Blennieluvr’s 120 LPS dominant build (1 Viewer)

[blennieluvr]

Seeking vermetid snail solution.

A). manual removal (sounds impossible and like a huge hassle but I am willing if necessary)
B) Bumblebee snails (how do they know to only eat the pesty snails?)
C) pretend they’re not there
D) other

I’ve not had these buggers before. They’re not crazy bad but I don’t want anything that bothers my LPS.

 

[blennieluvr]

I don’t know how I got the pic in the middle of my multiple choice but I am too lazy to fix.

 

[Anchor]

I have one rock that has so many vermatids it looks like a Porcupine quill field.. and feels like it too..

 

[blennieluvr]

Flashback time. I have a 6 bulb T5 fixture over an almost 100% LPS tank. What bulb combo would you recommend? I am hoping to get more blues and make the reds pop. I have a plan but want to see what others suggest before I finalize my order. That is, if there who would even have a recommendation anymore. Where is David G. when I need him? LOL

Last time I had T5s, I mostly had all blue special and blue plus bulbs.

 

[Nickz]

I believe I used to run the 16-20k set in my last 6 bulbs fixture.

 

[blennieluvr]

I found that chart, too. But, my version only had an 8 bulb configuration. I guess I’m on the right track. Going to try 16-20k as well hoping to improve colors. Thanks for the info.

 

[RSnodgrass]

I found that chart, too. But, my version only had an 8 bulb configuration. I guess I’m on the right track. Going to try 16-20k as well hoping to improve colors. Thanks for the info.

I'd love to know how it turns out in a few months.

 

[RSnodgrass]

Generally speaking it's the green spectrum that can cause the proteins for red to show is what I'm told. When I increased mine it did help with most of my reds.

 

[blennieluvr]

Interesting. I will check into green spectrum.

I really want to showcase my baby's breath favia and other blue corals. They aren't even looking that good in my tank, currently. They look more yellow to brown. NOT what I am going for and/or paid for. My reds are OK but could probably pop a bit more.

I would post before and after pics but have a hard time getting pictures that show true colors. Maybe I should try again. I do have some lens filter thingys now.

Thanks for the discussion. I know it's not a hard topic and has been covered. But, sometimes, my husband just doesn't want to talk about fish stuff and I do. I just don't get it.

 

[jlanger]

I thought I could provide some assistance but my bookmark to GrimReefer's T5 lighting charts is no longer valid.
Dammit. That was my go-to webpage for T5 lighting information back in the day.

 

[blennieluvr]

I thought I could provide some assistance but my bookmark to GrimReefer's T5 lighting charts is no longer valid.
Dammit. That was my go-to webpage for T5 lighting information back in the day.

Grimreefer....an ex-TCMASer? Bummer. I would have been all over a T5 lighting chart right now.

Doesn’t surprise me your bookmark is no longer valid. Threads nowadays about T5 bulb configurations are always about hybrid setups. But, I am happy with my Tek fixture. Especially, if I can get nicer color out of my blue corals.

I did change from my original plan after Ryan’s comment about red and green spectrum.

Leaning toward:
2 blue plus
1 actinic
1 purple plus
1 coral plus
1 blue special

 

[nox.rupaw]

T5 mix is always a personal preference. I guarantee you whatever mix you start with is not the one you will end up with long term.

here's some of the pointers i'd share.....
ATI Blue plus - Highest Par. Most coral friendly bulb. Most T5 users have the Blue plus as more than 50% of the bulb mix
ATI Actinic - Lowest part and the dullest form all all ATI bulb. THe Giessman Super Actinic has a little but more par and pop compared to ATI Actinic. When all the bulbs on, it will drown the actinic. Actinic is better when used in a 2 bulb config where it wont get drowned out easily.
Purple plus - tried it once. made everything red. hated it.
Coral Plus - Makes everything pink but evens out the deep blue of the blue plus. Good to have 1 coral plus in a bulb mix
Aquablue Special - The yellowest bulb ATI makes. The green and red specturm certainly helps with coral coloring. but dont underestimate just how yellow this bulb. I have 1 aquablue special in my mix, and i use the other 7 bulbs, and 3 AI primes running all blue to dull the 1 aquablue special out


Other points to consider:
Ambient light - you can have the same bulb mix as as a fish store which is dimly lit, but if you are in say a bright room, your line of sight cuts through the room light in the room and then hits the water in the tank. Tanks' color will look different.

Eyes - Older eyes let in more light, so again a bulb mix for person A can be super bright, but person B will feel its very dim

Bulb Placement - Bulb placement also plays important role. e.g. an aquablue special in the fornt of the tank and 7 blue plus behind it will make a tank look much brighter vs say having an aquablue special all the way at the back and 7 blue plus's in the front. In other words, ones line of sight cuts through the light emitted by the different bulb, so bubl placement plays an important role in how a bulb mix looks to someone.

My advice - buy all bulb. play with the bulb mix. change out every couple months till you find a mix that looks good to your eyes and also grows corals.

my mix. 8 bulb ATI
BACK OF THE TANK
Blue+
Blue+
Bue+
AquaBlue Special
Blue+
Giessman Super Actinic
Blue+
Blue+
FRONT OF THE TANK

 

[ikserk]

I thought I could provide some assistance but my bookmark to GrimReefer's T5 lighting charts is no longer valid.
Dammit. That was my go-to webpage for T5 lighting information back in the day.

Send me the URL, I'll see if I can dig it up

 

[ikserk]

I thought I could provide some assistance but my bookmark to GrimReefer's T5 lighting charts is no longer valid.
Dammit. That was my go-to webpage for T5 lighting information back in the day.

https://web.archive.org/web/20151002174206/http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/home/

The links in the left nav can be clicked on. Not all images will show though.

This is using what is called the Wayback Machine. It archives websites, a great resource to have in your nerd back pocket.

@jlanger I would be sure to save each page to a PDF or print off for one of your binders you have mentioned before

 

[ikserk]

https://web.archive.org/web/20151002174206/http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/home/

The links in the left nav can be clicked on. Not all images will show though.

This is using what is called the Wayback Machine. It archives websites, a great resource to have in your nerd back pocket.

@jlanger I would be sure to save each page to a PDF or print off for one of your binders you have mentioned before

I should note that the most recent snapshot is from Oct 2 2015

 

[jlanger]

https://web.archive.org/web/20151002174206/http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/home/

The links in the left nav can be clicked on. Not all images will show though.

This is using what is called the Wayback Machine. It archives websites, a great resource to have in your nerd back pocket.

@jlanger I would be sure to save each page to a PDF or print off for one of your binders you have mentioned before

Thanks, Jeremy!
The Lamps and lamp combinations page is visible and that's where I would always go to when selecting bulbs for my old T5 set ups.
It's been saved to my hard drive for any future reference; if ever needed. I still romanticize about doing T5 lighting again; such beautiful colors in my montipora corals.

 

[blennieluvr]

A lot of my corals have colored up since going back to the T5s already.

Thanks for all the awesome info. Now, I can obsess on this for a couple more days.

 

[Livestuff]

This is a request for feature tanks, isn’t it? I’m not that bold.

We have one small LFS up here and he’s a nice guy and has some stuff we might need but doesn’t specialize in saltwater. We rely on expos, online orders, have our own small but good! events and travel to get our dry/live goods. Midwest Aquariums in Fargo if we go that direction or the same places you all would hit down there if we head south. Though, I have not yet been to Reef Collective.

O good grief.. U r correct and I'm WAY late at seeing that. Glad to hear T5s are working well and the corals looking nice for ya.

 

[blennieluvr]

It has been awhile since I have updated. I realized that when chatting with many of you at Jlanger’s virtual meeting tonight.

The good:
My fish are all healthy. Thank goodness, since prices on much of the livestock in our hobby has skyrocketed.

I added a peppermint hogfish this past week. I have a full roster now with a pair of domino clowns (is that a real clown name? I took them in from a friend’s tear down and have never researched.), yellow corris wrasse, mandarin, and kole and mimic tangs.

Most of my corals look good too, though I have do have a couple that are receding. I found sponge on their underside and am hoping that removing it will turn them around.

The bad: I have a few aptasia in my sump. I held some frags in my tank awhile back and am guessing that was what introduced it. I picked up a few more peppermint shrimp and am hoping they go to work for me. Our club up here has a mojano wand that I can use, if needed.

The receding corals afore mentioned.

Goals: Paint the wood portion of my canopy black (summer project),
Rescape. I have one huge rock in my display still that was never intended to be long term and my tank is a year and a half old, already. And, I have some tunze rock pump hider thingys I want to try to incorporate.

The pic is my attempt at letting my fish get used to the hogfish I picked up from livestuff this week (thank you!). And, a pic of him freely swimming around the next day when I got home from work. I guess my box was not secure enough. Glad it is all working out and I will add some more zip ties to my box if I need to use it again.

 

[Livestuff]

He looks great in there and thank you. Keep it up and I'll head up this summer and check in on him