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Coral Vue Hydros

GFX Complex's 28g LED Nanocube


gfxcomplex

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gfxcomplex

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taken 5/11

 

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Established JULY 2010 - Contents came from a 1 year old 14gal Bio cube.

 

  • Fish
  • Clowns x2
  • Yellow Watchman goby

 

  • Inverts
  • Turbo snail
  • Tiger Pistol shrimp
  • 4 blue leg hermits
  • 4 small snails

 

  • Live Rock / Sand
  • 24 lbs of fiji live rock
  • Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand Original ("forgot lbs") about 2 inch deep

 

  • Coral
  • Branching Hammer ("Euphylla ancora")
  • 2 Kinds of green star polyps ("Clavularia viridis")
  • Red / Blue Mushrooms ("Discosoma and Actinodiscus")
  • Yellow Polyps ("Parazoanthus gracilis")
  • 5 kinds of Zooanthus

 

  • Micro Algae
  • Caulerpa

 

  • Light cycle
  • moon: 4pm - 10am ( 2x 1wat led) (4 hours moon + dusk )
  • dusk/dawn: 9am - 7pm ( 4x 3wat led )
  • day: 10am - 4pm ( 6 hours day + dusk )

 

  • Current Issues
  • Green Hear algae has taken over - have been trying to h202 the gha
  • pH never gets over 7.8 - need to keep better track of my levels alk, calc, mag and No4
  • lacking good flow - Need new return pumps still using stock
  • Need more CUC

 

  • Reading
  • 5/12/11 - dKh 10.9, calc 420, mag 1000

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depends on what kind of fish. maybe 1 tomato clown. maybe 8 pygmy gobies. but for your average nano fish 3-4 if you want to good luck with any more delicate coral.

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For stocking a 28, I would say 4-5 fish max. Maybe a pygmy angel, two small clowns, a blennie and something else small.

 

Also, If you are Amish, how can you design websites and why are you on nano-reef?

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acropora1981

Don't mean to ask a stupid question but - it looks like your eshopps skimmer collection cup tube leads back into your aquarium...that would be very bad if it started leaking skimmate back into the tank... Is this on purpose or some horrible mistake?

 

PS, I have a similar setup (28g JBJ w/PSK75H eshopps skimmer) and I've managed to make the skimmer quieter by about 75% by using one of these on the air intake tube:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=168424

 

PPS, try kalkwasser for the pH issue. Should also help with algae. Also try using the stock basket w/GFO and filter floss...should also help. Ive also found a tuxedo urchin (smallest you can find) helps with green turf algae.

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gfxcomplex

Thanks for the good tips. The overflow on the skimmer was set on purpose only cause I have to set up a over flow bucket and I read the during the first 74 hours the skim tends to surge and overflow. I just didnt want a wet flow in the first few hours of the skimmer running. I have plans to drain in to a bucket soon.

 

I just made the silencer and it works like a charm.

 

I have filter floss setting on top of an even bigger filter cut to fix the intake, then just below that I have Caulerpa under a jbj glo. the on the return chamber I have a good size amount of charcoal mix

 

I have tried a little h202 to kill the current gha, but I'm still looking for the source.

 

funny thing I had just read a thing about that for the first time today about using a tuxedo urchin to get algae.

 

Thanks again for the input.

 

Don't mean to ask a stupid question but - it looks like your eshopps skimmer collection cup tube leads back into your aquarium...that would be very bad if it started leaking skimmate back into the tank... Is this on purpose or some horrible mistake?

 

PS, I have a similar setup (28g JBJ w/PSK75H eshopps skimmer) and I've managed to make the skimmer quieter by about 75% by using one of these on the air intake tube:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=168424

 

PPS, try kalkwasser for the pH issue. Should also help with algae. Also try using the stock basket w/GFO and filter floss...should also help. Ive also found a tuxedo urchin (smallest you can find) helps with green turf algae.

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acropora1981

Sounds like you've got it all under control :)

 

Great choice on skimmer, IMO. I've had 5-6 skimmers in my days in the hobby and the eshopps has been my favorite for sure. Skims great the only issue I've had with it is that it can be a PITA to start it up after cleaning it.

 

I read about the tuxedo urchin a few weeks ago and grabbed one, he's been really chowing down. I managed to find one that is only about 1/2" across, so he's able to get into all the little nooks and crannies of the rock. Anyway they really seem to like the green turf algaes.

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gfxcomplex

I just added an extra 7lbs live rock chunck. I felt my 17lbs just just a tad on the small side and I wanted to make sure I'm getting all the filtering my tank needs. Just hope that it does not cause a cycle though the shop says it was fully curred.

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gfxcomplex

just finished my 3 day black out and everything is looking better so far. I also just got the hanna po4 tester and I have got my po4 down to .02 with the help of some phosban. Heres hoping that kills the gha!

 

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latteslave

Sounds like some good moves for the algae. You might also consider shortening the light cycle overall.

 

As for fish, 3 or 4 is about right but it really depends on what else you plan on. I have 2 clowns and a yellow watchman goby in mine and so far so good. Not really planning on more.

 

Other thing to mention is patience and diligence (not saying you don't have any) keep up with the weekly water changes, and let the tank balance out. A lot of problems work themselves out (but not all of them).

 

Question, on your pictures do you adjust for white balance or is the first pic a good representation of the overall color with the stock LEDs?

 

Good start, can't wait to see how it turns out.

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gfxcomplex

I have re-adjusted my light time to

 

moon: 4pm - 10am ( 2x 1wat led) (4 hours moon + dusk )

dusk/dawn: 9am - 7pm ( 4x 3wat led )

day: 10am - 4pm ( 6 hours day + dusk )

 

checked my po4 this morning at it was a whopping 0.00 :D

 

The photos are about as good as it looks in real life (to the best of my abilities), being a designer/web developer I own CS5 master suite so I have some good tools for photo editing.

 

in camera raw I adjust the image temperature to around 5000 ("fully warm"), leave the tint as is and add just a hint of saturation (no more then +15). If needed I will adjust the exposure and or brightness to bring out the details, sometimes I will bring up the contrast too. After that I remove any noise via reduce noise in photoshop from using a higher ISO ("400 ISO") then scale the image size down to 900x602 using bicubic sharper to keep the image sharp and if needed I will sharpen up the image even more with unsharp mask.

Then off to flickr.

 

I think the images look just about spot on from what I see with my own eyes.

FYI the images are under Moon light only. not dusk/dawn

 

I wish my red mush would grow more they really do glow. Though on the other hand my blue mush are so dark you cant even see them in the image right next to the red one. :(

 

Sounds like some good moves for the algae. You might also consider shortening the light cycle overall.

 

As for fish, 3 or 4 is about right but it really depends on what else you plan on. I have 2 clowns and a yellow watchman goby in mine and so far so good. Not really planning on more.

 

Other thing to mention is patience and diligence (not saying you don't have any) keep up with the weekly water changes, and let the tank balance out. A lot of problems work themselves out (but not all of them).

 

Question, on your pictures do you adjust for white balance or is the first pic a good representation of the overall color with the stock LEDs?

 

Good start, can't wait to see how it turns out.

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gfxcomplex

Update:

 

My levels are doing so good now that I got some phosban and have been running a skimmer.

0 po4, 0 no3, 420 cal, 10kh, 8ph and has been stable at that for the last week.

 

I find that my mag drops really fast from 1500 to 1000 in a week. Not sure if its being used up or what but I think that has lead to my ph always being low ("8 / 7.9").

 

After my 3 day black out most of the algae has not grown back and the little that has my turbo has been chomping it down. I think I finally have a handle on this GHA issue that I have been dealing with for so long.

 

Since I added a big old chunk of LR, I had to re-scape my tank which is kinda cool now since it has a few little caves the clowns like but it feels kinda flat to me.

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gfxcomplex

Just added 1 small yellow watchman goby and 1 small tiger pistol ship.

 

goby and shrimp were already buds at the lfs though they have yet to find each other in their new home.

 

Hope they transition good.

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