NickF's RSM C130

M

mOnster

New Member
NickF said:
Cheers,
Yes, I'm stilling running everything stock and I change the bulbs every 9 months. I am changing to LEDs but that is just personal preference, the T5s have been fine for all my corals.
You should start a thread for your tank :fishbowl:, it's great as a journal of what you're doing and to get advice off everyone here. Also, take lots of pictures, we like pictures.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replay, I'm a lil confused so your running t5s ? Mine came with 2x 55watt 50/50 compact fluorescent lamps are they the same as yours are they called t5s ?
 
NickF

NickF

Well-Known Member
I picked up a couple of corals the other day, I went to a lfs I'd not been to before and thought it would be rude not to buy anything :yup:

Favia:



Acan polyp:



I'm going to give my trachy to someone so I took a top down shot to show them the size of it. It was pretty hard to take with the lights but it came out ok.



I will be sad to get rid of it but it's getting too big, or my tank is getting too small :crying:

Here's a few shots I took randomly messing with the camera settings, I found some I'd not used before:









A couple of FTS:





Still waiting on the lead for my LEDs :frown:. Jeff sent them just over a week ago so it should be here any day now :fingerscrossed:. My lights didn't come on the other day, I had to flick the switch a couple of times before they would work, not had any trouble since so hopefully they will last out.
 
eQuatics

eQuatics

New Member
Just read the entire thread and man what a cool journey this has been for you haha. I'm so excited not to start my 4th tank! Got a second hand rsm 130d. Already modded a little more than I wanted but hey, that's the hobby!!
 
NickF

NickF

Well-Known Member
I got fed up of waiting for the lead (still not turned up after 3 weeks) so I went out and bought one.
I've now got my LEDs up and running, I think they look great :)

Installation would have been very straightforward but I couldn't work out how to still have the water cooling fans working when the instructions tell you to cut the power lead out :dunno:, the instructions at that point aren't very clear, maybe Jeff @StevesLEDs can tell me where I went wrong (I didn't cut the lead for the fans, just the power lead). No biggie, I've found a lead to connect the water cooling fans directly to the power sockets. If I hadn't spent so long scratching my head trying to work out where I'd gone wrong and just pulled everything out like it shows in the video I definitely would have had them installed in under an hour.

The Typhon controller is extremely easy to use, though I did try it out before I did the install so I could get the hang of it without freaking the fish out. Wow, the LEDs are very bright when you ramp them up, I was seeing flashing lights in front of my eyes for several minutes after looking at them :eeknew:

I've currently got both channels on:
Start: 9am
End: 9pm
Fade: 1.30
Max: 35

I've got channel 1 min set as 0 and channel 2 min set as 1 so I can have moonlights, I think it looks great. I did notice that my zoas didn't close even with the moonlight set as 1, is this a problem?

All the corals seem happy, the fish were a bit freaked out at first but are ok now, apart from my Gramma who stays in his hole, but he's skittish anyway.

I tried to take a picture earlier but it came out terrible, far too blue and not how the tank looks to the eye. I'll try playing with the settings on my camera later to see if I can get a better one.
 
NickF

NickF

Well-Known Member
Cheers Glenn,

Yes the sunrise/sunset is great and I'm very happy with the LEDs so far & the corals all seem to be doing great :)

I traded in my Trachy & got a couple of frags, I got a Stylophora and another that he wasn't sure what it was, Christmas something?
Had another go at taking a pic under LEDs, turned out better than my first attempt. Still looks very blue although the T5s were very white.



The picture definitely doesn't do it justice & I love the shimmer effect from the LEDs.
I caught my Lobophyllia attacking my Duncan coral yesterday :hammerhead:, I think I'm going to have to move onto the sandbed at the front, as far away from everything else as I can. I remember when I first got the tank I thought it was huge, now I think it's too small :(. At least my wallet is happy that I've run out of room :yup:
 
StevesLEDs

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
The fan is a bit tricky. If you wish to still use the stock fan (whose job it is to remove the heat form the water created by the circulation/skimmer pumps), you have a couple of options.

1) Instead of "gutting" the entire hood, you can only gut the components attached to the reflector, ballasts and fans, leaving everything else in place. It would require you to drill a 1/2" hole to pass the cable through though.

2) Save the plug end during the gutting process, and attach it to a generic 12 power adapter, or a power plug such as this. http://shop.stevesleds.com/Power-Plug-12V-10A-8794102484.htm

Is this extra power plug something that we should include with the LED system, since several people have asked how to utilize this fan?

Thanks!
Jeff
 
M

malcolmfish

New Member
Signed up as this came up on my tapatalk app as trending. Wow. Just wow.
Shame you got rid of the leather, it was epic and made me want one more!!
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif


to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
745.gif




Start a new tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along - we love pics :)
 
NickF

NickF

Well-Known Member
StevesLEDs said:
The fan is a bit tricky. If you wish to still use the stock fan (whose job it is to remove the heat form the water created by the circulation/skimmer pumps), you have a couple of options.

1) Instead of "gutting" the entire hood, you can only gut the components attached to the reflector, ballasts and fans, leaving everything else in place. It would require you to drill a 1/2" hole to pass the cable through though.

2) Save the plug end during the gutting process, and attach it to a generic 12 power adapter, or a power plug such as this. http://shop.stevesleds.com/Power-Plug-12V-10A-8794102484.htm

Is this extra power plug something that we should include with the LED system, since several people have asked how to utilize this fan?

Thanks!
Jeff
Click to expand...

Hi Jeff,

Yes, think adding a plug for the water cooling fan would be a great idea. This would make the installation as easy as it shows in the videos and it is so simple that it can easy be done in 30-45 minutes.

I think the problem I had was with the written instructions,
step 6:
"If you wish to use the stock water cooling fans (recommended) just keep everything intact, it will work just as well, and will be less work on your part! You will only need to cut and remove the large power cable entering the hood."
step 7:
"Remove the two cables, these will be discarded. Keep the smaller black cable intact if you wish to keep the water cooling fans."
This doesn't really explain how to get power to the water cooling fans.

I think adding an extra plug for the water cooling fans and amending the written instructions to reflect this would definitely be the easiest solution.

My water cooling fan broke last year and I was without it for a couple of days while I was sourcing a replacement, the amount of condensation on the hood without it running was unbelievable.

I have to say I'm very impressed not only with the lights but with they way that you listen to customer feedback to improve your products.

Cheers
 
NickF

NickF

Well-Known Member
malcolmfish said:
Signed up as this came up on my tapatalk app as trending. Wow. Just wow.
Shame you got rid of the leather, it was epic and made me want one more!!
Click to expand...

Wow, I'm trending. I take it that's a good thing :)
I've still got a frag off the leather in the tank, it's just behind the hammer. There's also a couple of babies that the big one dropped, you can see one in the zoas next to the Duncan.

Have you got a tank running at the moment, you should start a thread :thumber2:
 
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