What % of the time is your display picture-worthy?

[Dominican]

Let's be honest! Lol. My display is whole-tank-photo worthy about 45% of the time.. Nothing a 5minute scraping can't fix and my diamond goby keeps the substrate perpetually clean!

Ok let's hear yours!

[350gt]

I would say mine is 90% of the time......

I don't clean the glass daily... Maybe once every 3 days with the magnet scrubber... I scrap once every 2 or 2 weeks..

I say it all depends on your filtration and yes my goby cleans my sand so well I over look when he buries my chalices...

i heard a gfo reactor would also help but I am unsure how much more....

[350gt]

Also I am running a UV sterilizer which made the water crystal clear..

[Dominican]

90%? Nice.. I run UV too, but 3x250w = algae in my 150. I need to reload the TLF carbon & phosban apparently.. I figured this might not be the most popular thread.. :)

[hobogato]

with my tank, it also depends on the time of day and what kind of pics you mean. i have to clean the glass every couple of days with the tigershark (works better than mag float imo). for a full tank shot that shows off the best color, i only have a couple of hours in the late afternoon/early evening when the corals are still mostly open and inflated and the sunlight coming in thru the solar tubes isnt so bright that it washes out the colors. if i want to show the corals at their most open, then i would only be able to take pics in the middle of the afternoon.

my sand bed gets a little bit of cyano and diatoms occasionally, so i have to plan ahead and check for that a day ahead of time so the water can clear for pics after cleaning that up.

[350gt]

90%? Nice.. I run UV too, but 3x250w = algae in my 150. I need to reload the TLF carbon & phosban apparently.. I figured this might not be the most popular thread.. :)


What is your photoperiod??...

[Dominican]

Ace, so awesome you're still rocking the solar tubes. What additional lighting do you run?

350gt, I run the actinics 16hrs, and the 250s for 10. No wonder I have algae huh? Lol

[hobogato]

Ace, so awesome you're still rocking the solar tubes. What additional lighting do you run?


i also run blue led moonlights, blue led strips, green led strips, red led strips, two blue t5 bulbs and two white (12K) t5 bulbs. with all of that, the sun still washes everything out in the middle of the day.

[350gt]

350gt, I run the actinics 16hrs, and the 250s for 10. No wonder I have algae huh? Lol


I would think so.... ever thought about trimming it down some just to see what happened?

[rrasco]

Aside from excess nutrients, photoperiod is probably the biggest contributor to algae. At least in my FW tanks, I've completely beaten algae outbreaks by adjusting lighting cycles. Ever since I had that experience, I always try to shoot for conservative lighting cycles.

To answer the original question: I would say, outside of reasons Ace stated, my tank is also 90% picture worthy. Now, that's accounting for clean sand, glass, etc. I'm also on the clean-the-glass-every-3-days-or-so regimen, when it starts getting dirty enough it's obscuring my view. Then if you account for everything Ace mentioned; time of day, lighting, polyp extension...that's a whole different story. I won't even take pictures of my tank right now because my acans are mad at me. So my revised answer is, currently 0%.

[hobogato]

funny how one mad coral can give you a tainted view of your own tank - even when others still say it looks great.

[Dominican]

Sorry I should have clarified. I don't have any problem-blooms on the LR/critters, but just rapid accumulation on the glass. I scrape once every other day (thus my 45%, because the day in between there's usually some level of film.) That said, like rrasco, I've got a different problem going on right now - a rather bigger one though. The diamond goby I bought not too long ago has deposited a layer of silt all over everything. Interestingly, I noticed all the corals have a way of sloughing it off, but it's all over the LR. I've enjoyed a healthy amount of sponge and beneficial algae growth. Should I worry about the good algae being harmed?

350gt, I'm open to suggestions. I have Soft, LPS, SPS, fish, but obviously want to maintain a good growth rate for my budding SPS.. Problem is, I feed 2x a day because certain fish are slow eaters while others are gluttons - and I have a way oversized skimmer to compensate. So that means I feed once in the morning, and once in the evening. Since I leave for work at about 8am, the actinics need to signal wakey-wakey-eggs-and-bakey in time for me to feed before I leave... so in order to enjoy the tank much in the evenings, the lights stay on 'till midnight. Honestly, I can see the need to back that off 2 hours at the very least, since it's far from natural. The MHs come on at 10am and stay on until 8pm, but that could come down as well.

So actinics 7:30am to 10pm (14.5), and the MHs noon to 8pm (8hrs)?

Ace, given all of that diverse lighting, what's your photoperiod? Just curious..

[RayAllen]

When my tanks are up and running, I try to clean the glass everyday. Id say I can take a good picture 90% of the time if not more once the aquarium is established. I will say im extremely anal about the appearance of my aquariums. Im a bit of a neat freak and my aquarium benefits from that.

My light schedule. I do not run my light anymore than 8hrs a day, except for moon lights which are on overnight and go off as soon as day breaks through the windows.

My current 6 bulb T5 fixture I have not played with much seeing the tank is not running yet, but it has a 3 modes.

Im thinking the 1st 2 bulbs will come on at 2pm then go off at 4pm
4 bulbs fired at 4pm
All 6 bulbs fired at 6pm
At 8pm back to 4 bulbs
at 9pm down to 2 bulbs

at 10-11 pm Moonlights until 7am the next morning.

Sounds complicated, but with decent timers and a good schedule you can simulate a day much better. Give your corals time to adjust and acclimate as the day goes on.

[rrasco]

I adjust my lighting cycles to later in the day so I can enjoy them more while I'm there. My FW tanks don't turn on until 5 and off at 11.

My reef, has a more involved cycle. Cycle starts at 12pm and ends at 12am, but is a little more complex than that.

This cycle gives me 10 solid hours of blues (1pm-11pm) and 6 hours of whites (3pm-9pm). Add an hour to the start/end of those where they ramp up/down for total photoperiod.

16310

12pm-1pm: Blues ramp up from 0% to 60%
1pm-2pm: Blues stay on alone at 60%
2pm-3pm: Whites ramp up from 0% to 50%
3pm-9pm: Blues stay at 60% and whites at 50%
9pm-10pm: Whites ramp down from 50% to 0%
10pm-11pm: Blues stay on alone at 60%
11pm-12am: Blues ramp down from 60% to 0%

[hobogato]

blue led moonlights - on all the time

5:00 blue led strips on
6:30 108 watts blue t5 bulbs on
8:00 green and red led strips on
10:00 108 watts white t5 bulbs on
middle of the day sun is bright (changes by season)
7:00 white t5 off
8:00 green and red led off
9:00 blue t5 off
10:00 blue leds off

absolute best viewing time of the day is 4:30 to 6 because there is still some sunlight coming in to provide coloration, but it isnt so bright that it washes out the coral colors and everything is still opened up nicely

[RayAllen]

A broad spectrum of light/schedule also provides unique photos through out the day. After all this thread is about being photo ready. You will notice all the life in the tank change as your lighting does. Corals, fish and inverts all react to the changes.

[350gt]

Yes sir my cycle is a late one for me, starts off at noon and ramps up to full power at 4. It peaks for 2 hours, then begins ramping down..... But it has a good amount of whites for 6 hours and blue for 12....

I plan to ramp it up to 8 hours of white and peak for 4 hours soon.. I am just trying to simulate the sun and it is awesome to watch it gradually change thoughout the day.... I hate when my t5s turn on though.. It's just a instant change and I need to find the right time For it to flicker on.....


I am no expert but you can try cutting a hour off once a week and pushing your lighting schedule back a hour....

[350gt]

funny how one mad coral can give you a tainted view of your own tank - even when others still say it looks great.


I have one of those..... It went south when I converted to LEDs and seems like its trying to come back.... I can easily dump it but I can't give up on him.... Hope he pulls through one day..

[Dominican]

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and input! You never know what you'll get out of a frank conversation here, and this is no exception..

[Kristy]

Problem is, I feed 2x a day because certain fish are slow eaters while others are gluttons - and I have a way oversized skimmer to compensate. So that means I feed once in the morning, and once in the evening. Since I leave for work at about 8am, the actinics need to signal wakey-wakey-eggs-and-bakey in time for me to feed before I leave... so in order to enjoy the tank much in the evenings, the lights stay on 'till midnight.

First of all, I love the wakey-wakey-eggs-and-bakey reference. :)

What we did regarding this same issue is we set our lights to come on a little later than we had been and then put in an automatic feeder to dispense flake and pellet food at a later morning time. They still get frozen in the evening and seem to be very happy with the dry food during the day.

And yes, definitely shorten the MH time a bit too. That will help.

[Dominican]

Kristy,

Thought someone might catch that. :)

That's a great idea thanks. Never had much luck with flake or pellet alone though, unless it was soaked in garlic. There was always someone who wouldn't eat. Might try to wean them onto dry food using the garlic, because the option to auto-feed would be a God-send - not just for this light situation, but also to simplify tank mgmt when I'm away from home..

Shortened to: Actinics 7:30am - 10pm; MH: noon - 8pm
We'll see how that works out for now!

[350gt]

Mine love flake and pellets... And a auto feeder works wonders when not home.

Check out the eheim feeder, it lets you set up to 3 feeding times.

[Big_Pun]

ive been lucky and figured this tank out..... mine is always pretty clean aslong as gfo doesnt exhaust but i can tell right away and i keep 2lbs on hand at all times just incase. GFO is what keeps my tank clear i run carbon on ocasion. nutrient export in my tank is a big skimmer and bio-pellets. also tds on water for top-off/changes never gets above one. my lights are on a while 4x 54w t5 on at 8am then 2x 250 at 11am-9pm then t5 out at 10pm

[Dominican]

350gt, I'll keep that eheim in mind thanks. It looks pretty sweet.

bigpun, what do you mean when you say "as long as gfo doesn't exhaust?" I've run phosban (and carbon) for a long time via two TLF reactors chained together, but sounds like I might be missing something..

[Big_Pun]

it can only remove and hold so much before it starts to release some, so when I notice algae on glass is forming faster between cleanings I know it's done and needs to be changed out.

[Dominican]

Got it, thanks. The word "exhaust" threw me, but I guess it shouldn't have!