kunzmj's RSM C-250

[kunzmj]

I've been lurking on here for a while now enjoying looking at all the pretty reef tanks. I figured it's about time to start a thread of my own. My RSM C-250 has been up and running since 3/27/15. Everything is stock, but soon I'll be changing out the stocking T5 lighting for a pair of Radion XR30w's. There's a great tutorial on here posted by another member: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/...dion-g3-install-on-rsm-250.91064/#post1249373 Thanks! I'm hoping it will solve my heat/evaporation challenges as well as bring out the coral colors and increase growth. I'm been battling cyanobacteria, for a while. I treat the tank every few months; it goes away but always ends up coming back. I'm hoping the new lights can help with that too.

Well I know how much everyone on here loves pictures so I suppose we outta start with a few of those.

 

[PSU4ME]

Beautiful tank and some stellar rock work!! I think it looks great!

 

[kunzmj]

Those pictures are actually a few months old so here is one from last week.


Current vertebrae livestock includes:
1 Firefish
1 Banggai Cardinalfish
1 Clownfish (percula?)
1 Royal Gramma
1 Yasha Goby (paired with a Red-Banded Pistol Shrimp)
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Yellowtail Damsel
1 Green Mandarin Dragonet

I previously had a Yellow Watchman Goby and Six Line Wrasse (added to take care of some zoa-eating flatworms). I lost both of them because they liked jumping into the back filter area. I was able to save the YWG a few times out of there but he was always back in there within a day so I eventually gave up on him. I netted the Six Line out of the back once. He disappeared a couple weeks ago and haven't been able to find him since. I'm going to try adding a new YWG and Six Line back in shortly.

Other non-coral livestock includes:
1 Red Bubble-Tip Anemone
1 blue maxima clam - my gold maxima died
1 cleaner shrimp
1 emerald crab
1 red mithrax crab
2 red brittle starfish
1 harlequin serpent starfish
1 pink serpent starfish
scarlet reef hermits
blue leg hermits
astraea/margarita/turbo snails
nassarius snails

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Beautiful tank ! Cheers for starting a tank thread & sharing !

 

[kunzmj]

Well I made the switch over to LED's. Right before doing so I took one last FTS just in case the change didn't go so well. I'm really glad I took that pic...


The LED change didn't go so well. I wired a pair of Ecotech Radion XR30W's into the hood with the wide angle lenses. That part went great and I'm really pleased with the completely stock look, but I completely underestimated the power of these LED's. I visually estimated that 40% power was approximately equal to the light output of the stock T5's. I used the automatic acclimation program and set it to acclimate starting at 50% of 40% (20% power) and increase gradually up to 40% over 4 weeks. During the first week several of my SPS started bleaching. I dialed back the acclimation program to start at 25% of 40% (10% power) and that seemed to stop the bleaching but then as the lights increased power gradually over a week I started to see more bleaching. So the setting that I've decided on was to set the lights to 20% power and have them start acclimating at 50% of that (10% power) and acclimate up to 20% over 6 weeks. I think moving from 10% to 40% over 4 weeks was too fast. Moving from 10% to 20% over 6 weeks is slow enough I believe. I'm now 3 weeks into it (now running at approximately 15% total power) and things seem to be doing okay. When I get up to 20% I'll evaluate whether I want to push the intensity up further...very slowly.

As things started to bleach and die my nitrates spiked and set off a mini-tank crash. I was doing repeated large water-changes to combat the terrible water quality which is now under control. In all I lost about 12 SPS pieces and a clam. To be fair, about half of those pieces were just doing "ok" prior to the LED switch. I have a pink birds-nest, setosa, green monti cap, and mystic sunset monti that are barely hanging on at the moment, but I'm optimistic and they are showing recent signs of improvement. Of my SPS, the montipora seemed to be the least effected by the change in lights. All of my LPS/Zoas/softies didn't even seem to notice the change much besides some loss in color. Just about everything has lost color though. I'm sure color will improve with time as they get used to these new lights.

So my advice to anyone switching from the stock T5's to LED's is start your intensity WAY lower than you think you need to. Corals can "survive" for a while with lower light but too much light can do irreversible damage pretty quickly. Visually estimating the intensity is not a good method. Overall I think I will end up loving these lights after everything recovers and the colors come back. I love the customizability and programing capabilities. The sunrise/sunset effects are really incredible to watch as the colors fluoresce. The lights have solved my issues with heat and evaporation (from water-cooling fans that I no longer need to run) so at least I don't have to worry about that anymore. I like the natural-looking shimmer that they provide. Another plus that may or may not be related to the lights is that my clownfish has finally started to host my RBTA! Maybe when it lost some color it looked more enticing to her? Or maybe the new shimmer has something to do with it? Things are slowly looking better each day.

Sorry for the novel haha. I hope it helps others that will be switching to LED's. Start your intensity low!

 

[Antics]

Thanks for the update kunz! It seems like you spent a lot of time (and money) to switch from T5's to LED. Wouldn't it have been much easier and probably cheaper to just add a chiller if the temperatue and evaporation issue was all that bothered you?

I love shimmer, especially from something like Kessils, but I mainly chose to go the C-250 over the newer E 260 because I personally think T5's always give better growth/coloration from my own experience. Not really looking to argue on this point here ^ but I am interested in hearing if you regret the conversion to LED so far, or maybe what other motivations went in to it?

Not trying to kick you while you're down! Genuinely curious. ^_^

 

[kunzmj]

Thanks for the comments Antics! I did consider a chiller, but didn't want the added noise in the room and ultimately a chiller is just removing heat from the tank and putting it into the room. My RSM is in a medium-sized bedroom that has been turned into a movie/aquarium/office room. Prior to adding the tank, this room didn't even have AC and it was fine during the summers. With the added heat from the tank, we had to add a ductless/split mini AC wall unit to keep the room comfortable and to keep the tank from overheating. Yes, a chiller would've solved the heat/evaporation issues but ultimately I wanted different lights...

The main reason I decided to go with these lights is that my favorite LFS uses these lights exclusively and all of their corals look AMAZING. They also get INCREDIBLE growth rates at this store. I realize that more than just lighting goes into healthy, colorful, fast-growing corals but I never felt like I could duplicate their results. Everything I brought home would lose coloration and stop growing until it settled in which was often months. Not to mention I had to carefully acclimate them to my lights by starting them in the sand or they would bleach. I agree with you that T5's are great light; my colors and growth (on certain colonies) were actually pretty good under them but I wanted the added customizability and programmability that LED's provide (sunset, sunrise, spectrum, intensity, wifi, etc.). The heat and evaporation issues being solved were just bonuses. So far I don't regret my decision. One thing I've learned with reefing is that you must have patience. A lot of patience. I'm going to continue to be patient as my tank recovers and hopefully it comes back even better than before!

 

[Antics]

I look forward to seeing the progress over the next few months!

 

[Salty150]

Really?

What made you think that 2 Radion 30s - each with a light spread of 24" x 30" - would be too much?

Plus, aren't Radions supposed to be at least 8-9 inches from the water?

 

[Rini]

Very nice tank! Love all the candy colors.
Lot of corals. Are you not affraid that they going to overgrow eachother?


Curious how your skimmer is doing, and especially the noise, or no noise. I have an c-250 to, and the skimmer is a bit noisy resonating. The skimming part is good as far I can judge.