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Grigor's ATS Version 2 (1 Viewer)

No, 6. That's all that will fit over the tank ( without fixture being directly over the crossbars) . The front and back get much more light than with just 1 per 2' section and now just a slight dusting over 1 weeks time when it was quite dark almost non-see through after 2-3 days just 3 weeks ago.
 
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First full week of version 2.5. Too early to know if trend or mirage but phosphates are lower than they have been in a real long time .036 ppm and that's before any water changes. If this keeps up I'll definitely be saving $ on salt. Nitrates near undetectable still 0 - .2ppm. Tank looks great never had to scrap the back glass.

I did have to scrap the ATS screen twice this week as there is some red slime stuff growing. Not sure if its the same stuff as the LEDs only the color from the t5 makes it look different.

The one obversvation so far, after scraping the algae seems to rebound a full day to two days quicker than with the LEDs.
 
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Dave did you ever put whites in your LED mix?

I just got a UTS going last Saturday with leds. I tried warm whites, royal blues and deep reds. After one week the screen is looking pretty slimy.

I am running the air 24/7. Lights 12 hours.
 
I am running both versions, the red and blue on one side and ww, NW, red, blue on the other. Both sides grow algae, some weeks theres more growth than the others but not in a way to make a dent. As a measure of success I'm tracking how much Chaeto gets harvested every two weeks... The Chaeto still grows very fast
 
ArstenA said:
Dave did you ever put whites in your LED mix?

I just got a UTS going last Saturday with leds. I tried warm whites, royal blues and deep reds. After one week the screen is looking pretty slimy.

I am running the air 24/7. Lights 12 hours.
Click to expand...

Nope. It was already a $ sinkhole. Decided not to keep throwing money at it when may still now work as well. I cut my losses and invest the $ back into converting to T5s. I've got many years of bulbs so I'll wait until it's more perfected formula.

In the end though it would have worked well enough because the tank was looking really nice and no algae towards the very end but to achieve that the feeding was well below the rated.
 
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Quick update: T5s conversion doing well. No complaints or issues since switch over.

Got back from a 10 day Holiday on last Saturday. I had an auto feeder going and I think dumped a bit more pellets than I would normal use. Brett/Coldwatereefer came by occasionally to feed frozen and seaweed sheets as well. Tank wasn't perfect when I got home but still really nice. Zero casualties amoung all livestock ( which is always a good relief ). Just a tad of algae buildup in the sump/frag and on area in the show tank that is just inches under the water right below the light. Other than that no real algae buildup while I was gone.

After my normal maintenance routine on Sunday parameters were:

14 days harvest: 2 1/3 cups of algae.
Nitrate: Approx .2 ppm - .5 ppm using Salifert kit at high resolution.
Phosphate: .079 ppm

Always nice to be home and especially nice when the tank still looks great. Excited for my meeting in March especially for those who came to my June meeting to see how well things have filled out since then.
 
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Changed my routine a little and doing very well.

I clean 1 side every week, so each side ends up 14days. I get as much algae harves from 1 side in 2 weeks as I get with both sides each week. So that cut my maintenance time in half because I used to do 1 side Wed other Side Sunday.

So Maintenance is about 10 minutes 1 time a week.

Harvest continues to be right at 2 cups per week +/- 1/4 cup.

Last water change was 2 weeks ago ( normally do weekly 40g but tank looked so good on water change day I decided to let it go and see what happens ). Phosphate levels are just fine actually lower than what they had been running. This morning reading was .061ppm. Typically had been running between .08ppm-.12ppm.

I may start doing water changes 1 every 2 weeks to cut my salt usage in half but won't start until after my meeting since things look great and don't want anything to go wrong between now and March 19.
 
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I have a question about fixtures. I have two cheaper 24"coralife t5 fixtures that only use 14w bulbs and one ballast that can do two 24" HO bulbs and a 48" reflector laying around. Would these work 3 bulbs per side till I get two ho fixtures. My screen has plenty of room for the three bulbs just not sure if the wattage will be to spread out?
 
fyi, nova extreme's 24 inch are being discontinued. Can pickup new ones online for $48 bucks a pop!
 
Quick Update. Things have been going really well. Show tank part looks as good today as it did for the March meeting. However, the frag/sump is starting to show signs.

Not for sure exactly what could be the corals are getting bigger , the fish are getting bigger. I have tried to cut down on feeding a little but thats just one area I'm not going to sacrifice. Even with 40g water changes a week phosphates are gradually getting higher. Used to hold pretty steady at .06-.08 ppm and everything looked perfect. Now they have gradually increasing to around .12 - .15 despite the same maintenance routine.

Algae and lack of predators in the sump/frag is starting to get annoying. I have resorted to running GFO for a few hours a day. For my tank I'm currently running 4 hours a day and seems to be reducing by .03ppm per day. Once it gets back down around .03ppm total phosphate level in tank, I'll reduce the GFO hours to just maintain.

While I wanted to avoid GFO, the cost between even larger water changes vs. adding GFO is the cheaper option especially when regenerating the GFO.
 
I think I know the reason - larger fish = bigger poo! in the display or in the settling tanks - fuge/sump - since there is nothing stir things up..it tends to settle at the bottom and turn to fertilizer (atleast in my tanks as I dont really siphon regularly)- IME although there is vigorous growth in the fuge and ATS, the ATS for some reason does not always keep up with the phosphates. almost makes me think that the turf algae does not need as much phosphate.

the basis for this observation - I turned off the return pump for some maintenance and did not turn it on for 3-4 days. the fuge/sump was looking cleaner but the display had the algae take off. return pump off = ATS off (there are other factors but point is to eliminate the affect of ATS)
 
For along time Nitrate on Salifert would at least register a slight pink at the high resolution so around .1 - .2 ppm. Even at high resolution it doesn't register at all. Completely clear. Been that way for at least 1 month. So undectable.

Algae growth is just as good as ever. 2-3 cups worth per week.
 
Feed more! Phosphate uptake limited by nitrate availability? I haven't followed the theory on that much.

My guess is between gravity (junk settling to the lowest point) and lack of any predators your frag bin would be getting a little funky.
 
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