OceaniaAE-1's SOCAL PICO

[Oceaniaae1]

Here she is, my little slice of the ocean. This is a Mr. Aqua 7.5 low iron glass rimless cube with a Sub-Current Skimming filter running Chemipure Elite. The Light is a RapidLED PAR38 in an IKEA fixture. This light has 3 blue, 1 royal blue, 2 12k white and 1 7500 warm white. Thats a total of 7 Cree XE LED with 60 Degree optics. The tank has been up since September and has grown a lot in design and in life.

 

 

Approach:

 

My plan was to use only the purest chemicals and salt and take the time to maintain quality rather than supplement it. Through the process of setting up the tank I have not supplemented anything. Through heavy water changes and constant care the tank is kept running smooth. I chose Tropic Marin due to their long line of quality products. My water is ran through a 3 stage RODI system before mixing.

 

The tank is at its 6th month mark and is running strong. I have seen heavy growth in all corals as well as better and better water quality. I currently am running Chemipure elite in the filter to avoid any chemical warefare due to it being such a small tank and the most minimal thing tends to be a catastrophe at this size.

 

 

Weekly Routine:

• 30% water change 2x weekly using Tropic Marin Bio Actif Sea Salt
  
• Daily glass cleaning
  
• Test chemicals weekly
  

 

Tools:

• API test kits
  
• Deep six hydrometer (soon to be refractometer)
  
• Current Subcurrent Skimming Filter
  
• Chemipure Elite
  
• Two Little Fishes Nano glass cleaner
  
• 100w heater
  

 

Tank Parameters:

• Calc - 520
  
• Trites - 0
  
• Trates - 0
  
• Alk - 10
  
• Mag - 1430
  
• Salinity - 1.025-26
  
• Temp - 77-78
  

 

Livestock

• 2x Blue Legged Hermit Crabs
  
• 2x Turbo Snails
  
• 1x Cleaner Shrimp
  
• 2x Purple Fire Fish (Gave to friend)
  
• 1x False Perc Clown (Also gave to friend as gift)
  

 

Corals

• Hammer (Euphilia)
  
• Torch (Euphilia)
  
• Eagle Eye Zoas
  
• Dragon Eye Zoas
  
• Sunset Montipora
  
• Mushrooms
  
• Favia
  

 

Pics:

[Oceaniaae1]

 

 

[Oceaniaae1]

[Jacob042426]

Wow, nice tank! It will be even more amazing when everything grows .

[d0lph1n]

Beautiful tank. Congratulations.

[Oceaniaae1]

Wow, nice tank! It will be even more amazing when everything grows .

 

Thanks! Yeah thats the hardest is knowing when to stop and be happy lol

 

 

Beautiful tank. Congratulations.

 

Thank you. The light is a RapidLED PAR38 in an IKEA fixture. It is an amazing light. Not quite as blue as in the pics but deff. will blind you HAHAHA.

 

It has 3 blue, 1 Actinic, 2 12k whites and 1 7500 warm white LED. PAR at the top is damn near 1400!

[Oceaniaae1]

 

Here you can see how quickly the zoas and Monti have grown. This is within 2 months.

[d0lph1n]

I asked you bcz I'm building 2 identical tanks (like yours) in an ikea bookcase. I thought about rapidleds par bulbs but there is no way to use them without a dimming feature. So I'll be using the nano-box 13up board without lens.

[Oceaniaae1]

[d0lph1n]

Very nice. I have only 3 inch clearance above tanks.

 

I'm a big fan of tropic marin bio-actif salts but I don't have the guts to go without a skimmer.

So I got the tunze reefpack 200.

 

How often do you feed your fish and corals?

[Oceaniaae1]

Very Early pic after only a few weeks, but shows the light fixture well. RapidLED PAR38 in all its glory.

 

I asked you bcz I'm building 2 identical tanks (like yours) in an ikea bookcase. I thought about rapidleds par bulbs but there is no way to use them without a dimming feature. So I'll be using the nano-box 13up board without lens.

 

Oh right on. Yeah I looked at a bunch of lights and wanted a ceiling suspended light, so with a little jimmy rigging this worked out perfect.

 

When are those tanks getting put up? Mine is sitting on an IKEA shelf and I could only imagine how Badass having the IN the bookshelf would be.

 

Very nice. I have only 3 inch clearance above tanks.

 

I'm a big fan of tropic marin bio-actif salts but I don't have the guts to go without a skimmer.

 

yeah the subcurrent is a great surface skimming filter but this thing is all natural. No protein skimmer here. Only one power head for the filter that jets out at 195gph.

 

Very nice. I have only 3 inch clearance above tanks.

 

I'm a big fan of tropic marin bio-actif salts but I don't have the guts to go without a skimmer.

So I got the tunze reefpack 200.

 

How often do you feed your fish and corals?

 

I currently have no more fish but I was feeding them once a day. The clown got pellets and Mysis 1x a week and the firefish got frozen Mysis 3x a week.

 

The corals are on a 1x a week diet of Coral Frenzy. Good stuff.

[d0lph1n]

...

When are those tanks getting put up?

 

 

The tanks have been up for 5-6 days. But the project is far from being ready.

I'm working on fitting the skimmer's cup and waiting for the lights to arrive.

[Oceaniaae1]

The tanks have been up for 5-6 days. But the project is far from being ready.

I'm working on fitting the skimmer's cup and waiting for the lights to arrive.

 

Nice! I bet that will look amazing when finished. Pics will be a must!

[d0lph1n]

Nice! I bet that will look amazing when finished. Pics will be a must!

 

Check the above links (corrected).

[Oceaniaae1]

Check the above links.

 

Got um

 

Check the above links.

 

Got um. That thing is going to be sick! Im pretty sure thats what I have my tank sitting on lol. I love IKEA.

[Oceaniaae1]

[d0lph1n]

It's a 4-cell brown & cheap bookcase. I hope it will do ok especially with all this weight and humidity.

[Oceaniaae1]

It's a 4-cell brown & cheap bookcase. I hope it will do ok especially with all this weight and humidity.

 

Oh ok, yeah mine is a 2 high 4 long book case and sturdy and ####. As long as you don't stock it up too much im sure it will hold alright. What are you thinking about doing to the top of the case so everything fits?

[d0lph1n]

If the custom foam collection works properly i could make it fit in the top thick part of the bookshelf. Otherwise i would have to remove the skimmer.

 

I like ur zoas.

[Oceaniaae1]

If the custom foam collection works properly i could make it fit in the top thick part of the bookshelf. Otherwise i would have to remove the skimmer.

 

I like ur zoas.

 

Oh ok got ya. Yeah I just picked those up from a place in Tustin called Amazing aquarium and reef...by far one of the choicest stores around. Are those your first or only tanks up and running?

[d0lph1n]

I've just moved in the area. Before I used to buy my live stock from Vivid aquariums.

I've been trying without much success to find a similar store here.

Few days ago, I purchased few corals from Coral Collection.

 

I had a 40G rimless corner tank until a month ago but I found it destroyed when I came back from a 6 days vacation. Only 6 corals and 4 snails survived a total blackout in low temperatures and high toxic conditions. It took me 4 weeks to recover these corals:

- rainbow acan (fully recovered)

- Open brain (fully recovered)

- Porites sp. (fully recovered) but only half of the Christmas Tree Worms survived

- Dendrophyllia (fully recovered)

- Frogspawn Coral (20% recovered)

- Sun polyp (5% recovered)

 

Well, the tank will be up until the new tanks kick in.

[Oceaniaae1]

I've just moved in the area. Before I used to buy my live stock from Vivid aquariums.

I've been trying without much success to find a similar store here.

Few days ago, I purchased few corals from Coral Collection.

 

I had a 40G rimless corner tank until a month ago but I found it destroyed when I came back from a 6 days vacation. Only 6 corals and 4 snails survived a total blackout in low temperatures and high toxic conditions. It took me 4 weeks to recover these corals:

- rainbow acan (fully recovered)

- Open brain (fully recovered)

- Porites sp. (fully recovered) but only half of the Christmas Tree Worms survived

- Dendrophyllia (fully recovered)

- Frogspawn Coral (20% recovered)

- Sun polyp (5% recovered)

 

Well, the tank will be up until the new tanks kick in.

 

Damn that sucks. Yeah if you are still looking for a great place to find stuff I HIGHLY suggest Amazing Aquarium and Reefs.

Ali is a great guy and very knowledgeable and will just sit there and talk reef if its not too busy. Once I found this place I have not gone anywhere else.

 

I really liked your setup too, it had a great scape to it. I suffered from a self induced blackout about a month ago...I forgot to flip the power back on after feeding at night, so needless to say the tank was 62 and not being filtered all night. That was a long day at work wondering if stuff would still be alive when I got home.

 

Heres the yelp so you can see some interior pics. His tanks are always pristine and amazing.

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/amazing-aquariums-and-reefs-orange

[d0lph1n]

I think I've been to that store. At that time, they had a very limited stock, it was before Christmas.

 

I wanted to ask you, on your par38 is it possible to put a wider lens over the blue led or remove all the lens and lower the bulb if necessary. It will look much better.

 

In my testing done with rebel es royal blue leds, the lens cancel a beautiful skimmer effect that it's very hard to describe. Of course the light is less focused but also, your tank is not that deep. In the worst case scenario use the rapidleds wider lens.

 

On my tanks, as I mentioned earlier, I'll be using 13 leds but without lens.

[Oceaniaae1]

I think I've been to that store. At that time, they had a very limited stock, it was before Christmas.

 

I wanted to ask you, on your par38 is it possible to put a wider lens over the blue led or remove all the lens and lower the bulb if necessary. It will look much better.

 

In my testing done with rebel es royal blue leds, I found that the lens cancel a beautiful skimmer effect that it's very hard to describe. Of course the light is less focused but also, your tank is not that deep.

 

On my tanks, as I mentioned earlier, I'll be using 13 leds but without lens.

 

Yeah his store deals in high end corals and more specialty things, but he does order anything you want. Right now I have a 60 degree lens on there. In person the light I think is perfect. Its about 10" off the surface and has no light spillage whatsoever. Ive played with bringing up and down and to me just doesnt look as good. With the light combo that this light has it deff. is a wide spectrum of color.

 

The shimmer on this bulb is insane! if I don't keep it topped off enough its a god damn disco in there lol.

 

Im actually doing some research and looking into MH. I like the par38 but looks a little artificial to me.

[d0lph1n]

Yeah his store deals in high end corals and more specialty things, but he does order anything you want. Right now I have a 60 degree lens on there. In person the light I think is perfect. Its about 10" off the surface and has no light spillage whatsoever. Ive played with bringing up and down and to me just doesnt look as good. With the light combo that this light has it deff. is a wide spectrum of color.

 

The shimmer on this bulb is insane! if I don't keep it topped off enough its a god damn disco in there lol.

 

Im actually doing some research and looking into MH. I like the par38 but looks a little artificial to me.

 

That's what I'm talking about...the lens add the artificial thing you see. It's like using a stronger and poor AA filter over a digital sensor.

 

Before moving to MH (I have it and it's beautiful but damn is hot, no MH for me ever), if it's not complicated to remove the lens, compare it before and after, I hope you'll see the light