My 300g to 120g Upgrade

[davocean]

Come on Dave... Come to the dark side.

I think it's the bright side, trust in the force you will!
On my present tank I have LEDs and T5's, but I plan to go all LEDs, it's the future man, I hear some guys are even able to do stage lighting and stuff w/ them...

[DaveMorris]

Well I have one more thing to try after doing many steps toward RF noise suppression and grounding. I will try to move the ballasts to the other side of the stand to see if changing the proximity of the ballasts to the RKE stuff helps. If not, I will just switch to magnetic HQI ballasts. I'll go to Home Depot timers and old school control before I go to 100% LED!

[DaveMorris]

Looks like I'll be ordering a couple ballasts from Marine Depot. Just can't seem to get these LuxCore ballasts to play nice with my system. I think I have the Prodibio dosing figured out. Water is nice and clear and everything looks good. I'll do some testing this week to see where the levels are at to be sure.

And the best thing is my naso is fat and happy. He is looking very nice these days. Not a blemish on him and while I do not believe that he is officially a blonde naso, he sure looks like one.

[jada1]

Looking good Dave I am with you I tried full led I was able to grow sps but not as good as when I added the t5 or when I use to run 250w halides..I would use led for pop and dawn to dusk look and that's it not led alone..

[DaveMorris]

My two Reeflux magnetic HQI ballasts are now hooked up and working great. I really like the way the Phoenix 14k lamps look. I also picked up an acro frag pack from AquaSD so we will see how the corals do in the tank. I am hoping that my RBTA will finally get back to his original size and be a happy camper in the new bright light he has. My clowns will certainly appreciate it. A 1.5" clown hosting in a 3/4" wide anenome is kind of funny to watch. I'm going to do some water testing tonight to double-check parameters. The water has been nice and clear so hopefully the Prodibio has settled in nicely.

I also picked up some New Era flake food and I have to say the fish absolutely go crazy with it. I really like using it and will probably keep it as part of my regular fish diet.

[DaveMorris]

Decided it was time for a few pics of the tank now that it is lit properly.





These shots were taken with my iPhone. We lost our Nikon DSLR on our trip to Portland so I am camera deprived for a while. I do love the look of the 14k Phoenix bulbs.

[DaveMorris]

It looks like somebody is happy in the new tank!


This is actually the second time that they have laid eggs. I love these guys. A beautiful set of REAL clownfish.
Not bad for an iPhone pic. I really miss my Nikon with my 60mm macro.

[DaveMorris]

Just placed an IPSF order for a clean up crew and some seeding of coraline, pods, three different worm types, nerite grazers, troches grazers, mini stars, and small hermits. Gonna get some macros in there too. The rock has a nice layer of algae on it and is ready for some hungry algae eaters. My skimmer is pulling out some nasty gunk and water chemistry is dead on where I want it. Need to get a new Magnavore for the front glass though.

[DaveMorris]

I got about 90% of the skin on my stand done a couple weeks ago. Or more accurately, DavOcean did. He is a phenomenal carpenter and not only did he build the actual stand for me, but was able to get the skin built for me as well. All I have left is prime and paint and doors. When the doors come in, I will get frosted glass put in them and then Dave will get them mounted.





The stand will be painted white and the idea behind the frosted glass on the doors is to give it a look like an old fashioned medicine cabinet. My wife asked for that part and we all know that the spouse plays a very important role in the longevity of this hobby being allowed to exist in the home.

[jasonp87]

Very nice! I love how the tank is set slightly into the stand instead of resting flush on top.

[DaveMorris]

No real progress to report on the stand yet. Trying to converge my crazy schedule with Dave's crazy schedule to get the doors mounted up. I developed a large amount of algae due to the way the sun was hitting the tank late in the day. I put a sea hare in the tank and he started in on it. He has it mostly clear from the rock and my new diamond goby has made quick work of it on the sandbed. He is quite the sand mover. I built the rock work with a few sand shifters in mind so no worries on rock falling over. I love the personality of these guys. He is quite a character. I also picked up a filefish and he is another interesting character to look at. Quite a conversation piece when people see him.

[jada1]

Slackers lol...looking good Dave

[DaveMorris]

I've been pretty busy with work but I'm going to try to get my doors, paint them and put the glass in them and then I can get the stand done. Gotta have it all looking nice for family coming in for the holidays. I may also be moving over to the dark side, believe it or not. I have a Reef Radiance LED fixture and have just ordered a second one. I'm going to see how they look over the tank and try to go for the minimalist look of two hanging fixtures and no hood. We'll see how that goes. I am so particular about how LEDs look I'm not convinced that I will be happy with it, but we'll see.

[DaveMorris]

I added two Purple Queen Anthias today. Gorgeous fish. This brings my livestock list to this:

Naso Tang (From Sustainable Aquatics and apparently bulletproof so far)
Foxface Rabbitfish
Diamond goby (doing a great job roto-tilling the sand)
Three Percula Clowns
Three Blue/Green Chromis
Matted Filefish
Two Cleaner Shrimp
Blue Dartfish

Tank is coming along pretty good. I also have the new Digital Aquatics Archon controller that I am still beta-testing. I will migrate it into controlling the tank and replacing my RKE control head as soon as we get the last of the bugs out of the system.

[unbereefable]

What made you decide to try led? The best minimul look if seen for leds fixture over tank are kessils.