oh dear what have i done????

Even if ur cleaning the sand like you have OCD you and the clean up crew will never get under all the rocks and that were the problem starts and then spreads and bacteria spreads like wild fire

I was trying to keep the bottom spotless but to be honest it looks better and more natural when it gets a bit dusty looking that then turns to green algae which then turns to coralline algae which to me is the most natural look you can have and if you look at any reef you won't find any sand it's all rocks, you will see sand in the lagoons but that's not the reef

Another interesting read I found was with sand they recommend it to be replaced every year to keep it fresh I personally think that's also a dodgy one messing with the tank each year and stirring up all the crap that is hidden from our eyes

If you want an easier tank to manage down the line and in years to come let the tank stay stable and stay away from the sand

The sand probly will be going but quite like the look of sand and the sand is full of life...it not just the sand with a bit of bacteria that was bought from the shop anymore.....

Been playing around and I've some pulsing xenia starting to grow on the back wall and starting to wonder with no sand what could be possable to grow on the bottom of tank????thinking gsp but what else??? Would this defeat the whole purpose ???

The sand does have life but that life is only to feed off the sand bed and the crap it's collecting, the live rock is the filtration

It doesn't defeat the purpose growing coral on the bottom that's the best part of it, in my experiment tank I was able to grow mushrooms, green star polyps, xenia and zoas all on clean bare glass and then if the glass has coraline algea on it that gives the softies allot more to grip onto and do so faster

I'd be careful with the gsp as we know how fast this stuff can spread and although I Thinkbu would probably look amazing all over the Base, main problem is maintenance of it making sure it doesn't reach the rock work so a 2-3" gap would gave to be watched and trimmed with a blade quite often, cleaning it wouldn't be to bad when lights are off and polyps closed just hover over it with a gravel cleaner and then give it a blast with a powerhead, another problem would be nothing else could go on the bottom as the gsp would eventually grow over it

But it would look deadly (I dare yeh to do it) lol

Expecting another couple of losses......royal gramma has been sat in the bottom corner of the tank since I got him...eats occasionally but susspect he's going to pass ....he's just not settling in

And purple milka has lost alias of polyps ...calcium skeleton showing in various places but think its going to get over taken by another encrusting coral..

You gone triton yet?
Tried to ring ya last weekend, gotta call over to ya soon

No triton yet ....it's a cheap system to run in the long run...but set up of it is fairly costly...and works been a bit slow lately so tritons going on the back burner for a while...

Sorry I've a bad habbit of not answering the phone if I don't recognise the number for fear it's a customer giving out....as I said works really slow so I've a few days off..off Mon.ties and Wednesday....I'll finally get a few things done around the house and maybe attack the tank too.....so I'll be around if the chance to pop up.....

No sweat buddy, working Monday not sure about Tuesday yet tho!!!!
I don't answer alot of numbers that I don't recognise either

Makes sense really

Third ghl midra above the tank now hasn't totally illuminated the tank ...thought it would of got rid of all shaddowing but it is better...

Dosing abc is getting on my tits.Dosing everything as I should be and cal is swinging everyday...oneday at 430 Next day down at 380....next on list is a dosing pump...but I should be able to get this under control without one shouldn't I?????

Hey Chris

Let me get this right, you have 3 Mitras on your 500l and you say thats not enough?

Whats the width? 130? 2 Mitras should be more than enough for that... now I am wondering if I should go with the Radeon instead (already have 1 mitras)

I knew Jeff was gonna end up removing all the sand from his tank lol he hates dirt.

Personally I dont like it, I prefer sandbeds, although I am not saying it is "cleaner" I just like it better and allows me to put fish/inverts in the tank that require sand to thrive.

I had issues with stylophoras and mitras, I gave up on mine as they wouldnt thrive.

GSP are cool but in my opinion they can become a kind of pest! they will grow everywhere (even under the sand) and can overcome your tank quickly. They are easy to remove and re position though

I think the main problem here is that you are combining coras that require very little light to thrive with corals that need a lot to thrive. Increasing light will mean that the other corasl (Xenias, GSP, etc) will thrive even more and and if you keep going soon your entire tank will be completely covered with them!

There was a lot of shodowing from just 2 midras and the third has reduced a lot of it.....maybe 2 should of been enough but to be honest I regret ever buying leds........there's just too many settings in leds to play around with and you never know really if there set 100% right....and ghls forum isn't much help either...the radions were actually my first choice of led. but they have a huge failure rate cause of that fan in the bottom sucking in moisture....and the ai's are a good light but the controller seems a bit iffy there was stories on line of power going out and lights coming back on at 100% and then not turning off again...ok normally but if your on holiday Could be a problem and cook everything.....having to think about all that t5's would be so much easier but got a feeling in sometime in the future those bulbs are going to get heveliy taxed cause there not eco friendly..........got the third ghl cheap off someone on adverts had I boot got it cheap I probly wouldn't of got it...

Softies and lps doing well and the milka I know is sps and would use a lot of callicum but seems to using an awfully lot...I used to check my callicum once a week and it was always between 425 and 450 now I'm testing nearly everyday and getting huge changes...

Been thinking a lot about triton too lots of good points to it but very wary about it.....triton is still a fairly new idea where as the salt manufactures have been around a lot longer....as far as I can see triton has 2 labs one in Germany and one in USA but say redsea has a lot more guys working on stuff for a lot longer period of time....if the triton method really is the way forward or won't be long before redsea ,d&d and all the others start separating the elements from the salt and selling them too.

Good to know. Yes, I am not 100% happy with my GHL either, not because of their performance but because of their support. My power supply is making noises and I am still trying to get it sorted.

So now I am still deciding whether or not I want to go for leds on my new aquarium or t5s, I doubt I would go for GHL I just feel their support is really bad and also there is very little out there regarding this lights etc (like profiles, how to's etc)

We will see when the time comes, it is a lot of money to invest as well so I have to be weary.

I always use Red Sea pro salt and my levels were always perfect (around 440 if I remember correctly and never changed. I just had to keep my alk right using balling method.

Started mixing my own water now instead of buying from sh...using redsea salt but not the pro....and sh use d&d salts so maybe the issue lies there..when doing a water change I was just checking salinity going to check that water for everything now next water change.

Surely your power supply is still under warranty.????..Did ya buy from sh????.sh should be able to just swap it out for ya.

Pro salt has more KH which helps maintaining levels.

Yes I bought it from SH, they game if a contact email, first attempt was a few months ago (before I took a break), they asked me to send the power supply back, I replied I couldn't do that because I need to keep the lights on my aquarium otherwise my corals will die, they never replied.

I tried contacting them again last week and they have never replied, I have emailed them again, nothing so far.

So that's probably it for me. They are not responding so there is little I can do. She might be on holidays though.

Ask sh to lend you a power supply while yours is fixed...get sh to send it back for ya...

I had to get hanging kits for the ones I bought off adverts.and it took ages for them to arrive..like 2. Maybe 3 months..Jesus the Germans aren't quick

Have been told though ghl will try say it's water damage and try and Bill you for the repair..I made sure and stewed mine to wall out of the way to make sure...but got told sh sent a few back a while ago..... sounds like a bad lot that came in. And ghl blamed it all on water damage.

As far as leds go though for customer service aquaray seem to be the best...heard of loads of people contacting them and aquaray just sending out replacements free of charge.

Thanks Chris I will take you up on your word

TBH seeing you also had bad experiences that kind of put me off GHL altogether, I might go for something with better customer support..

Pacific sun look great as well, they are hybrids so you get the best of both worlds!

The customer service from aquaray is amazing

Think aquarays could be a better option for leds...at least they can mounted in the canopy nice and tidy as well.....seen a fantastic tank in youtube.loads of corals sps and lps all with only aquarays above it

Those power supply s aren't made by ghl you can buy them off the shelf in Dublin for about €180 or on Amazon for $90..could be a quicker alternative to sending it back.

Rodger that. The power supply still works fine, so I might just wait for a while longer and if no answer get back to SH with this.

I like aquaray but they are no match for GHL in regards customization, lens and performance. I like aquaray because they are easy to install, and "relatively" cheap. They do a great job but it doesnt you to change settings very much.

The reason why I want LEDs is because it allows me full control over them, set up unlimited profiles, program weather changes, etc

Hence why I went for GHL, dont get me wrong, I am still running them at around 60% and they are great, if it wasnt for the power supply I would not have a single complaint about them. I am sure SPS can thrive fine as well but it will require more light which will mean other corals might not like it, which will force me to move corals around a bit.

Like Chris said, they are not easy to tweak, it always requires a degree in LED management lol

Tested my water last night before I went to bed
Mag 1400
Kh. 7
Cal was above 500

Added nothing but foundation b going to test again when I get home and I bet I get some mad results back again

Interesting, with Pro Salt my Kh never goes below 9-10.

I must to a full water test this week and see whats cooking, wonder how my Kh and calcium levels etc are after 8 months of complete neglect

still battling kh....can sit at 10 for days and then just when I think I've dosing right it's drops to 8 sometimes even 6 out of the blue....was talking to Andrea in seahorse who seemed to think maybe changes like that may be due to checking at different times if the day....but hard to believe it would change that much?????

Due to my previous experience with the naso I was going to add a powder blue but got scared at the last moment and so have decided to run ozone through the tank before adding anymore tangs....the ozone won't be permanent thing but all got help to keep happy fishies.

My Kh is slowly falling into line
Still sitting at 12, ph 8.4!
Nitrite 0.5
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrate (I forget but was low)

I need to get an ro unit and then going to switch to red sea pro salt

Anyone I know using it swears by it! Stable Kh and can, never issues with their readings once they do their changes etc. when they should!

My next marine will be sumped and probably higher tech lights etc! But let's get this 1 running properly and stocked first before we start planning that project haha

Looking good...think kh on the red sea pro is up in 12's........I got the ordinary red sea....think Jeff Used to use it and think grahmam recommended it as well.....ones for growth and ones for colours and I can't remember which is which now but dont think I'd care so long as the parameters stay stable.

Hey chris did your Gramma make it ?
I use normal red sea salt as i was told it stays more stable than the pro and also for a new tank less nutrients for algae to grow
Any pictures for us Chris so i can have a peak of your system

Royal grammas hanging in there..he's playing g dead alot my African pygmy Angel is beating him every time he swims...the Angel isn't aggressive with Amy other fish in the tank 'redont really understand it but Going to need to find a new home for one of them.......been trying to catch the gramma to put him the sump to give him time to recover but every time I try ..he swims off and tryst and hides with the angel...which means he get beaten up instead......

Nothing's really changed in the tank lately since the last pics...be doing a water change later on tonight .I'll try get some pics up then...

i like the African pygmy Angel fish. Mind you the gramma are so nice when they come out to swim as they will swim every way but the normal way lol

I like the two of it soooo hard to decide which one to keep.....it a pity there not getting along.

stopped in seahorse on the way home and have decided to change salts...going to be using red sea pro from now on ...might take a few water changes before I see any change but first change tommorrow so we''ll see how it goes from there.

Holy fucking crap...I heard o zone would produce some stinky stuff but the devil himself would have a challenge to out do that.