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Coral Vue Hydros

Electrobes 40Br Sumpless


Electrobes

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Hey everyone, it's been a long time and I'm back to nano-reef to share my tank:

 

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Specs:

 

Tank: Aqueon 40BR

Stand and Canopy: Unknown (I customed the canopy for the LED fixture)

Light: Reeffiltration 120w 18k LED light fixture with custom hanging bracket.

Sand: Reef on the Rocks Aragonite

Rock: Reef on the Rocks Aragolite Box Kit (www.reefontherocks.com)

Water Movement: 2 X Vortech MP10 (One has a custom battery back up) (One on long pulse mode the other on short)

Filtration: Aerofuge (Medium, it has the Aeroforce skimmer included) with custom surface skimmer box.

Temp control: Ranco dual monitor using a heating element and small 6'' verticle Lasko fan.

Fish Feeder: Hydor EKOMIXO plus Tom Aquatics Floating Feeding Station (modded)

ATO: Tunze osmolator pump used in custom set up. (I use Kalkwasser)

 

Maintenance:

Daily: Check the tank, the feeder doles out pellet food for the fish.

 

Weekly: 5G water-change, mag-float the tank, Iodide (Mainly to help with potential bleaching as the LEDs are brand new), Tech M, Reef Pearls.

 

Monthly: Check Aerofuge to see if it needs cleaning, Vortech cleaning, scrape tank, check light fixture, frag down over-grown corals like xenia or anthelia.

 

Some new things starting soon or just completed:

 

- I am going to start cleaning out the sand bed as I believe my earlier mistakes in feeding, etc has led to it being over saturated with "funk". I've created two tools to help me with this, I'll shoot pictures when I do my first round tomorrow, while kiddo is in school.

 

- I am pretty sure I am done with the tank for now, in terms of corals. I don't really have space anymore to give, I prefer for the corals to grow out the rest of the space. The last addition to the tank was just a few days ago (Not pictures in the video), supposedly a browned out purple cap I've been looking for. I split it into three pieces in the hopes of doing what I did with the orange cap on the left of the tank. We'll see!

 

- I am planning on getting Neptune's Aquacontroller Apex Jr. soon. It would literally cut out a ton of my equipment, but more importantly, it has the ability to alert me when something is wrong via text or email. I love that idea!

 

My reef nook is literally on the other side of the wall from the reef tank. Inside the cabinet sits my controls, and behind the curtain all my other reef stuff.:

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My tank in HD:

 

Hope you enjoy!

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Nice scape and set up B). What fish do you have ( I know I saw a clown in one pic) or what fish are you planing to put in the tank?

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Warning: I did not name any of these fish!

 

Hi evo - I have four fish: a false perc pair (Rob and Gerry.. long story but the original female died and I rescued another male.. one of them became female apparently.), a "flame" blenny (With the highly unoriginal name of Benny), and a mean sixline wrasse (Les Paul).

 

I have a lot of other livestock in the tank, I figured it was better to keep the fish population somewhat low, even with my filtration. In addition to the fish I also have: 3 serpent starfish (Peadoncle and his amigos), a skunk cleaner shrimp, a blood/fire shrimp, a yellow cucumber (Sand munching one, not the filter feeder), and a couple random snails and hermits.

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Hi ry05coupe - I've had it for a couple weeks and I really like it. I went from 4X24w HO T5's to this fixture and my corals so far love it.

 

Pros:

- Easy to set up

- Is black which matches well with my aquarium stand and canopy.

- Corals really pop

- Coral growth is seen with all coral types

- Warranty is in the USA for 2 years, if I remember correctly.

- Very competative price at $275.00

- If I remember correctly, if one LED goes out, the rest stay on. (I'll ask them)

 

Cons:

- I don't know why but yellow actually looks pretty bland under these lights. My yellow leather looks very faded, but is a very happy camper. Not sure what to think, maybe time will tell?

- The three fans aren't exactly super quiet. You get used to it, and they do their job, but it could be a deal breaker to you.

 

Overall I really enjoy these lights.

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Very nice. Love the leather. I almost got one the other day but am afraid of it looking 'bland'. They are great though.

 

Question: You mentioned that you dose iodine weekly. I have Lugols and started dosing it a while back. Very small amount weekly. It made the zoas take off, but it also made the inverts molt without the lunar cycle of the LEDs. I thought this was unhealthy. Reason I ask is I have a new coral that is bleaching and I want to save it. I think it's called procillapora (spelling). It's kind of micro lps. Could dosing iodine help it come back?

 

Also, let's see some pics of your Blenny!! I agree that they are rarely seen in this hobby. I've never seen one in an LFS either so when I did I scooped him up. Last addition to my tank.

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Hi pschom! I dose Iodide (I think it's by Kent?) weekly. I only use Lugols for debugging new corals.. I used to remember why, but that reason has just now eluded me. I will say this about dosing iodide.. my shrimps, my skunk cleaner in particular, molts pretty often. I don't think this is bad.. but I honestly don't know for sure.

 

On top of dosing iodine to help with bleaching, I would try other things in addition, maybe moving the coral down towards lower light. I would dose only what's recommended if you do not have an iodine test kit.

 

You just reminded me that I need to take more pics of the fish. The Blenny is one shy guy, it's going to be hard to get any pics of him, how's yours... is he as camera shy?

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Hi Miniwhinny! - Thanks very much! I wish I could say that it came out like that as if destiny and magic dust did the work for me... alas that's far from the truth. I went through something like four iterations before I finally found this current rockscape, but it was definitely worth it! You'd think as a rock maker I'd instantly know what I wanted! :lol:

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I razored the tank, it's still a little hazy. You can see three, of the same coral, monti frags I added in the middle and right side of the tank. I am really hoping they are, in fact, purple cap frags but I have my doubts. We'll see soon!:

 

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I also made a couple tools too. One is a razor scraper for the tank (It worked alright). The other is a sand adder, and not pictured I made a sand removal tool... just a pvc pipe attached to some tubing:

 

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From now on, when I do water changes, I'm going to remove parts of the sandbed, wash it out, and add it back to the tank. I really have the sand as decoration.. but man I bet it's full of funk!

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Some minor updates:

 

1. So I had a feeder modded so it could be attached to the modded canopy. In addition to the feeder, I had a feeding station below it to force food underwater. My only problem was the two MP10's... for some odd reason, regardless of how I set the flow on both MP10's, the water generally runs clockwise. This meant the food would sink to one place only... where most of the fish weren't!

 

For now I took off the feeder and will change it's location in the canopy so that the food falls in a better and more spread out area of the tank. I like feeding the tank for now anyway as I've been adjusting flow in the tank and seeing the results.

 

2. Both of the MP10's are on short wave. I finally seem to have positioned them well and discovered the mode that gets all the corals the movement they like. It only took forever!

 

3. I have yet to try swapping sand out using the new tools, but I'm thinking it will be within the week. I am really looking forward to this.

 

4. I still have no idea whether the new caps are actually purple caps or not. I am really hoping they are as I don't feel like removing them otherwise. On the other hand, I would consider getting another wish list coral/clam on my list.

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Tank looks great! and the way you have all your controllers, etc. stashed away is pretty awesome! Hope the tools work out real well for you, that's some pretty sweet DIY ideas.

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Thanks Andy! After 8-10 years of reefing I'm glad I no longer get the "wtf" look from the wife anymore when I make these tools. ;)

 

I'll y'all know how the tools work out. :)

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Hi TJ - Thanks! That is Anthelia doing the wave with the rics. I have to prune those often so they don't jack space away from the rics... fast growers! :D

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Minor updates:

 

- I cleaned out the entire Aerofuge and the items that were inside it (Heater, temp probe, etc). I yanked the whole thing out, cleaned it piece by piece, including both Aerofuge pumps.

 

- I had to throw away the pH probe. Not only is it old, but man, it was completely encrusted with all sorts of lifeforms. I don't think it was inaccurate... but it just needed replacing.

 

- Doing the above basically results in a 2.25G waterchange... something my reef, or any reefs for that matter, appreciates!

 

- All the corals are doing very, very well! Growth is on the rise and color is, very slowly, returning to the sps frags I bleached the hell out of.

 

- I am starting to add a pouch of carbon. It's not an effective method by any means, but I just don't have room for a reactor anywhere, which sucks because I've got one and ROX carbon. Oh well.

 

- I still see a spot of bryopsis in the orange zoos, I guess I should have continued with the Tech M dosing. I'll wait a little bit and see what effect the carbon has first, especially since my tank hasn't been filtered by carbon in a long time!

 

Product Review: Aerofuge (medium size)

 

I have to admit, I am pleasantly surprised by this filter! I truly believe CPR did right by this piece of saltwater equipment.

 

Pros and cons:

 

- The skimmer disassembles from the rest of the "sump" area. This is huge in terms of maintenance. I can more thoroughly clean the skimmer, instead of hoping it got a good cleaning. Considering the skimmer is the heart of my system... this is important. Typically, cleaning something like this isn;t fun, and it's no different with the Aerofuge, but it makes up for this chore in being accessible and not annoying to handle.

 

- The skimmer is none other than the Aeroforce. While the additional feed pump is annoying, in terms of an extra plug and an eyesore in the tank, it's tiny and doesn't screw around. The bubble producing pump is very good at it's job as well, but has a single flaw. If it is slightly clogged, it will let you know. It won't stop producing the bubbles, skimming will be just fine, it's the noise it produces when it is partially clogged. Overall this skimmer is just awesome for it's filtering power.

 

- Removing and cleaning the pumps is very easy. I really like the way they have the bubble producing pump situated. It slides in and out of the skimmer body fairly easily, and the pump itself is easy to clean.

 

- The "front" of the Aerofuge is black, so if you did not paint your tank's back, you're still fine.

 

If you have any questions, please ask me and I'll be happy to answer.

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  • 7 months later...

Man it's been a while! I just moved to Fort Myers Florida, from South Carolina middle of nowhere (Awesome place).

 

Here's my tank right before the move:

 

 

And here it is now (Sorry for the poor videos, one was entered in a contest rather quickly, and the other has REALLY bad lighting:

 

http://youtu.be/Les_cV31rp8

 

 

Current details of the tank:

 

Specs:

Tank: Aqueon 40BR

Stand and Canopy: Unknown (I re-customed the canopy... building a new one soon.)

Light: Reeffiltration 120w 18k LED light fixture with custom hanging bracket.

Sand: Reef on the Rocks Aragonite

Rock: Reef on the Rocks Aragolite Box Kit

Water Movement: 2 X Vortech MP10 (One old, one new)

Filtration: Aerofuge (Medium, it has the Aeroforce skimmer included).

Fish Feeder: Hydor EKOMIXO plus Tom Aquatics Floating Feeding Station (modded)

ATO: BRS Doser (50ml/min) used in custom set up (7G tub that is hidden). (I use Kalkwasser)

 

Notes: Two projects need to be done, the new canopy and the background. These will be done soon. I added some frags and for now I am just letting the tank settle in and grow out. I ordered from DrsFosterSmith.com a power filter with a surface skimmer to get rid of all sumpless reefers' headache... surface scum! We'll see how that performs.

 

Looking forward to sharing more in the future!

 

Christian

 

PS - Anyone know how to add youtube videos the right way, instead of a link?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0UKz7oo7U&feature=g-upl

 

So a couple things since the above video:

 

- I tried the power filter with surface skimmer and my fears were correct, it's just too small to do much of anything to the surface scum. Oh well, I tried.

 

- I got the black background from my Dad and it's beyond perfect! It's not acrylic but a flimsy type of plastic that easily slid between my Aerofuge and the tank. The tank looks sharp, I am excited to take another video soon.

 

- I started dosing B-Ionic on top of keeping my kalkwasser ato. I am starting to suspect that the tank needs more now that everyone is settled and growing. For now I am dosing 10ml three times a week, and we'll see what goes on from there.

 

- My auto feeder goes off once a day, and every now and then I feed a dose of freeze-dried cyclop-eez. I've decided to make this more regular, now feeding it twice a week. I have probably always been doing that, but now it's more consistent.

 

- I drilled a small hole on the outlet of my Aerofuge, so now my ato has the perfect place to dump the kalk water into. I should have done this earlier as it is MUCH more secure now, but also because you can no longer see the tube.. giving the tank a slightly neater look.

 

- I got a new frag, something I've wanted for years but never got because they can be aggressive.. a maze brain coral! The location it's in is perfect as I don't give two turds if it stings the xenia... not like the xenia cares anyway. I had one before and it did really well, but then life got in the way and I moved.. again! But I should be here for keeps and I am so looking forward to seeing this pretty coral grow.

 

- I also just made a decent order from Reefcleaners.org: 28 assorted hermits, 2 bags of Pods+, 1 bag of Reef Pods, 4 blue legs, 10 nerites, and 5 nass. snails. It amounted to just over 50 bucks, and I get free UPS shipping for living in Florida.. yay! This is really meant to revitalize a pretty barren CUC, not to mention a tiny population of pods that I currently have. While it may increase the bioload, I think this is going to work out perfect in the end!

 

I have two projects left... I need to build a new canopy to match the stand and I need to install 2 X 39W T5HO's into it. I want a bit more daylight in the tank, and I'll probably pick up two GE 6500K's or maybe two Aquasuns. This will help me get the color I want plus it should also help coral growth... assuming I don't bleach them to kingdom-come.

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