In search of....

[Frogman]

Hi all, I'm new to MAAST and hope this is the right location for this. I'm looking for a couple things for my yearling reef tank (125 gallon).

First I'm looking for a good controller to manage my temp. Chiller, heater and MH lighting fixture. If someone is looking to upgrade and needs to get rid of an older one, that would be good. I don't want to get anything overly expensive to start, just need to get the application down, find out what works for me and play with various models without having to sacrifice the date nights with my wife.

Secondly, in looking for a frag of Oregon tort, miyagi tort, or ORA Ice tort. Just want some really deep blue sticks in my tank. 😍

Finally, in looking for advice on getting some coloration out of my coral. I'm currently using 250w MH 20k bulbs with 1 purple t5, 1actinic t5 (54w each) and two moonlight LEDs. (Old icecap fixture)

I spoke with Alton (great guy!) and he suggested trying people here to borrow/buy older bulbs to see if I could find a color enhancer I liked.

(Problem.. My Red Planet will only turn green and yellow with a hint of red. It's currently placed under 650 par and the bleamin thing won't turn red. MH were just replaced and I just did a par map of my tank. So I know it's got tons of light.)

Any help with these items would be awesome!!!

Assistance, direction, guidance are all extremely appreciated!!!http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/9f25e7be6fe877fefcb1d07e565db9e0.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/38c345efb0f683287715d439dd4351a1.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/e7d236022a1da9ae208694dbb277b4c1.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/331a3ad1ac0ecf9c4dc9cc70f6facf89.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/06b3bd806d5fe09a001bd4e9915dfc4a.jpg

And no. I don't have a tank thread yet. But I do on R2R same username.


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[Dkray944]

How did your par readings check out?

[Zack]

For controllers, especially since they are really one of the first lines of defense against a tank crash, I highly highly recommend buying new. If you're only needing to control 4 outlets, the Apex Jr is in my opinion, the controller to use although I'd reccomend spending the extra cash to get the full Apex. Polly's Pets has a beautiful tank with several APEX units on it and if Randy is there, I'm sure he'd be willing to demo the system for you.

As far as the corals go, post a thread in the Want to Buy section and see if a local reefer can help you out! :)

[Troy Valentine]

Welcome to MAAST!

How many MHs are you running, and how long are you running your MH and T5s? I found that running a lower kelvin MH, like in 10k to 14k range as well as reducing the photo period to 5-7hrs while increasing the actinic t5s to 13+hrs gave me better color on many of my SPS.

[Mike]

I think I have heard 20K as being better for growth versus 12K for color. Maybe someone else can confirm that. I have a couple of new generic 12K SE MH bulbs. We replaced the MH over the 140g with LED, mostly due to heat issues in the room it is in. Youcan borrow it to try, if you want it, will sell cheap or trade for coral.

[Frogman]

Hi all. Thanks for the replies. Let me take these one by one.

I'm going to do my par map this morning and post it to this thread so you will be able to see what I found.

My fixture is 48 inches, two MH lamps. The lamps are positioned at each end of the device. Here is a pic of the fixture. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/92b771684496a2e80c43052c915d7587.jpg

As for buying a new controller, yeah, you're probably correct. I need to tell my wife date nights are over rated 😜 lol. Just kidding!!! I think that will be my next investment. Thanks for the suggestion.

As for posting in the want section... Where is it located, still trying to navigate this via tapatalk and I couldn't locate that section. But, I have been told I am blind too.

As for the bulbs, please allow me to clarify more. I'm keeping the 20k because they produce the best color while 14k grows better. I was referring to the 48in t5 bulbs. Do I run, purple and daylight, 10k and something else??? I just replaced my MH. Not looking for those at all... I might also look at a t5 retrofit LED and see if I can supplement the full spectrum.

Hope that cleared that up a little.

Again, thanks for the feedback and I'll post my PAR reading map in an hour or so when I get it all drawn up.


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[Frogman]

Not the best image, but here are my par readings

[Frogman]

Ok. That didn't want to work, let's try it this way. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/14/4d327629ad83c4db29ecd51da66a1974.jpg


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