Progression of an SPS Tank

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

I haven't been following the site too much as of late you switched from led back to t5

I think about that daily but thought I was crazy

It was a good move, over all happy with it. I do miss the dimming effects, but overall the tank looks better and the corals show more color. If you look closely at the last two pics, you can see the difference in the light. The LED shows separation even in photos.

[BlueTang<3]

I figured I noticed it, overall looks better in the last shot.

What size number of bulbs did you decide to go with.

I had the 8x80 w ati power module on my old tank and it grew/coloured up stuff crazy.

Led I need to play with more colouring but I seem to have a bunch of brown blaw corals no pop.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

I figured I noticed it, overall looks better in the last shot.

What size number of bulbs did you decide to go with.

I had the 8x80 w ati power module on my old tank and it grew/coloured up stuff crazy.

Led I need to play with more colouring but I seem to have a bunch of brown blaw corals no pop.

I'm using the same fixture, 5' power module 8x80w. It really brings out colors that didn't show with the LED.

[BlueTang<3]

Cool, only problem I have is I would need 2 and bulb changes would kill.

Interested in how long u have ran your bulbs or plan to, I had purchased a par meter and could get 2 years from bulbs before then dropped 10 percent but after a couple months the colour spectrum changed drastically

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

Cool, only problem I have is I would need 2 and bulb changes would kill.

Compared to LED, the price of the fixture and one set of bulbs leaves me enough money for 8-10 years of bulb changes compared to the one time cost of LED purchase.
I also heard that the guy that bought my LEDs already had one burn out. Not even 2 years old. So not sure LED would last 10 years.
And honestly, 90% of people in the hobby will shut down long before realizing the savings of not replacing bulbs.
I will probably replace bulbs every 9 months. I'll know closer to that time frame as this is my first run with T5.

[Proteus]

Now that you have had the t5 over the water long enough to color up coral. Do you still prefer the halides (color wise)

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Proteus

Now that you have had the t5 over the water long enough to color up coral. Do you still prefer the halides (color wise)

Absolutely. If I had a way to manage humidity, I'd still run the Radium 400w bulbs.

[wreck]

Thabks for sharing tthetime lapse photos!!. Really inspiring to see bare tank turn full!!.

[Doug]

Just beautiful Brad.

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Don't even go there!! I can't even recall why I used it, but it was a dumb idea, whatever it was.

Very nice Brad! Yeah I was also going to ask about the eggcrate in the sandbed & the reasoning behind it. I'll bet your wrasses got a headache at bed time for the first while