Dez' Tank Journal

[Reefie]

I did a whole lot of reading on zeo and cyano, and they suggest zeobak mixed in with coral snow every 2 days until all the cyano disappears.

I tried it and it worked like a charm! 1 drop zeobak mixed with 1 ml of coral snow / 25 gallons.

Haha! Please don't be offended with advice from a noob

Originally Posted by Dez

It's been better lately, last 2 water changes I've been plain old siphoning it out. So if I keep that up it should go away. I replaced my RO/DI filters too. I tried GFO - won't ever do that again. Bleached all the tips of my coral (1/2 lb in a mesh bag in the sump passively).

[Dez]

I have received many PM's asking about my LED lighting so I thought I'd post a couple of pics to show you. I have been using LEDs now for a tiny bit over a year. I have 3 Aqua Illumination SOL pendants plus 4 rows of 1" x 5' DIY LEDs from rapidled.com. 2 rows of 12 x 3watt cool whites and 2 rows of 12 x 3 watt royal blues. This is how they are mounted in the following pictures taken today. Hope this answers many questions. Sorry I haven't updated this journal in a long time.





BTW if any moderators/staff are reading this, since the edit feature got taken away from this forum, I'm wondering if you could edit the actual Title of this thread to "Dez' Tank Journal" and take out that rock slide part as that is old and doesn't reflect the topic of the entire thread. Please and Thank you

[Aquattro]

Dez, title updated.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Dez, title updated.

Thanks so much

[mark]

hey Dez, for the lights, the Whites or Blues, how high above the water and what percentages you running them?

[Dez]

Originally Posted by mark

hey Dez, for the lights, the Whites or Blues, how high above the water and what percentages you running them?

Blues and I think highest percentage is about 60%, but it leans more toward the white color. I think the blue portion is only about 35%. They are about 6-7" above the water I think.

[lastlight]

Might be tough to do but if you recall what the tank once looked like in terms of colour etc... which look do you prefer having had LED now for a year?

[Dez]

I like the LEDs better in terms of look, but prefer the halide shimmer. The halide shimmer is more natural. That being said though, I'd never go back to halides even if I was a millionaire. I went from about 1200 watts on my display to under 400 watts without sacrifice in growth. My dehumidistat hardly kicks the bathroom fan on in my sump room anymore and I've discontinued use of my canopy vent to the basement that used to be on 24/7. My evap rate has dropped dramatically and even during the hottest days of the summer the temp fluctuation was almost not noticible. I like the ramp up time/ramp down time that you can never receive with halides. I ramp up the intensities over 4 hours, which means my peak time at my full intensity is less, hence using less power. I like the idea of not having to plan bulb changes (even though I was using $15 halide bulbs before the switch). In terms of coral colors, most of the corals have remained similar colors. They are still bright and nice, some colors pop more while others don't. It's hard to say cause I haven't been dosing all the zeo stuff like te first year and a half, I've regressed to the basic zeo system without all of the other additives. Also, in the last year I have not tested anything but salinity and temp, so I can't say that the LEDs are the sole reason. However, I am super pleased with the coral coloration this past year. But, the halide shimmer will always look more like the sun to me.

[Delphinus]

Wow, pretty solid endorsement. Reduction of shimmer seems a pretty small sacrifice compared to all the rest of that..

Are your DIY LED's in on this 4 hour ramping, if so, what controller did you use for that? (Apologies if you answered this already.)

[Dez]

The DIYs are on a straight on off. They were added to replace my T5s and also to hide the spotlight effect since my SOLs are only 6" above the water. They come on after the ramp time.