The Washington Reef 75/200 Gal Reef Tanks

[washingtond]

the 200 gallon with the LEDs is still looking good and the corals even seem to be growing. Here are pictures under different lighting from the LED's.

Blue LEDs only:

alt="">

To the eye the coral was bright orange was but not captured by the camera. Even brighter than the picture below. Too much blue bias for the camera.

White LEDs only:

alt="">

Both White & Blue LEDs:

alt="">

 

[psteeleb]

interesting shots - did you have the camera white ballance on auto?

It ,ay be interesting to see the same pictures taken with a "one touch" setting for each light setting

 

[washingtond]

@psteeleb wrote:

They were all taken with a point & shoot camera with the WB set to day light. I will take some more with a DSLR where I have more control over the settings.

 

[kraigrrr]

are you still dosing with tech-m? what is your Mg holding at now?

 

[washingtond]

@kraigrrr wrote:

Since changing to LED lighting I cut back on the Tech-M dosing and Mg level is now at 1400 ppm, it used to run 1600 ppm. There are no signs of algae in the tank at all.

 

[psteeleb]

@washingtond wrote:

Since changing to LED lighting I cut back on the Tech-M dosing and Mg level is now at 1400 ppm, it used to run 1600 ppm. There are no signs of algae in the tank at all."]

great news - do you think it has anything to do with the LEDs?

 

[washingtond]

No but it does have to due with light towards the blue end of the spectrum. We found this out on our 75 gallon tank when it had a algae problem a few months ago. What has been my observation is that both tanks may not require a high level of the Tech-M (1600 ppm) which is where I was keeping it if that makes any sense to you.

 

[kraigrrr]

so you are saying to cut back on the blue spectrum? My tank seems to be doing better with 14k than id did with 10k... My Mg is 1400 range... I dose 50ml Tech-M daily....

 

[kraigrrr]

also... did the Mg at 1600 harm any corals?

 

[washingtond]

@kraigrrr wrote:

No just the opposite, I have increased the blue spectrum. The LED lights that I put on the 200 gallon tank are around 20K and the old MH lights were 14K. On the 75 gal tank we changed the 10K T5's to 14K's.

@kraigrrr wrote:

I never observed any negative effect on the hard corals but in our 75 gal soft coral tank the Zoa’s did not open as fully and the normally do but none were lost.

 

[washingtond]

Well it has been 6 weeks for the conversion from MH to LED lighting and the tank never skipped a beat. There was no ill effect on any of the corals, growth has remained the same, and the colors really pop. Now for the interesting part now that the temps are hitting 100 degrees outside, what will our electric bill run compared to last year. The LED lights dropped the current by 6 amps and the chiller is running less. This should all = a lower electric bill during the summer months. So as you can see, it is all good, and I am really glad that I made the switch.

So what is next? Converting the other two tanks to LED lighting but the savings there will not be as dramatic since on the 75 gallon I am running T5's and PC along with one double ended MH on the frag tank but every little bit counts.

 

[washingtond]

It has been a while since the last update on our tanks. To start it has now been over 3 months since converting the 200 gal to LED lighting and all the corals are doing great and growing except for the purple Monti Cap that has experienced bleaching. I did not know if this was a result of the lighting as all the other corals are doing fine including the red Monti Caps. I would also like to say the chiller has been running a lot less this summer since the LED's generate a lot less heat as you would expect.

Speaking of corals here are some pictures of the battle of the Chalices in our tank. We have two large colonies that have grown into each other and here is the result.

alt="">

alt="">

Here they are growing up against each other, one on each side.

Also here some new corals that we picked up at the Summer Social.

alt="">

alt="">

 

[psteeleb]

that's pretty cool how those chalices are growing together like that

 

[K_Red_Raider]

Hello I have been looking at your tank and it looks awesome!! I was wondering how the Algae Turf is dong. Do you think it works as good as threads on other sites have stated that it does? Also what would you keep/change about it?

Thanks
Kevin

 

[washingtond]

@K_Red_Raider wrote:

Kevin I took the algae scrubber off the sump several months ago. It was working great but I decided that I needed a larger one to be really effective and I just do not have the room under that tank. I would recommend that if you have a the space give it a try.

 

[K_Red_Raider]

@washingtond wrote:

Kevin I took the algae scrubber off the sump several months ago. It was working great but I decided that I needed a larger one to be really effective and I just do not have the room under that tank. I would recommend that if you have a the space give it a try."]


Thanks I am going to try it out and see how it works for me.

 

[washingtond]

Great and be sure to post pictures of your setup. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[kwl1763]

Looking awesome as always David. Glad the LEds seem to be working out for you. I am definitly going to go that way when I start my build in a couple months!

I'm assuming you have less evaporation also have you noticed that?

 

[micheal nguyen]

reallllly nice. the sps look great.

 

[washingtond]

Thanks for your comments. The tank is doing really good under LED lights and the corals are growing.

Sent from my Sony Tablet S using Tapatalk