Smite's Stout CDA - 205g Acropora dominant system 50x38x25"

[Smite]

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing your new frags grow out.

Thanks man! So far just some encrusting going on but I'll update once they start to grow well.

 

[bbak]

Lookin good, and happy arbor day!

 

[Smite]

Hit another setback with a few losses. I screwed up and had a nutrient and alkalinity spike. Then i over corrected on the alk portion and that resulted in some RTN of a few colonies. Honestly they had never fully recovered or come out of a funk so it is what it is. Thankful for the pieces that appear to be hardy and doing well. My original goal was a few large colonies and it might turn into just that! Whether I like it or not.

I do find myself with a little more time and am going to focus more on my reef. My nutrients got up to 50 nitrates and .43 phosphates. I’m currently still very high (for where I keep no3) at 40. Phosphates are coming down and are around .3ppm. I’ve started dosing MB7 daily and have completed a water change.

Alk 7.7
Cal 450
Mag 1350
Nitrate 40+-
Phosphates .3
Sg 1.026
PH low, 7.65-8 low/high.

All blue for now. Once I’m back and colorful I’ll update with some better daylight pictures.

 

[Smite]

I got a few QuantaPro Reefcrest bars in. The spectrum is right up my alley. Very close to the Hamilton 14k in appearance. This is one bar sitting on the euro-bracing of my tank. The blend looked darn good even at that height, it will be spot on at 10”.
WD, AOA Pink Flamingo, Lime in the Sky

BC Hyperberry

 

[Smite]

a deal came about that let me build a LED rig that I’ve wanted to do for a while. It consists of
3 x 3’ Quanta Pro Tropic Suns (ordered reefcrest, there was a mistake but I hung them to see if I like them)
2 x 3’ OG Pop
2 x Kessil A500x

Stand alone the Tropic Suns are very close to MH, I’d say they are right in that 10-12k range as advertised. They blend very well with the kessils. At 100% color (white as the knob goes) the combo is very close to my 14k Hamilton’s. The shimmer is incredible and the tank really has that lively look again. I’m leaning towards keeping the tropics but might borrow a friend's meter to see where I’m at with spectrum.

With the OG Pop the tank get more blue as expected. I’m hoping to only need to run these for my morning/evening blue hours. With the kessils all blue, the tank is pretty wild looking. They compliment each other very well.

I used some L aluminum channel from HD. Made me own hanging kit with aircraft cable and old ATI sliders I had from my MH rig.

I opted to go front to back with the bars this time. I actually have better coverage this way, no shading.

All lights a go

Kessil spread is pretty incredible. Only Kessil

Only tropic suns x 3

Top down of a few pieces

Overall I’m very happy with how the spectrum and tank looks. Hopefully I’ll be able to transfer over without shocking anything too much. I plan to ramp up fairly slowly. The ATI was a par monster so I’m not overly stress on output, I just hope the corals do well with the change. I haven’t had the best luck with all LED in the past. Hopefully this time will go smoother.

 

[JCOLE]

Tank looks great and the lighting looks perfect! I am also thinking of adding some of the pop bars.

 

[VanDalsenReef]

I wonder what par levels you are getting compared to the mh

 

[Smite]

That I'm not sure on VanDalsenReef. I need to order a PAR meter here soon. For now I have the kessils at around 50% and everything is about 10-12" off the rim of the tank. That looks a little more dim than the t5 powermodule and MH 400w to the eye.

If I get a par meter, I'll post the results here.

 

[marcus aurelius]

Following, here's , mine. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/180-upgrade-mixed-reef.1012730/

 

[Smite]

Top down and all blue. Kessil blue + Quanta Pro OG Pop is spot on

 

[drawman]

Top down and all blue. Kessil blue + Quanta Pro OG Pop is spot on

Seems like the corals are liking the quanta bars?

 

[Smite]

So far I’d say so! I ordered Reefcrest but these turned out to be Tropic Sun. Luca’s customer support is awesome and he’s letting me run these while I wait for the reefcrest to show up. I plan to pull out the DLSR and take some pictures of just the tank - TS vs RC. The tropics are awesome but they don’t quite match the white output of the kessils white and with my drastic overhangs I can see slight differences where the kessils don’t reach. I think I’ll be able to match the RC with the kessils and get a very uniform daylight spectrum.

I had an issue with my doser a month or so ago. It cause my alk to get into the 5s (fat thumbs changed everyday to Thursday). I didn’t notice my mistake and kept upping my ml per day. When I noticed the mistake I didn’t change my output thinking it had just happened. Well that shot me to the 10.5-11 range. I the. Once again over corrected and came back down to where I am now, the 7.5-8 range. This all happened over the course of a few weeks thankfully. It still cause some TN issues to develop and I’ve lost 2 pieces over the last week. Considering all that, I’m surprised at how well the transition is going so far.

Tomorrow, my buddy (minus9) is dropping by to help me dial in the lights with his ParWise meter. I’m really looking forward to seeing where I’m at! If I have to guess I’m a little under lit at the moment

 

[drawman]

So far I’d say so! I ordered Reefcrest but these turned out to be Tropic Sun. Luca’s customer support is awesome and he’s letting me run these while I wait for the reefcrest to show up. I plan to pull out the DLSR and take some pictures of just the tank - TS vs RC. The tropics are awesome but they don’t quite match the white output of the kessils white and with my drastic overhangs I can see slight differences where the kessils don’t reach. I think I’ll be able to match the RC with the kessils and get a very uniform daylight spectrum.

I had an issue with my doser a month or so ago. It cause my alk to get into the 5s (fat thumbs changed everyday to Thursday). I didn’t notice my mistake and kept upping my ml per day. When I noticed the mistake I didn’t change my output thinking it had just happened. Well that shot me to the 10.5-11 range. I the. Once again over corrected and came back down to where I am now, the 7.5-8 range. This all happened over the course of a few weeks thankfully. It still cause some TN issues to develop and I’ve lost 2 pieces over the last week. Considering all that, I’m surprised at how well the transition is going so far.

Tomorrow, my buddy (minus9) is dropping by to help me dial in the lights with his ParWise meter. I’m really looking forward to seeing where I’m at! If I have to guess I’m a little under lit at the moment

Good to hear the swing wasn't too bad. I want to try these bars but I'm going to wait for a tank upgrade so I can plan things out really well. I think I'll go for the RC as well.

 

[Smite]

Well big shoutout to @minus9 for helping me dial these lights in. I was too low of PAR at the settings I had. I settled on keeping the rack about 12" above the water line. I'll be working up to running the kessils at 75% intensity and 50% color alongside both the Tropic Suns (RC in the future) and the OGPop Quanta Pros. That got me 350-400 Par on my highest pieces while keeping most of the bottom of the tank in the low to mid 200s, which seems pretty ideal for me.

Now that I plan to use the OGPop for my daylight setting, I do want to fabricate something to elevate my kessil's lens to be level with the bars and maximize spread of the OGPops.

Quick picture of the system after I tidied some stuff up. Kessils 75% (50 color) and Tropic Sun bars. My camera white balance was maxed out @ 10k and it was close enough to get an accurate representation (slighty bluer) of what I see in person. I'd say very close to 14k. With the OGPop I bet i'm 16-18k.
I'm a little rusty with the DSLR, full shot came out a little fuzzy.

 

[Janci]

Looking great with these light settings.
If I imagine the shimmer, this is close to what I like too

 

[minus9]

Well big shoutout to @minus9 for helping me dial these lights in. I was too low of PAR at the settings I had. I settled on keeping the rack about 12" above the water line. I'll be working up to running the kessils at 75% intensity and 50% color alongside both the Tropic Suns (RC in the future) and the OGPop Quanta Pros. That got me 350-400 Par on my highest pieces while keeping most of the bottom of the tank in the low to mid 200s, which seems pretty ideal for me.

Now that I plan to use the OGPop for my daylight setting, I do want to fabricate something to elevate my kessil's lens to be level with the bars and maximize spread of the OGPops.

Quick picture of the system after I tidied some stuff up. Kessils 75% (50 color) and Tropic Sun bars. My camera white balance was maxed out @ 10k and it was close enough to get an accurate representation (slighty bluer) of what I see in person. I'd say very close to 14k. With the OGPop I bet i'm 16-18k.
I'm a little rusty with the DSLR, full shot came out a little fuzzy.

Tank is looking good Ana it looks even better in person. I really liked the mixture of Quanta’s and Kessil’s, great spectrum and the shimmer was really nice and not overpowering. Should have some nice colors soon enough. The lime in the sky and hyperberry were looking awesome!

 

[Smite]

Tank is looking good Ana it looks even better in person. I really liked the mixture of Quanta’s and Kessil’s, great spectrum and the shimmer was really nice and not overpowering. Should have some nice colors soon enough. The lime in the sky and hyperberry were looking awesome!

Thanks again man! I’m loving how the tank is looking now. Corals seem to be responding very well so far. That BC table is looking happy too!

 

[minus9]

Thanks again man! I’m loving how the tank is looking now. Corals seem to be responding very well so far. That BC table is looking happy too!

You’re welcome! Once that table starts to go, it grows pretty fast.

 

[Smite]

Worked out of town all week. Came back to a tank that appears to really be liking the QuantaPros and Kessil combo. Another week of acclimation mode on the Kessils until I'm full blast but things are looking very good so far.

Good enough knock the dust of my DLSR (unfortunately I'm still a little rusty with my macro lense)

BC Hyperberry

TGC Orange Creamsicle

BKChem Creme de la Creme

Some Blastos I forget the lineage/name on

Age of Aquariums Pink Panther if I recall correctly

Nice fuzzy piece from the millepora family, coming back from just a few polyps

RR RobinHood - Judging by the shaded base of this piece, it would show more colors if I place it lower. I'm really happy to see some polyps out on this one and a few others that hadn't been showing any before.

 

[Janci]

Worked out of town all week. Came back to a tank that appears to really be liking the QuantaPros and Kessil combo. Another week of acclimation mode on the Kessils until I'm full blast but things are looking very good so far.

Good enough knock the dust of my DLSR (unfortunately I'm still a little rusty with my macro lense)

BC Hyperberry

TGC Orange Creamsicle

BKChem Creme de la Creme

Some Blastos I forget the lineage/name on

Age of Aquariums Pink Panther if I recall correctly

Nice fuzzy piece from the millepora family, coming back from just a few polyps

RR RobinHood - Judging by the shaded base of this piece, it would show more colors if I place it lower. I'm really happy to see some polyps out on this one and a few others that hadn't been showing any before.

Aren't those colorful tips and polyps the greatest thing to see in this hobby?
Congratulations!