Thomas
New Member
i can grow LPS really well but SPS are a tottaly diffrent ball game
Posts: 31 
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Post by Thomas on Sept 14, 2014 15:59:30 GMT -5
Hello again so I have been tasked by my boss to set up an SPS Frag tank, and I am out of the comfort zone because I deal mainly with LPS corals. and that what I am good at growing. so I have 120 gallon race way tank to use and it is going to be plumbed in to a 1000 gallon system. for filtration I am currently using a carbon reactor and a very large refugium. I have plans to also add a skimmer. I am thinking an eshopps S-300. I am not planning on using any sand in my frag tank and I am also hooking up a calcuium recator to the whole system. my question do you guys is what kind of lighting should I use. I have been leaning to go with an t5 fixture because they have pretty good results. I like LED but don't what to have my sps get upset with it a bleach. also what kinds of amino acids products should I dose if any.
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Post by gotareef on Sept 14, 2014 16:45:30 GMT -5
led lighting all the way
for spa I wouldnt dose anything you cant test for just good old fashioned water changes with quality salt...
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Thomas
New Member
i can grow LPS really well but SPS are a tottaly diffrent ball game
Posts: 31
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Post by Thomas on Sept 15, 2014 7:45:44 GMT -5
what kind of LEDs should I go with. my boss is pretty set in is ways with just using plain instant ocean so we will see how that goes. do you have a particular brand of LEDs that you like.
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Sept 15, 2014 7:49:37 GMT -5
Instant ocean is fine. Plenty of people grow tons of sps with that salt. Ecotech Radion LEDs are sweet by the way. Kessils and aqua illumination are good led brands too along with reef breeders.
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Post by Lance on Sept 15, 2014 8:16:37 GMT -5
I use gen 1 Radions and Instant Ocean. I dose 2 part + magnesium. Run a protein skimmer, carbon, and gfo (frag rank is connected to my display).
If you want more info let me know.
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Post by gotareef on Sept 15, 2014 8:26:50 GMT -5
what kind of LEDs should I go with. my boss is pretty set in is ways with just using plain instant ocean so we will see how that goes. do you have a particular brand of LEDs that you like. IO is fine but you will need to dose mag and calcium constantly for a sps tank led- how much $$ do you have to spend lol if you have the $$, go for the ecotec, if you dont go with evergrow.. both will work |
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Post by jasonandsarah on Sept 15, 2014 9:32:14 GMT -5
Instant ocean is fine. Plenty of people grow tons of sps with that salt. Ecotech Radion LEDs are sweet by the way. Kessils and aqua illumination are good led brands too along with reef breeders. I wouldn't get kessil's for a sps only tank of that size. Unless you get 5-6. Go with Ecotech Radions, Aqua illumination or Pacific sun. If money isn't a great concern then get great lighting. If you're instated in dosing amino acids then look into Acropower by two little fishies I use it and have had GREAT results. |
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Thomas
New Member
i can grow LPS really well but SPS are a tottaly diffrent ball game
Posts: 31
|
Post by Thomas on Sept 15, 2014 14:46:13 GMT -5
thanks so much. money really is not an issue. we have had a lot of trouble with the ecotechs. we have the 2gens and do not like them very much. I was leaning more towards reef breeders or the pacific suns. what is your guys opinion about MAX spec Razors. I use them over my LPS tank and they work great. I how do they do with SPS corals.
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Post by Lance on Sept 15, 2014 15:57:53 GMT -5
I've seen Maxspect Razors in use only a few times. I was not impressed with their color rendering (to my eye). I know that Greg @ Cultivated Reef was running a few for a while then replaced them with Radions. I'm not sure about his reasons though.
I did have problems with a couple of my Gen 1 Radions...fans died. Ecotech replaced them without question even out of warranty. I've also found that I needed to dial them WAY down. I was running them close to all out (over a 75 gal and 65 gal frag respectively). Now I'm down to about 50% of max output on the whites and less than that on the reds and greens. Blues still get up to 100% at peak. The main reason I'm saying this is that the lights run way cooler AND I have way better color and growth from my coral.
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Post by BriMc on Sept 15, 2014 18:11:57 GMT -5
Stay away from pacific sun, we go to the only us distributor when we do the store tour and the last time we were there 6 out of 8 fixtures were having issues. Another removed the fixture from his LPS/SPS tank due to issues with the fixture and also deaths of coral on the outside perimeter of the tank because of poor light distribution. This shop put the original t-5 fixture back on the tank and most corals are coming back. Another retailer asked pacific sun to come pick up the fixture due to issues with the fixture and other issues. Another shop told us about customers having fan failures with the fixtures that led to other issues. If you spend some time on other sites people are screaming about issues with the fixtures and also poor to no customer service.
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Thomas
New Member
i can grow LPS really well but SPS are a tottaly diffrent ball game
Posts: 31
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Post by Thomas on Sept 15, 2014 18:40:56 GMT -5
okay thank you. another idea I had was to use a combination of metal halids and then supplement blues with LEDs. on that note of the radions. do you guys have the new generation of them and how do you like them
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Sept 15, 2014 20:41:57 GMT -5
I run three gen 2 pro radions and love them!
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Post by Lance on Sept 15, 2014 22:40:40 GMT -5
5 gen 1 Radions here. I believe Greg at CultivatedReef is running all gen 2. |
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Post by jasonandsarah on Sept 16, 2014 6:10:37 GMT -5
Gen 3 pro's, there amazing I love them. Idk where you are but your welcome to stop by and see them in person if you'd like.
Sps color up great under these lights and grow awesome! There's no need for halides really.
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Post by jasonandsarah on Sept 16, 2014 6:48:18 GMT -5
thanks so much. money really is not an issue. we have had a lot of trouble with the ecotechs. we have the 2gens and do not like them very much. I was leaning more towards reef breeders or the pacific suns. what is your guys opinion about MAX spec Razors. I use them over my LPS tank and they work great. I how do they do with SPS corals. If you don't mind me asking...... What didn't you like about the gen 2's? I'm not saying this is your problem but I've seen so many people blame leds for their troubles when in all reality it's something entirely different all together. There's just way too many success stories with ALL kinds of different leds for them to be a problem. Unless like brimc said it's something to do with quality or customer service. Witch is absolutely not a problem with echotech. Customer service is top notch. So is reef breeders very hands on and willing to help you with any problem, even if it's not your lights. I know that like lance said the red and greens should be turned way down. I have my reds peaking at 30% and greens at 15% I believe. These colors are only needed in smaller amounts and for coral colors to the human eye witch isn't the biggest concern to me personally. If you wanted to try a hybrid type set up maybe you should research the newer Ati lights with leds and supplemental t5's? I also really like the Orphek Atlantik V2.1b complete dual chip set ups. I'm in the process of setting up a frag tank and the V2.1b compact will be hanging over that frag tank. |
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