Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > Special Interest Group (SIG) Forums > Large Reef Tanks
Blogs FAQ Calendar Mark Forums Read

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 05/19/2017, 10:36 AM   #2151
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by smatter View Post
I bought a Kessil A360WE for my REEFER Nano almost solely based on your untiring cheerleading for it. So far I like the light better than other LEDs I have used but the tank is really new so time will tell. I have it dialed way back at 30% color and 30% intensity for a 4 hour peak. It's a 12 hour photoperiod and the light is at 15% intensity 0 color outside the peak time. The red goniopora, hammer, and yellow leather seem happy. I'm scared to turn it up because I'm pretty sure I fried my now deceased bubble tip when I first got the Kessil.

I have to say I'm a little bummed to see that you have added the Mitras. It was great to see such and inspirational all Kessil tank. Don't get me wrong it's still inspirational and the Mitras look awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.

You will love the Kessils. I still love them and still have 8 of them over my tank in addition to the Mitras. I wanted more control over the coloring. Especially since I have a fair amount of SPS. The SPS grew like weeds under the Kessils to but as I said, I wanted more control over coloration so that is in large part what motivated me to add them. That said, I still think the Kessils are great lights and will grow any corals. They also do a great job of bring out colors in them so don't be dismayed by my choice to add the Mitras. I love to tinker and stay up on technology and when the opportunity came up to get the Mitras, my OCD kicked in. I expect you will love the Kessils just like I do.


__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 05/19/2017, 12:11 PM   #2152
smatter
Registered Member
 
smatter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 2,055
Well every time I look at my tank my mind is blown by how cool it looks so no regrets on my purchase. There's just so many Kessil naysayers out there it's hard not to buy into it. Thanks for proving them wrong! Have a great weekend.


smatter is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 05/19/2017, 12:23 PM   #2153
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by smatter View Post
Well every time I look at my tank my mind is blown by how cool it looks so no regrets on my purchase. There's just so many Kessil naysayers out there it's hard not to buy into it. Thanks for proving them wrong! Have a great weekend.
I could grow coral with any lights assuming the spectrum is dialed in correctly. Coral need the correct spectrum and they get most of their photosynthetic radiation from 420-460nm which is the blue spectrum. Kessils cover that spectrum very well. What many don't understand is all the other variables that go into growing corals from system stability, sufficient nutrients, water quality, calcium, alk, mg, strontium etc. Just because you have the right lights and the correct ca, alk and mg levels doesn't mean you will grow all kinds of corals. It used to be assumed that you needed a virtually sterile system devoid of nitrates, Po4 etc. That has long proven not to be the case. In fact, people are now having to resort to dosing nitrate sources to keep their corals happy. It also use to be assume that having a fish tank and reef tank are two separate types of systems because a large number of fish will pollute the water. Again, i't a fallacy in my experience as I have the best of both worlds. My Po4 levels regularly hit .15 to .2ppm. I have a ton of fish and feed like crazy. I have what I consider to be a high nutrient system and my fish thrive. Despite this, I do have good water quality and a very stable, consistent and mature system which allows me to maintain a very high load with minimal water changes while also maintaining good water quality. I don't dose anything and allow my calcium reactor to maintain the needed levels of Ca, Alk, and Mg. My corals grow like weeds though and I attribute that not only to the quality lights that provide the correct spectrum or consistent alk, ca and mg but also to the nutrients in the water from the fish feedings and their waste.


__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 05/19/2017, 01:08 PM   #2154
smatter
Registered Member
 
smatter's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 2,055
I used to grow corals with 55K halides and some URI actinics back in the late '80s and early '90s. I thought 10K bulbs were too blue when they came out. I had much better tanks back then when I read books and looked forward to what Julian Sprung had to say in the next issue of SeaScope. Things went South when the number chasing and buying into the sterile tank nonsense started. I'm going pretty much classic Berlin system with my current little tank. There's nothing like the magic of fish poop


smatter is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 06/24/2017, 02:53 PM   #2155
pmrossetti
Registered Member
 
pmrossetti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cali.
Posts: 3,199
Hi Scott. Is Jim OK? Long time no video.


pmrossetti is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 06/25/2017, 07:54 PM   #2156
reefzone123
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 194
love the dimension layout of your tank. beautiful setup. great attention to detail and natural look. wow lots of color. fish are magnificent.


reefzone123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 06/26/2017, 11:21 AM   #2157
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmrossetti View Post
Hi Scott. Is Jim OK? Long time no video.
Hahah.. Jim just finished up the video on my Mitras install!


Quote:
Originally Posted by reefzone123 View Post
love the dimension layout of your tank. beautiful setup. great attention to detail and natural look. wow lots of color. fish are magnificent.
Thank you very much!!


We did an LA Fish Guys video series on my Mitras LX7 install. It covers setting them up for my light rack as well as setting up the Wifi network connection basic programming. It's 3 parts. This was shot early this year and just now released to YouTube.

Part 1 discuses the Mitras LX7's and prepping them for my light rack.


Part 2 covers installing them on my light rack.


Part 3 covers basic setup and programming.



__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 06/26/2017, 01:00 PM   #2158
sfsuphysics
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 9,103
Holy crap, it's been a while since I've seen those videos and just to say my speakers were turned up pretty high... damn, brought me back to my childhood with the thumping


__________________
Mike
sfsuphysics is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 07/17/2017, 01:45 PM   #2159
pmrossetti
Registered Member
 
pmrossetti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cali.
Posts: 3,199
Hi Scott, Was just wondering how you have been managing your tank temps lately. Any problems? Thanks


pmrossetti is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 07/17/2017, 08:24 PM   #2160
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmrossetti View Post
Hi Scott, Was just wondering how you have been managing your tank temps lately. Any problems? Thanks
No issues. I let my tank run the gauntlet so to speak in terms of my temp. I max out at 82 during the summer which is fine by me. In fact, my coral growth during the summer when the tank temps are 80-82 is better than any other time of the year.

Here is a screen shot showing my temps. They are no different than they have been every summer for the last several years since unplugging my chiller and my tank seems to thrive with these temps.



__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 07/23/2017, 05:44 PM   #2161
pmrossetti
Registered Member
 
pmrossetti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cali.
Posts: 3,199
Thanks. That's great considering all your equipment and that you store your water outside in the heat.

What temp do you keep your house at? If I may ask.
Thank you.


pmrossetti is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 07/23/2017, 08:33 PM   #2162
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmrossetti View Post
Thanks. That's great considering all your equipment and that you store your water outside in the heat.

What temp do you keep your house at? If I may ask.
Thank you.
Around 80 during the summer. Having the sumps on the floor helps with cooling things a bit. The only thing to transfer any heat in the shed would be the calcium reactor and the RODI water for top off and the mixed salt water for the AWC. The shed doesn't get terribly warm though and I while I don't monitor the water temps in the holding tanks, I doubt it gets much above 80. The light soffet does get warm though as does the space below the tank where the sumps are so there is some ambient heat transfer.


__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 08/13/2017, 06:27 PM   #2163
Triggerfish007
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 10
Shark tank

Hi slief not sure your name but my name is Cory and I wanted to speak to you about a shark tank. im in Belize and want d to know if I could contact you on whatsapp messenger or if this is the only way I can speak to you.??


Triggerfish007 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/18/2017, 05:32 PM   #2164
pmrossetti
Registered Member
 
pmrossetti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cali.
Posts: 3,199
Anything new Scott?


pmrossetti is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/19/2017, 11:02 AM   #2165
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmrossetti View Post
Anything new Scott?
Nothing really new to report. The tank is in cruise control. Corals are growing great and the first are fat and happy. I spent hours yesterday using my metal blade scrapers to remove coraline from the top and bottom edges. It’s been too long since I did that last and the coraline was getting out of conotrl. I got most of it knocked back. Still need to do a bit more though. Also decided to kill off some hairy mushrooms yesterday from some prime areas. I have no shortage of those and they are covering some areas that would be great for SPS frags and are encroaching on other SPS so it was time to take action. I need do some fragging of my strawberry shortcake as its growing like a weed and plan to place some of those frags where the mushrooms where. I injected them with some kalk paste and boiling vinegar. I looked a bit ago and it seems to be working but I may need to do another round of injections in the next day or two. We will see if they fully die off or not. I need to do some updated pictures or video which I will likely do in the next week or so. Maybe sooner though.


__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/21/2017, 05:37 PM   #2166
pmrossetti
Registered Member
 
pmrossetti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cali.
Posts: 3,199
Thanks for the update Scott!


pmrossetti is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 01/11/2018, 01:01 PM   #2167
MK3_LUV
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 30
I just spent the handful of weeks reading through this thread when I have downtime at work and wow what a journey it has been. Scott, you have done a phenomenal job documenting all the changes that have happened, so thank you for that. Happy to see that the tank is doing better than ever before! Heres to another 25 years


MK3_LUV is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 01/11/2018, 06:56 PM   #2168
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by MK3_LUV View Post
I just spent the handful of weeks reading through this thread when I have downtime at work and wow what a journey it has been. Scott, you have done a phenomenal job documenting all the changes that have happened, so thank you for that. Happy to see that the tank is doing better than ever before! Heres to another 25 years
Thank you very much! It’s a long thread to read through! You have more patience than me! I really need to do some updates but the truth is that nothing has changed. The tank has been in cruise control. So much so that I’ve been neglecting to clean my viewing panes as often as I should and have some calcareous algae on the viewing panes that is going to take some elbow grease. Funny thing is though that the actual algae growth on the viewing panes is so slow that even cleaning every 2 weeks is more than enough if not for the calcareous stuff. Once I get some new algae dozer pads from Mighty Magnets and clean that stuff up, I will do another video and some pictures.


__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 02/17/2018, 07:21 PM   #2169
saf1
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: California
Posts: 2,259
Quote:
Originally Posted by slief View Post
You will love the Kessils. I still love them and still have 8 of them over my tank in addition to the Mitras. I wanted more control over the coloring. Especially since I have a fair amount of SPS. The SPS grew like weeds under the Kessils to but as I said, I wanted more control over coloration so that is in large part what motivated me to add them. That said, I still think the Kessils are great lights and will grow any corals. They also do a great job of bring out colors in them so don't be dismayed by my choice to add the Mitras. I love to tinker and stay up on technology and when the opportunity came up to get the Mitras, my OCD kicked in. I expect you will love the Kessils just like I do.
I know this is an old post but wanted to ask about the Kessils and the Mitras. I believe you use a Apex if I recall so my question is are you controlling them by the Apex and if so is it off the vdm ports or does it require another module. Seems Apex is module happy and/or the off the shelf LEDs require it. Not sure which.

I'm looking at some of the off the shelf LED's but hoping to find native Apex support. Looking at Neptunes site it shows what is ready but isn't clear on what is needed or what functionality it offers. New tank that is cycling has the Apex on it. The tank that I'm moving is currently using my DIY LED's with a reefangle controller. So I'm getting sunrise, sunset, storms, etc. Would be nice to have similar functionality with the Apex (which I believe it does) assuming light package supports it.

I wasn't sure how or what you are controlling your lighting with so wanted to ask. Thanks - have a great day.


__________________
-saf1

Current Tank Info: 210 gallon mixed reef
saf1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 02/17/2018, 07:35 PM   #2170
AiKkz
Registered Member
 
AiKkz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Naples, FL
Posts: 17
A lot to read, but well worth it! great build!


__________________
Current Tank - 300 gallon custom aquarium build in progress.

" Would I rather be feared or loved? Both I want people to fear how much they love me" - Michael Scott

Current Tank Info: 280 Gallon build in progress
AiKkz is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 02/17/2018, 11:53 PM   #2171
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Quote:
Originally Posted by saf1 View Post
I know this is an old post but wanted to ask about the Kessils and the Mitras. I believe you use a Apex if I recall so my question is are you controlling them by the Apex and if so is it off the vdm ports or does it require another module. Seems Apex is module happy and/or the off the shelf LEDs require it. Not sure which.

I'm looking at some of the off the shelf LED's but hoping to find native Apex support. Looking at Neptunes site it shows what is ready but isn't clear on what is needed or what functionality it offers. New tank that is cycling has the Apex on it. The tank that I'm moving is currently using my DIY LED's with a reefangle controller. So I'm getting sunrise, sunset, storms, etc. Would be nice to have similar functionality with the Apex (which I believe it does) assuming light package supports it.

I wasn't sure how or what you are controlling your lighting with so wanted to ask. Thanks - have a great day.
The Kessil’s are controlled through the Apex 0-10v. In my case, they are connected to a VDM module but that’s only because of the location of the lights in relation to my Apex and all the 0-10v devices I have. Some of which are already using the Apex’s built in 0-10v ports. The Apex 2016 and Classic both have 4 built in VDM ports.

The Mitras on the other hard are not 0-10v compatible and as such, are programmed through the GHL Control Center program which is a great program for programming the Mitras. There are a lot of advanced features of the Mitras that couldn’t be taken advantage of through 0-10v alone. Plus you can save and share light projects with others and then just upload the project file to your Mitras and have a prepgrammed light. You can also modify it before uploading it. I have no issues using the GHL interfaced for programming them. It’s a set it forget thing anyways.


__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476

Last edited by slief; 02/18/2018 at 12:05 AM.
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 02/18/2018, 09:12 AM   #2172
saf1
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: California
Posts: 2,259
@slief - thanks for the info. Appreciate it. The reading I did last night sort of indicated the module was necessary in some cases. Maybe I can avoid it which would be nice since at the moment the only use would be for lighting.

Thanks again!


__________________
-saf1

Current Tank Info: 210 gallon mixed reef
saf1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 03/04/2018, 04:37 PM   #2173
slief
RC Sponsor

 
slief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 14,173
Angry

One of these days I will do a video update or take out my camera for some new tank pictures.. In the mean time, I picked up a few fish today from my friend Jim’s. He’s had these in QT for me for the last week. I got a Quoyi Parrot Fish, a Multibar Angelfish and a banded pipe fish. You don’t see the Quoyi’s very often. They are one of the few relatively reef safe parrot fish. They are primarily herbivores and everything I’ve read from others indicates that they do well in a reef tank unlike other parrot fish. They also only grow to 7-8” unlike some other parrots which get much larger.


They will be acclimating for a while to bring the salinity up to my tanks level as they are in about 1.021 right now. I will take several hours of drip acclimation to get them to my 1.024- 1.025 salinity. Not ideal but it’s better than the 1.014 they came in. Jim took the last several days to get them up to the current level and that is about as far as he will go in his fish QT system. Here are a few pics in their acclimation box.

The pictures don’t do the parrot fish much justice. He’s beautiful.







__________________
Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA
For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745

Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476
slief is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 03/04/2018, 05:55 PM   #2174
Lytehouse
seeker of knowledge
 
Lytehouse's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: NW OKC
Posts: 3,276
beautiful fish
they will look great in your system


__________________
--Lynn



The challenge is the fun.
Lytehouse is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 03/04/2018, 11:24 PM   #2175
ReefKeeper64
Wanna be a reefkeeper
 
ReefKeeper64's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Tampa
Posts: 1,158
Scarus quoyi is one of my favorites and yours looks great! I’ve had one for about 5 months now. She’s a model citizen, could care less about corals, is friendly as can be and is always the star of the show. That’s a nice addition to your collection!


__________________
Reef Savvy 110g Tank | GHL Profilux 4 Controller & Doser | Royal Exclusiv Skimmer & Dreambox/Sump | ATI 8x54 Sunpower T5 | Ozotech Ozone Generator
ReefKeeper64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:49 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.