Tank Journal Archive

[Noro]

I bit the bullet and removed the entire piece of live rock; I've cut off all the mussels and placed them in the skimmer section of the sump. They're still opening and closing when I come near them, so that's a good sign. I managed to salvage the chiton as well.

The live rock is now in my backyard drying out. Next weekend it will get a bleach soak, and then I'll dry it out again. The ric foot is looking much more like a ric, and I've picked up some chalice frags from the LFS.

 

[chimaera]

Good luck with it, hope the new start fares better for you.

 

[Aspidites]

Pics of the frags please! Did you suss out the zoas? Also Pet Mgic is selling stromb snails. 20 a pop if you need cuc

 

[leodb89]

hey just curious which globe you are using for your sump?

looks like an @naqua one but not sure which one it is

 

[chimaera]

hey just curious which globe you are using for your sump?

looks like an @naqua one but not sure which one it is

It's one of the BoostLEDs: http://www.naqua.com.au/collections/lighting/products/par30-led-reef-lamp

But I have a new range of PAR30s on their way which will be cooler ;)

 

[Noro]

Specifically the BoostLED PAR30 LED Reef Lamp - 2 Royal Blue, 1 Blue, 1 Cool White, 1 Neutral White.

@Aspidites I went in but the zoas are all established colonies so it's pretty costly. Nothing too different from the previous week, but I need to slow down with buying coral.

I picked up a strong from Vebas a little while back, he's still doing his rounds.

I couldn't help myself with the chalices though :D

 

[Noro]

I'm thinking about upgrading my lights in the near future to LEDs. After seeing some corals on the weekend under blue light I was sure my face was going to explode. Ideally I'm looking for something programmable with sunrise and sunset, and of course moonlight.

I'm open to suggestions :)

 

[aussieant32]

Illumagic. I have the blaze but have heard the combo ray is a great unit, customisable to the colours you want

 

[Noro]

Illumagic. I have the blaze but have heard the combo ray is a great unit, customisable to the colours you want

The Illumagic Blaze looks like a front runner to me. I looked at the 30cm, 45cm and 60cm and figured I'd be better off with the 60cm as there are more LEDs and a good spread of light with the spacing of the groups of LEDs.

Can you adjust each colour seperately, then ramp them all up and down for sunrise and sunset? Can you control the intensity of moonlight and which LEDs are used (UV or blue or both)?

Other than Illumagic, I'm considering Radion or Vertex Illumina or Illumilux. Vertex is expensive for a fixture with the same number of LEDs and I'm not sure if they have the controllability level I'm looking for. They don't come stock with UV either, so I'd have to swap them out with Vertex LED Pads.

I've heard Radion has a fan issue that draws moisture into the unit. I haven't done much research into how much control there is over sunrise/sunset/moonlight as yet.

 

[aussieant32]

can control every colour, ramp time, manually set the moonlight you want, can set weather patterns, sunrise/sunset, can set it to run different times on different days, for example to come on earlier on weekends as you are more likely to be home in the morning etc etc

 

[leodb89]

How about a GHL mitras?

 

[chimaera]

Radion does all you need it to also, and the fan issue is a non-issue 99% of the time.

If you were after value for money, I would look at a 2nd hand Gen 1 unit for $500 or so. Can't really beat that for bang for buck. It's what I have over my tank of same dimensions as yours pretty much and coverage is perfect.

 

[Elias]

Illumagic Blaze. After much humming and harring, I bought the M60S. The only thing I would have done differently is bought it sooner. Hard to beat for value to function/range. The Combo Rays are good as far as being customizable, but they are not controllable and you would need a couple of them. Speak to @Synodontis if you go down the Illumagic track.

 

[aussieant32]

as you can already see, there is no answer to your question, you need to decide. I look at my lights with my work hat on, I work with lighting, particularly LED's every day and from an electrical and componant point of view, Radions are over priced quite a bit. But in saying that they do a job and look nice and are priced in the same market as most other decent units. It is the same for all of the lights, they are all over priced, I feel the Illumagic gives you the best equipment for your money.

 

[Noro]

After comparing far more LED units than I originally considered, I'm fairly confident that I'll be going with the GHL Mitras. I've organised to see the model on demo this weekend at my LFS.

In terms of the variety of LED colours and the degree to which they can be controlled, I feel that the Mitras comes out on top.

I ruled out the Radion XR30w Pro due to the layout of the LEDs and because of the known issue with moisture laden air being drawn up into the fixture. So it was a competition between the GHL Mitras, Vertex Illumina, Maxspect R420R and Illumagic Blaze.

Maxspect was taken off the table due to the layout of the LEDs and lack of control, as it only has 6 'Time-Points'. It also limits in terms of the achievable colour 16K or 10K, and all the LEDs each channel are adjusted simultaneously. This means that CW and WW are one channel; with B, RB and UV ('Super Actinic') on the second.

The Vertex was a prime candidate, however the need to add a centrally mounted UV and R pad took it down a notch. This reduces the true spread of the UV and R LEDs to the centre of the tank, which would mean I'd likely have to buy a more expensive 2ft unit rather than the reccomended 1ft.

Illumagic looked great, but when I compared the number and variety of LEDs, controllability and the benefit of a slimmer pendant style fixture; the GHL seemed to come out on top.

@leodb89 I saw your tank journal update and was very impressed.

What are people's thoughts on the shadowing issue with Acropora under LEDs? From what I read the single directional light emitted by LEDs means Acropora sp. will colour up on the top and not around the sides. This isn't an issue with T5 or MH as the reflectors send light from multiple angles.

I figure the only way around this is to use a hybrid fixture. But that makes me wonder why it would be necessary to upgrade to LED in the first place. A retrofit to my existing T5 fixture would achieve the same end.

It's a lot to digest.

 

[leodb89]

After comparing far more LED units than I originally considered, I'm fairly confident that I'll be going with the GHL Mitras. I've organised to see the model on demo this weekend at my LFS.

In terms of the variety of LED colours and the degree to which they can be controlled, I feel that the Mitras comes out on top.

I ruled out the Radion XR30w Pro due to the layout of the LEDs and because of the known issue with moisture laden air being drawn up into the fixture. So it was a competition between the GHL Mitras, Vertex Illumina, Maxspect R420R and Illumagic Blaze.

Maxspect was taken off the table due to the layout of the LEDs and lack of control, as it only has 6 'Time-Points'. It also limits in terms of the achievable colour 16K or 10K, and all the LEDs each channel are adjusted simultaneously. This means that CW and WW are one channel; with B, RB and UV ('Super Actinic') on the second.

The Vertex was a prime candidate, however the need to add a centrally mounted UV and R pad took it down a notch. This reduces the true spread of the UV and R LEDs to the centre of the tank, which would mean I'd likely have to buy a more expensive 2ft unit rather than the reccomended 1ft.

Illumagic looked great, but when I compared the number and variety of LEDs, controllability and the benefit of a slimmer pendant style fixture; the GHL seemed to come out on top.

@leodb89 I saw your tank journal update and was very impressed.

What are people's thoughts on the shadowing issue with Acropora under LEDs? From what I read the single directional light emitted by LEDs means Acropora sp. will colour up on the top and not around the sides. This isn't an issue with T5 or MH as the reflectors send light from multiple angles.

I figure the only way around this is to use a hybrid fixture. But that makes me wonder why it would be necessary to upgrade to LED in the first place. A retrofit to my existing T5 fixture would achieve the same end.

It's a lot to digest.

Nice choice which the LEDs..I'd put mirrors on the bottom left and right sides of the tank to bounce the light back up :p only kidding but itd be interesting to see if it works lol

The cool think about the mitras LEDs is how there's 6 individual banks of LEDs with all having identical LED counts so it means everywhere in the tank gets the same spectrum at the same time instead of relying on the spread to mix it ;)

 

[Noro]

 

[chimaera]

If you have the $ then the Mitras is hands down the best choice of those you posted. I do like my Radion, but the Mitras is a step up from even the Pro.

Nice frag set up you have going, and the tank is looking good! Love that acan frag. Where do you plan to put the cool zoas you have?

 

[ethana123]

love the zoas :D wish you were closer so i could buy them all ahha

 

[daniel borja]

if bruce mcavaney were to desribe those zoas and the rest of the frags, he'd say "delicious!"