Help me catch up on technology

T

tesfeld

Premium Member
Since I've been out of the game for a little while and don't have the time to read forums like I used to, I have some questions. Please educate me. It is appreciated.

Bio-pellets: Do we need them now? They help with what?

LED lighting: How do you determine the wattage that you need? On my 180 what should I be looking at? Tank currently has 2x250MH and 440 actinic VHO

Icecap ballast: Can the Icecap440 be wired to run T5's? They used to have an article on their site but I can't find it.

Apex controller: I/O breakout. Can the water-on-the-floor sensor be as simple as "water making contact with two wires and completing the circuit"?
What is the site that DFWMAS members setup for apex monitoring banners?

Fish: Do I need to get an Achilles tang now since they might be banned?

THANKS!
 
Bio-pellets: Do we need them now? They help with what? [Help reduce nutrient load in tank to virtually zero (nitrates and phosphates). There are a couple of active threads on the topic.]

LED lighting: How do you determine the wattage that you need? On my 180 what should I be looking at? Tank currently has 2x250MH and 440 actinic VHO [There are many opinions as to this and no real answer. Stevesleds.com has a calculator to help figure it all out, but it depends on so many factors, ones answer will be different from the rest.]

Icecap ballast: Can the Icecap440 be wired to run T5's? They used to have an article on their site but I can't find it. [Yes you can, I run 4 T5s off of a 660. http://www.aquacave.com/Manuals/IceCap-430wiringdiagram.pdf ]

Apex controller: I/O breakout. Can the water-on-the-floor sensor be as simple as "water making contact with two wires and completing the circuit"? [a sensor is used that detects the water, not open wiring. I think they are called leak frogs, but I have never used then before.]

What is the site that DFWMAS members setup for apex monitoring banners? [reefchat.org Go to the signature generator page. also follow the steps in the Unofficial Apex guide for setting up a DNS if not already done.]

Fish: Do I need to get an Achilles tang now since they might be banned? [I guess if you like them you should!]
 
I can't speak to all your questions but as for using 2 leads on the floor to detect water with the apex it won't work. You need to purchase a water bug sensor or similar for it to work. I think there is a section on it in the unofficial users guide.


Mike
 
Any suggestions on the best way to get my tank up to speed? When I tore it down I put all of the LR and sand in buckets to die. Needless to say I'm starting with some organic matter that will require processing. My skimmer is oversized. Dose MB7, just do water changes, or ?
 
Make sure you are using RODI water.

Everything will have to cycle so just set it all up with water, then rocks, then sand, get it up and running with whatever filtration methods you are going to employ. There are many new methods but I used a couple of dead cocktail shrimp rubber banded to a rock. Waited for cycle to run its course and the started reefing.

HTH- I don't know if that's what you were looking for or not.
 
If it was running well before set it up exactly the way you had it, once it is running you can upgrade the lighting to T5 with the purchase of encaps and bulbs, there is a UVL brand that has internal reflectors like the VHOs do and they allow the bulbs to be overdriven by the icecaps. As far as automation that seems like a nice upgrade if you want to go that route. Leds are progressing at a rate no other tech has in the hobby, you could easily replace your halides with them if you wanted to do so. FYI Kessil is about to come out with a fixture that should replace 250w halides, and it is one of the few that still manages to keep a halide type shimmer. You should go to some of the pet shops around there and see what's new, wish I could get down that way. Best of luck
 
@tesfeld wrote:
Any suggestions on the best way to get my tank up to speed? When I tore it down I put all of the LR and sand in buckets to die. Needless to say I'm starting with some organic matter that will require processing. My skimmer is oversized. Dose MB7 said:
Tony,

I would recommend getting new sand and doing a bleach/acid bath on your rock. Check out my build thread or the rc thread that gives the instructions. I would recommend this to anyone that's starting from scratch because it gives you clean slate to start with and you don't have to worry about what's on the rock.
Click to expand...
 
The problem you will have is coverage with LEDs. My tank is 48"x30" footprint and I ran 4 ai led sol blue fixtures and I still didn't get the coverage I could get with mh/t5s


Personally the only led fixture I would go with is the maxspect mazerra. I really think they know what they are doing when it comes to coverage and covering every spectrum needed for sps and lps.

In the long run if you are gonna keep limited edition sps you really cant beat t5 or mh as they are
proven to grow and keeps the corals colors. There is a reason alot of hardcore sps growers are going back to their original lighting or adding t5's to their fixtures as most led fixtures do not cover the spectrum that corals need to keep their colors. The corals will grow but some corals just do not like LEDs due to their narrow spectrum band.

You are more than welcome to come by and look at my setup. It is pretty simple right now but my corals are growing like crazy. MH with t5's, Kalk reactor on my ato, skimmer and biopellets. No gfo or refugium. I do have carbon in a media bag. I dose zeovit products and wc every 10 days 25 gallons on aproximate 175 gallon system.

Also now a days a qt system is becoming a must with acropora eating flatworms and red and black bugs.




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Blide, too late, it's all setup in the tank already. I have some fish waiting for me, so I want to help it through the cycle as quickly as possible. I figured water changes, MB7, or maybe something else would be the answer.

F1sh, I'd like to check it out for curiosity's sake and to catch up. I live near parker and ohio now. I hear what Kuyatwo is saying and may just convert to T5's and keep MH or go to a T5 LED mix.

Kuyatwo, I would love to check out your setup sometime. I have family over where you live and will contact you when I know I'll be visiting.

I've fought the trend on QT tanks. But, after what I went through when the tank was setup last time, I'm pretty sure I'll be putting one up. I had red planaria, mejanos, and aptasia out the yang by the end. I actually already have the tank and skimmer. Just have to get spousal approval to put it in the laundry room
 
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