therman's 12 year old SPS system...top down shot, starting to enjoy this tank again

[therman]

Great 3d, thanks for your tips, can you tell me the depth of your tanks?

Like I said above most are 13" prop tanks, though I have a few others like a standard 180 gallon and a rimless 36" half cube that is 18" deep.

 

[Reefahholic]

Like I said above most are 13" prop tanks, though I have a few others like a standard 180 gallon and a rimless 36" half cube that is 18" deep.

You still running the Reef Breeders? How do you like them after running them this long?

Pros? Cons?

 

[bibarassa]

Thanks Tim, and in the 18" deep tanks what's the fixture height?

 

[therman]

You still running the Reef Breeders? How do you like them after running them this long?

Pros? Cons?

They are great, still grow corals like a champ and have never had a complete fixture fail in all the years. Have had some power supplies go bad and a couple of driver boards that all have been covered by warranty. Upgraded all of them myself to the wifi driver board as the old remote control style really was a pain for running a load of fixtures.

 

[therman]

Thanks Tim, and in the 18" deep tanks what's the fixture height?

I have them over the 180g, which is 24" deep and they are about 6" from the water. I have several Acropora colonies and a lot of montipora growing on the bottom of that tank with no issue.

 

[bibarassa]

So the lenght from fixture to the montipora and acropora in the bottom is nearly 25”
I ask you this because I’m switching from halide to led (next saturday I will switch from halide to a gnc bluray pro)

 

[bibarassa]

I forgot: my tank is 180g (78”x28”x18”deep)

 

[therman]

So the lenght from fixture to the montipora and acropora in the bottom is nearly 25”
I ask you this because I’m switching from halide to led (next saturday I will switch from halide to a gnc bluray pro)

Yes, minus the height they have added of course on the taller colonies. There is undata, Tyree Superman monti, and a couple of acropora encrusting the bottom glass so those are even farther than 25"

 

[bibarassa]

Thanks Tim, have you got any tip to acclimatize corals to new led light

 

[therman]

Thanks Tim, have you got any tip to acclimatize corals to new led light

Just start them low and to the side if you are worried. If they don’t get a bleachy look to the side facing the light after a week or so you are safe to start moving them up.

 

[Troylee]

Wow! Can’t believe I missed this thread! Amazing tanks and sticks.. well done!

 

[therman]

Wow! Can’t believe I missed this thread! Amazing tanks and sticks.. well done!

Thanks!

 

[bibarassa]

Thanks Tim

 

[therman]

I need to change the title to 17 year old reef system this year

 

[Graffiti Spot]

That’s an accomplishment man I hope you know that. It seems easy after a while but it takes some serious skill to keep things thriving for so long. Congrats!

 

[Lucardious]

Reefbreeders Settings!
​

I thought I had posted this info a while back but could not find it on a quick review of this thread, so here it is (again?)

Fixture height:

Most of my tanks are ~13" deep prop tanks for large scale Acropora propagation. Over these tanks my Reefbreeders Photon v2+ fixtures are mounted around 13" above the water. On average this equates to around 20"-21" from the corals themselves (+/- ~3" depending on the height of the corals under them).

This height will obviously vary quite a bit between systems with tanks of different depths. Ultimately I aim for PAR anywhere between 300-500 for most Acropora, with 350-400 being the sweet spot for 90% of the different varieties out there in the hobby.

Photoperiod:

This varies between tanks, but some of the tanks where the corals seem to grow the best have a photoperiod of all channels at their max settings for 7-8 hours, with a ramping period of 1 hour at either end. In some tanks there is a ramping period of just blue light, in others it is all channels. I dont think it really matters too much either way and is just whatever you want for aesthetics.

Some people might argue that corals are tropical, so they have a 12/12 day/night cycle. However because they are underwater, any hours where the sun is at a low angle in the sky results in much of the light reflecting off the surface of the water and a rather low intensity of sunlight actually reaching the corals and the effective period of photosynthesis necessary is much less than 12 hours. Corals also become photosaturated at a certain point, such that additional light is not actually benefitting them.

Channel Settings:

For all of my tanks running Reefbreeders, I have them set to something like this for the "max settings" referred to above:

Green 100%
Red 60-75%
White 70-75%
Cool Blue 100%
Royal Blue 100%
Violet 100%

Again the exact setting of white and red channels is pretty much a product of the fact that I set up these fixtures at varying times and couldn't remember exactly what all the others were set to. Tweaking the red and white channels is mostly a matter of personal preference.


I currently have 15 Reefbreeders Photon v2 fixtures running over my tanks, along with 3 DIY Cree LED fixtures I built before commercial LED fixtures were widely available (2008-2010). A few of the corals people might get from me are under the DIY fixtures but almost all Acropora are grown and healed under Reefbreeders.

I have only used Reefbreeders fixtures or DIY fixtures since about 2009, so I am no help when it comes to settings for Radions, Orpheks, Kessils, T5s, etc. etc. As a result, I really have no useful suggestions to share regarding how to set them up or how corals will respond to them. I'm sure there are plenty of other great lights out there, but Reefbreeders fit the bill for me and were an easy and economical transition to make coming from the large DIY array style fixtures I'd built myself in the past. I have to give major credit to my friend Adam at @Battlecorals for insisting I give Reefbreeders a try after he had great success with them. Also have to give major credit to Logan at Reefbreeders for absolutely awesome customer service whenever I ran into challenges with the lights.

I hope this info is helpful! Just let me know if there are any additional details you think I'm missing here and I will try to edit them in so all the info is in one place to refer back to.

Wonderful set of information here! Thank you for this, I do have a question though. Have you found having the green and red maxed or close to maxed promote nuisance algae growth? I have two 32 V2 pros that will be over my 180 and am trying to be more or less prepared when it's all said and done.

 

[therman]

This one has been on my sale list for a while, and I just realized I never posted a photo and description.

Candy Shop Fuzzy Navel

This is the nicest of the orange/reddish polyp tenuis I have seen, and I have grown quite a few over the years. It blows away some of the ones that have totally ridiculous price tags. Really nice shaggy orange polyps on a multicolor base. Of course it is still a tenuis so it looks best under blues, but still glows when put side by side with the competition:

 

[therman]

Same with this one, though I'm reluctant to post it as it grows soooo slowly and I don't like to cut it.

JF Fantasy Island

Definitely one of the nicer granulosa/loripes types out there with kind of a golden sheen overall maroon tips and bright fluorescent yellow polyps. Sometimes gets some blue in the new growth. Seems to be one of the longer branching types too.

Not the best photo but it will be a placeholder until I get a better one

 

[minus9]

Same with this one, though I'm reluctant to post it as it grows soooo slowly and I don't like to cut it.

JF Fantasy Island

Definitely one of the nicer granulosa/loripes types out there with kind of a golden sheen overall maroon tips and bright fluorescent yellow polyps. Sometimes gets some blue in the new growth. Seems to be one of the longer branching types too.

Not the best photo but it will be a placeholder until I get a better one

Oh that is really nice! Looks like loripes to me, not that it matters with that color combo.

 

[therman]

And this one I have been sitting on for years, quite possibly my all time favorite Acropora these days, definitely in the top 3. Absolutely stunning long branched thick granulosa, deep indigo tips on older growth with deep blue on the new growth and a creamy fluorescent yellow base in high light. Only becomes more and more of a show stopper as it grows out. Really hard for me to believe that I've grown this coral myself after all the years of wishing for it It almost looks like an anemone it is so smooth and knobby. I call it the

Sublime Granulosa

Bigger now...with polyps out:

And from the side for the anemone effect: