vg30et Posted June 15, 2008 Share Posted June 15, 2008 Finnex 30 gallon glass M-Tank (Initial set-up 1/25/08) Lighting Finnex 250W Electronic Ballast Phoenix 14K 250W DE MH Bulb 1x ATI Pro Color 24W T5 1x KZ Fiji Purple 24W T5 13W PC for fuge 4x LEDs for Moonlighting Flow & Skimmer 475gph stock Finnex return pump Vortech MP40w Tunze Nano 9002 Misc JBJ ATO Ranco temp controller 100W Heater 120mm Antec 3 speed PC Fan Coralife Dual timer Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted June 15, 2008 Share Posted June 15, 2008 Really nice colors! It will look great when the branching sps frags have grown larger. Link to comment
vg30et Posted June 15, 2008 Author Share Posted June 15, 2008 Really nice colors! It will look great when the branching sps frags have grown larger. Yep, most frags were ~1.5" when added to the tank and have been steadily growing. Some pieces are still a bit brown/pale but look to be coloring up so with a few more months of stability, I hope to see some decent growth and more vibrant colors. Link to comment
vg30et Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 I've been working on coloring up some of my drab corals and seem to be making some decent progress. Here are some comparison pics: This is what happens when a ORA blue polyp digi is kept under PC lighting for 6 months: The same frag after spending some time under 250W MH lighting: "Hot Pink" Stylo under 150W MH + 2x 24W Actinic T5's Same frag under 250W MH + 1x ATI Pro Color, 1x KZ Fiji Purple 24W T5 Link to comment
AdriftQuasar Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 Just goes to show how big of a difference lighting can make. Great tank! I think if I were to buy an AIO it would probably be a Finnex. Link to comment
Phixion Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 Nice work with your tank so far. Love the acans in some of the pics. Link to comment
dplantz Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Nice tank, Im ordering the same thing. Do you have any heat issues or is yours hanging? Link to comment
nanoty Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Wow the tank looks great, well done. Link to comment
vg30et Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 Just goes to show how big of a difference lighting can make. Great tank! I think if I were to buy an AIO it would probably be a Finnex. I've been pretty happy with the Finnex so far. It's been quite painless to set up and with the exception of the Tunze skimmer and more flow, it's pretty much stock. To be honest, I was surprised to see better colors with the 250W MH. I thought 150W was more than sufficient for a 30 gallon. Nice work with your tank so far. Love the acans in some of the pics. Thanks Phixion, your amazing tank thread was what got me started on Finnex's in the first place. Nice tank, Im ordering the same thing. Do you have any heat issues or is yours hanging? I have the stock Finnex fixture that sites on top of the tank. The 250W fixture is hot but I am able to keep temps stable at 81F by using a PC fan to blow across the semi open top. Wow the tank looks great, well done. Thanks Ty. I got quite a few of these frags from local Houston reefers. Next time you're in town, you should see if you can pick up some nice pieces. So I decided to snap a few pictures of the tank using a ghetto viewing box and my crappy point and shoot camera. Still trying to get some decent pics out of this cheap Canon. Hope they turn out ok: Top Down yellow Acro Top down - Sunset Monti Top down shot of some corals - pink stylo in center Normal shot of the green monti w/ purple rim and white polyps Link to comment
Phixion Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I'm really glad I could help inspire! I'm really drooling over the lighting differance. I probably won't be upgrading to MH anytime soon on my Finnex tank, but I wouldn't mind a 6-bulb TEK or similar fixture either... Link to comment
vg30et Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 I'm really glad I could help inspire! I'm really drooling over the lighting differance. I probably won't be upgrading to MH anytime soon on my Finnex tank, but I wouldn't mind a 6-bulb TEK or similar fixture either... I think you should stick with the T5s - more color choices, no heat concerns and more distributed light output. If I had to do it over, I would've probably gone with the Aquactinics TX5 or a TEK T5 instead. Link to comment
EnjoiFish Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Looks like the upgrade from NC6 went smoothly. Your coral looks great. All those colors just pop! Link to comment
vg30et Posted November 23, 2008 Author Share Posted November 23, 2008 Been a while since I updated anything but not much to report. No major changes other than a few frag additions and a fourline wrasse. Good growth on some corals especially the pink poci, others have encrusted a lot but have not shown much vertical growth. Some new shots: Link to comment
cpllongjk Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 the one you have labeled as a superman, i believe is a sunset monti Link to comment
RaddReef319 Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Nice Tank! Your SPS's look really happy good job. Link to comment
vg30et Posted November 26, 2008 Author Share Posted November 26, 2008 the one you have labeled as a superman, i believe is a sunset monti Ha, thanks! You're absolutely right, I have corrected that mistake - I always refer to it as a sunset, not sure why I wrote superman. Link to comment
vg30et Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 The past few months have been a battle against SPS pests. First it was annoying red bugs but that was easily fixed with 2 treatments of Interceptor. No losses besides a few hermit crabs. Several months later, I noticed some corals lightening and upon closer inspection, found small round bite marks on several of my acros. It's been a nasty battle but a few more treatments should completely eliminate these things. Sadly there were some losses but it was only the acros that perished - montis and poci's were not affected one bit, nor were LPS or softies. Must have picked these up from some frags I introduced from fellow reefers without a thorough coral dip. I now have 2 bottles of revive, interceptor, iodine and fluke tabs for any future coral additions ... On the bright side, the pink stylo that I acquired back in 04/2008 continues to grow like a weed and the LPS still seem happy. Some growth pics below: Stylo, 04/2008: Stylo, 11 months later: Acan, 10/2007: Acan, 15 months later: Link to comment
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