Cali Kid Corals

Leemar Starphire 290

Lubecky said:
I've been following this thread as a visitor and had to join because I'm dying to ask you questions. Outstanding build by the way. Very impressive.

I've only had kessils since I started my little 33 gal. I do love them. They are a great light. I recently upgraded to 2-350 wides about 4 months ago. Have you had any issues with any of your blue corals keeping color? How far off the water were you keeping your wides? I know I have too much light I know but I can't stand shadowing. It's great to see that these lights are clearly capable of growth and maintaining color. I have not been successful in keeping the color of my corals but that is for different reasons and not mainly from the lights. Do you feel that they wash out your corals ?

Here's a pic of my tank before I started preparing for my upgrade.


It must be noted I guess that kessils alone may not be sufficient enough since you are having to add supplemental LEDs.

I'm local and will be upgrading to the new 360's I'm working on a 180 gal system and will prob be selling my two wides for $625 for both not sure if you would be interested?

I'm also wondering how you like your skimmer? Is it doing you justice? Would you recommend it? Buy it again?
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WOW! amazing first post!
You might want to start your own tank thread :)
Welcome!
 
Lubecky said:
I've been following this thread as a visitor and had to join because I'm dying to ask you questions. Outstanding build by the way. Very impressive.

I've only had kessils since I started my little 33 gal. I do love them. They are a great light. I recently upgraded to 2-350 wides about 4 months ago. Have you had any issues with any of your blue corals keeping color? How far off the water were you keeping your wides? I know I have too much light I know but I can't stand shadowing. It's great to see that these lights are clearly capable of growth and maintaining color. I have not been successful in keeping the color of my corals but that is for different reasons and not mainly from the lights. Do you feel that they wash out your corals ?

Here's a pic of my tank before I started preparing for my upgrade.



It must be noted I guess that kessils alone may not be sufficient enough since you are having to add supplemental LEDs.

I'm local and will be upgrading to the new 360's I'm working on a 180 gal system and will prob be selling my two wides for $625 for both not sure if you would be interested?

I'm also wondering how you like your skimmer? Is it doing you justice? Would you recommend it? Buy it again?
Click to expand...


Welcome LuBecky! What a killer Nano! Congrats! If you are local, you should be a part of this club anyway, so I am glad you joined.

I am a HUGE Kessil fan after owning them for the last 9 months and seeing what they can do. I do however have some thoughts on this manner. I think you might want to consider using the narrow and not the wide. The wide for me seems to have a lot more shimmer and there for refracted light. It almost seems to make the tank darker because of this and the blues and purples definately become dark.........or muted. I find the narrow to be a MUCH brighter light to the eye and the color comes through much better. You could probably do with just 1 narrow and raise it 12 - 18" off your tank. My guess is that you would have plenty of coverage and not much shadowing. My tank is 31" front to back and I am only using 1 Kessil that is situated forward in the tank to cover the front of my tall rocks. So it needed the supplimental to fill in the shadows in the back, and if the fish swim right against the glass at the top of the tank in the front.... they would also get shadowed. The tank is also 26" deep, so I don't see this as a problem in a tank that is 21" or less in height. It wasn't a big deal, but I am..........hmmmmmmmm.......... how do I put this gently..............A bit picky. LOL! ;) To put it lightly. I will say however that the kessils are growing coral all the way in the back and on the bottom of the tank without supplimental lighting. I just like the overall look a bit better with less shadows in the back..............and the tank gets a lot more visual depth when the light goes all the way back.

Otherwise if my coral loses color it means my dumb A@# forgot to add Alk, or missed something with the water that is stressing the coral.

My skimmer...............SO FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!! The Super Reef Octopus has exceeded my expectations. I have had 5 different tanks over the years with 5 different skimmers. This one is SO MUCH better than any of the others I have used. I would not hesitate to buy another.

Thanks for the questions and compliments LuBecky. Welcome to BAR...........You should consider going to some of the meetings as they can be VERY informative. Fun to talk with people who love the hobby as well. Hope to see ya there sometime. PEACE!
 
So annoyed that I have been working the last few nights. Dying to get to spend an evening with the new lighting set up. :(

I have been doing little projects before work though and wanted to show off the pulley system I am using on this. I upgraded the 150lb rated cord that I started with...........it felt SO SMALL. Now I am using "Prusik" line........or basically thin climbing rope rated at 3100lb load and made as a safety line when climbing or rappelling. Anyway, it's 6mm and much easier to hold on to. I also think it looks a little more proportionate to the system.

Here are some pics, you can decide for yourself. ;) Still not perfectly level, but that is going to take an hour or two of tiny adjustments and patience on my part.

IMG_3391_zpsa7c41f3d.jpg


Pretty simple "Loop on a byte" tie off. Just pull it down to the correct hook. I will have 3 hooks..........one at the set lighting level, one all the way to the ceiling and one hovering above the tank for maintenance.
IMG_3392_zpscc20b95a.jpg


This shows the stain a bit better. I am very happy that it is close. I don't think anyone would notice a difference unless they were looking for that specifically. That makes me HAPPY!

IMG_3384_zpse23607e7.jpg


The overall light spread at the new height is amazing, and I can't wait to get pics at night without glare. More to come. ;)
 
The top up there looks like a torture chamber of some sort ;) Ian had a pretty slick mechanical light rack IIRC. Should be mentioned somewhere in his build thread.
 
iCon said:
The top up there looks like a torture chamber of some sort ;) Ian had a pretty slick mechanical light rack IIRC. Should be mentioned somewhere in his build thread.
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LOL! Yes it does.

Thx for the info, I will see if I can find Ian's set up.
 
Well, if it's not one thing...................

I was using aptasia X and the plunger on the syringe stuck briefly and then broke free causeing a bit of a cloud that hit a few of my corals. I immediately blew them off with a turkey baster and everything seemed fine. Next day my red planet had bleached out on the bottom. By the next day it was gone......the ponope birdsnest had one little arm that had bleached on day two..................came home Sunday night and the birdsnest was 3/4's GONE. My Green Slimer was also more than half way gone.



I cut them off at the good tissue and made some frags. Most of them died, but a few of the birdsnest are hanging in there. None of the other corals in the tank are affected, and my parameters are stable. I did check them again though to be sure........

PH 8.3
Temp 78
Alk 8.7
Calcium 480
Magnesium 1400
Nitrates 0
Phosphate .06

I replaced the syringe and it worked much better. I hope that was all it was, and lesson learned. I did pick up a nice sunset Milli from Aqua Exotic to make me feel better. LOL! Seems to be doing well.

On a side note the blue clover polyps that had absolutely covered that rock have completely died off. For those working to get rid of it, this could be an option. This is how the rock looked before.

 
Bummer dude! I have a green slimer frag you're welcome to. It's only about the size of a quarter but I will see about making a larger one.
 
Thanks Mike, that is about the size of what I have left of this one. I have cut it twice without success.........third time's the charm? :( If not, I'll let ya know.

@Erin, thanks man. Such is life I suppose.
 
I have tons of green slimer that I hack off regularly. Also blue tip green slimer grows like a weed on steroids.
You are welcome to it.
 
gimmito said:
Bummer Kris...good thing it happened after Gary took pics of your tank.
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LOL! I completely agree. That was the first thing I said when I saw it.

Gary was so cool, I am so bummed I missed the meeting. I managed to get a few awesome tips from him while he was here though. It was very cool to watch him work. Setting up each shot and really taking time to be sure the camera settings were just right before taking the shot. He would adjust for lighting and finely focus each shot and then let me take a look. Amazing to look at the coral being shot with the naked eye........then look through the lense and see it in UBER high def! SWEET!
 
JAR said:
I have tons of green slimer that I hack off regularly. Also blue tip green slimer grows like a weed on steroids.
You are welcome to it.
Click to expand...


Thanks man. It is so cool how quick you guys are at offering up a frag to help out. I appreciate that. I'll see how the remaining piece fairs and get back to ya. I think I have a piece of the blue tip slimer that I got from Bob (tankguy). I was thinking of putting it where the slimer had been.

Thanks Monzer. Could have been worse for sure.
 
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