The Garden -- Rakies shallow SPS cube

[Rakie]

So I've been having problems setting my radions up properly. The color just wasn't what I was looking for, no matter what I tried. The tank was just dull, the color was a ghastly purple no matter what I did, and while most corals responded well, nothing looked right... Everything just seemed off. I couldn't shake the feeling things were wrong and needed to be fixed, but I was going about it the wrong way..

Now, see... Radions have this Calibration feature. I had been told it was to make sure each radion was in tune with each other. And that there's not much reason to use it if you only have a single radion. Cool.

That advice was BAD. Very, very bad.

After spending 3 weeks messing around with my radion, completely unable to fine tune the look I want. Unable to really get rid of that nasty purple hue, that overpowering orange from the WW and CW (surprisingly).. All kinds of things just weren't right.

Calibrated for 8 minutes = Solved everything.

A few days shy of a month of constant tinkering, all for nothing. The silver lining is now every single lighting option looks stunning, instead of nothing looking good.

So here's looking forward to less ID Ten T errors.

 

[Janci]

How do you set up the radions? Do you use the prepared programs like AB+ or fix it manually?
Will have to look at this calibration thing as well I guess.

 

[Rakie]

How do you set up the radions? Do you use the prepared programs like AB+ or fix it manually?
Will have to look at this calibration thing as well I guess.

I had my own program because it looked terrible no matter what I did. The calibration is found when you go into EcoSmart Live, click on Devices, click on your radion, and you'll see a little gear symbol -- Click on that, near the bottom is calibration. Calibrate at night in a dark room only.

it goes through each LED spectrum individually and asks you if you can see it or not. Each time you click yes, it gets darker, until you click no. Then it saves and moves to the next color. When it's calibrated it should only darken 3-4 times -- In the case of my violet I had to start counting, I had to click nearly 30 times. Considering each time you click it goes down a few percentage that means my violet was astoundingly off. So was my cool white, and warm white.

The difference is literally amazing. it's like I have a completely different light. I had no idea how messed up it was.

 

[Rakie]

Quick and Dirty phone shot taken a few minutes ago -- My phone makes things a little over saturated when I use the orange filter. it also makes reds disappear. But I guess it's better than a blue screen

 

[Rakie]

A few pics, been too long since I had an individual coral pic.

Oregon Tort

Pinky the Bear

Fox Flame (that's angry from the LED change)

PC Superman Frag Growout (Secondary I'm growing for a friend)

Inland Corals Kaleidoscope

Right frag rack

 

[Daniel@R2R]

A few pics, been too long since I had an individual coral pic.

Oregon Tort

Pinky the Bear

Fox Flame (that's angry from the LED change)

PC Superman Frag Growout (Secondary I'm growing for a friend)

Inland Corals Kaleidoscope

Right frag rack

Looking good, man!

 

[GoVols]

Looking good, man!

+1

@Rakie
What's your thoughts on going with the Radion's?
Always enjoy your feedback and incite.

 

[Rakie]

+1

@Rakie
What's your thoughts on going with the Radion's?
Always enjoy your feedback and incite.

I was struggling to like it at first, but the issue was mostly due to the light needing to be calibrated. After calibration it's night and day different. now it basically looks good at almost any setting.

I'm currently using the WWC colors setting, which is similar to the AB+ setting but a little less White/Red/Green.

A few corals turned dark colors, noticeably my Fox Flame is now a more standard brown-tan color instead of hot red like it was, and a yellow milli I have has turned purple. On the other hand, things like Pinky the Bear went from a dull pink-gray color to a pastel pink with flaming hot pink rims around the corallites. ALL corals have picked up growth significantly, both encrusting and denser limbs -- with one exception -- The Fox Flame, who was initially burned by the new Radion.

As time goes on, I fully expect everything to fall in line and really color up. I'll be getting the diffuser soon which should help quite a bit with eliminating shadows and lighting the corals from the sides a bit better.

 

[GoVols]

Thanks for the feedback and I'd get the diffuser too.

Glad your happy with the Radion from the T5's

Your reef is on fire!!!

 

[Rakie]

Thanks for the feedback and I'd get the diffuser too.

Glad your happy with the Radion from the T5's

Your reef is on fire!!!

Oh are you going to go with the Radions? Your thread never shows up in my feed apparently, maybe you got a new tank?!

 

[GoVols]

Oh are you going to go with the Radions? Your thread never shows up in my feed apparently, maybe you got a new tank?!

I'm staying with the Kessil a80 / T5 Hybird.

My light tweaking days are in the rear view mirror, but... I still like to watch others results and read their feedback's

If you don't post on a build thread, the thread updates stop showing up??? ;Wacky

 

[Rakie]

I'm staying with the Kessil a80 / T5 Hybird.

My light tweaking days are in the rear view mirror, but... I still like to watch others results and read their feedback's

If you don't post on a build thread, the thread updates stop showing up??? ;Wacky

My last post was when you got the trigger, and I didn't get an update since!

 

[revhtree]

Lovely!

 

[GoVols]

My last post was when you got the trigger, and I didn't get an update since!

Traded him in to The Aquatic Critter and got a 2.25" (Maldives) WYSIWYG Regal Angel coming in from Chicago.

 

[Rakie]

Traded him in to The Aquatic Critter and got a 2.25" (Maldives) WYSIWYG Regal Angel coming in from Chicago.

Awww, poor trigger I liked that one haha. But regals aren't exactly ugly either so nice choice.

 

[Rakie]

New stuff incoming.
- Radion Diffuser on the Way
- Cobalt Neo-Therm on the way (150w version)
- Spectrapure 99% RO Membrane on the way

My heaters are slipping. So far Finnex heaters have been the least faily heaters I've ever used -- And they're failing. The internal thermostat in them is SNAFU, I have to turn them to 90* for them to register the tank temperature at 77.6. Considering the thermostat has gone from solid to +12* I decided that means they're effectively dead.

To reiterate. My heaters won't even turn on unless I set them at 90*, and my tank is BELOW 77.6* -- It promptly turns off at 77.8*, so my heater thinks 77.8* = 90*

At this rate, in 3-4 months they won't even turn on anymore.

 

[Rakie]

So time for some theory, thinking in the box, so to speak.

My corals turned green. Now this happened right when I switched to LED from T5 -- But something slipped my mind. And my testing.

Salinity.

So my salinity had slipped kinda hard, bad on me for sure, but my first hint which I was oblivious to was my Magnesium being chronically low, and dropping upwards of 50 per day, which is unreal. This was because I was foolish and didn't properly calibrate my refractometer -- BUT, at the same time, I was dosing a LOT of ATI Essentials magnesium, which is rich in Trace Elements. Overdosing trace is known to discolor SPS.

So I wonder if it was just the light change, the magnesium full of trace (for which I'm dumb for dosing so much), or that sweet faily combination of both. So many hypotheticals in this hobby. The question isn't IF I messed up, it's HOW I messed up.

I'm now running my MAG and CAL lower than Alk, my mag and cal are stable and VERY high, so i'll let them drop a little naturally. Maybe it'll make a difference in the trace elements. I'll be doing a bunch of water changes as well, which should help balance things out. Since my 2 part is a complete formula, i'll be using basic IO to not boost trace minerals higher with each Water Change.

 

[GoVols]

So time for some theory, thinking in the box, so to speak.

My corals turned green. Now this happened right when I switched to LED from T5 -- But something slipped my mind. And my testing.

Salinity.

So my salinity had slipped kinda hard, bad on me for sure, but my first hint which I was oblivious to was my Magnesium being chronically low, and dropping upwards of 50 per day, which is unreal. This was because I was foolish and didn't properly calibrate my refractometer -- BUT, at the same time, I was dosing a LOT of ATI Essentials magnesium, which is rich in Trace Elements. Overdosing trace is known to discolor SPS.

So I wonder if it was just the light change, the magnesium full of trace (for which I'm dumb for dosing so much), or that sweet faily combination of both. So many hypotheticals in this hobby. The question isn't IF I messed up, it's HOW I messed up.

I'm now running my MAG and CAL lower than Alk, my mag and cal are stable and VERY high, so i'll let them drop a little naturally. Maybe it'll make a difference in the trace elements. I'll be doing a bunch of water changes as well, which should help balance things out. Since my 2 part is a complete formula, i'll be using basic IO to not boost trace minerals higher with each Water Change.

Tagging
...........................;Writing

 

[Rakie]

Took a few shots today, the camera is dialed in just a smidge more.. Something I didn't know (Thanks Wally) is that when I use the Auto WB feature on my camera, I should make sure my camera is 100% neutral... no colors, no -EV or anything. That makes a lot of sense, oops..

Full Tank Shot (Better than usual)

Green/Red Encrusting horn monster (Vermatids -- He also came out Blue, not pink/green!)

Pink Floydish, my wild pink floyd with a blue base and sexier colors.

RRUSA Diabo / El Diabo (I think it's El... But who knows with RRUSA...)

 

[Janci]

Looking good.
Do you notice already a colour shift due to the change to LED?