DivineStyler's 30 GAL LED "Rimless Lagoon"

[DivineStyler]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum and wanted to introduce myself and share my tank with you all. I've kept fish and amphibians for about 20 years. I just recently upgraded my little JBJ 12 to this 30 GAL Rimless LED set-up. I wanted to try and grow SPS, but didn't want the electricity bill and chiller. Seeing some good results with LED, so I decided to jump on board. I built the stand myself and ordered the rest through a LFS. I seeded it with LR and LS from the JBJ and ran 5ML Microbacter7 daily for the first two weeks. 3 weeks in I transferred my coral and fish. The tank is about a month old in the most current pictures below.

Comments are welcome.

Here's the album with full size pics

Equipment:

30 GAL 24 x 24 x 12 Rimless Starphire
EcoXotic Panorama LED Fixture
16 GAL sump with center fuge
AA 2.5 GAL ATO Reservoir
SWC Xtreme 120 Cone Protein Skimmer
QuietOne 2200 Pump
Rena Smart Heater 150w
Vortech MP10 Powerhead
JBJ ATO System
Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite Controller

Mechanical Filtration/Dosing:
Filter Floss
.ROX Carbon
B-Ionic 2 Part
Brightwell Microbacter7
Brightwell Reef BioFuel

Stand:

Sump:

Livestock:

Fish/Inverts:

Black and White Clownfish Pair
Watchmen Goby
Bullseye Pistol Shrimp
Peppermint Shrimp
Snails and Hermits

SPS:

ORA Green Stylophora
Unknown Green Acro

LPS:

Watermelon Chalice
Pink and Blue Chalice
Frogspawn
Duncan
Torch

Zoa/Paly:

Devil's Armor
Sunny D
Darth Maul
Hippies
Pink Zipper
Vivid Rainbow
Kaleidoscope
Paly Grandis
Tubbs Blue

Day 2; nighttime...

Week 3; daytime...

Week 4; nighttime...

I picked up a ORA Green Stylo at the local aquarium expo and my buddy gave me a little piece of Green Acro. I'm not exactly sure what it is (ID??). Let's see if this thing can grow some SPS!

Also got my little frag rack in...

 

[650-IS350]

I likes.....

 

[fab1971]

Great looking set up.

 

[NVTE]

nice looking tank.
I wonder the same thing about growing SPS under LED light. Tag along.

 

[DivineStyler]

Took a couple quick shots. Still can't get a decent picture with only the 453 Blue on!

Going to pull out the macro and pod and snap some close-up's over the weekend.

 

[jeremym]

Looking good!!!

 

[inactive]

Super dope!

 

[MarvinsReef]

very sweet... looking forward to seeing the progress...

 

[ReeferRob]

Eeats so niyce!

 

[DivineStyler]

very sweet... looking forward to seeing the progress...

Thanks! Your coral and photography are one of my favorite all time.

I took a close up of my only acro a few minutes back to compare color/growth after about a month under the lights. so far so good I think.

4/15/2010

5/10/2010

feeeesssshhhh

chalice

scoly

 

[Troylee]

nice and clean man, i like it...

 

[SunnyX]

Looking great! Welcome to the wonderful world of Rimless reef's!

 

[ctxmonitor]

nice clean setup.. what's kind of starfish is that?

 

[DivineStyler]

nice clean setup.. what's kind of starfish is that?

no idea, to be honest! I don't like snails in my display and the LFS said it would eat stuff off the glass, so I got it. seems to be doing the job so far.

 

[hwntunda]

sweet tank! how do you like those lights?

 

[DivineStyler]

sweet tank! how do you like those lights?

So far so good. The spectrum was a bit too white for me "out of the box". It was the equivalent of what I'd say a 14k MH spectrum puts out. I bought an all blue "Panorama Module" (not the smaller stunner strip) and mounted to my fixture to help with that. I'd say my daytime cycle is now somewhere in the 16-18k range and my night cycle is 22k'ish.

All of my coral is responding very well. You can see the comparison of the green acro after only 4 weeks in my tank. It came from a buddies tank where it had fallen under a rock for a couple weeks and was browning out pretty bad. The green is now coming back and is even more vibrant green than the mother colony in the tank it came from. I also have a piece of stylo that is responding well. Additionally I have various zoanthids and LPS that is showing great growth.

I will keep this thread continuously updated (for better or worse) in the coming months (and hopefully years!).

Thanks for looking.

 

[hwntunda]

glad to hear, and thanks for the info on the lights. cant wait to see your tank grow over the "years"!

 

[DivineStyler]

snapped a couple pics after the water change yesterday.

ORA Borealis

ORA Hawkins

ORA Plum Crazy

Yuma

 

[TANKSALOT]

Those look sweet!

Nice to see positive results with LED's

 

[ripthesystem]

Beautiful tank and thank you for all the insight, pictures, and info. I have a 30 gallon tank, roughly 36"x16"x12" and I'm having an issue with heat. This is brought on by my ambient temp + my PC lights. I haven't had great coral growth from my PC lights though it maintains most things ok. Currently not terribly much photosynthetic (zoas, kenya, acai). I've had this tank running for about 3 years (minus the current coral inhabitants) and the one thing I've always had doubts about was the PC lighting. I've been toying with getting a chiller but I have to say that I'm not in love with that idea at all and was thinking about purchasing these ecoxotic leds in hopes of promoting better coral response with this small tank as well as taking care of my heat issue.

I guess what I'm wondering is, from your experience, would the 23 1/2" fixture be suitable for me? Ecoxotic recommends either 1- 23" or 2- 17" units. I noted that your setup is not as wide as mine but thought perhaps you could aid in my decision?

Thanks!