— Beautiful REEF

1.1 How to install LED Moon Lights?

We suggest you avoid imitating lunar cycles in night lighting because it may lead to a spontaneous coral spawning which usually correlates with lunar cycles. Mass coral spawning may result in the death of the household reef because it’s usually associated with a large discharge of coral gametes that the household aquarium system cannot dispose.

At the same time, dim night light is highly recommended for any aquarium, whether it’s saltwater or freshwater. To imitate such light, it’s best to use blue or turquoise LEDs with minimal brightness. Such very dim light positively affects the fish that behaves much calmer and jump out of the aquarium much more rarely.

1.2 Why doesn't your system automatically search for lights for group formation?

Automatic search for lights for group formation is convenient but may be problematic when you have more than one aquarium. It causes even more issues if someone else’s lights are in the same range. That’s why our lights can be assembled into groups only manually. The user goes through the process of assembling groups very rarely. So, we believe we made the right decision when we made it manual.

1.3 What are the practical benefits of choosing the “excellent” light homogeneity when using the expert system for calculating the number of lights needed for your aquarium?

Choosing the “excellent” light homogeneity in the expert system for calculating the number of lights needed for your aquarium doesn’t result only in the close to ideal evenness of light distribution in the top part of the aquarium but also produces another interesting effect that has never been attainable in practice before. Illuminance decreases proportionally to the increase in the distance from the point light source squared. If it’s a line source of light, the illuminance decreases linearly, and if it’s a plane light source, it does not decrease at all, given that the environment around it is optically transparent. When you install the number of lights that corresponds to the “excellent” light homogeneity, you can see this effect in real life - when the distance from the light source grows, the illuminance decreases smoothly, especially if the water is transparent.

In most cases, this interesting effect allows to avoid separating the hydrobionts based on the amount of light they need when placing throughout the surface area and depth of the aquarium. As a result, you can place the corals that need a lot of light close to the bottom of the aquarium. In freshwater aquariums, the lower leaves of the long stem plants get enough light, their internodes become short, so the plant becomes dense and ornamental.

1.4 Which luminous intensity settings should I use when starting a new aquarium?

The main thing that needs to happen when starting a new aquarium is the formation of the nitrogen cycle. No light is needed for that. Moreover, even a little light can cause unwanted algae to grow, so it’s better to have no light at all at this stage of starting the aquarium. You can tell whether the nitrogen cycle has been formed very easily. The concentration of ammonium NH3/NH4 in the water should be zero, and the nitrite (nitrite NO2, not nitrate NO3!) concentration should be close to zero. After that, you can start gradually filling in the aquarium with living organisms, feeding them, and transferring in the first photosynthetics, beginning with those that need the least amount of light.

At first, you need to provide them with only about 70% of the minimal amount of light recommended for them by the expert calculation system. The luminous intensity needs to be gradually increased, somewhere around 10-20% a week, until it reaches the minimal recommended value or is slightly above it. You can continue increasing the luminous intensity only if you start putting photosynthetics that need a lot of light in your aquarium. You would need to do it at the same speed and up until it reaches the minimal amount of light recommended specifically for these photosynthetics.

Increasing the illuminance above the minimal value recommended by the expert system is acceptable only if you are sure you are ready for such experimentation.

Just like it’s mentioned in the note to the expert calculation system, high light intensity leads to a dramatic increase in nutrient uptake, including microelements. That can cause problems. When autotrophs receive intensive light, they start growing very fast. Unfortunately, when they consume the whole amount of a certain nutrient because for some reason the owner of the aquarium has not provided enough of it, they stop growing. But because they continue receiving a lot of light, it causes an imbalance in their nutrient homeostasis, and they start dying. In practice, it looks like this: autotrophs are growing very well and had nice coloring when suddenly, seemingly for no reason, they stop growing and start dying! Depending on which nutrient was not provided in substantial amount in this particular system, this process can go on for anywhere between a few days to a few months, and sometimes up to a year.

This is why it’s important to emphasize that a little shortage of light is not dangerous while a little too much light can cause serious problems! Please, don’t exceed the minimal level of illuminance for a given autotroph type recommended by the expert system until you are absolutely sure in your experience and understanding of all the processes in your system!

1.5 Why does the maximum amount of emission recommended by the expert system change depending on the mode in which the lights are used?

1. BEAMS lights have three modes. You can learn more about them here and here. In the context of this question, it’s important to emphasize that it’s the maximum amount of emission that can be produced in Safe mode that is being referred to as 100%. That’s why up to 150% of emission can be produced in Normal mode and up to 200% can be produced in Expert mode.

2. So that the user doesn’t think that setting all slider in the controller interface to the maximum creates a good spectral distribution, it was decided that in the expert calculation system, the maximum level of emission will be shown as 90% for Safe mode and 140% for Normal mode.

3. All photosynthetics can withstand a pretty wide range of emission levels. The maximum emission level is always at least 5 times bigger than the minimal value. So, if the minimal level of emission that’s enough for the autotroph to preserve its biomass is 100%, then 500% emission is the maximum speed with which the biomass can grow. Of course, you can give your photosynthetics even more light but it will cause photoinhibition, making the photosynthetics decrease the amount of the biomass it can grow or even start losing some biomass. Let’s emphasize - for most photosynthetics living on the coral reef, the range of acceptable emission is wider than the stated minimal range.

4. In the process of developing the calculation system, we checked and systematized a variety of resources to determine the most general estimates of the recommended emission range for a given type of photosynthetics. Of course, even this “golden mean” is a pretty wide range. It has been proven in practice time and time again. There are beautiful SPS aquariums where corals receive PAR200 on average, and there are aquariums that are just as beautiful where corals receive PAR700.
In the standardmode of the calculation system, only the lower limit for the recommended emission level is shown. In the expert mode of the system, both lower and upper limits are shown. The upper limit is also bounded by the maximum amount of emission the light can produce in a given mode - refer to section #2 in this answer. This is exactly why we show 90% as the upper limit in Safe mode and 140% as the upper limit in Normal mode. If you switch to Expert mode, the upper limit will be shown as 190%.

1.6 Even LED lights produced by some of the famous brands sometimes lose during 1.5 years about 15% of their luminous intensity. What about the BEAMS lights?

Yes, you are right. That’s exactly why we did our best to ensure LEDs used in the BEAMS lights, last as long as possible. All our circuit solutions designed to make LEDs last longer are described in detail in the description of the BEAMS lights. Let’s quickly restate them here.

1. In most cases, drivers inside the BEAMS lights work without pulse-width modulation. Pulse-width modulation shortens the lifetime of LEDs, and leading brands produce special kind of LEDs specifically designed to be used in pulse-width modulation mode.

2. Majority of LEDs used in LED assemblies have an estimated lifetime of 1 million hours.

3. The most delicate LEDs - violet LEDs - need no more than half of the maximum electric current, or even less than a quarter in most cases.

4. The BEAMS lights have a special LED circuit board that has thermal conductivity that is 10 times higher than the cheap circuit boards used in most aquarium lights.

5. Because in most cases LEDs receive direct current and not PWM, the amount of current needed is less than 50% of the maximum possible amount. It’s important also because reducing the electrical current by half, makes the lifetime of LEDs four times longer. Let us remind - in case of PWM, the lifetime of LEDs is hit with a double whammy: the pulsating current itself and the fact that LEDs receive maximum current from the driver at all times.

Therefore, in most cases, the lifetime of LEDs in the BEAMS lights is so long that it’s hard to estimate it closely. That is why we state it as >>100,000 hours for Safe mode and ~100,000 hours for Normal mode in the specification, even though our estimations, based on the data from LED manufacturer’s, show values that are significantly higher. Exact lifetime of the LEDs is hard to determine because when they work in such ‘light-load’ mode, the graphs that are used to calculate the decrease in luminous intensity either do not show the lifetime of the LEDs at all or show it as a straight horizontal line.

Of course, the real lifetime of the light depends on many factors, not only the lifetime of LEDs. For example, we can’t guarantee that the power supply unit will work for more than 10 years even though we use some of the best power supply units available. Or, for example, we don’t know what is going to happen to the light diffuser in 10 years. But both of them can be easily changed so the overall lifetime of our lights, most likely, will be very long :)

1.7 Why do your lights for saltwater aquariums use red LEDs with 620-630 nm wavelength and not 660 nm wavelength?

As you may know, human eye has separate receptors for red, green and blue colors. Their response curves intersect significantly:

As you can see, up to the wavelength of 660 nm stimulates two receptors - red and green, and only waves longer than 660 nm stimulate the red receptor only. So, only radiation with this wavelength looks purely red, with no orange or yellow tint to it. Of course, this information makes you want to add “true red” to the light, which is what many light manufacturers do.

However, it’s important to account for the following: 1. Alertness. Deep red is an ‘alert’ color, meaning even a small “disco effect” caused by this color causes a strong response in the human eye. 2. How rare it is for a natural object to have such colors in their natural coloring. To create light accent on certain colors, the illuminated object needs to have that color. Try illuminating a red apple with blue light - will you see the red color? Of course, this example is extreme, but there are, in fact, very few natural objects that are purely red. In other words, there is nothing in a saltwater aquarium to be illuminate with deep red light.

A very easy conclusion that follows is that it’s better to use regular red color with the wavelength of 620-630 nm instead of deep red. Here is another thing to consider: radiation with the wavelength of 660 nm activates the growth of algae. That means this exact wavelength significantly affects the possibility of algae growth. This is another reason why it’s best to avoid it.

Should you forget about the part of the spectrum distribution with the wavelength of 660 nm forever? In our opinion, the answer is not as certain. This part of the spectrum is still substantially present in many natural shallow-water biotopes. Therefore, if your light has regular red LEDs, then you can think about adding a deep red. So, you have to have a regular red while the deep red is optional. That’s why we are planning to use this red in our point light source that we are introducing later this year. In this application, any ‘spots’ created by the light are not problematic. We also believe that by the time we introduce this light, many of you will already have our BEAMS lights as a base and will use the point light source specifically for creating light accents. So, the potential problems the LEDs with a wavelength of 660 nm will be minimized.

1.8 Why do you talk so little about such an important benefit of your lights as the doubled growth rate of photosynthetics?

You are right, one of the most important questions for many people, including not only aquariumists but also those who use our lights in paludariums, terrariums, florariums, and winter gardens, remains to be about the growth rate of photosynthetics. Often, the first thing they ask is ‘how well will photosynthetics grow under your light?” We talk about this benefit of our lights in detail only in the description of the TruePower technology but don’t give it too much attention for two reasons.

First of all, the doubled growth rate shown by the lights without LED brightness control using PWM, can be attained only in ideal experimental conditions. In reality, the difference won’t always be that significant.

ВSecondly, the fast growth of photosynthetics often interests only beginning aquarists. Many experienced aquarists think it’s inconvenient because it makes them do a very frequent trimming - more often than once a week for a freshwater aquarium.

Even such slow-growing photosynthetics as corals start showing extremely fast growth even when using the BEAMS lights at the level of luminous intensity that is slightly higher than 50% of the maximum capacity. Look at the animated GIF created by one of the BEAMS-R lights users:

The corals have shown this impressive growth in a matter of just two weeks! Now the owner of this aquarium is experimenting with different spectral distributions and levels of emission in order to preserve the nice coloring of the corals and slow down their growth at the same time.

That is why we believe that the fast growth of photosynthetics isn’t a substantial advantage of our lights because for most amateur applications (that is when photosynthetics are not grown for sale) such a fast growth rate is inconvenient. Of course, the BEAMS lights user can always easily slow down the excessive growth rate of photosynthetics according to their preferences using the unique capabilities of the TrueSpectrum Controller to control the level of emission.

2.1 have done an ICP analysis of the water that has gone through the filter I have, and it showed good results. Why should I buy a two-step reverse osmosis filter?

Unfortunately, even the most precise methods of water analysis cannot answer the most important question: are there any toxins in the water? The reason is that majority of poisonous substances consist of the same chemical elements as safe substances. Yes, there are chemical elements poisonous for most living organisms on the planet, like arsenic. But look at which elements such poisonous chemical compound as phenol C₆H₅OH - consists of: carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. So, the elements themselves are absolutely safe while the compound they form is one of the most known poisonous substances. Therefore, if the water analysis is not designed to detect specifically phenol (like, ICP test), the only thing it will show is a small amount of carbon. That is why it’s very hard, if not impossible, to test water on all toxic compounds at once.

Of course, long-term positive experience of using the one-step reverse osmosis can make an impression that it will continue to be positive forever. However, no one can guarantee that your feed water will always have the same exact chemical composition as before. As practice has shown, when we look at this situation from a long-term perspective, we get something like “russian roulette.” Because there is always a chance that feed water contains toxins, sooner or later you risk having to face this problem. Will your filtration system be able to take care of it?

There is another thing that deserves special attention. Owners of saltwater aquariums are well aware of the so-called “old tank syndrome” when the state of a well-functioning aquarium that starts getting worse over time. We believe that in some cases, accumulation of toxins in aquarium water may be one of the main reasons why that happens. The toxins accumulate because after one year of adding the water that has evaporated, their concentration in an average saltwater aquarium becomes 3-5 times higher than that in the water that is being added to the aquarium. And if you use cooling fans, this ratio is even higher. In a few years, the concentration of accumulated toxins can be tens, or even hundreds, of times higher than that in the water that is being added to the aquarium! So, even trace amounts of toxins in the water you add to your aquarium can be the reason for your household reef to slowly deteriorate.

Therefore, using only the water with high quality filtration can guarantee that even if the feed water happens to contain toxins, they won’t get inside the aquarium, nor will the gradual toxin accumulation take place. This is exactly why we believe that only filtration systems comparable to the TWO-2 can be recommended for taking good care of hydrobionts that deserve a lot of attention, like SPS corals.

2.2 How objective is it to use TDS level in determining the quality of filtered water?

TDS level shows how well the water conducts electricity. The ions of the salts dissolved in the water are the charge carriers, meaning they conduct electricity. The less ions there are, the lower is the TDS level. TDS level has become a popular criterion for assessing the quality of water only because it’s easy to measure and the equipment that measures it is very cheap. Unfortunately, majority of the dangerous kinds of pollutions do not dissolve in water, meaning TDS testing does not recognize them at all. These kinds of pollution include surfactants, phenols, and almost all petrochemical products. Many other kinds of pollution have low electrical conductivity, for example, such common dangerous kind of pollution as colloidal iron. This is why the water with zero TDS level can still contain dangerous kinds of pollution. The opposite is true as well: the water with non-zero TDS level can be purified very well.

You should also keep in mind that inexpensive TDS meters are not very precise, especially when it comes to small values. Therefore, you should be very careful when using the values they show.

2.3 What should I pay attention to if the quality of the feed water is extremely bad?

If the feed water contains a lot of pollution, especially the kinds of pollution that tend to form a film on the surfaces that come in contact with the feed water, like colloidal iron, you should pay attention to how well the flow restrictor for the reverse osmosis membrane that is involved in the first stage of the filtration process, works. It’s very easy to check too: the concentrate should be sent down the drain. If that doesn’t happen, the restrictor must be changed as soon as possible. If you do not have an extra restrictor at the moment, it’s easy to make a temporary one. You can replace the restrictor with any faucet and close it pretty much all the way leaving only a small opening for it to let only a little bit of the concentrate through.

2.4 How often should I clean the membrane and the restrictor?

The frequency with which the membranes and the restrictor should be cleaned depends on the type and amount of the pollution contained by the feed water. A significant decrease (more than 30%) in the quality of filtered water or a similar decrease in the output of the system serve as a signal that it’s time for a clean-up. The quality of the filtered water and the amount of system output depend on the pressure and the temperature of the feed water. That is why such assessment is relevant only for the feed water with similar temperature and pressure. Obviously, for the assessment to be accurate, the types and the amount of the pollution in the water should remain unchanged as well. Don’t forget that the types and the amount of pollution in water sources, especially in wells and artesian wells, can change drastically depending on the time of the year. For example, during spring water from these sources contains much more colloidal iron than during any other season.

The frequency with which the membranes and the restrictor need to be cleaned also depends on how clean the filtered water needs to be. The higher the quality of filtration needs to be, the more often the membranes and the restrictor need to be cleaned. If the feed water contains a lot of pollution, like in this video, then the membranes and the restrictor should be cleaned approximately once per every 500 liters of filtered water. If the quality of the feed water is higher, they can be cleaned far less frequently. For example, if the quality of the feed water is close to that of drinking water, then the cleaning is needed only once per every 8000 liters of filtered water.

You don’t need to clean the membrane as frequently as it seems. For example, 8000 liters of filtered water is enough to provide a family of three with drinking water for 3 years, including the water needed for cooking. This amount of water is also enough to sustain a 500-liter aquarium for 3 years, accounting for evaporation and periodic partial substitutions.

After the membrane and the restrictor is cleaned, their effectiveness and the quality of water filtration should be approximately the same as right after the previous cleaning. Depending on the types of pollution, the frequency and method of cleaning, and the reagents used, the quality of filtration after the membrane has been cleaned 10 times is 50-80% of that when using a new membrane, and the amount of water that is able to pass through the membrane is 50-150% of that when using a new membrane. If after another cleaning, the membrane provides the quality of filtration that is less than 50% of that provided by a new membrane, and the amount of water that is able to pass through it is less than 50% of that when using a new membrane, than the membrane needs to be changed.

Let’s clarify what we mean by the percentage drop in the quality of filtration here. Let’s suggest that when the TDS level of the feed water was 300, a new membrane turned it into the water with the TDS level of 10. 50% of that means that the TDS level of the water you are getting equals to 10*(1/0.5)=20.

The membrane and the restrictor involved in the second stage of the filtration process need to be cleaned once per every two times the membrane and the restrictor involved in the first stage of the process are cleaned.

2.5 What is the easiest way to clean the membrane and the restrictor?

The easiest way to clean the membrane and its restrictor is to soak them in a 5% citric acid solution. To do so, you need 50 g of citric acid (you can use citric acid that is sold in grocery stores), dissolve it in one 1 liter of warm water with the temperature of no more than 40-45℃ because hot water can damage the membrane. Then, put the membrane and the restrictor in that solution and leave it there for 5-8 hours. The amount of the solution needs to be enough to fully cover the membrane. After being soaked in the solution, the membrane and the restrictor need to be rinsed in running drinking water. It’s important for the water to flow exactly through the whole surface of the face of the membrane. If running water is not available, you can rinse the membrane off in a small amount of water, fully changing this water several times. The amount of water you are rinsing the membrane in is not as important as the number of times you change it. It’s better to rinse the membrane in 2 liters of water that is changed 5 times than in 5 liters of water that is changed 2 times.

The easiest way to know whether all citric acid has been rinsed off the membrane is to taste the water it was rinsed in. You shouldn’t be able to taste the acid.

If you were cleaning the membrane used in the TWO-1 system and you main goal is to produce drinking water, then you can drink the filtered water right after installing the membrane back in. If you use the filtered water in your aquarium, then you should send the first 3-5 liters of filtered water down the drain.

If you were cleaning the membrane used in the TWO-2 system, you should disconnect the UPW cartridge and put the first 5-7 liters of filtered water down the drain to avoid trace amounts of citric acid getting on the UPW resin. After that, you need to turn the system off and connect the cartridge with UPW resin back in.

2.6 Citric acid doesn’t remove the pollution from the membrane very well. Are there any other ways of cleaning it?

In this case, you should wash the membrane instead of soaking it. Please keep in mind that the method of cleaning described below should be used only for the membrane involved in the first stage of the filtration process. If this membrane is cleaned regularly, the membrane involved in the second stage of the process will experience only minimal pollution that can be removed with soaking.

To wash a membrane, you will need about five litters of a 5% citric acid solution. Remove the restrictor from the membrane and put it in the acidic solution. Put the tank with the solution above the filtration system. Put the feed water pipe and both exit pipes into the tank. Let the solution go through the feed water pipe. Turn the system on. After the system starts working, you can put the tank with citric acid in a different place, even lower than the system, because the system will be able to lift the water up to 2 meters high.

The system should be running like that for 5 hours. If after that the citric acid solution has a very saturated color and/or smell, you need to change the solution and repeat the cleaning. The cleaning needs to be repeated until the solution used has only slight color and/or smell.

After you wash the membrane, you also have to get rid of any acid left in the system. To do so, you need to put no less than 20 liters of drinking water through the system. It’s best if the water you use has been filtered by the TWO system. The restrictor should be removed from the system while you do that, and rinsed in clean water. You can consider getting the acid out of the system finished when you can’t taste the acid in the water that comes out of the system. A more precise way to know that is to measure the pH level of the water, which should be higher than 5 for the TWO-1 membrane and higher than 6 for the TWO-2 system. After that you can put the restrictor back in and use the system as usual.

2.7 The pollution is not removed from the membrane even after putting citric acid through the system. What should I do?

First of all, in this case you will need to determine the type of the pollution in the membrane. You will need to clean the system the same way as described above in 2.6, except all the pretreatment cartridges should be removed from the system beforehand. Try using a 1% sodium dithionite Na₂S₂O₄. solution first. If that doesn’t help, you can try using this solution: 0,1 % NaOH + 1 % Na₄EDTA. After you see which one of these solutions removes the pollution from the membranes better, continue using it in the future.

To remove the traces of these solutions from the system, you need to put no less than 30 liters of drinking water through the system. For best results, use the water filtered by the TWO system.

2.8 The conductometric water level sensors do not work with the TWO-2. How do I control the level in clean water tank?

Since the water produced by the TWO-2 unit is of near-perfect quality in many cases, it almost does not conduct electricity. Therefore, any conductometric sensors simply "cannot see" this water. We recommend to use float sensors to control the water level in the tank, which, when the required level in the storage tank is reached, signal this to the controller, and it turns off the power supply of the TWO-2. For example, such a controller is suitable.

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