Proteus' Shallow reef build

[Proteus]

Halides great. Sort of. I had some ballast issues. The vertex ballast was from a bad batch and was under driving the bulb to the point of flicker. Vertex has since stopped production and abandoned that line. I borrowed a ballast from MA until new one arrives. Going to try a luxcore eballast.

In turns of the outcome it's been great. Growth has increase dramatically and colors on new growth is amazing. I have one pieces that gone from green to blue and purple. Really has become a fav
For the most part colors are coming around as I had a bleaching incident just prior to switching

The setosa has I crusted 5x that pic since puting the halide on

[waynemah]

Post up some pics when you get around to it. I like progression shots.

[asylumdown]

FWIW I've found that certain LPS families just cannot take my radions either. Chalices, most brains, scolies, etc... no go in my tank. They bleach to death rapidly wherever light hits them directly. Elegance corals, frogspawns, and *some* acans do ok. The funny thing is that under a Kessil ocean blue in my pico tank, all my brains recovered beautifully, got back their super deep, rich reds and greens. That fixture is LED, but it has no red or green diodes, and the mixture of blue to white is completely different, which might be the reason

In any case I'd likely try T5s on a smaller tank in the future.

Have you had any corals that have morphed in an unappealing way under the halides?

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

FWIW I've found that certain LPS families just cannot take my radions either. Chalices, most brains, scolies, etc... no go in my tank. They bleach to death rapidly wherever light hits them directly. Elegance corals, frogspawns, and *some* acans do ok. The funny thing is that under a Kessil ocean blue in my pico tank, all my brains recovered beautifully, got back their super deep, rich reds and greens. That fixture is LED, but it has no red or green diodes, and the mixture of blue to white is completely different, which might be the reason

In any case I'd likely try T5s on a smaller tank in the future.

Have you had any corals that have morphed in an unappealing way under the halides?

It's funny you spend so much on a led and expect great results but in fact the par38 on our other tank did a better job with lps than the radion. Now I wouldn't say I care for the par38 just based on the color seperation and the fact I had to were bell bottoms and put abba on the ok turntable.

As for the halide the only piece that's not what I hoped is the first fire digi. The colors are still there but the pop is not. Though it may just be a adjustment period. My setosa keeps it's pop. So I don't think its a halide vs orange issue

Should also say that since the ballast is currently under driving the bulb it's a little whiter than I would like. New luxcore eballast is on route

Also have a RB led retro coming as IMO RB led helps the pop

All in all halides kick ass. It just disappointing that it will soon be harder to get ballast as most companies have stopped supplying. Vertex, lumetek for example are out. But eballast are still avalible at most hydroponic shops

[asylumdown]

vertex has stopped making ballasts? wow, I didn't know that. It would be a shame if MH were to die out because equipment stopped being available. It's a tried, tested and true method.

I've sometimes wondered if I could tweak my radion program to make it more hospitable to the LPS that hate them, but since my tank is 95% SPS that seem to be doing fine (though some of the colour issues that you described are definitely happening in my tank as well) I'm too freaked out to tweak things in a way that might harm them.