Swannyson7's 180g mixed reef

[gar732]

Everything looks great Scott! All of that is proof that you can get great growth out of LEDs.

 

[RogerWilco357]

nice build thread love the stand and the tank .. I hope my wife lets me upgrade to a 180 or 220 or larger yeah right in my dreams love your corals they look awesome thanks for sharing hopefully I will be starting my own build thread crossing fingers ..

 

[akabryanhall]

Your tank is an inspiration! Everything looks so healthy and I love what you have done with your aquascape!

 

[dougers31]

Wait a minute, is this tank entirely lit by Led's? Looks fantastic.

 

[swannyson7]

Thanks for posting the progression shots. Couple more months and your fish will have nowhere to swim;) I was wondering about the nem... if it decides to move is there a chance it'll get sucked up by the vortechs?

There's actually a total of six anemones in there (3 RBTAs, 2 GBTAs, & a maxi-mini), but they're all stayed in the same place since I set up the tank over the summer (knocks on wood). They move an inch or two back and forth, but never really wander.

Everything looks great Scott! All of that is proof that you can get great growth out of LEDs.

Thanks! The growth has really started to take off over the past couple months.

nice build thread love the stand and the tank .. I hope my wife lets me upgrade to a 180 or 220 or larger yeah right in my dreams love your corals they look awesome thanks for sharing hopefully I will be starting my own build thread crossing fingers ..

Just remember... It's easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.

Your tank is an inspiration! Everything looks so healthy and I love what you have done with your aquascape!

Thanks! I can't wait until the SPS grows in a bit more!

 

[swannyson7]

Wait a minute, is this tank entirely lit by Led's? Looks fantastic.

I'm running three of the LED fixtures that Luke sells, and I'm also running a Nova Extreme Pro 12x39 watt T5 fixture which is more for adjusting the color.

 

[swannyson7]

I recently replaced the three individual pumps I had running the reactors and replaced them with a QuietOne 4000 that I had sitting around. The WM EcoBak is finally tumbling like it's supposed to and everything has individual ball valves for controlling the flow.
Here's a few updated FTS shots:

And some pictures of the "guts" for anyone who's interested:

 

[geckoman2003]

Very nice! I can't wait to see it in a year and see all of the growth.

 

[swannyson7]

I've gotten a constant stream of PMs about the Reef filtration LEDs, so here's some answers to the most common questions.

How do you like the LED fixtures?
I'm very happy with the LEDs from Luke. They're significantly brighter than the 250w Phoenix 14k HQIs I used to run and they allow me to grow SPS just about anywhere. The only drawback I've noticed is that I need to shade most LPS or else they'll get cooked.

About what color do the fixtures run at?
l I have the gen2 fixtures where it doesn't have the blue & white diodes on seperate switches, but if you run the outter two banks, its about 16k, the center bank is probably about 12k and, and with all three banks its about 14-15k. When the fixtures were brand new, they were a bit more blue, but they whitened up as they broke in. (PAR has barely changed according to my local reef club Apogee meter) For T5s, I'm running a mix of blue+, purple+, aquablue special, and Current 10k bulbs to make it a bit more blue, probably around the 20k range. I'm pretty sure that Luke has new fixtures out that are supposed to be available in either 14k or 20k, so you can buy one of those if you prefer more blue.

How do they compare to the ReefKoi fixtures?
The only time I've seen the evolution fixtures was at a frag swap and they seemed to have good coloration & intensity. I can't really compare the fan noise because the fisture at the frag swap had a fan that was rubbing against something making a racket. The fixtures from Luke do make a bit of noise, but they aren't any louder than the rest of my equipment running in the stand. However, keep in mind that I run them in a canopy, so my input on the noise may not be too helpful.

Are there any complaints about the fixtures?
The only downfall I've found on the fixtures from Luke are the cheap hanging kits. The metal wire has a super thin coating on them, which started to rust after a couple months. I ended up replacing the hanging kit with pieces of stainless chain. Better safe than sorry when it comes to electrical equipment hanging over the tank.

If anyone has any other questions regarding the lights, feel free to post in the thread and I'll do my best to answer!

 

[swannyson7]

After taking some macro pics, I recently discovered that I had red bugs. :crossedlips: The colors on a few of my acros were beginning to fade, my growth slowed, and I had one colony of Scripps RTN on me. However, I attributed the problems to my alk slowly creeping up and my laziness with AA dosing. Of course, I realized it was redbugs a few days before I was going on vacation for a week, so I decided to make an attempt to battle them without interceptor (I've never dosed interceptor before, so I was reluctant to do so without being home to monitor my tank). I added two dragonface pipefish to my tank, which despite being a neat addition to my tank, had minimal results by the time I returned from vacation. To top it off, my ATO reservoir went dry before my father in law replenished it, leaving one of the heaters out of the water for the night. I started receiving texts from my Apex at about 3:00 AM, so there were no heaters for about 5 hours. Looking back at the graphs from my apex, my temp dropped 4 degrees, which led to even more loss of color. Luckily I adjusted the thermostat before I left so that the house temp didn't drop that much at night, otherwise it probably would have been much worse.

I completed my first dose of interceptor this past week and not a red bug in sight! I'll be doing the second dose on Monday, followed by the final dosage the following week. I've begun dosing aminos again, and my colors have come back to 90% of what they were, so things are looking promising despite the temporary setback.

 

[Paul_N]

WOW, Sorry to hear about the recent luck. Nice to see you got it in time though. Hopefully everything makes a full recovery. The apex is next on my major purchase list and looks like it is worth every penny.

 

[swannyson7]

WOW, Sorry to hear about the recent luck. Nice to see you got it in time though. Hopefully everything makes a full recovery. The apex is next on my major purchase list and looks like it is worth every penny.

The Apex has already paid for itself several times by saving my butt during potential disasters. Everything seems to be doing well, and has colored back up with some dosing of AAs. I was dosing Seachem Aminos and just switched back to the brightwells. To be honest, I was far from impressed with the Seamchem, but the Brightwells definitely gives a good color boost. After 3 weeks, some of my SPS is actually brighter than it was before the bleaching episode.

 

[swannyson7]

The other day I found my Mystery wrasse in a filter sock that had been sitting in bleach overnight. R.I.P. :cry: I was in a rush on the way out the door for work and foolishly didn't flip them inside out to check for snails like I usually do. I found him about 48 hours after the filter sock had been sitting in bleach and his body hadn't started docomposing, so I have a feeling that he was alive before I removed the sock. Lesson learned... filter socks can always wait until tomorrow if I don't have time to check them.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Swanny - I think this is the first time i have seen your tank. Absolutely gorgeous!! Love the scaping, the colors and choice in fish/corals!! Very nice open looking tank.

 

[swannyson7]

Swanny - I think this is the first time i have seen your tank. Absolutely gorgeous!! Love the scaping, the colors and choice in fish/corals!! Very nice open looking tank.

Thanks! I just ordered some baserock from marcorocks to build an arch from behind the right island that connects to the center island. I'm running out of room to mount stuff and I can't stop buying frags!!!

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Thanks! I just ordered some baserock from marcorocks to build an arch from behind the right island that connects to the center island. I'm running out of room to mount stuff and I can't stop buying frags!!!

lol this hobby is a crazy addicition thats for sure!! Cant wait to see an arch back there...I can envision it and hope it comes out nice!!

 

[swannyson7]

Today I took some top down shots with my new DIY topdown and a few with my new Tamron 90mm macro lens. On to the pics!

 

[swannyson7]

Spiderman zoas are finally starting to take off!

This pink mille has really colored up since starting to dose Brightwell AAs

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Great looking top down pics Swanny!!! The Topdown box must have helped a decent amount....zoas are looking great! By far this is my favorite shot though....

 

[swannyson7]

The base of my GARF Bonsai is still brown, but the new growth has some nice purple to it

The digitata is poking the clam, so I plan on moving it some time this week