My 45 gallon build

[Joeb1983]

I just read my post and I goofed. I for sure ordered 2x ATI Blue Plus and 2x Coral plus. Verified via my BRS invoice. lol!

2x 39W - 36” T5 ATI Blue Plus
2x 39W - 36” T5 ATI Coral Plus

Just to clarify; I origianlly wanted:

2 x Blue plus
1 x Coral plus
1 x Aqua Blue Special

But changed my mind after seeing your tank and others running the same combo. Believe me, Ive Google'd, YouTube'd, and surfed many, many forums.


I am just running them with my Coralife Lunar HO fixture, so just the ballast that came with it off the line. I also have a 30" Coralife lunar HO fixture on my smaller tank and the Coralife OEM bulbs are all I know as I never had anything different due to the size.

I wholeheartedly agree that is exactly what your tank looks like and it looks fantastic and I appreciate you taking the time. Even others look very similar to yours w/ the combo.

I am aware camera phones are absolutley horrible, but it does capture how really blue it is in person.

Lighting is all new to me as you all can probably tell. I understand it will be more blue during first fire, so hopefully after running for a few hours today it will be different when I get home from work... I am just shocked of how bright and blue it is. The brightness I can see being a new bulb versus the old Coralifes, but not the strong bluewash.

Order from front to back: BP, CP, BP, CP. If its still very blue after I get home, I will swap them. If that does not help I will look into swapping ballasts if at all possible.

[Big E]

Okay........it must be the ballasts in your fixture that are making them look more blue. I don't know what type of ballasts are in that Coralife fixture but there isn't much you can do about that

You could try 3 coral+ and one blue+ or try an AB special(whiter bulb) and swap out a blue+ or Coral+ with it. That will give you a whiter look............I don't know what effect it will have on coral colors.

[Joeb1983]

Copy that. I have no idea what ballast I have either...

I will just give it time and play with it I guess. Maybe I will order a AB special along with a purple plus next order and try different combo/arrangements. Thanks again!

[Joeb1983]

Got home from work and it was still very blue even after 5+ hours of being on, so I swapped the order of bulbs and it had little to no effect.

For some reason the Blue Plus is extremely bright and seems to just wash out the Coral Plus.

I will be ordering a AquaBlue special to replace a Coral Plus and possibly a true actinic to swap out with a Blue plus... At this point it will just be experimenting. Heck, I might even order a Purple plus as well...

I understand I am very limited seeing how it is only a 4 bulb fixture, but I dont see the need for more light given how bright it is now.

[Joeb1983]

Ordered a AquaBlue special and true actinic, so we will see how that goes when they get here.

Also picked up a couple frags from my buddy who had some left over from a frag swap just to add a little color to the tank. If I see they are doing bad I will move them to my other tank, but params are good besides calcium being a tad high.

[Joeb1983]

Well, the blue has died down drastically and I am slowly getting used to it.

The ABS and true actininc bulbs came in today. Added the ABS and the corals lost a lot of pop, so I added the true actinic to see if it would make up for it.. Nope. That thing is so dim I barely even noticed a difference.

Live and learn. This hobby will make force me to have patience one of these days... Lol!

[Big E]

Lol........as long as you're happy now, that's all that counts.

[james30ct]

You could always add some blue led strips to give you the pop.

[Joeb1983]

Been busy with work, but I traded an old MTX amp for a new in the box Aqua Ultraviolet 15 watt UV with my buddy. Plumbed that in this past weekend.

I used a Stanley "snap track" utility hook to mount it. The curve in the hooks fit perfectly around the center of the unit and worked out rather nicley. I also utilized a extra pump I had and added a ball valve for flow adjustments as needed.

[Joeb1983]

Well, had a little issue that was 100% my fault. Sunday night I noticed my filter sock was backing up and needed to be replaced. It was splashing up a little bit, but not overflowing. I got the great idea that I would thow a dish towel next to the drain to reduce the over-spray and I would simply change the sock in the morning.

Well, over night while we slept the filter sock overflowed and the dish towel became a channel for water to flow out the back of the sump and flooded my room with about 6 gallons...

Lesson learned: Do not be lazy!

On a possitve note; I picked up a red lobo to nurse back to health. So far it seems to be making a turn for the better. It is traget feedig so thats a good sign. Only time will tell.

Seeing how its winter I threw in my Cobalt heater to reduce temp swings only to find out it was shocking me when I touched it. So I ordered a Finnex (I know...) Titanium delux heater to be run off my controller. It came yesterday and to my amazment it came with absolutely no mounting harware.

I thought it was simply left out the package, so I contacted Finnex only for them to confirm that it indeed does not come with mounting harware and only the heating element. I thought that was just odd... No big deal, heater mounts are cheap.

[Big E]

The Finnex heater element sits fine with no mount. The two nobs on the ends keep the tube elevated above the sump surface.

Fwiw.............I don't use filter socks.

[Joeb1983]

Im getting to the point where I am considereing not using them as well...

The tank is not heavily stocked by any means and I definitly do not overfeed.

1 x basslet
1 x blue hermit
1 x Emerald crab
and some snails...

Coral are just some small frags Ive been picking up here and there. From my buddies, swaps or rescues.

1 x BOP birdsnest
1 x neon green birdsnest
1 x red/orange monti cap
1 x orange monti setosa
1 x Red Lobo brain *rough shape, but getting better*
1 x encrusting monti (meteor shower) *Still on plug, not sure I even like it*
3 x standard green hammers I fragged (two 2 heads and one 4) *using them for future trades*

and the newest addition as of yesterday some single head torch frags. *Liked the colors.*

1 x Neon green with gold tips
1 x Purple with neon green tips
1 x Green with blueish puple tips.

The purple with neon green tips seems to have some branching like a frogspawn... Who knows, but it looks cool.

Anyways, within 3-4 days after changing the sock is overflowing again. So thats getting pretty old, but they are easy to change. The hard part is keeping them all washed and ready between multiple tanks.

Within the confines of my small 20gal long sump I need to have the heater secured in a dedicated space. Plus I am OCD when it comes to things and I hate it sometimes... lol!

[Joeb1983]

Attached are some day pics of the torches. The purple one looks funky like i said... Still have no clue the direction I want to go with the tank. LPS, SPS or just a combo of everything. I know I am limited in space and I definitley do not want a cluttered tank. Just a colorful one.

I have noticed that my corals are lightning up. Most obvious is my Monti Cap. I got frag from my friend and fragged it in 2 pieces and put one in each of my tanks.

The tank with Coralife lighting is still dark orange and has not grown that much at all and is the same exact shape as when I put it in.

The frag that is in my new tank with the ATI lighthing has a TON of new growth but has faded to more a pastel light orange. It also is changing shape nicely. Hard to believe they both were cut from the same cloth per say.

I understand lighting, placement and flow play a huge roll with Monti Caps and pretty much every other coral out there... My hammers that were moved from the CL tank to the ATI tank are plumper than ever, but are turning a translucent, pastelly and softer green.

Over the past few days Ive been researching corals fading and holy crap there is everything about it including the kitchen sink! Ive contributed mine to the lighting and seeing how they have only been in there a short while. They are just adapting seeing how I am noticing great growth and my params are good and stable.

You can see the red brain in the pics. When I got it, its skeleton was showing all the way around and it was tight/skinny to the point the skeleton was poking through in numerous places. I brushed off the algae and crap that was on it off with a toothbrush, trimmed and dipped it. I target feed twice a week and keep my params golden. After only a week its healing pretty nicely. I know its just a red brain, but I love this ones color.

Oh, the wife gave me a deadline to stain & poly the stand and have it in place by Christmas. I will admit I have been putting it off...

[Joeb1983]

Decided to try going sockless and see for myself how it goes, such as params, gunk in sump, water clarity, etc... In the meantime I have 5 more socks coming.

I designed and built a "bubble can" to reduce the violent trashing water full of bubbles and to keep micro bubbles out of the dispay my bubble trap missed. So far it has worked great and really quiets the overflow and works wonders for bubbles.

Basically, I went to Home Depot and got some stuff (labeled in the attached paint doc) and started building. I wanted to open the 1-1/2" overflow and have a "diffuser" per say. So I opened it up to 2". The T & cap combo was to direct the flow towards the back wall of the can opposite the vent.

I did have to cut the 2" T-fitting for it to fit in the can. It is cut on an angle in hopes of bubble diversion towards the top.

As far as the cans vent; I simply traced a rectangle with a marker and used a Dremel. Same for the top lid, but rather with a circle.

The 4" pvc can be rotated in the base cap to direct outlet flow. Same for the internal portion to find the sweet spot for bubble reduction. As you might tell from the pic the internal part decends just barely above the bottom and sits directly in front of the vent causing flow around either side. No flow issues what so ever.

Oh, and I tried it last night... A sock can be placed inside as well, but the lid just simply sits on the socks plastic ring. Only issue is the socks length that has to be folded, but a taller can would help with that. Either way, it was fun and I like making things. lol!

[Joeb1983]

Well, I can say I tried sockless. Ordered a bulk pack of 300 micron mesh socks to give a go. So far so good. A ton easier to change out and clean for that matter over the thick felt ones.

Things I noticed while sockless was the skimmer was pulling much darker skimmate and production almost doubled. (Obviously due to the lack of the sock catching things)

I also found that my glass was getting dirty twice as fast as before and my sump was accumulating debries.

I did see my LPS perk up a little. Nothing drastic. SPS seemed to have more polyp extension. All seems to be well with the mesh.

Finally will get to the sides of the base and start the stain process this weekend if the weather permits.

Back to lighting: I have noticed as I said before that most of my corals seemd to be lightening to what I determined to be too high of PAR. I decided to throw in the ATI true actinic in place of one of the blue plus's. The other bulbs seem to completley wash out the actinic to the point you can barely tell it is even on...

I know the actinic is on the low spectrum of what we as humans can see and its wavelengths are much different than that of a full spectrum bulb etc, etc..

Ill let it ride for a while and see if things darken a bit. So far I have noticed more polyp extension on my monti's. I also added an egg-crate top to the tank to diffuse things a bit. Lighting seems more soft, but directed into the tank.

[Joeb1983]

I had someone advise me to remove just about everything from my sump for the following reasons:

* Too cluttered
* Detritus trap
* Tanks too young
* Equipment is fighting cycles preventing stabilization
* Not good for SPS the way it is

Again the tank is 5 months old. I do not have any perameter swings and everything is/has been stable. Believe or not a lot of thought and design went into the sump/equipment.

Everything is quick disconnect and user friendly although it appears packed. I have no problems on my end...

I understand its my tank and I can do whatever I want, but I would like to hear your thoughts on this suggestion, so let me know.

[Joeb1983]

Picked up a pair of black snowflake/phantom clowns for the 45. (Xmas gift for myself)

The wife wants to keep our ocellaris pair seing how they were, like many, our first SW fish.

So, they will get there own nano just for them.

Bought a 15 gallon and I used rock, sand, paint and LED's I had laying around (leftovers) and ordered a Hydor nano for some flow. Came out pretty clean.

I have a 6 head frogspawn Ill throw in when the time comes for the clowns and let the wife pick the zo's, shrooms and what not.

*** Oh, Since adding/substituting the 2 true actinincs and eggcrate on the 45, I have noticed more color appearing on the rock than I have in the last 5 months... ***

Hopefully its a good sign of good things to come.

[ReeferChris405]

real nice tank

[Joeb1983]

Just came across this again and figured I'd throw a little update in for those interested.

First off, the lighting/tank coloration was fixed for/to my tastes with 2 x true actinic, 1 x coral plus and 1 x blue plus. Things are growing great and if anyone followed my coral fading issue, it was just them acclimating to the new lighting. All is well there now and I learned something new.

In regards to lighting, having a hood with a "sit on top" T5 HO fixture incorporated created a heat issue that has to be modulated with the ceiling fan. Not an issue for the fixture, but rather my tank temp. (AI LED's on the way)

The "bubble can" I made as stated before worked, but allowed gunk to accumulate in the sump. So back to socks. The mesh bags work, but I prefer the felt ones for sure.

The reactors: I put them on hold some time back while the tank was maturing as there honestly wasn't a need for them... (Maybe carbon if anything for more clarity). They still are on standby to this day and my parameters are spot on.

I did notice rapid coloration on the dry rock once I suspended use of the reactors. (More in a month than in 4)

The tank is still unfinished to this day and my wife is about to kill me!.. Haha! I decided to actually paint it rather than stain and poly it.

I came across Rustoluem's painters touch oil rubbed bronze that to me looks amazing on wood. A lot of people refinish furniture and cabinets with it and it really pops with the wood grain. (Did a test piece of crown, came out great!)

Ill be painting the hood this weekend and Ill throw some pics up.

[Joeb1983]

A little Headway. Painted the canopy oil rubbed bronze. Came out awesome!

[Joeb1983]

Picture

[Joeb1983]

Mouthed 2 AI Vegas. Been a few months, still trying to get them dialed in... Some things are happy others are not.

[Joeb1983]

Top view. Plenty of airflow.

[Joeb1983]

Tank shot with painted canopy and AI lighting.

[Joeb1983]

Another (only allowing 1 photo)