: ~1475ish last test last week...
Should be good, right?
