my new baby... AKA The Café

[James_O]

Why?

Because I don’t know like what ratio I should have, what the schedule should be, what light I should have if this one is even good for my corals, etc.

 

[LRT]

Well, I’ve been working on it for a little over an hour.

I just don’t know how to get the algae off of the sand. If I try to vacuum it up, then it just sucks sand up along with it. I literally have bare spots in the tank now because of that.

I did take some frags out and cleaned the GHA/GBA off of them. And I also rearranged some of the frags.

Look into that 5 micron sock it will change your world. Its ok to siphon out all that nasty algae covered sand to give good rinse and put back in i promise.

 

[James_O]

Look into that 5 micron sock it will change your world. Its ok to siphon out all that nasty algae covered sand to give good rinse and put back in i promise.

Will do. How does this help again?

Ok, I have a bag of sand that I took out 2 weeks ago and dried out. It will go back in the bare spots.

 

[LRT]

Will do. How does this help again?

Ok, I have a bag of sand that I took out 2 weeks ago and dried out. It will go back in the bare spots.

You can siphon your whole entire top layer of algae sand into it in 5 gallon bucket.
Reuse the water if params are good.
Take sand out and rinse in 5 gallon bucket until its clean of nasties and throw it back in.

 

[James_O]

Almost forgot:

Got this sucker when I took a rock out to get the algae off. It’s about 4-5 inches long. 0_o

 

[LRT]

@James_O check out the deep clean sand rinse thread. Hundreds if not thousands of people deep clean sand. Some get even crazier like myself and deep clean rock and system like I've described to you.
Can only be glorious for you.

 

[James_O]

Also, I don’t know how I possibly managed to do this, but I broke the rectangle of stone off of the frag plug:

 

[Jaden9933]

I run 5% whites during the day. But this is me.

Y’all would be shocked by my lighting. I only have one sps (a monti) yet I run it at full intensity at four points throughout the day. I’m in Vegas so sadly can’t log into the app to take a screenshot but I will when I get back home. It seems like it should be too intense for softies and LPS, but they all look very happy and fully open. Ive never seen someone use the full intensity but it works for me

 

[elorablue]

Because I don’t know like what ratio I should have, what the schedule should be, what light I should have if this one is even good for my corals, etc.

What light do you have?
On my AI Prime 16 I use these numbers.
UV 97
V. 97
ROYAL BLUE 86
BLUE. 86
GREEN. 7
RED. 7
MOONLIGHT 0
COOL WHITE. 20

10 hour cycle with 1 1/2 hour ramp up and down on each end

I don't know if you can adapt this to your light but it's ballpark
In a perfect world I would like to add a fuller spectrum, more red green and white, but I'm waiting until my tank is more fully established so I don't feed any unnecessary algae issues. hth

 

[LRT]

What light do you have?
On my AI Prime 16 I use these numbers.
UV 97
V. 97
ROYAL BLUE 86
BLUE. 86
GREEN. 7
RED. 7
MOONLIGHT 0
COOL WHITE. 20

10 hour cycle with 1 1/2 hour ramp up and down on each end

I don't know if you can adapt this to your light but it's ballpark
In a perfect world I would like to add a fuller spectrum, more red green and white, but I'm waiting until my tank is more fully established so I don't feed any unnecessary algae issues. hth

Great point. I had to turn my intensity way down in new tank upgrade.

 

[James_O]

What light do you have?
On my AI Prime 16 I use these numbers.
UV 97
V. 97
ROYAL BLUE 86
BLUE. 86
GREEN. 7
RED. 7
MOONLIGHT 0
COOL WHITE. 20

10 hour cycle with 1 1/2 hour ramp up and down on each end

I don't know if you can adapt this to your light but it's ballpark
In a perfect world I would like to add a fuller spectrum, more red green and white, but I'm waiting until my tank is more fully established so I don't feed any unnecessary algae issues. hth

It’s some cheap black box I got from my LFS that was made in China or something.

The only % it gives me is “Chanel 1” (which are the blues) and “Chanel 2” (which are the reds, whites, yellows, and greens).

It doesn’t even have Bluetooth, so I can’t track the light intensity throughout the day.

 

[elorablue]

It’s some cheap black box I got from my LFS that was made in China or something.

The only % it gives me is “Chanel 1” (which are the blues) and “Chanel 2” (which are the reds, whites, yellows, and greens).

It doesn’t even have Bluetooth, so I can’t track the light intensity throughout the day.

Ok, that's still cool. See if you can adjust it so the red green and white channels are very low and the others are high. It's doable. If necessary you could even turn that channel 2 off for now until things are under control.

 

[LRT]

It’s some cheap black box I got from my LFS that was made in China or something.

The only % it gives me is “Chanel 1” (which are the blues) and “Chanel 2” (which are the reds, whites, yellows, and greens).

It doesn’t even have Bluetooth, so I can’t track the light intensity throughout the day.

Nothing wrong with cheap black boxes I grew alot of shrooms better under my old reef radiance with burned out bulbs! Do not under estimate the black box. Mine was capable of hitting 400 par easily.
2 channels as well.
I ran my old black box around 50% blues and 10-15% channel 2.
Whatever intensity you have channel set at is intensity its going to push from lights on until they turn off.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I don’t get lighting either, that’s why I use orphek bars lol just plug and play

 

[Jaden9933]

It’s some cheap black box I got from my LFS that was made in China or something.

The only % it gives me is “Chanel 1” (which are the blues) and “Chanel 2” (which are the reds, whites, yellows, and greens).

It doesn’t even have Bluetooth, so I can’t track the light intensity throughout the day.

AI Prime 16HD is probably going to be the most recommended light by most people. They have amazing controllability and insane power for probably $100 more than what you paid. I laid $150 for my first light (Fluval Marine 3.0). I was pretty upset when I learned later that I could’ve gotten the light I had now for only $100 more, yet it has almost 5x the power. It’s definitely a good value compared to the majority of other lights

 

[fishguy242]

@James_O ,imo black box,stay where your at ,what was it? 90 blues, 10% whites..your corals are reacting fine.
what test kits do you already have?
i would be looking into phosphate

 

[DiefsReef]

Hello Frank and Friends. Hope all are having a good day.
I've been lurking a bit when I can but not much happening on the tanks cept upkeep.
Still kinda tired from last months activities and of course Ozzy the crazy pooch is keeping us busy

Cant wait till you get some pics up Frank. Wanna see the progress on the lights!!
I hope to get some work done this weekend and maybe have a few updates of my own
Be well all!

 

[James_O]

Ok, that's still cool. See if you can adjust it so the red green and white channels are very low and the others are high. It's doable. If necessary you could even turn that channel 2 off for now until things are under control.

I’ve been trying to get it down over the past month or so. I don’t want to just shock the corals, ya know?

AI Prime 16HD is probably going to be the most recommended light by most people. They have amazing controllability and insane power for probably $100 more than what you paid. I laid $150 for my first light (Fluval Marine 3.0). I was pretty upset when I learned later that I could’ve gotten the light I had now for only $100 more, yet it has almost 5x the power. It’s definitely a good value compared to the majority of other lights

Oh, yes! That’s what my LFS uses in one of their frag tanks. It seems super nice.

Nothing wrong with cheap black boxes I grew alot of shrooms better under my old reef radiance with burned out bulbs! Do not under estimate the black box. Mine was capable of hitting 400 par easily.
2 channels as well.
I ran my old black box around 50% blues and 10-15% channel 2.
Whatever intensity you have channel set at is intensity its going to push from lights on until they turn off.

Gotcha. I like the light and I know it’s powerful, but I just don’t like how “bland” the controls are. And no Bluetooth, so it’s kind of hard to do things.

 

[najer]

So my quest for pigmy filefish has hit a big snag. ORA has no stock and wont be able to supply until who knows when
I think I'll hold off on them until the new tank is ready to go.

Sooooooo, what fish would you recommend for a 20g cube to go with 2 clowns and a firefish?! LOL

Tailspot blenny.

 

[James_O]

Also, should the lights slowly get brighter and brighter up until 12:00, and then ramp all the way back down? Or should there be hours of the same setting/high intensity?