The Hurricane Build - IM Fusion 20

[Centerline]

Well, as an admitted OCDer I just couldn't keep from fooling with the rock a little bit tonight. I pulled out the larger chuck to the left and rearranged things a bit to insure that the absurdly priced MP10 has a chance to do its job by maintaining flow across the tank. I'm not 100% sure that I like the aesthetics of this much better but endlessly playing with the rockwork isn't promoting a stable environment for the coral either. So this is what it is - for now.

Couple of close ups

 

[William Clinton]

I just bought a ludicrous chalice. Did you ever get a good pic?

 

[William Clinton]

I just bought a ludicrous chalice. Did you ever get a good pic?

 

[William Clinton]

I just bought a pice of the ludicrous chalice. did you ever get a good picture?

 

[Centerline]

I just bought a ludicrous chalice. Did you ever get a good pic?

No, the thing is really hard to get a good picture of. The color striation is very slim and frankly not very impressive at this time. Yours?

 

[William Clinton]

I get it friday, I can get pics, or try.

 

[Centerline]

I get it friday, I can get pics, or try.

Who are you scoring it from?

 

[Centerline]

I get it friday, I can get pics, or try.

So here are a couple of pictures of my Luda. As I said - not very impressive for what I paid for it BUT if it turns out anything like the parent (assuming it stay alive that long) it will be money well spent.

This is uncorrected

With white balance corrected - just about looks right though not so much

Here is the original from RB - I HOPE it turns out like this but we will see.

I'm seeing light blue, blue, dark blue, purple, orange, red and yellow. King of the rainbows!

 

[Centerline]

I have made a couple of changes in the last few weeks. Most notably I ditched the Hydra 52 HD for something more appropriately sized. I also was noticing some odd color shifts and thought it might be due to the strong 460 representation. I decided to score a 4 tube T5 rig and ended up settling for a Wave Point 24" 4 bulb fixture.

I replaced the stock bulbs (pain in the butt) with two ATI blue plus and two ATI true actinic. It looks pretty good and serves double duty by hiding some of the gear that's starting to pop out of the rear chamber.

PAR at the bottom of the tank, with the lid on sits around 90 - perfect for chalice, scoly and acans. At the top of the tank PAR sits about 280 so I should it should be able to grow pretty much everything and I believe that by removing the actinic bulbs and replacing them with two more blue plus bulb I could pick up another 30-40 par if needed. ]

The unit uses 98 watts at .7 amps and though not as sexy as the Hydra HD its a pretty sleek little unit.

Below is good representation of how the tank looks under the Blue Plus and Actinic combination.

 

[William Clinton]

Here's mine under radions

 

[Centerline]

Here's mine under radions

As an FYI - one of the reasons I pulled the Hydra HD off my 20 is that my Luda oranged up in a week or two. I don't know if was the light - too much UV - too much whatever. I had the light set for about 100 PAR at the bottom of the tank using my Apex meter - it turns out it under reports about 30% or so with LEDs. Once I found this out I scored a Seneye and found that there was a big difference between the two - so not really trusting either of them I scored a Apogee SQ-520. Very close to the Seneye readings. I was actually getting 135 - 140 on the bottom where most of my chalice are. According to the article on ReefBuilders these corals are collected in about 60 ft. of water and get very little light, they keep them in raceways that get about 20-30 par. So that may explain the "orange out". Below is a link to the article.

https://reefbuilders.com/2017/06/28/the-ludicrous-chalice/

 

[William Clinton]

The person I got it from said they have been working it up in light for quiet a while, maybe. I have it about 120-140 now

 

[William Clinton]

Based on xr15 chart from brs.

 

[Tommy's Reef]

Your chalices are awesome bra

 

[Centerline]

Your chalices are awesome bra

Thanks Man! Sure does freak me out a little keeping them in a 20 though lol!

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Its looking good man. Those chalices and brains look sick. Keep us updated on the t5 fixture. I have two kesiil 160s on my 20 right now and happy but kind of want to hybrid some t5's in there at some point.

 

[Tommy's Reef]

Thanks Man! Sure does freak me out a little keeping them in a 20 though lol!

Dude that' what I was thinking, the littlest mistake in a 20 could cause disaster

 

[Tommy's Reef]

Or I would of made a small chalice dominant tank a long time ago! Lol

 

[Centerline]

Its looking good man. Those chalices and brains look sick. Keep us updated on the t5 fixture. I have two kesiil 160s on my 20 right now and happy but kind of want to hybrid some t5's in there at some point.

I'm feeling good about the T5s though, hard to go wrong with ATI bulbs and the blue plus and actinic are proven bulbs. The only issue Ill have is not fiddling with them for a few months. I have a bunch of different lights and am itching to try a Radion Xr30 pro I have with one of the new diffusers on it (have diffusers coming tomorrow for a tank at the office - ordered an extra one for the house).

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I'm feeling good about the T5s though, hard to go wrong with ATI bulbs and the blue plus and actinic are proven bulbs. The only issue Ill have is not fiddling with them for a few months. I have a bunch of different lights and am itching to try a Radion Xr30 pro I have with one of the new diffusers on it (have diffusers coming tomorrow for a tank at the office - ordered an extra one for the house).

Having options is definitly a double edged sword! Hard to go wrong with either option though for sure.

 

[Centerline]

Dude that' what I was thinking, the littlest mistake in a 20 could cause disaster

Ya, again makes me sick thinking about it lol. Dosing Kalk takes a bit of nerve - don't really need it for the Cal/Alk but to stabilize ph swings at night. And if you don't want to watch your chalice grow a millimeter a year or the scoly slowly waste away you have to feed - I do a couple of times a week. So far I've managed the excess nutrients mainly with water changes the day after feeding but recently added a IM reactor for carbon and phosban (reactor is not at all precise enough for a slow GFO tumble). Ill do a write up about that shortly.