Mariner 100 Build

[Starry Night Reef]

Second light and both mounts showed up yesterday. Got those setup right away. Might be some corals and fish arriving tomorrow.

Did you go with Reefi's?????

EDIT: Im so dumb, I read that you went with Reefi in your intro thread. LOL
My tank should come Tuesday/ W and I hope to get it running soon. Im running with the Reefi's as well!

 

[josh57]

Did you go with Reefi's?????

EDIT: Im so dumb, I read that you went with Reefi in your intro thread. LOL
My tank should come Tuesday/ W and I hope to get it running soon. Im running with the Reefi's as well!

I like them so far. Takes lots of tweaking to get the colors the way I like them. Still not perfectly happy. I went with two and I have to have them pretty high up to get good enough coverage. Three is probably the right way to go. Especially if I was doing mostly SPS but it’s mixed so I’ll survive.
I definitely recommend getting or borrowing a par meter. There’s so much caution out there on not running them too bright. But because of how high I have them, I had been way under running them where I should be at. Like less than half of where they should’ve been at. Until I finally got a par meter.

 

[josh57]

Well. Going down the rabbit hole of starting the moonshiners method. All my elements should show up sometime this week. Did my first ICP on this tank and nothing was super out of whack. Which is great considering I haven't done a single water change.

 

[Starry Night Reef]

I like them so far. Takes lots of tweaking to get the colors the way I like them. Still not perfectly happy. I went with two and I have to have them pretty high up to get good enough coverage. Three is probably the right way to go. Especially if I was doing mostly SPS but it’s mixed so I’ll survive.
I definitely recommend getting or borrowing a par meter. There’s so much caution out there on not running them too bright. But because of how high I have them, I had been way under running them where I should be at. Like less than half of where they should’ve been at. Until I finally got a par meter.

How high do you have them mounted? Did you try the 120* reflectors at all?

 

[josh57]

12”. I am using the 120*. I have the original 90* not the new version. I tried them on my last tank. But had a very defined hot spot. That may be my biggest complaint with them is coverage. Even though they are high powered I feel like you need more than with other units to get good coverage. The middle of my tank where they blend together. Is about 100-125 less par than directly under the lights.

I still like them for the price. I think if I ever do any future builds with them I would only do them paired with some of light bar. Maybe the helix bars.

 

[Starry Night Reef]

12”. I am using the 120*. I have the original 90* not the new version. I tried them on my last tank. But had a very defined hot spot. That may be my biggest complaint with them is coverage. Even though they are high powered I feel like you need more than with other units to get good coverage. The middle of my tank where they blend together. Is about 100-125 less par than directly under the lights.

I still like them for the price. I think if I ever do any future builds with them I would only do them paired with some of light bar. Maybe the helix bars.

I have 1 older 2.0 and a 2.1, there's definitely a hotspot with the older reflectors. I did order a new version of the reflector for the 2.0 so I won't have that hot spot.

Do you remember how many lbs of sand you used?

 

[josh57]

I have 1 older 2.0 and a 2.1, there's definitely a hotspot with the older reflectors. I did order a new version of the reflector for the 2.0 so I won't have that hot spot.

Do you remember how many lbs of sand you used?

Yeah, that’s how I am. I have 2.0 and 2.1. With them both on my tank at least on 120° lenses. I can’t tell the difference on spread. I’m sure the 90s are drastically different though.

I’m not 100% sure. But I think I use 60 pounds of sand

 

[josh57]

Well. Started Moonshiners Method today. Let’s see how it goes.

 

[Dr. D]

My Mariner 100 is on its way, so I’m enjoying yours in the meantime! Glad you seem happy with the build quality. Looks great.

 

[josh57]

Two daily doses in on moonshiners. And two days of ICP corrections in. Things I have noticed today so far.

• SPS has better polyp extension
• Favias are more vibrant in color. And fluffier.
• The small heads on my two duncans are much more out and have visibly grown.
• A lot more sweeper tenticales on things. And longer sweepers. See the pic of the chalice.
  

 

[Starry Night Reef]

Two daily doses in on moonshiners. And two days of ICP corrections in. Things I have noticed today so far.

• SPS has better polyp extension
• Favias are more vibrant in color. And fluffier.
• The small heads on my two duncans are much more out and have visibly grown.
• A lot more sweeper tenticales on things. And longer sweepers. See the pic of the chalice.
  

Do you plan on hooking this up to a dosing system or will you have to manually dose everyday?

 

[josh57]

Do you plan on hooking this up to a dosing system or will you have to manually dose everyday?

Manually dose. It is very tiny amounts for my tank. The smallest is just one drop for one of them. And the highest is 1 ml. Down the road at some point I may go the doser route. If you miss a dose or a week of doses for vacation or anything. You just skip them and start it back when you get back.

 

[Proud]

Two daily doses in on moonshiners. And two days of ICP corrections in. Things I have noticed today so far.

• SPS has better polyp extension
• Favias are more vibrant in color. And fluffier.
• The small heads on my two duncans are much more out and have visibly grown.
• A lot more sweeper tenticales on things. And longer sweepers. See the pic of the chalice.
  

beauty

 

[josh57]

Holy. Smokes. This coral. Finally added a holy grail torch. Have never seen one in person. By far the brightest thing in my tank. Nothing else is even close. It looks unreal. Pictures do not come close.

Thank you Oceanic Gardens was packed wonderfully.

 

[Starry Night Reef]

Holy. Smokes. This coral. Finally added a holy grail torch. Have never seen one in person. By far the brightest thing in my tank. Nothing else is even close. It looks unreal. Pictures do not come close.

Thank you Oceanic Gardens was packed wonderfully.

Beautiful torches!!! Im super skeptical about HG torches as Ive never seen one in person, and all the ones online are SUPER saturated under blues. But looking at your picture It definitely stands out!


Also, just picked up my mariner, So now im officially part of the club!

 

[josh57]

Beautiful torches!!! Im super skeptical about HG torches as Ive never seen one in person, and all the ones online are SUPER saturated under blues. But looking at your picture It definitely stands out!


Also, just picked up my mariner, So now im officially part of the club!

I love the tank. My only complaints were with the plumbing measurements not being super great and having a small leak here or there. And the overflow is pretty loud for what I would like. I’ve tried tinkering with it and haven’t seem to be able to get it any quieter.

The build of the tank is absolutely incredible though, and I love it and the stand.

Yeah, I already had a torch switch is pretty bright green. So I was worried about a holy girl being too close but it’s completely different. It’s by far, the brightest most glowing thing in my tank.

 

[josh57]

Well. Glad I decided to start moonshiners when I did. And start ICP tests. My aluminum was just barely elevated. Was remounting my lights and found where it was coming from.

 

[Proud]

Holy. Smokes. This coral. Finally added a holy grail torch. Have never seen one in person. By far the brightest thing in my tank. Nothing else is even close. It looks unreal. Pictures do not come close.

Thank you Oceanic Gardens was packed wonderfully.

ahh that torch, beautiful. Might run to a lfs to look for one.

 

[Dr. D]

Holy. Smokes. This coral. Finally added a holy grail torch. Have never seen one in person. By far the brightest thing in my tank. Nothing else is even close. It looks unreal. Pictures do not come close.

Thank you Oceanic Gardens was packed wonderfully.

Added to my wish list!

 

[josh57]

Updates on the tank: some good, some bad. I lost the Holy Grail Torch. It completely bailed out while I was away for a few days during Christmas. I have no idea why, the parameters were in check the whole time. One day it was fine, and the next it was completely gone. Fortunately, as far as I know, it wasn’t brown jelly. All the other corals look fluffy and healthy. My only guess is that it was getting a bit too much flow. I did change a few things here. I moved the gyres back to the sides and added both Nero 3s I had from the old tank to the back. This seemed to help with the flow being more balanced. However, it didn’t help the torches, maybe getting too much flow in the middle. After trying a few things, I decided it was best to move the torches to the outside of the tank. The SPS will take their prime middle spot in the tank shortly.

In other new additions, I added a 48” @Orphek OR4 Blue Sky. I am really impressed. I might even swap fully to @Orphek eventually if the budget allows. I like the Reefi’s, but I have always struggled to get them to a point where I was happy with the tank color. I couldn’t really tell if it was me or the lights. It’s the Reefi’s. After playing around with them for months on both the old tank and this one, I felt like it was missing around twice as much output on the 470 nm or thereabouts as it needed to balance out the spectrum. It always seemed very purple, even on a more white look, it felt too purple and missing something. It looked dull almost. Even if I ran the other channels at half, it felt better, but still not complete. And this would have been way too low of a PAR output.


So, I began exploring supplemental bar options, which I had planned to add in the future for better coverage. After narrowing it down, I chose the OR4 Blue Sky bar, which I believed provided the ideal spectrum. It was spot on! It addresses all my concerns. It includes 460nm, 470nm, and 480nm wavelengths. My corals now have that vibrant glow or pop that I had felt they were missing, and it’s not a UV glow, have plenty of headroom on the Reefi’s for that still. For now, I’ve placed the bar on the back side of the tank. I might eventually add a second one to the front to provide more coverage and fill in some shadows.

I’m excited to see some new fish and corals arrive in the next couple of weeks.