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I have stopped visiting your thread as it makes me feel so bad about my tank . It is the epitome of acro keeping .
Need to get cash soon to fill my up rock with some of Big E smooth skins !!!
Regards,
Abhishek
The red gecko and blue tenius are very nice Big E. I think you have given me new found confidence in the Coral + bulb.
Just wow, looks great.
Amazing stuff. Your pictures are great, clear, bright colors with no tricks. Better than most vendors.
Incredible stuff Ed, I can't believe that Red Gecko! At least I have my Skinny Love to console my failure.
Thanks!
Thanks Tim, the Gecko has been doing well. Failure? What, wait you lost your Red Gecko?
You're for sure the master Skinny Love grower. Here's mine, it's made some great strides recently.
These are 5 months apart but most of the color and the main branch getting bigger is new.
Skinny Love 060717 by Big E 52, on Flickr
skinny love 111717 by Big E 52, on Flickr
@Big E First of all, sweet sticks my friend. Interesting theory on too much 450nm from reefbrite etc. What issues did you see in your friends tanks and how were you able to attribute that specifically to reefbrites? What do you say to jason fox's success running his 400g cube with only blue t5 and reefbrites?
His 700g does the same but throws in radiums for 3-5hrs a day which obviously have more complete spectrum, but i wouldnt say his 400g corals are lacking color......or showing any weird colors either.
What I see in that video is a windex tank with green acros that pop, a lot of blue acros.......no clue what the colors really are cause the tank is so dark. You can't compare a 400g tank with reefbrite strips to, for example, a 48" 100g tank with two XHO Reefbrite strips with no dimmer.
Some Acroporas can suffer from too much of a single spectrum and intensity. This is a cause/effect relationship........it's repeatable. I've seen it many times and have suggested to at least have a dimmer with Reefbrites.
There are a lot of variables involved like how close to the surface the LED strips are as well as how much par the overall tank is getting. I've seen vendor propagation systems for zoas, and LPS that run blue+ bulbs and reefbrites and they are 24" from the water surface.
A blue+ bulb has a blue peak at 450, it looks blueish, but it has other spectrums mixed in the bulb. A Reefbrite is nothing but straight 450nm.
Excessive 450nm will make orange, green, and yellow pop more. It can also change pigments to more green and orange especially in acans and some chalices. Pink chalices can turn orange, ect.
Again, my suggestion with any 450nm only strips is to have a dimmer for them and slowly acclimate your acros to them.
Here's one of many examples...........start reading at post #90 through to #112
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2508769&page=4
As a general statement to anyone that follows my advice or anyone else-----
I share my experiences and info so other people can have success with their Acropora dominant systems. A lot of what I put out and share is from personal experience of keeping acros for 18 years, and helping people with problems locally and all over the world. If you don't agree with it, have a different experience, ect., don't follow it. If you like what Jason or someone else does/suggests follow their setups.
Apply what makes your acropora setup thrive. Most people will fine tune a system that works best for what they keep and mix their own experiences with what others share from many successful setups.
What I see in that video is a windex tank with green acros that pop, a lot of blue acros.......no clue what the colors really are cause the tank is so dark. You can't compare a 400g tank with reefbrite strips to, for example, a 48" 100g tank with two XHO Reefbrite strips with no dimmer.
Some Acroporas can suffer from too much of a single spectrum and intensity. This is a cause/effect relationship........it's repeatable. I've seen it many times and have suggested to at least have a dimmer with Reefbrites.
There are a lot of variables involved like how close to the surface the LED strips are as well as how much par the overall tank is getting. I've seen vendor propagation systems for zoas, and LPS that run blue+ bulbs and reefbrites and they are 24" from the water surface.
A blue+ bulb has a blue peak at 450, it looks blueish, but it has other spectrums mixed in the bulb. A Reefbrite is nothing but straight 450nm.
Excessive 450nm will make orange, green, and yellow pop more. It can also change pigments to more green and orange especially in acans and some chalices. Pink chalices can turn orange, ect.
Again, my suggestion with any 450nm only strips is to have a dimmer for them and slowly acclimate your acros to them.
Here's one of many examples...........start reading at post #90 through to #112
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2508769&page=4
As a general statement to anyone that follows my advice or anyone else-----
I share my experiences and info so other people can have success with their Acropora dominant systems. A lot of what I put out and share is from personal experience of keeping acros for 18 years, and helping people with problems locally and all over the world. If you don't agree with it, have a different experience, ect., don't follow it. If you like what Jason or someone else does/suggests follow their setups.
Apply what makes your acropora setup thrive. Most people will fine tune a system that works best for what they keep and mix their own experiences with what others share from many successful setups.
I just don't see how you are determining the issue is with the 450nm spectrum and not the intensity though. Your friends even said their acros showed symptoms of too much light. The successful prop tanks you referred to run them higher off the water, that just changes the intensity. I guess your statement of too much 450nm is damaging to acropora is correct, but so is too much 475nm or 550nm, or a blend of them all.
I agree the dimmer and acclimating your corals to any new lighting is a good idea. Most people (I'd say 95%) use reefbrite XHO as a supplement to their main lighting. The reefbrite XHO is a high output fixture (hence the name lol) and can't just be thrown on for 12 hours a day with existing lighting without acclimation or a dimmer if the overall lighting gets pushed to far. The issue is not the spectrum, it's the oitput intensity of the fixture, imo.
My intention was not to challenge your beliefs but to hopefully learn more by digging deeper. Again sweet tank bud, great job.
Oh btw, I'm actually in the process of building a 50/50 450nm/420nm led bar for my reef, I know you expressed interest in such a light, so I'll let you know how it goes.
I also agree with what Ed is saying about the 450nm overload. I have 3xRadiums over my 180 in Hamilton Cayman Sun pendants, supplemented with a diy led strip of cree rb. I rehung my lights much higher (from 8” to 12”) and the increase in growth and color were noticeable almost immediately. I know overall par must have dropped off significantly (don’t own a meter), but that much intensity of 450nm light from the Radiums and LEDs is like a needle of PUR that was oversaturating the Chlorophyll B at an average hanging height. The other plus is that the extra height means heat isn’t an issue.
I think it's fair to say that bombed............cricketsMaybe I should stop questioning big E's lighting theories, I'm pretty sure he could beat me up.
Also appears to be repping the coral plus/blue plus pattern on his leotard