Hello! Even though this is my first post after registering for an account this morning, I've had hours' worth of research using this forum, along with helpful YouTube videos over the last several months. In April, with not much else to do these days, I decided to reboot my 34-Gallon Red Sea Max C-130 by replacing the old live rock and sand that's been deteriorating with a failed bubble tip anenome outbreak (long story), aptasia, and simply an old and tired look.
I've had four fish (5+ years) that were doing fine through the transition. After the reboot, I decided to add a Yellow Tang from a new reef store that just opened in my area shortly after. To make a long story short, I had a nuclear wipeout in the tank within 2 weeks...all my fish got wiped by what I believe was ich. I am running the tank fallow until mid-August. Changes in the tank, a major temp issue on two different occasions could all have led to the demise of my little fish family, or perhaps the Tang brought ich with him? Either way, I turned a coat closet into my new "Quarantine Qloset," in which I re-purposed an Innovative Marine 10-gal into a Coral QT, and bought a 15-gal tank for Fish QT. I'm using this 76+ day fallow period to really dive into the hobby, and do things the best way I can. I am following all of the advice I can, and thanks to all the fellow reefers out there!
On the fallow DT, I've replaced the stock lighting with Steve's LEDs w/BlueFish Mini controller, 2 Vortech MP10s running on Mobius, Tunze Protein Skimmer and Macroalgae Reactor, IceCap ATO, Coralife BioCube Mini UV Sterilizer. Each addition of upgrades has proven to actually show results. For example the LEDs immediately popped the coloration and explosion of growth for some green button polyps (that I saved in the tank to use as test corals. I attached a photo of the RSM stock lighting on the polyps, and another with the color pop of the Steve's LEDs). The UV Sterilizer completely fixed the green powder algae issue that ran for 4-5 days straight; literally overnight. The Tunze MAR-3181 potentially played a huge part in lowering my continuous readings of phosphate at the .12-.15 range down to .03-.04!
I believe that during the reboot, I may have seen a new mini-cycle as well (with a noticeable brown--> green algae bloom/transition), especially when I replaced the rock with Caribsea LifeRock. However, the cleaning crew that I had in the tank from before may have been taming the "ugly" part of that. I've also noticed a lot of coralline algae growth, so things are finally turning for the best.
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Now here's the part where I need to reach out for some help:
1. I need to figure out if I need to tinker around with the Steve's LEDs default lighting setup, or adjust for more blues? I kind of took the default schedule used on the BioCube 29, and just changed the time settings to suit my personal day.
2. On the 10-gal IM, I believe I've finally gotten past the cycling, and added an Aquamaxx NF-1 skimmer (worked immediately btw), and feel that I'm ready to add a couple small fish or two ahead of QT-ing the future coral frags. My issue lies with the performance of the Celestial C35-F Full Spectrum - Maxspect lighting, and what the ideal lighting schedule would be?
Question...with the 34-gal DT and 10-gal QT (with two different depths and lighting), am I supposed to try to mimic the same color/lighting scheme in both tanks for the QT corals?
Below are the manufacturer's specs on the two LEDs:
Celestial C35-F Full Spectrum - Maxspect lighting:
Channel A Super Actinic (x2) 410nm, (x2) 420nm, (x2) 430nm
Channel B Blue (x2) 445nm, (x2) 465nm, (x2) 485nm
Channel C White (1) 5000k Cool White, (1) 3000k Warm White, (1) 660nm Hyper Red
Channel D White (1) 5000k Cool White, (1) 3000k Warm White, (1) 500nm Cyan
Steve's LEDs Red Sea Max 130:
Proven Luxeon ES premium LEDs in the 14,000K Super Full Spectrum - This can be adjusted from 4,000K - 24,000K with the twist of a knob! True 100W of LED power! (I added the iridescence booster which claims 14,000K for glowing corals, anemones, clams - best way to maximize iridescence and color POP!)
=================================================================
Sorry for the long post, but I figured that I would mix in some tragedy with silver linings ahead LOL. More importantly, I could not find my answer about matching lighting when quarantining corals. (Last thing to mention, is that I plan on doing a mixed reef). Thanks in advance!
I've had four fish (5+ years) that were doing fine through the transition. After the reboot, I decided to add a Yellow Tang from a new reef store that just opened in my area shortly after. To make a long story short, I had a nuclear wipeout in the tank within 2 weeks...all my fish got wiped by what I believe was ich. I am running the tank fallow until mid-August. Changes in the tank, a major temp issue on two different occasions could all have led to the demise of my little fish family, or perhaps the Tang brought ich with him? Either way, I turned a coat closet into my new "Quarantine Qloset," in which I re-purposed an Innovative Marine 10-gal into a Coral QT, and bought a 15-gal tank for Fish QT. I'm using this 76+ day fallow period to really dive into the hobby, and do things the best way I can. I am following all of the advice I can, and thanks to all the fellow reefers out there!
On the fallow DT, I've replaced the stock lighting with Steve's LEDs w/BlueFish Mini controller, 2 Vortech MP10s running on Mobius, Tunze Protein Skimmer and Macroalgae Reactor, IceCap ATO, Coralife BioCube Mini UV Sterilizer. Each addition of upgrades has proven to actually show results. For example the LEDs immediately popped the coloration and explosion of growth for some green button polyps (that I saved in the tank to use as test corals. I attached a photo of the RSM stock lighting on the polyps, and another with the color pop of the Steve's LEDs). The UV Sterilizer completely fixed the green powder algae issue that ran for 4-5 days straight; literally overnight. The Tunze MAR-3181 potentially played a huge part in lowering my continuous readings of phosphate at the .12-.15 range down to .03-.04!
I believe that during the reboot, I may have seen a new mini-cycle as well (with a noticeable brown--> green algae bloom/transition), especially when I replaced the rock with Caribsea LifeRock. However, the cleaning crew that I had in the tank from before may have been taming the "ugly" part of that. I've also noticed a lot of coralline algae growth, so things are finally turning for the best.
=================================================================
Now here's the part where I need to reach out for some help:
1. I need to figure out if I need to tinker around with the Steve's LEDs default lighting setup, or adjust for more blues? I kind of took the default schedule used on the BioCube 29, and just changed the time settings to suit my personal day.
2. On the 10-gal IM, I believe I've finally gotten past the cycling, and added an Aquamaxx NF-1 skimmer (worked immediately btw), and feel that I'm ready to add a couple small fish or two ahead of QT-ing the future coral frags. My issue lies with the performance of the Celestial C35-F Full Spectrum - Maxspect lighting, and what the ideal lighting schedule would be?
Question...with the 34-gal DT and 10-gal QT (with two different depths and lighting), am I supposed to try to mimic the same color/lighting scheme in both tanks for the QT corals?
Below are the manufacturer's specs on the two LEDs:
Celestial C35-F Full Spectrum - Maxspect lighting:
Channel A Super Actinic (x2) 410nm, (x2) 420nm, (x2) 430nm
Channel B Blue (x2) 445nm, (x2) 465nm, (x2) 485nm
Channel C White (1) 5000k Cool White, (1) 3000k Warm White, (1) 660nm Hyper Red
Channel D White (1) 5000k Cool White, (1) 3000k Warm White, (1) 500nm Cyan
Steve's LEDs Red Sea Max 130:
Proven Luxeon ES premium LEDs in the 14,000K Super Full Spectrum - This can be adjusted from 4,000K - 24,000K with the twist of a knob! True 100W of LED power! (I added the iridescence booster which claims 14,000K for glowing corals, anemones, clams - best way to maximize iridescence and color POP!)
=================================================================
Sorry for the long post, but I figured that I would mix in some tragedy with silver linings ahead LOL. More importantly, I could not find my answer about matching lighting when quarantining corals. (Last thing to mention, is that I plan on doing a mixed reef). Thanks in advance!
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