New 125 gal build! :)

[MadCityReefer]

Hello there fellow Reefer from Madison Wisconsin! I happen to stumble onto your tank build here on reef2reef, it looks like things were coming a long nicely till the power strip failure. Sorry to hear..why do these things happen only when your gone?!?! We'll just my 2 cents but I also did a retro fit t5 when I had my LEDs and I also used two Coral plus bulbs and in my option they looked great and increased my coral growth. Your problem is most likely that your corals were simply not acclimated to LEDs it literally took months before my corals started looking good again when I switched from all t5s to LEDs. Well regardless good luck on the new tank build I'd like to see it sometime!

 

[sal]

Looks awesome!

 

[luxauterna]

Hello there fellow Reefer from Madison Wisconsin! I happen to stumble onto your tank build here on reef2reef, it looks like things were coming a long nicely till the power strip failure. Sorry to hear..why do these things happen only when your gone?!?! We'll just my 2 cents but I also did a retro fit t5 when I had my LEDs and I also used two Coral plus bulbs and in my option they looked great and increased my coral growth. Your problem is most likely that your corals were simply not acclimated to LEDs it literally took months before my corals started looking good again when I switched from all t5s to LEDs. Well regardless good luck on the new tank build I'd like to see it sometime!

Hey! Thanks for stumbling upon it Actually the corals have been under the same lighting since the beginning of the tank. However, I have changed my lighting schedule and it seems to be helping quite a bit. I have the T5s (Coral Plus) on for only 3 hours midday and the LEDs (mostly blues) ramping up and down for the majority of the lighting schedule. PE is good and the monti's finally have a white growth ring around them. Hopefully it continues to go that way. Are you also a member of MARS?

 

[luxauterna]

Looks awesome!

Thanks Sal!

 

[MadCityReefer]

Hey! Thanks for stumbling upon it Actually the corals have been under the same lighting since the beginning of the tank. However, I have changed my lighting schedule and it seems to be helping quite a bit. I have the T5s (Coral Plus) on for only 3 hours midday and the LEDs (mostly blues) ramping up and down for the majority of the lighting schedule. PE is good and the monti's finally have a white growth ring around them. Hopefully it continues to go that way. Are you also a member of MARS?

Yes I'm a member of MARS and "WRS" Wisconsin Reef Society. Here's a quick picture of my tank. I recently moved everything from another smaller tank into my new Reef Savvy 120gal

 

[luxauterna]

So I have a beautiful new addition to the tank Here is my new Pachysepta . It is larger than my fist

 

[luxauterna]

Yes I'm a member of MARS and "WRS" Wisconsin Reef Society. Here's a quick picture of my tank. I recently moved everything from another smaller tank into my new Reef Savvy 120gal

I thought I recognized your name! Beautiful tank

 

[MadCityReefer]

Thanks, if there is anything I can do to help, let me know!

 

[luxauterna]

Sounds great! Thank you

 

[luxauterna]

So my LPS and gorgs seem to be doing pretty well. SPS haven't been doing well (story of my reef life). Here are some pics of my Pachy munching on some brine

 

[luxauterna]

So I have decided that something with my LED fixture, whether it be spectrum, operator error with intensity levels or blend, or SOMETHING is ruining my coral . Colors are bland, PE is mediocre, and growth is minimal. I'm thinking about getting rid of it completely and just adding a couple more retrofit t5s. BUT on a positive note, I added a new fish today My first addition of fish in months!

 

[luxauterna]

 

[Reeflogic]

Hey Ryan, I have been working out of town quite a bit and haven't been keeping up with watched threads of late (I'm trying to catch up now lol) ....anyway, sorry to hear about your ups and downs with the new system. Do you have any recent full view images you can share? One thing that I see in your posts is you keep saying nitrates and phosphates are at zero, which IMO might be an issue. You might be stripping every nutrient from the water, or having it "too" clean, to the point you are actually starving the corals. Maybe after the crash, nutrient levels spiked and then you are radically removing them with GFO and or other methods? I wouldn't fully blame the lighting until you do a little more trial and error with other possibilities! Just my 2 cents, but hang in there, man!!!

 

[luxauterna]

Hey Doug!

Thanks for the post. Yea , I wonder if that was the case as well. I removed the GFO from the system 5 days ago and replaced it with just carbon. I am hoping to test that theory as well with this to see how the nutrient levels look. Unfortunately I know the phosphate testing is inaccurate due to the amount of brown algae or cyano I get on and off on the sandbed. I think that also has to do with not enough sand movement by CUC. I will continue to keep testing different theories as we go on. Perhaps I need to find a better coral food too

 

[Reeflogic]

I was reading a thread yesterday on a nitrogen food source where the guy has his corals coloring up, it's the thread where the guy got offended and wished others to have their tanks crash lol, but maybe do a little research on here for it. I haven't researched it yet, but it might be an option. I've stopped with SPS currently, since my work schedule has me out of town for weeks on end and my wife can handle the softies and acans just fine lol, but I seriously need to update my build haha. Good luck Ryan, I'm sure you will get it all under control soon enough

 

[luxauterna]

Thanks man . Yea , my free time has been quickly diminishing as we prepare for our first baby to arrive. I appreciate the help bud. Hopefully things are going well with you!

 

[Reeflogic]

Congrats! A Jr. Reefer on the way!!!

 

[luxauterna]

you know it! Especially if I have any say in the matter

 

[luxauterna]

The LPS and SPS still aren't doing that well, but the gorgs and softies are good. Unfortunately my favorite coral (the pachy) has lost some heads and losing color in others. I don't know what is going on with that. I have added another fish though! My first Sailfin Tang. I added him last week but the bicolor chromis were being too territorial and aggressive with him. I wanted to catch them and donate them a while ago, so I did it last week after the addition of the tang. It also gave me an opportunity to do a large water change and new aquascape. Here is the new fish!

 

[luxauterna]

Here are some tank shots as well.