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Unread 02/07/2019, 09:35 PM   #26
PMc
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Originally Posted by on the spot View Post
I would disregard the older mushrooms entirely - you added new ones yes? drop the light dramatically, and adjust up as needed to suit the new ones. Let the old ones respond in time.
Seems like good advice and it would not have occurred to me. The new purple frilly looks happy as a clam four days in. The green discosoma is not expanding as well as I would like. I am unsure if it is still irritated about the move or if something else is not right at this point. I will give it a full week before I make another change.

Thanks for the tip.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/07/2019, 09:51 PM   #27
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and add a blenny.
Do you have a species in mind? If I could find something that liked foraminifera, he would be in hog heaven in this tank. Some species are listed as eating small crustaceans but I am not sure what I have qualifies. Canary Blennies have an attractive color. Some of the others have an attractive behavior. I had great success with a Rainford's Goby years ago so I have a soft spot for them. The LFS had Ruby Red Dragonets last time I was in. Very attractive but I am not sure I could care for one. I favor smaller species and things that will stay in the open water column but Rainford's was always shy - still a great fish. I have been looking at captive bred more intently recently but nothing in particular has caught my eye.

Suggestions welcome. Thanks for the interest.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/07/2019, 11:10 PM   #28
cody6766
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The LFS had Ruby Red Dragonets last time I was in. Very attractive but I am not sure I could care for one
That's a responsible fear for a "small" reef tank. I was very concerned with adding a mandarin to my 120 that I used to run. I aquascaped with two main structures and then filled the gaps with crushed coral. This created a pretty large safe haven for pod growth that kept my Mandarin fat and happy. Through my tanks across the years (first in 2007), I've found that those with the most microfauna were the most successful. Pods, worms, CLEAR planaria, astreaea stars, micro brittle stars, were all present in my most successful tanks.
While snorkeling in Curacao, I noticed that there are multiple layers of life in a real reef. The surface has the coral and cool stuff. Flip a rock over and you'll find some starfish and large worms. Dig through the rubble below that rock and you'll find smaller starfish. In the gravel below that rubble you'll find amphipods and other 'bugs' thriving.
I think we try to make our tanks too sterile and don't pay enough attention to biodiversity. Many corals need nutrients in the water that come from fish and heavy feeding. They also suffer when we don't have a way to export the excess. Having a healthy microfauana population will ensure that the food not eaten by the fish will be eaten by something. They'll also take care of die-off and other waste. I recommend you get a few scoops of sand or sump mess from local reefers or LFSs with pest-free systems. Hope you catch some bristle worms and other critters. If not, ask locals if they can spare some.

Also, with a shroom tank, you need some "dirtier" water. Add some fish and feed heavy...but not so heavy that you grow algae. You don't want to avoid caring for your tank, and always use RO/DI for your waterchanges, but maybe you should up your bioload.


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Unread 02/10/2019, 12:01 PM   #29
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PMc,
I have a very similar tank in size and age and being OCD Ive always kept my levels at 0 in fear of algae. What I learned and still figuring the balance is the tank needs Phos and Nitrates. It’s the fine balance of not having too much and having too little.
I’ve have always had too little and my SPS and LPS live but look terrible (bleached but barely living). When the tank is what I think over feed due to my 4 fish the coral darken up and look much better but it the science of knowing when to stop over feeding is my problem.
Having said that, I’ve added a ATS and the new theory is heavy in - heavy out. Changing filter socks more often, and having a good water turn over...since doing this my corals have been looking better. My lights are Ecotech XR15 Pro setup on SPS AB+ but at a very low setting - 40% of the program.
My Alk is also been a science in that I want to keep it stable at 8.5 and my Calc at 450 with Mag at 1290-1450.


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Unread 02/10/2019, 02:58 PM   #30
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Based on your comment about having two Vortech MP10s in your tank, it's highly unlikely that you're suffering a gas exchange problem (not enough O2, too much CO2). About the only way that would be a concern is if you have a well-sealed top on the tank and/or the particular room the tank's in has a high CO2 level. That's fairly unlikely unless there's a furnace/hot water heater in the same room, and something's wrong with the venting.

Overall, my best guess would be that your tank is extremely nutrient poor. Your test results would back that up, though there's a caveat - if there's a lot of actively growing algae, there's a possibility that there's plenty of nutrients, and the algae is taking it out of the water column so fast that it doesn't show up on your test results.

There's a number of ways to increase the two main inorganic nutrients (nitrate and phosphate). The most direct way is to actually dose them. The necessary chemicals are inexpensive and readily available (in this case, sodium nitrate and sodium phosphate). However, if you aren't good at chemistry calculations, I'd avoid this route. A mistake in calculations could lead to vastly overdosing the tank.

Instead, you can "ghost feed" the tank. Actinodiscus mushrooms don't directly feed on plankton as far as is known, though rhodactis and ricordea do. I called it "ghost feeding", since one of the easiest ways to bump your nutrient levels is to feed a suspension of plankton, such as reef roids, but your particular animals may not directly consume it. Nevertheless, feeding a freeze-dried plankton or a liquid phytoplankton mixture like Reef Nutrition's PhytoFeast will definitely boost your phosphate and nitrate concentrations over time.

About the lighting. Actinodiscus and other mushrooms are fairly forgiving critters, though they definitely can be over illuminated. Older LED reef fixtures were often missing a good bit of the spectrum that was present in fluorescent or metal halide light sources. It is possible that this is contributing to your issues, but I would not replace anything yet - increasing your nutrient levels is probably a much better bet. Long term, a lot of folks that keep mushrooms and LPS that are highly colored (such as Acans), tend to prefer T5HO for their color rendition and growth promotion characteristics. An alternative is a modern full-spectrum LED fixture such as Radions, AI Hydras, Orpheks, or similar fixtures with a lot of different (controllable) LED colors.


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Unread 02/11/2019, 07:11 PM   #31
PMc
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PMc,

Having said that, I’ve added a ATS and the new theory is heavy in - heavy out.
I had a small ATS and ditched it because it never produced much to speak of.
I think the emerging consensus is the tank is simply nutrient starved. But I think you are right, feeding just enough without overshooting the mark is going to be the challenge

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/11/2019, 07:23 PM   #32
PMc
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Based on your comment about having two Vortech MP10s in your tank, it's highly unlikely that you're suffering a gas exchange problem (not enough O2, too much CO2). About the only way that would be a concern is if you have a well-sealed top on the tank and/or the particular room the tank's in has a high CO2 level. That's fairly unlikely unless there's a furnace/hot water heater in the same room, and something's wrong with the venting.

Overall, my best guess would be that your tank is extremely nutrient poor. Your test results would back that up, though there's a caveat - if there's a lot of actively growing algae, there's a possibility that there's plenty of nutrients, and the algae is taking it out of the water column so fast that it doesn't show up on your test results.

About the lighting. Actinodiscus and other mushrooms are fairly forgiving critters, though they definitely can be over illuminated. Older LED reef fixtures were often missing a good bit of the spectrum that was present in fluorescent or metal halide light sources. It is possible that this is contributing to your issues, but I would not replace anything yet - increasing your nutrient levels is probably a much better bet. Long term, a lot of folks that keep mushrooms and LPS that are highly colored (such as Acans), tend to prefer T5HO for their color rendition and growth promotion characteristics. An alternative is a modern full-spectrum LED fixture such as Radions, AI Hydras, Orpheks, or similar fixtures with a lot of different (controllable) LED colors.

Thanks for the interest. I had come to the same conclusion that the tank is not oxygen starved even though I can't really prove it.

There is not a lot of algae in the tank and the clump of chaeto in the sump may actually be slowly regressing. It is certainly possible that the tank is just nutrient poor but it also has me thinking about trace elements now. For no more livestock than I have, I had assumed that not much would be utilized to depletion and monthly water changes would replace anything I needed. Maybe that is not the case.

Lighting was where I was when I started the thread. It has been reduced as far as I think prudent. Spectrum is the challenge. It has occurred to me that it may not be achievable with this fixture but I think you are correct in feeding heavily while playing with spectrum before replacing the fixture.

Thanks.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/11/2019, 07:53 PM   #33
PMc
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Weekly update for 2-11-19

Temp 78.7
S.G. 1.025
pH 8.1
Nitrate 0-2 (trace)
Alk 9.0
Ca 375

No phosphate reading this week. I botched the test and was too lazy to repeat it. It has been 0.00 for months to a year.

I didn't reduce the lighting this week. It is still at 50% Channel A (white)and 60% Channel B (blue). The purple frillys seem about the same after 1 week. The green discosomas are not opening as well as they were at the LFS. The older mushrooms may be trying to trumpet a tiny amount but it is not obvious by any means.

The emerging consensus is that the tank is just nutrient starved. I am not getting any nuisance algae at this point. (I don't get any coralline algae either). My plan is to continue to feed heavily, maintain lights where they are for another week, and observe. Thanks to everyone for the kind advice and interest.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/12/2019, 08:37 AM   #34
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Let us know how it goes, always nice to hear whether our speculations (and that's exactly what they are!) were right or wrong.

Given what you've posted, and assuming that you're using one of the Hanna checkers to measure phosphate, it certainly sounds like your tank's very nutrient poor.

With respect to replacing trace elements, generally speaking that's not necessary with reasonable water changes. The exception, of course, is alkalinity and calcium, but those don't technically count as "trace elements". For those with soft corals (e.g., mushrooms), the most often-dosed trace element is iodine, typically in the form of potassium iodate.

But if you're not used to doing this, I'd be extremely cautious about adding such a supplement - it can be quite toxic in overdosed amounts.


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Unread 02/12/2019, 03:43 PM   #35
blasterman789
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Originally Posted by dkeller_nc View Post

About the lighting. Actinodiscus and other mushrooms are fairly forgiving critters, though they definitely can be over illuminated. Older LED reef fixtures were often missing a good bit of the spectrum that was present in fluorescent or metal halide light sources. It is possible that this is contributing to your issues, but I would not replace anything yet - increasing your nutrient levels is probably a much better bet. Long term, a lot of folks that keep mushrooms and LPS that are highly colored (such as Acans), tend to prefer T5HO for their color rendition and growth promotion characteristics. An alternative is a modern full-spectrum LED fixture such as Radions, AI Hydras, Orpheks, or similar fixtures with a lot of different (controllable) LED colors.
Over the years we get to hear a lot of snake oil about LEDs from people who don't understand lighting science, and we can add this response to the list.

The action spectrum for coral growth is 440-470nm in artificial lighting fixtures (blue). This is true for all types of artificial light regardless of if they are tubes, metal halide or LED.

Because LED makers are adding superfluous colors to try and differentiate their products from basic chinese black bloxes running just cool whites and royals doesn't change biology. The newer fixtures Dkeller is mentioning don't grow corals better than cheaper, older fixtures and this has been established in countless SPS threads on the topic. The added colors along with blue tooth capability and being able to program a sunset in Beirut won't grow corals better, but it helps you sell a $600 light over a chinese black box that costs 1/5 the price but grows coral just as well.

I've yet to see an established SPS tank grow better coral because they have a couple LEDs of mint, 395nm, teal, orange, or any of those other boutique colors invented by marketing depts and not coral growers. There is also no such thing as a 'full spectrum' artificial light source over a reef tank other than maybe plasma sulfur. If you look at the spectrum of a thriving reef tank under an artificial light with my spectrometer it's all blue light with just some smidges of other colors.

Again, what dkeller seems to be saying is LED fixtures with more colors grow coral better, and that has been smashed to death, buried and burned in SPS lighting discussions. Been building reef lights for 10 years and don't appreciate this disinformation. Might as well be making flux capacitor jokes.

If you've ever been snorkling in the ocean shrooms and softies tends to thrive around runoffs and less than pristine areas of the beach and reef. That's because they love less than pristine water. A high light tanks with low nutrients will cause softies to melt in short order, and if you're killing rhodactis it's a really bad tank for softies.

The problem is if you've been running a low nutrient tank for a long time increasing nutrient levels suddenly is almost certainly going to cause other issues like sudden nuisance algae explosions or cyano blooms. It's easy enough to add potassium nitrate (stump remover) or just dose ammonia to beef up nitrate levels to 5-10ppm, but it needs to be done slowly.

Low pH levels, likely induced by low alk levels don't help softie growth much other.


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Unread 02/12/2019, 05:50 PM   #36
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Say what you will, but this statement "Older LED reef fixtures were often missing a good bit of the spectrum that was present in fluorescent or metal halide light sources." is correct and not subjective.

This part - "Long term, a lot of folks that keep mushrooms and LPS that are highly colored (such as Acans), tend to prefer T5HO for their color rendition and growth promotion characteristics." is also correct, and isn't debatable.

But as you'll note, I am not suggesting that PMc change his lights. In fact, quite the opposite. It was simply a note, and that's all.


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Unread 02/18/2019, 06:56 PM   #37
PMc
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I am an idiot. Let’s get that out there right up front. It is the lights.

Blasterman789 and dkeller nc sent me back to The Reef Aquairium by Deelbeck and Sprung. I have long suspected that my lighting was really the issue and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I have spent a lot of time playing with photoperiod, spectrum, and intensity. I would make a change, wait, make another change. I would kid myself that I was making progress only to realize weeks later that I wasn’t. Deelbeck makes a good argument for ramping up to a few hours of maximum intensity with a slight change in spectrum through the cycle. A dark period is just as important.

Dkeller makes the point that early LED fixtures were limited in spectrum and controllability. Blasterman points out that if you have the right spectrum, mushrooms are very forgiving so I should be able to get there with what I have. I went to the fixture and started playing not only with my normal custom programming but also with the preset programs and the “manual” mode. That is when I discovered the B channel on this fixture is no longer lighting. And I don’t know when it failed. The B channel is the critical blue (400-465nm) region. There is just enough blue in the A channel to fool me into thinking the B channel was functional, but I never stuck my head under the fixture and looked up into the arrays. I have been dinking around (patiently) for far too long without realizing that my fixture had failed.

This is a Maxspect Razor in an early iteration. I was having trouble viewing the LED screen on the end as I was putting it through its programs so I lifted that end toward my face which is what brought the arrays into direct view. Once I discovered a problem, I pulled the fixture off the tank and found a distortion in the housing at the driver/power cord end – the end I never look at. I contacted Chris at Coralvue and he has begun to help me diagnose the problem. I hope it is fixable, but I have disassembled the fixture and there is no obvious issue beyond the distortion of the housing near where the inductors are located. I suppose one of them can be bad, but it is odd that only one channel is affected if that is the case. Perhaps one of the two inductors is bad and each inductor drives a separate channel?

No test results tonight. I will keep this thread updated as I work through this. These threads are of the greatest value in retrospect when someone else can read through them later and save himself some time and trouble. I appreciate everyone’s interest and generous advice. It will be interesting to see if the lights were the only problem or just the first problem. Thanks all.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/18/2019, 09:58 PM   #38
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I am an idiot.
No you're not. Anyone that's been in this hobby for any length of time that tells you that they have it all figured out is either a true idiot, or a liar (or both). Ask me about the time that I added dry calcium chloride to a mixing solution of magnesium sulfate (thinking the calcium chloride was magnesium chloride) - instant concrete, had to throw a relatively pricey volumetric flask away.

EVERYONE does something like that at some point or another!

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I suppose one of them can be bad, but it is odd that only one channel is affected if that is the case. Perhaps one of the two inductors is bad and each inductor drives a separate channel?
I think what you might be referring to are power supplies. Since all LEDs are direct current devices, the light must have a way to convert AC wall power to the low-voltage DC that drives the LEDs. And typically, one has a separate power supply for each "channel" of the light that can be independently dimmed. I'm afraid your description strongly suggests the power supply for the blue channel "let the magic smoke out" and overheated, warping your fixture's housing.

Glad you got it figured out!


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Unread 02/19/2019, 06:19 PM   #39
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By the way, if you find that your Maxspect is not salvageable, or you simply want another fixture, I just watched this BRS video all the way through. If you're thinking about replacing your lighting, it's well worth watching the whole 45 minutes. But failing that, you might definitely want to watch from about 33 minutes on.

The specific subject is SPS tanks, but the same principles and options apply, just at slightly lower PAR levels. One of the big emphasis points in the video is that one really wants an even spread of light in the tank, and an even blending of spectrum. That last 12 minutes or so gives options to achieve that go from anywhere between about $400 to a jaw-dropping $4500 for a 4 foot long, 2 foot wide tank.


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Unread 02/20/2019, 04:15 PM   #40
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... That last 12 minutes or so gives options to achieve that go from anywhere between about $400 to a jaw-dropping $4500 for a 4 foot long, 2 foot wide tank.
$400 is jaw-dropping for some of us! $4500 is heart-stopping or divorce- making.


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Unread 02/20/2019, 06:30 PM   #41
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Hmm - for 4 foot reef tank? Sure, everyone's budget and priorities are different, but I suspect one would have a really hard time finding a reef tank lighting solution for an 8 square foot tank area under that amount, at least for new equipment. Keep in mind, that figure was for a no-frills T5HO 8-bulb fixture.

Kind of obviously, one doesn't need 8 bulbs for a low-light zoa and mushroom tank - one could probably get by with 4 bulbs at the minimum, while 6 would be better. But either way, it's still going to run $300 at a minimum. It's definitely not a cheap hobby.


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Unread 02/25/2019, 07:24 PM   #42
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Hello All,

Tonight's Monday night report is about lights. I tested water parameters over the weekend and they were all withing normal limits so I will spare you the details. The Nitrate was up a small tic, presumably from the attempt to feed heavily.

I had some exchanges with Mr. Conti from CoralVue about repairing the Maxspect. His initial thought was a burned out LED on one of the pads. I couldn't find one on visual inspection. I replaced the driver board but it didn't change the problem. Mr. Conti was right from the start. I read about a way to test each LED pad with a nine volt battery somewhere on the internet. It lit up each channel on each pad except for the blue channel on the number one pad. Since everything is wired in series, a fault in the blue channel on the number one pad would explain a failure of the blue channel on all three pads (I think).

CoralVue offered to take the unit in for service. They would have run the problem down faster than I did but I don't have a back up unit and I was worried that I couldn't keep things going while the unit was out for repair. I ordered a new pad this morning by priority mail. I hope to have a functional unit by Wednesday evening.

Almost every item in my system has some sort of a back up but the lighting system. The BRS video mentioned by dkeller_nc and commented on by reefgeezer is worth a viewing and makes the point that the creatures in our systems are really adaptable as long as there is some degree of stability. I am guilty of monkeying with my settings far too much before I realized that I had a spectrum problem. Even if I can resurrect the Maxspect, I think I am going to look at adding T5s as both a backup system and a foundation for the LED unit.

My problem will be reintroducing the proper spectrum to mushrooms that have been deprived for an unknown period of time. At this point, I think I will start the blue channel at 10% and ramp up as quickly as the mushrooms seem like they can tolerate it. I have no idea how fast they can respond. Advice is welcome.

The ramp up period will give me time to save my pennies for a T5 fixture. It will be far closer to the $400 end than the $4500 end mentioned in the BRS video. My wife has a sense of humor but...

I hope to post again next Monday night with a refurbished LED unit and initial response. Thanks for all the help. I feel like I am making progress.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 02/25/2019, 09:59 PM   #43
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For a ramp-up, I'd suggest no more than a 10% power increase per week. That might be overly cautious, but your concern about nuking some corals that have been acclimated to a pretty low spectrum output that they can use is valid.


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Unread 03/04/2019, 07:44 PM   #44
PMc
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Weekly update 3-4-19

This was water change weekend so no water test results. The weather was crap here so I took the opportunity to clean down everything as well.

The new LED pad arrived on Wednesday of last week. Installation returned the fixture to complete functionality. I set the blue channel to 10% for a 10 hour photoperiod. I was trying to avoid shocking mushrooms that hadn't seen much of this spectrum for an unknown period of time. The initial reaction was encouraging but not over the top. Everything looked like it was opening up a bit more but there was no overt trumpeting.

Yesterday, 5 days in, I increased the blue channel to 20%. Today, the mushrooms were obviously more open with the newest colonies responding the most. The only Yuma was obviously trumpeting up today and a purple frilly was also obviously brighter and more open.

The photoperiod has been increased to twelve hours. The plan is to increase the intensity by 10% per week until I get some sign that the local population is displeased. I am not sure how I will recognize that. Failure to open fully? I have seen them exude mesenteral filaments but only when really irritated and I hope not to go that far. The interesting aspect will be to see how far it goes.

Thanks for the interest and the help. I will post again in a week.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 03/04/2019, 11:00 PM   #45
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There is an awful lot of turnover in this hobby. I'll bet you can find a used T5 fixture for $50 on your local Craig's List or reefing forum. Then just get new bulbs.


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Unread 03/05/2019, 06:41 PM   #46
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[QUOTE=CAPT_Dave;25565729]There is an awful lot of turnover in this hobby. I'll bet you can find a used T5 fixture for $50 on your local Craig's List or reefing forum. Then just get new bulbs.


I would never have thought of Craig's list. Didn't find anything today but I have time to look so I will keep my eye out. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 03/05/2019, 08:50 PM   #47
CAPT_Dave
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Google reef forums for your town. That's where you'll find it. For me it's SDReefs. Everything in the lobby if you're just a little patient.

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Unread 03/06/2019, 10:34 AM   #48
dkeller_nc
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Yeah, if you choose to go the T5HO route, it's usually possible to pick up a 6 or 8 bulb ATI fixture for 1/2 to 2/3rds the price of a new one, depending on how old it is and whether it has functioning bulbs.

For a mushroom/soft coral tank, I personally prefer fluorescents because the color rendition is better IMO. I run LEDs over my SPS tanks, though, primarily for the intensity and low power consumption. My goal in the next year is to convert some of these systems to a combination LED/T5HO lighting option.


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Unread 03/11/2019, 05:50 PM   #49
PMc
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Monday night report for 3-11-19

Water test was good this weekend with the exception of Alk at 10.5. I overshot the mark somewhat but the Ca is still 375 so I think it will all be fine to just let the Alk fall back into the normal range.

I increased the blue channel to 30% yesterday. The mushrooms were trumpeting up more before the intensity increase. The increase in intensity seemed to knock them back yesterday but today they are trumpeting up even more. As On The Spot observed, the older mushrooms are not responding with near the gusto as the new ones. The older ones do not appear to be stressed - just not as happy with the new intensity. I am hoping that, over time, they will begin to respond as well.

I will be traveling for a few days coming up so the ramp up in intensity is going to slow down and Monday Night reports are going on hiatus. I will post when I get back and then slow the pace of reports until there is something to actually report.

Thanks all for the help.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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Unread 04/01/2019, 05:22 PM   #50
PMc
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Monday night report for 4-1-19.

The tank is improving. I ramped the blue channel up to 40% two weeks ago and then left on a short trip so it stayed at 40% for two weeks. Yesterday I moved it up to 50% matching the white channel. Nothing looks stressed. I think the existing mushrooms are coloring up well. Most of the new additions are expanding better. As On The Spot observed two months ago, the newer colonies are responding much more quickly than the older colonies. The only Ricordea colony is trumpeting quite a bit.

This coming weekend I will probably start moving both channels up together 5% at a jump. Nothing is looking stressed and i would like to go up faster but I don't want to torch the older colonies. I have no idea how quickly they can respond but I would like to seem some positive sign before pushing harder. By all accounts, I should be settling out somewhere between 50% and 100% anyway.

Water testing was non remarkable.

Yesterdays oddity was the discovery of a 5cm sea cucumber in my sump. I have no idea when he came in but it was likely a few years ago. I haven't added a frag larger enough for even a small one to hide in for a couple of years. It's curious I haven't seen him before. I attempted to ID him but it seems about an impossible task. H. impatiens seems most likely but there are too many possibilities for to do more than guess. I was torn about leaving him in there or taking him out but some of them are toxic enough to kill a tank in the event of a fatality so I took him out. Seemed a shame to do so but I wasn't willing to take the chance.

Thanks for the attention. Unless something goes off the rails, I will post again first of May.

Mc


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75 G Display over 40 G 3 Chamber Sump
Bean Animal across the short end with two MP10s mounted below, 2/3rds of the way down
Maxspect Razor mounted 16" over water line

Current Tank Info: 75G display over a 40G sump - Maxspect Razor - Tunze skimmer currently offline - Tunze osmalator - 3 chamber sump with cheato in one chamber - 6 Stage BRS RODI
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