New Opae Ula tank (in a giant lab reactor)

[Ace]

Your sphere is gorgeous in the natural light. Very good job.

[Corucia]

A couple of new shots or the reactor with the UFO cycling to late day sunlight (purple hue)

[Super Jess]

I love your lab reactor tank! It's so cool! That light is awesome!!!

[ryangiggs]

Hi Corucia,

Can i check what is the most intense lighting settings you set for the Zetlight?

I might have set mine too high that i think the biofilm/algae in the tank is pearling... there are constantly little bubbles floating up from my substrate and other corals that are in my tank... but i am not noticing any significant increase in algae growth though...

Is it good to have this pearling effects on a opae ula tank?

[Corucia]

Sure Ryan. These are the settings I'm currently running on the full day cycle. I haven't had any issues with algae bloom nor the bubbles you are referencing. The growth has been stable and the shrimp are active throughout the day. Hope this helps

Time: 6am - 7:30am (to simulate dawn)
A 2%
B 2%
C 2%
D 0%

Time: 7:30 - 10am (to early day light)
A 13%
B 6%
C 47%
D 6%

Time: 10am - 5:30pm (to simulate full sunlight)
A 88%
B 88%
C 88%
D 50%

Time: 5:30 - 8pm (to simulate sunset/early dusk)
A 13%
B 26%
C 56%
D 34%

Time: 8 - 9:30pm (to dusknight)
A 0%
B 0%
C 16%
D 23%

Time: 9:30 - 6am system is turned off

[ryangiggs]

Thanks Corucia for the settings parameters.

Tried it for a week and i find that my moss ball started to turn brown. I think some of the settings are too strong for the moss ball.

Lowered the full sunlight to around 50% instead... Will monitor for another week or so...

[Corucia]

Hi Ryan, I've been tweaking with my light intesnsity as well. I recently (about two weeks ago) lowered the full daytime intensity a measurable amount in my sphere as well as some of the off hour settings to cull some of he microagae/anglehair growth. Before I lowed the settings, I didnt' witness any significant algae dying off, albeit the anglehair algae that floats around the top of the tank was clearly being "nuked" if it was in the direct LED stream -- it will turn white and disintegrate within a week if directly under the UFO LED emitters, but then again this is exposure to a huge amount of light intensity as the LEDs in my sphere are only about 3" from the tip of sphere waterline. I'll post my new settings as soon as I get back from vaca in about 10 days. Stay tuned.

[ryangiggs]

I did a search on the internet. Seems like moss and the microalgae which i think is also a form of moss does not do well in high intensity light. We just need to find the balance for the light setting to make enough bioflim and healthy growth for moss as well as optimal lighting for viewing. So far i set most of the settings not more than 50%. Will monitor it further.

Seriously this UFO light is really quite capable of lighting up a planted 2ft or 3ft tank. If the setting requirements are too low for my opae ula tank, i might shift this UFO light to my 3ft planted tank for better utilizing the capabilities.

Keep us posted. Thanks.

[Corucia]

Well, it's been about six months since setting up the lab reactor and everyone is still healthy and happy. No berried shrimp that I have found yet but all are doing great and the tank continues to mature with controlled algae growth. The snail population has ebbed and flowed with a few passing on while others being born. Here are some shots from the morning as well as the evening with different UFO light settings

[SuperProofer]

Gorgeous!

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the update! Looks great!

[keving]

Really cool. I love the shape, and might try to do something on a smaller scale. What did you end up using for a base of the reactor?

Edit - I found a few things when I search for "bowl stand", maybe one of these will work.

[ryangiggs]

Just curious... it had been sometime you last updated... are ur shrimps breeding now?

through the months... my shrimps are constantly getting berried... but i do no see any new shrimplets... not even in larvae stage...

was wondering whether the lighting is too intense for them...

will try lowering the intensity further for a couple of months and see how it goes...

[Varanus]

Just curious... it had been sometime you last updated... are ur shrimps breeding now?

through the months... my shrimps are constantly getting berried... but i do no see any new shrimplets... not even in larvae stage...

was wondering whether the lighting is too intense for them...

will try lowering the intensity further for a couple of months and see how it goes...

Not the author of this topic but I wanted to chime in. Its not unusual for first time supershrimp mothers to drop their eggs, perhaps your case is just exceptionally unlucky. But assuming nothing is wrong with the tank's conditions then they should do better when they next become berried.

Berried females do like to spend a lot of time hiding if hiding places are available, and assuming they are then the brightness of the lights really shouldn't be an issue as far as I know.

[ryangiggs]

Just curious... it had been sometime you last updated... are ur shrimps breeding now?

through the months... my shrimps are constantly getting berried... but i do no see any new shrimplets... not even in larvae stage...

was wondering whether the lighting is too intense for them...

will try lowering the intensity further for a couple of months and see how it goes...

Not the author of this topic but I wanted to chime in. Its not unusual for first time supershrimp mothers to drop their eggs, perhaps your case is just exceptionally unlucky. But assuming nothing is wrong with the tank's conditions then they should do better when they next become berried.

Berried females do like to spend a lot of time hiding if hiding places are available, and assuming they are then the brightness of the lights really shouldn't be an issue as far as I know.

Thanks for the reply.

My tank is quite a mature tank which i bought from a shop... it was already a thriving tank with quite a few berried shrimps and a number of larvaes and shrimplets... there are probably abt 200 shrimps now... the shop owner claimed that they started out with just 30+ shrimps...

After i bought it home, the shrimps stop getting berried for at least 3-4months... then it began to get berried again... On and off there are at least 20 shrimps getting berried but non of them ever release the larvae... this led me to wonder is it the light that is affecting them...

There are plenty of hiding places for berried females... but they will come out when i feed them with some shrimp food every 3-4 weeks... thats when i discover that they do get berried but never release the eggs... at first i thought maybe they just needed more time to get used to a new environment after moving...

Previously the tank was kept in a shop with 24h airconditioning... now it sits in my living room with avg temperature of ard 28-30 degree... maybe this is another reason?