Smite's Stout CDA - 205g Acropora dominant system 50x38x25"

[Smite]

I’m bumping up to 400w. I want to be able to keep acropora off the bottom. After bumping my fixture up a few inches I’ve noticed my skinny love darkening up a bit.

I swapped ballasts out, popped in some old Ushio 20k. My hope is they’ll have a little less umph and bridge the gap 250w-400w while I wait for new lamps to show up. I did a test without bars last night and output looked perfect. Pretty much the equivalent to 250w with bars with just the 400w.

 

[Troylee]

I’m bumping up to 400w. I want to be able to keep acropora off the bottom. After bumping my fixture up a few inches I’ve noticed my skinny love darkening up a bit.

I swapped ballasts out, popped in some old Ushio 20k. My hope is they’ll have a little less umph and bridge the gap 250w-400w while I wait for new lamps to show up. I did a test without bars last night and output looked perfect. Pretty much the equivalent to 250w with bars with just the 400w.

I just picked up some 250w hqi but have some reefbrite moguls coming that are 250-400 mogul base.. I’m tempted to go radium 20k at 400watts myself

 

[Smite]

I just picked up some 250w hqi but have some reefbrite moguls coming that are 250-400 mogul base.. I’m tempted to go radium 20k at 400watts myself

You'll love those reefbrites. They push a good amount of par out while still giving good spread. I remember loving the radium 400w and wish I had one so I could pop it in and see if I still like it. 250w on electronic ballast was just too blue for me but I feel the 400w was more crisp. This Ushio 20k has a heavy violet look to it. Not bad but has me tempted to just stick with hamilton 14k in 400w.

 

[Smite]

Ushio 400w 20k

I pulled a large encrusted monti, TGC tropical hurricane, and donated it to my LFS. I plan to add more smooth skin acropora down in that area. The white spot up front.

 

[Troylee]

You'll love those reefbrites. They push a good amount of par out while still giving good spread. I remember loving the radium 400w and wish I had one so I could pop it in and see if I still like it. 250w on electronic ballast was just too blue for me but I feel the 400w was more crisp. This Ushio 20k has a heavy violet look to it. Not bad but has me tempted to just stick with hamilton 14k in 400w.

Got the hqi on it for now.. Phoenix 14k doesn’t look bad with radion supplements haha! Only ran for 2 hours.. I don’t wanna shock anything

 

[Smite]

Got the hqi on it for now.. Phoenix 14k doesn’t look bad with radion supplements haha! Only ran for 2 hours.. I don’t wanna shock anything

Sweet tank!

 

[naterealbig]

I’m bumping up to 400w. I want to be able to keep acropora off the bottom. After bumping my fixture up a few inches I’ve noticed my skinny love darkening up a bit.

I swapped ballasts out, popped in some old Ushio 20k. My hope is they’ll have a little less umph and bridge the gap 250w-400w while I wait for new lamps to show up. I did a test without bars last night and output looked perfect. Pretty much the equivalent to 250w with bars with just the 400w.

Long time MH fanboy here (trying my luck with Kessil A500X this round). Ushio definitely one of my favorite bulbs - 10KK, 14KK, and 20KK all exceptional, with amazing color rendition. Happy to see these still being utilized.

 

[Smite]

The 20k/LED really pop some color so I decided to take a few pictures. Today my consumption stayed the same with the MH on for 6 hours vs 8hrs with the 250w. Hopefully everything continues to adapt to the new amount of light well. Getting accurate pictures is a little hard though, the blue really makes everything very saturated.
AOA Granulosa

ASD Doomsday

Tong's Speciosa

2 spaths I hope do nice things. Both appear to have 2 colors two them. I really like the yellowish/gold on turquoise. The second is new and rebounding from brown so we shall see what it does

Chromis photo bomb but this is a piece I'm hoping colors up more with the added light

CC Blaze of Glory getting secure

Heliarch

Tong's tenuis

Tong's millepora frag. Pink with whitish center polyps is pretty cool.

RR Firecracker getting a bit more color every week

Vivid's 4 loko finally grew a tiny nub. Maybe it'll make it after all?

Full Tilt Favia

 

[Troylee]

The 20k/LED really pop some color so I decided to take a few pictures. Today my consumption stayed the same with the MH on for 6 hours vs 8hrs with the 250w. Hopefully everything continues to adapt to the new amount of light well. Getting accurate pictures is a little hard though, the blue really makes everything very saturated.
AOA Granulosa

ASD Doomsday

Tong's Speciosa

2 spaths I hope do nice things. Both appear to have 2 colors two them. I really like the yellowish/gold on turquoise. The second is new and rebounding from brown so we shall see what it does

Chromis photo bomb but this is a piece I'm hoping colors up more with the added light

CC Blaze of Glory getting secure

Heliarch

Tong's tenuis

Tong's millepora frag. Pink with whitish center polyps is pretty cool.

RR Firecracker getting a bit more color every week

Vivid's 4 loko finally grew a tiny nub. Maybe it'll make it after all?

Full Tilt Favia

Looking good! How long have you been running the halides and acclimating stuff to them? I’m on my second day and only running them for 3 hours along with the reef brite strips. my 3 radions run for 12 hours one hour ramp up then 10 hours at 80% and a hour ramp down.. two 250 w mh and the 2 Xho strips from noon till 3pm for now.

 

[Gedxin]

Gorgeous pieces. You really outdo yourself each time with the skilled photography and top-down shots.

 

[Smite]

Looking good! How long have you been running the halides and acclimating stuff to them? I’m on my second day and only running them for 3 hours along with the reef brite strips. my 3 radions run for 12 hours one hour ramp up then 10 hours at 80% and a hour ramp down.. two 250 w mh and the 2 Xho strips from noon till 3pm for now.

Thanks!

When I went from the 10 lamp ATI power module to 2 x 250w mh I didn't do any acclimation because I felt it was a pretty big reduction in PAR. That was just by eye but also I noticed more polyp extension the next day that kind of backed it up. It went pretty well overall and that was around December, last year.

Now going up in wattage I backing off my MH duration by roughly the amount I'm increasing in power. 275/400w is about 30% increase I believe so I backed off my metal halides from 8 to 6.5. That's about a 20% reduction but the lamps look well burnt so I'm thinking they are putting out a little less light than a standard 400w 20k bulb which will hopefully work in my favor. They'll be in there until I get some new lamps in the mail. Hopefully that'll work out like a make shift acclimation til then, haha.

I was going to order the lamps today but I'm really struggling to decide between 20k and 14k, maybe even ushio 10k. It's hard to find many pictures in google or videos on youtube for reference. Most likely gonna end up back at 14k hamiltons but I really did like 400w Radiums, but I was also coming from mostly LED experience at that point so my taste in spectrum has kind of changed since then.

 

[Smite]

Gorgeous pieces. You really outdo yourself each time with the skilled photography and top-down shots.

Thanks man! I really enjoy taking pictures of the tank. A full blown hobby inside a hobby Well this hobby and my boa constrictors. Great way for a fiddler to sit still and enjoy something haha

I mostly view my tanks top down since you get to see all the detail that way. It's the same reason most my shots are top down too, so much more going on from that view point!

 

[Smite]

Long time MH fanboy here (trying my luck with Kessil A500X this round). Ushio definitely one of my favorite bulbs - 10KK, 14KK, and 20KK all exceptional, with amazing color rendition. Happy to see these still being utilized.

Those kessils are awesome. If I had to trade out my MH I'd be looking at a combo of quanta pro bars with kessils to achieve that shimmer.

I've been tempted with the Ushio 10k since they are so cheap. I'm sure some of my old school type pieces would look insane and the fish too. I might order a set just to see and have a solid back up in stock.

 

[Troylee]

Thanks!

When I went from the 10 lamp ATI power module to 2 x 250w mh I didn't do any acclimation because I felt it was a pretty big reduction in PAR. That was just by eye but also I noticed more polyp extension the next day that kind of backed it up. It went pretty well overall and that was around December, last year.

Now going up in wattage I backing off my MH duration by roughly the amount I'm increasing in power. 275/400w is about 30% increase I believe so I backed off my metal halides from 8 to 6.5. That's about a 20% reduction but the lamps look well burnt so I'm thinking they are putting out a little less light than a standard 400w 20k bulb which will hopefully work in my favor. They'll be in there until I get some new lamps in the mail. Hopefully that'll work out like a make shift acclimation til then, haha.

I was going to order the lamps today but I'm really struggling to decide between 20k and 14k, maybe even ushio 10k. It's hard to find many pictures in google or videos on youtube for reference. Most likely gonna end up back at 14k hamiltons but I really did like 400w Radiums, but I was also coming from mostly LED experience at that point so my taste in spectrum has kind of changed since then.

I currently have Phoenix 14k hqi over my tank.. I got some reefbrite fixtures coming with mogul base and most likely will go with radium 20k. That was always my go to back in the day! I do like the crisp white of these Phoenix thou!

 

[Smite]

I currently have Phoenix 14k hqi over my tank.. I got some reefbrite fixtures coming with mogul base and most likely will go with radium 20k. That was always my go to back in the day! I do like the crisp white of these Phoenix thou!

Yeah those 400w radiums are sweet. After hunting around on the forums I found people going back and forth on radium vs hamiltons 20k @ 400w. Sounds like the Hamilton's are a bit more white than the radiums driven by electronic ballasts on the 400W setting. That sounds right up my alley so I ordered a set of those. I'll post up a FTS and share how they look once I get them set up, then maybe again once they burn in.

Those reefbrite fixtures are no joke, you're going to love those things.

 

[Smite]

Well crap, never mind. I just got an email saying they are sold out. 14k it is

 

[Smite]

I attempted to shoot all blue with no filter. Only some pieces were able to shine through. I did leave a window open to let sunlight in and balance the blue out. Lighthouse lets you slide kevlin to 30,000 and that's where it looked about right for these pieces.

This tenuis has 2 tone polyps, pretty cool!

BC Aquaticman showed true

JF Homewrecker nub is lit up. I can't wait for it to grow so I can see all the detail without a macro lens

Spath frag from post above

CC Voodoo Majick has awesome polyps and color

And a classic ASD Rainbow Millepora looking super bright. I think there are two types out there. I had one years ago that was not even close to this one's color.

 

[Smite]

400w 14k Hamiltons installed. The output compared to the older 20k is incredible. I'm raising the fixture a few inches to compensate as it is noticeably brighter.

I added 2 new maricultured pieces to the tank. I tried a new dip. Potassium Chloride @ 2 tablespoons in a gallon of tank water. They slimed up something crazy so fingers cross. Figured I'd take a picture incase they are gone in the A.M.
1 small tenuis frag. It's not looking SO hot. It came off a colored down colony but I saw an immense amount of color coming from where the branches were meeting in the center in 1 spot. A real role of the dice and will probably take a long time to settle in if it makes it.

Under the g5's @ the LFS this one had a tone that was creamy looking and I liked the structure. I was thinking smooth skin there but now not so sure. Not the most crazy colorful piece there but I have a good feeling it'll be a solid 14k spectrum piece. Surprisingly nice when I was mounting it under blues too.

I had mounted this smooth skin towards the back of the tank. I don't think it was getting enough light to reach it's potential. It's on the bottom now near my enchinata but tons more light and flow there. I think it's got some real potential and is looking happier with polyps out.

 

[Smite]

Well the new pieces settled in great overnight. Polyps out and the color looks pretty good too. I'll be sticking with that dip for sure.

The 14k show everything pretty well. This is with OG Pop quantapros but they don't have as much effect on the look of the spectrum with the 400w lamps.

 

[Troylee]

14k does light up nice! I got some phoenix bulbs right now.. deciding what to purchase next.. a lot easier to photograph also lol