MM Box and SPS?

[kirkwood]

Just wondering if anyone running the MM Box without optics has had issues with it not producing enough PAR for some SPS. I've got a Miami Orchid under the MM Box that isn't looking too good so I fragged a branch and moved it to the other side of my tank under eshine 60x3w bridgleux with 90 degree optics. I know this unit puts out monster PAR. Within 4 days I saw better polyp extension on the frag.

share experiences.

 

[kirkwood]

barry_keith;909397 wrote: I've always ran optics on my MM but my tanks also 31" deep

Rick, LagunaReef, runs MM without optics and all his sticks look good

Edit: Have you added the new chips yet? I noticed good changes after making mine more "Full Spectrum"

thanks for the feedback Barry. I haven't gotten to the chip mod yet, still reading and thinking. Want to make sure I buy the right assortment of chips. Right now I'm thinking to add a good amount of 420's and 480's, and a few 660's. Not sure if I will need the 520 greens at all. And I'll replace my burnt out whites with some 20Ks. To make sure I'm getting the right nutrient export I opted to upgrade the pump on my skimmer before tweaking the LED spectrum. Just doing one mod at a time so I can monitor results.

Are the optics for the MM boxes an easy add on?

 

[dball711]

I'm running a ReefBreeders value unit wihtout optics (almost 50%) on a 28 cube so its not too deep. I have a couple of Millis up high that are doing pertty good, great polyp ext, color and some new but slow growth. Mine is only about 5-6" off the surface of the water.

 

[kirkwood]

barry_keith;909408 wrote: Yeah, optics are easy to install.

are the optics applied individually to each chip or is it a single piece you lay over the array?

Edit:

AL1;909417 wrote: I run MM and have great success with all sps, I have ran with and without optics

did you notice a difference in growth rate running with or without optics? I have Hawkins echinata and miyagi tort under MM that are both growing and colorful. However they are growing slow. As a side caveat I will say that they have only been in my tank 5 months and that is usually how long it takes SPS to get comfortable in my tank before the real quality growth starts. Its usually months 12-16 where you get the real exponential growth.

The corals under MM that I'm not happy with are Miami Orchid, garf bonsai, and plum crazy. I have since fragged a piece of Miami Orchid and moved it under eshine LED w/ 90 degree optics. It it showing better polyp extension but time will tell if it winds up doing better with the stronger light. The garf is an encrusted colony and I moved the whole thing under the eshines. I will wait to see if it will purple-up. The plum crazy is brown with no noticeable signs of growth. I have heard it is a slow grower. It is too small to frag so I may move the whole thing. The strange thing to me is that the common denominator between all these corals is Purple. My paramaters are fine, so I'm wondering if it could be a nutrient export issue or spectral. I just put an eheim 1262 on my aqauC injection skimmer to boost my skim rate, and I added a gallon of pond matrix to the sump. That should help the neutrient export.

 

[ringo®]

My bonsai is the lowest sps in my tanks. Starts looking bad when I put it up any farther than half way.

 

[lagunareef]

^^^Agreed +1, nicely said. Thanks for the the plug Barry

 

[kirkwood]

AL1;909829 wrote: To be honest I didn't notice any major difference in growth rates, only change noticed was the actual light spread but thats a given when adding the optics. I actually had the left side of the tank without optics for about 3 months and the right side with 90s, sps on both sides and all are doing good. I can't really say I've noticed any significant difference. I have red dragon, bonsai, strawberry shortcake, tri color valida and whole bunch more and they all do great. I went ahead and added the optics to the 2nd unit more so they can look/be the same they've all continued to do well. I know there is a lot of negative or bias opinion towards the mm units but in my opinion those are people trying to justify the expense. You can convince urself to see things the mind is a beautiful thing. Without a true scientific experiment throughout months of research and careful measurements no variables i think it's not fair to say the mm don't work. If ur ever in my area give me a shout and come see for urself. There are so many other factors that go into play regarding growth it makes very difficult to say a certain led is better than another. That's just my $.2, I know most will disagree but I'm speaking from my experience with the mm. Then again I've never had a "high end" led unit and probably never will. If growth is what u want then MH is the way to go. There are some hybrid units out that incorporate mh and led so u won't have to sacrifice the color pop. I myself am heading in that direction, reef brite has a super nice hybrid fixture that will soon light up my reef.

I agree with you, I know the MM work, I just want to make sure i get the most out of them. At the price of a T5 bulb swap, the MM is an excellent value. If I ever upgraded my lights I'd probably still use the MM for a frag tank or fuge.

 

[indecloudzua]

Sorry for my ignorance here. But what is the MM box??

 

[butch]

No optics on my MM box (12" deep tank) and no issues putting out enough PAR

 

[superclown]

Im running the mm lights on a 12" deep tank and lights sit about 6-8 above water. If anything If anything I think I'm having the issue of too much light or too long of a photo period. All my coral have lost the color they once had. I am trying to cut back to 6 hours a day to see if this helps any I've moved the affected corals out towards the lower edge of the tank. All my coral are softies would the chip mod help bring some color back ?

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