Steve Wright's SPS takeover

Not to get too off target here, my sponge (haliclona) in my SPS tank does remarkably well which kind of shocked me. I was considering moving it to the "dirtier" tank, which is actually pretty darn clean too. However, if it ain't broken, don't fix it, so I left it. My Clathrina spp and Orange sponge (Genus unknown) are fairing less well but I'm trying to balance food imports for the sponge, water quality, and bannerfish that love to eat sponge. I seem to have found an equilibrium between feeding enough for the sponge but not polluting the water too much (but I don't judge thing over 2 or 3 weeks. If 6 months from now the fish are alive, the sponge is alive, and the other corals in the tank are alive, then I will say I have the right mix).

.....back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

Steve;

grabbed some pics earlier today of my purple monti with brown out issue. You will notice the edges(new growth 1.5 weeks) after being under my new T5h0 unit have more of a purple hue.



I will be watching your progress closely.

 

Steve;

have you noticed any changes in you brown out corals at all?

 

BTW, I was thinking about this with the purple corals and it could be the water. Someone, on another forum, mentioned purple corals tend to look more purple with bright blue light, such as blue leds. I was thinking about it and realized that when you combine complimentary colors you get brown. Our water tends to be a bit yellow, so, this can make purple corals look brown. If you shine a bright blue led at it, or turn on just the actinics for example, it should look purple, as these should overwhelm any yellow tint of the water. If it dosn't then it may actually be brown. If it's just water clarity, carbon could help.

 

I have thank you Chris
on 2 of the 3 corals I am seeing some purple coming back at the tips now
which bearing in mind I am still only using the lamps for 6 hours per day
at present, so I expect once I get to 8 - 10 hours, then it will improve more

Thank you Matt
I actually have 2 x 1 watt Blue LED underwater spots on the tank now
they are suspended under the central brace
1 is directed over the top of my avatar coral and highlighting the blue tips
the other is directed over the top of the most browned out Acro
I am noticing fluorescence on the 2 corals targeted in this manner
I will be retro fitting 2 x 22k geisseman T5 80 watts (stripped down the existing canopy for the bits required)

updated images to come

 

IMG_5329 - 3reef Photos

IMG_5331 - 3reef Photos

 

wow that is significant change in my opinion. How often have you been increasing MH light time and by how much(ex daily increase by 15min etc)???

I bet they will be amazing once acclimated to full 8 to 10hr of MH.

 

Thanks Chris
I just added a few more images to my album on this site
(photobucket issues)

http://www.3reef.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=8237&ppuser=18308

I did 3 hours only for 3 days
then went to 4 hours for rest of 1st week
did 5 hours from the Sunday 1 week, after installation
and then 6 hours from Wednesday that week
I will be doing 7 hours today,until Wednesday
then from Wednesday to next Sunday I will be at 8 hours

so in about 2 weeks from now, I could be up to 10 hours per day of MH light

I am monitoring my LPS corals and if they show signs of light fatigue, I will turn off early rather than wait for a set time to have elapsed
Steve

 

Photos look great, the blue LED seem to really bring out the fluorescing and blue colors in corals.

 

thank you John