Luke's Rio 180 Reef

[Luketendo]

Well I took the poor thing back today and the guy tested my water and confirmed I had 0 nitrates and everything else. All he said was that my pH was a tad low at 8.0 and I told him I was going to buffer my Mg, Ca, and kH and he agreed that that might help. Anyway he was really helpful and has replaced the fish with a new one, I checked in the shop and this one does not have hole in the head and is acting more like a fish should during the journey home and stuff.

Very good service imo I will be going back there as that guy seems to know his fish unlike lfs 1 and they got good corals and stuff.

 

[TigerIssey]

Luke, don't forget you are on two forums now, you have not mentioned the story of LFS 1 and LFS 2 here

It is a little more confusing, I tend to use some cut and paste, although there is little differences.

 

[Buddyboy67]

Glad you got it replaced and nice to see at least some shops will still honour a 24 hour guarantee of sorts....hope this little beauty settles in well and wait for it..... we want

 

[Luketendo]

Luke, don't forget you are on two forums now, you have not mentioned the story of LFS 1 and LFS 2 here

It is a little more confusing, I tend to use some cut and paste, although there is little differences.

Sorry lol anyway my new coral beauty has been in and is already in and out of the rocks and is swimming out in the open currently allbeit near the rocks. Still this one has settled much better. Also the guy in the shop made sure it was feeding properly and it went mental for the food which is good.

Actually I use 3 forums but on one of them people can't be bothered to look at my stuff probably because it isn't the best tank is ze world!!

 

[TigerIssey]

Thats really good to hear Luke.

Fingers crossed that this one is good.

 

[Luketendo]

Oh yeah got some more stuff to tell you.

Managed to buy an Arcadia 2 x 39w T5 unit this morning £25 posted, going to buy a pair of narva blues later probably. Also going to 'lfs 1' to buy some magnesium (if they even stock it) with my voucher, on the way going to also get some baking soda and some electric scales maybe from tescos for the kH.

 

[Luketendo]

Right did a Magnesium test before buffering and it said 1275ppm so somehow my Mg climbed in 2 days and I had done nothing.

Anyway I then put 50ppm worth of JBL expensive rubbish Mg stuff (got with my voucher so that's not too bad) in and my Magnesium is now 1350ppm which is perfect.

Will start buffering calcium tomorrow I guess with my Kent Marine Calcium (that's if it hasn't gone up on it's own...)

Angelfish is doing great btw seen it going about the front of the tank and pecking at the rocks which is good.

 

[Luketendo]

By the way just got £30 from my Aunt and £20 from my Nan for my results. So I have £63 pounds now so I'm looking to buy a new halide bulb and some reflectors for my new T5s. As I have an Arcadia unit I guess I will get Arcadia reflectors.

Anyway I'm not sure what halide bulb to get yet, I currently have a 1 year old 14K BLV bulb which I like the colour of, it will have dropped in K by now if I'm right? Anyway my Narva blues will be fitted soon so I will have 2 blue lamps and a halide. Not sure but if I get a 10K bulb it'd give me better growth and would be more like the colour I have atm if balanced out with the blue lamps.

What 150w bulb do you guys think I should get to go with two 39w Narva blues?

 

[Anguilla82]

By the way just got £30 from my Aunt and £20 from my Nan for my results. So I have £63 pounds now so I'm looking to buy a new halide bulb and some reflectors for my new T5s. As I have an Arcadia unit I guess I will get Arcadia reflectors.

Anyway I'm not sure what halide bulb to get yet, I currently have a 1 year old 14K BLV bulb which I like the colour of, it will have dropped in K by now if I'm right? Anyway my Narva blues will be fitted soon so I will have 2 blue lamps and a halide. Not sure but if I get a 10K bulb it'd give me better growth and would be more like the colour I have atm if balanced out with the blue lamps.

What 150w bulb do you guys think I should get to go with two 39w Narva blues?

if the bulb is a year old i'd change it.
personally i like the BLV 14k i'm currently running but next time am gonna try a 20k just to see.

10k you'll v. good growth but may look quite yellow compared to your 14k.

 

[Luketendo]

By the way just got £30 from my Aunt and £20 from my Nan for my results. So I have £63 pounds now so I'm looking to buy a new halide bulb and some reflectors for my new T5s. As I have an Arcadia unit I guess I will get Arcadia reflectors.

Anyway I'm not sure what halide bulb to get yet, I currently have a 1 year old 14K BLV bulb which I like the colour of, it will have dropped in K by now if I'm right? Anyway my Narva blues will be fitted soon so I will have 2 blue lamps and a halide. Not sure but if I get a 10K bulb it'd give me better growth and would be more like the colour I have atm if balanced out with the blue lamps.

What 150w bulb do you guys think I should get to go with two 39w Narva blues?

if the bulb is a year old i'd change it.
personally i like the BLV 14k i'm currently running but next time am gonna try a 20k just to see.

10k you'll v. good growth but may look quite yellow compared to your 14k.

Yeah but as I'm getting 2 blue tubes I was thinking that 1 10K + 2 blue tubes will work out similar in colour to the 14K BLV I already have.

 

[Anguilla82]

ah thats true.

try it and see i guess.

 

[Luketendo]

ah thats true.

try it and see i guess.

Yeah I guess if I don't like it I can just wait for a few months or buy a new one and sell the one I tried for most of my money back.

 

[Anguilla82]

ah thats true.

try it and see i guess.

Yeah I guess if I don't like it I can just wait for a few months or buy a new one and sell the one I tried for most of my money back.

yeah i'm gonna do the same when i try out a 20k bulb. Trouble is everyones setup is different and you never really know what a specific buble is gonna look like till you try it out.

 

[Luketendo]

Now I'm not sure whether to get Marine lux 10k or BLV 10k

 

[Luketendo]

Today I've made a couple of purchases:

BLV 10K bulb
T5 Reflectors

Anyway that's left me wondering if I should also get a lighting contactor for my 150w halide before I get any corals. What do you guys think?

I've also been busy raising Ca, Mg and KH in preparation for corals and I've currently got levels of Ca 440ppm, Mg 1360ppm and KH 7.7. Yeah I've overdosed a bit because I didn't know the actual amount of water in my tank. Just got to get KH up again tomorrow to about 9 KH and I will test Ca and Mg again to see if they are still the same.

Onto the pics: