Need help with figuring out lighting..

[ItouchedThebutt]

Feel blessed that @saltyfilmfolks is following you! Honestly the dude knows so much and is 1 of 2 of the top lighting guys on R2R, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. He's definitely someone you want guiding you. Ok I'm done kissing his butt.

Hey im not complaining hes helped me out on several of my threads of newbie questions.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

read that link I attached. I know that guy. He owes me money.
its a lux meter
and the two t5s were about 400 par at the top of the tank.

Thats so much reading but im on it.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

H

this is what I have my Hydra's at. Make sure your white are not to high.

How big of a tank? And how long does the lights stay on all day? Whats the benifit of having your tank get brighter and darker at sequences through the day?

 

[jsker]

48lx18wx21d
9to9 with a 4 hour ramp up and down, 1% for lunar mode.
the up and down mimic clouds and intensities. Instead of blasting the corals at a high rate, is gives the corals time to recover. Most do not realize that LEDs are very bright and can burn the corals up. I had mine set to high and the whites were burning up my corals.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Havnt checked the paramaters its been cycling for i think 3 to 4 weeks. I was gonna get the water tested this weekend to see if its done cycling. The top of water is R/O water from my LFS same with my salt water. I only have coral in there because thwy came up from the live rock

No problem! Sounds like your tank is still cycling, you're entering the ugly phase. You are going to want to start with some basic tools like, test kits etc. right now, lights aren't too important, you could even run with no lights. Once you establish your tank and determine which direction you'll want to go as far as corals or Fowlr, then you should worry about spectrums and such. Do plenty of research on here, you got plenty of time!

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

48lx18wx21d
9to9 with a 4 hour ramp up and down, 1% for lunar mode.
the up and down mimic clouds and intensities. Instead of blasting the corals at a high rate, is gives the corals time to recover. Most do not realize that LEDs are very bright and can burn the corals up. I had mine set to high and the whites were burning up my corals.

I didnt know that.. Dont you wanna match the UV to the blues? I only say that because ive read alot of other people do that for them.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

No problem! Sounds like your tank is still cycling, you're entering the ugly phase. You are going to want to start with some basic tools like, test kits etc. right now, lights aren't too important, you could even run with no lights. Once you establish your tank and determine which direction you'll want to go as far as corals or Fowlr, then you should worry about spectrums and such. Do plenty of research on here, you got plenty of time!

I would but i dont want my zoanthids to die on me if i cut all their light. I wanna do a coral tank but i was just gonna start with just fish. I may use the zoas in the tank now to experiment with the lighting. But when im ready is there anything thatll eat diatoms?

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I would but i dont want my zoanthids to die on me if i cut all their light. I wanna do a coral tank but i was just gonna start with just fish. I may use the zoas in the tank now to experiment with the lighting. But when im ready is there anything thatll eat diatoms?

Absolutely! Great question! You should add a CUC (Clean Up Crew) first, like Astrea Turbo Snails [emoji222] maybe a couple hermits, 1 per gallon is a pretty good standard. So you could do something like
2 Astrea snails
2 trochus snails
2 cerith snails
2 Scarlet hermits
2 Blue leg hermits
Emerald crabs can be pretty cool, and tempting. But I've never had any luck with them as they usually end up eating my coral. Same thing with peppermint shrimps.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Absolutely! Great question! You should add a CUC (Clean Up Crew) first, like Astrea Turbo Snails [emoji222] maybe a couple hermits, 1 per gallon is a pretty good standard. So you could do something like
2 Astrea snails
2 trochus snails
2 cerith snails
2 Scarlet hermits
2 Blue leg hermits
Emerald crabs can be pretty cool, and tempting. But I've never had any luck with them as they usually end up eating my coral. Same thing with peppermint shrimps.

Are any kind of shrimp compatible with coral that are not crazy expensive?
And kinda a side question.. Will any of those eat a baby mantis shrimp? I saw something that looked like a extreamly small prayinmantis in my live rock and thought it would be cool to see it grow up a bit before i attempt to catch him.
But wouldnt hermit crabs have the chance of eating the coral to? Or snails atleast?

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Are any kind of shrimp compatible with coral that are not crazy expensive?

IMO anything can acquire a taste for coral or whatever at any time, keep in mind these are animals so I don't believe anything is really guaranteed not to mess with coral, but my personal favorite as far shrimps go is the Pistol shrimp. Pairs up with a watchmen Goby

And kinda a side question.. Will any of those eat a baby mantis shrimp? I saw something that looked like a extreamly small prayinmantis in my live rock and thought it would be cool to see it grow up a bit before i attempt to catch him.

Maybe what you saw was an ampipod? Ive seen hermits attack other inverts, usually to steal their shells.

But wouldnt hermit crabs have the chance of eating the coral to? Or snails atleast?

I've never personally seen hermit crabs "eat" coral, I have seen them stress coral out by walking all over it . And snails, no way bud. If anything your hermits will kill your snails. But snails won't do anything to harm your corals but knock frags over.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

That's what i ment is the crabs eat the snails. Sorry. No im almost positive its a mantis shrimp hes to tiny to get a pic of but hes all white and clear at the moment but i only say he is because you can clearly see his mandibles that adult mantis shrimp have. But back to the lights i did never acclimate my zoas but they seem to be doing better with the new light on there i had everything at 30% with 38% blues but i actually just toned it down because i thought it may be to bright. Do you think ill have to turn them up more then that for zoas?

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

That's what i ment is the crabs eat the snails. Sorry. No im almost positive its a mantis shrimp hes to tiny to get a pic of but hes all white and clear at the moment but i only say he is because you can clearly see his mandibles that adult mantis shrimp have. But back to the lights i did never acclimate my zoas but they seem to be doing better with the new light on there i had everything at 30% with 38% blues but i actually just toned it down because i thought it may be to bright. Do you think ill have to turn them up more then that for zoas?

No, zoas are pretty resilient.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

I guess that's where ill just have to mess around with the lighting.. Thank you. You have been a huge help. Do you ever have issues with your AI trying to conect to it on the app?