Mark's Nanobox Powered 40B -retired-

[Arce]

 

If the cages are easy to take off then that may be all I need, it's the cage that gets clogged in here and except for the front you can't pull anything off a tunze. MP10 is the best for cleaning but I don't want another one.

Yea im pretty sure the cages came off pretty easily. But the flow it produces is worth the extra few minutes it might take to clean it.

[markalot]

Gyre ordered from Premium, the smallest model. 20% off via Premium Aquatics, not too shabby.

 

For the winter I'm now running hybrid lighting. Placed a T5 fixture in front of the Nanobox and removed the BML. I'm starting to suspect the white channel of the BML strips for causing a lot of issues. I had turned it up in my 150 and the Lokani lost some color, which it has started to regain since I turned it back down a few days ago. It's obvious, to me anyway, the Nanobox arrays don't have this problem, otherwise my 150 wouldn't be as colorful as it is. I just don't get it.

 

Anyway 2 T5 near the front, Blue+, Coral+ in one of my old AquaticLife fixtures with mediocre reflectors.

 

Hybrid looks better, less flicker but the flicker is still there and colors still pop thanks to the LED's. Unfortunately replacement bulbs, 36", are $22 a piece. Replacement 60" for the big tank are just $25!

[metrokat]

Not going to lie to you, the gyre cleaning takes a while to get used to. It's not really the cleaning actually - putting the pump back together and making sure it aligns is the part that needs some thought. The best method I found was to remove one cage at a time, clean and put back before removing the second cage for cleaning.

 

I have never met a pump as strong as the gyre. Absolutely amazeballs.

[markalot]

Gyre will be here Friday.

 

This morning, prior to eating Turkey, I have to un bury the green Monti cap that some jackass piled half a tank of sand on.

[markalot]

Gyre arrived and installed. This is the second generation and it's damn impressive, hell the controller is the sexiest thing I have on either tank. Even the metal box it was packed in was impressive.

[metrokat]

Pics!

[markalot]

4 hour of work on the 40 today, including another 10 gallon water change.

 

Replaced Tunze with Gyre.

 

Replaced a Hydor nano pump feeding the HOB Fuge with a MJ600. The damn Hydor would only start 50% of the time after a power outage, extremely dangerous and I will not buy anything else from Hydor. This is the second Hydor pump to have this issue, the first was the original smaller Hydor that came with the unit.

 

Scraped all the tank walls but only to remove hair algae, not to scrape it clean. Tang and Blenny working on the back wall and I wanted to leave them something. The amount of hair algae was epic, nearly filling up the 10 gallons of old water. Then I turned on the Gyre full blast and used a net to catch what it stirred up. It was glorious.

 

Finalized the lighting. Front to Back. Blue+, Coral+, Nanobox Quad, BML 3 channel, running blue and violet channels only at 40%.

 

 

First with all lights on, second LED only, fading to all blue.

 

[markalot]

Between the time the basslet spits out a bunch of gravel and dusts up the tank I was able to get a decent FTS.

 

The Acros will be going, they seem to hate the T5's more than the LED and have gotten worse, not better. Why bother.

 

 

I like this view.

 

I need more zoas and something low and flat to grow them on.

[markalot]

I need to read the manual for this new Gyre controller ... apparently I can program 24 hour varied modes. Right now I pushed buttons until I was able to set to to 30 seconds alternating 40% normal flow, 10% reverse flow.

 

It can control 2 gyres and I put the controller right next to my big tank ... just in case.

[vlangel]

 

It can control 2 gyres and I put the controller right next to my big tank ... just in case.

Do you mean ...'just in case' or do you really mean...'whenever'?

 

Seriously, this tank looks great!

[markalot]

Do you mean ...'just in case' or do you really mean...'whenever'?

 

Seriously, this tank looks great!

 

Thanks Dawn.

 

The pump only option for the strongest Gyre is $150, but any Gyre would have to sit up and down in the big tank due to the narrow space. The MP40's actually do a very good job creating a Gyre, probably due to tank height. The flow along the bottom front of the tank can be extreme when one pump is ramped up all the way.

[markalot]

I'm over my little episode and the T5's are off. Honestly it looks better, T5's can be pretty boring at times.

 

I'll give the acros a week or so to do something but they are doomed. I'm trying to source a nice small and cheap gold torch to go near the front. The one I had stayed nice and compact and would be perfect for the spot. Still makes me sick that I lost it.

[markalot]

Acros are gone, added a Citron Goby but the little punk is sitting where I can't get a photo. I think he'll work out fine. I had the LFS feed the tank pellets and this guy chased the other fish (including 4 other gobys) away and ate two pellets. Yep, should do just fine.

 

As I mentioned above, tank is all LED again and looks fantastic. I think the cyan channel on the NanoBox is doing the bulk of the work, without it the tank looks horribly purple. I'm trying hard to run a dimmer tank but it's tough for me to do. So far everything looks great and all the euphs are really loving the dimmer light.

 

I'll get a picture if I can catch this fish out!

[jedimasterben]

You don't need a tank with less light, especially for euphyllia

 

From your FTS above, the only corals I see that wouldn't really appreciate a buttload of light would be the montipora, birdsnest, and the leptospira, maybe the blastos at the bottom but they might be far enough down. Whatever you decide, just do it slowly and you should be able to crank it up pretty good.

[markalot]

You don't need a tank with less light, especially for euphyllia

 

From your FTS above, the only corals I see that wouldn't really appreciate a buttload of light would be the montipora, birdsnest, and the leptospira, maybe the blastos at the bottom but they might be far enough down. Whatever you decide, just do it slowly and you should be able to crank it up pretty good.

 

I want less light, it looks better and the LPS extension is a lot better. The birdsnest gets a better pink and the light blue digitata looks much better. I had measured and increased the PAR for the acros a month or two ago, just returning to the lower values. The red Goni is actually the biggest PAR lover, not sure if it's because that's what it is used too or it really needs the PAR to turn bright red.

[jedimasterben]

I want less light, it looks better and the LPS extension is a lot better. The birdsnest gets a better pink and the light blue digitata looks much better. I had measured and increased the PAR for the acros a month or two ago, just returning to the lower values. The red Goni is actually the biggest PAR lover, not sure if it's because that's what it is used too or it really needs the PAR to turn bright red.

Yeah, the red gonis are definitely PAR lovers. They are always wanting more.

 

But for bright without the PAR, crank up the lime channel a bit. It will at least trick you into thinking it's bright

[markalot]

This is the best I could do. All the fish pictures are so close to good, but not quite.

 

 

Fat belly, just like I want to see.

 

Hmmm, maybe this is a girl fish?

 

I always worry it's not getting enough to eat. Tends to pace a lot after I clean the tank, making me wonder if a lot of the food comes from critters living in the wall algae.

 

Hrmph

[markalot]

Tank tour. If you like neat and tidy this ain't it, and I love it.

 

Moved my yellow centered Blastos over from the big tank, they just can't tolerate the PAR in there.

 

The grape coral is doing fantastic, and look at that green? By far the brightest thing in the tank at the moment. Also noet my long lost pink zoas below it. So glad I moved this rock up where I can see it.

 

Back side of the rock with a neat shroom on it.

 

Toxic hammer doing much better in the back corner, already increased polyp extension. Has always been a mean SOB.

 

Mounted this below the bird in a half shaded spot.

 

I have big plans to crowd this tank with corals.

 

I am thinking of moving the following over from the 150.

 

War coral and possibly the Meteor Shower.

 

These not so purple purple death pallys.

 

These zoas I bough from kat at the same time I bought the Katropora. These guys are troopers but don;t seem to like the big tank. They stay big but no longer reproduce.

 

View from the chair.

 

The biggest 'problem' in here is the mushroom reproduction rate, especially the reds. They are everywhere, and extremely attractive, but also very effective at killing most hard corals they run into. hard not to like them but if I do nothing this will be ab all shroom and softie tank in a year or so.

 

[Mariaface]

I was so proud of finally taking a somewhat-passable photo and then I stumbled in here.

 

 

It's so beautiful, though.

[markalot]

I was so proud of finally taking a somewhat-passable photo and then I stumbled in here.

 

 

It's so beautiful, though.

 

Thanks Maria, just takes practice.

 

I am slowly getting things glued down and deciding on a final (haha, final) scape. Gold torch will arrive Wednesday to complete my current plan.

 

My Purple Duncans have always done well in a lot of light so I placed them up in back to hopefully contrast well with the, uh, green fuzzy thing. Nepthea, right.

 

 

The trouble with taking closeup pictures of my Duncans is they like to eat EVERYTHING. Looks like the mouth in front managed to grab a piece of algae floating by.

 

Moved the Meteor Shower frag into here.

 

Placed the green with blue polyps cap in back where it can shade out the Xenia. I keep this because it's survived my mistakes for 3 years now. The blue polyps are nice but it's very difficult to get a nice dark green out of the base.

 

The Citron Goby is at least putting food into it's mouth, thought spitting a lot out as well. Everyone but the Blenny accepted it .. the Blenny chased it a bit but now just follows it around.

 

Finally got up in front where I didn't have to use a flash.

 

[markalot]

Just more picture spam. Used a better lens, an older Nikon 50mm manual focus 1.8 which equates to about a 70mm lens on this camera. I continually forget how much better pictures look using quality optics.

 

 

Playing around with full manual and trying to make sure no detail is over exposed.

 

 

[jedimasterben]

Some of the pics of my original iteration of my 80g tank were taken using an old, beat as shit Canon T1i with an old, beat as shit Tamron 28-75mm f2.8... and I'll be damned if most of those pics don't look better than with my newer camera, newer (though cheaper) lenses, and a LOT more experience and skill.

[gena]

Oh cool...LOVE the yellow centered blastos!

[markalot]

Oh cool...LOVE the yellow centered blastos!

 

Thanks Gena.

 

The gold torch was 2 hours late thanks to fedex but it arrived, a little cool, but looks like it survived.

 

I kept the good lens on the camera, golly what a good idea.

 

 

 

 

This Cristata is shockingly good looking.

 

Yellow centered blastos continue to recover.

 

And these guys, a $15 frag I bought because when I see red blastos I buy them on the spot ... really starting to respond well to the heavy feeding I've been doing in here. Too much light and they cower and start to fade so I keep them in the shadow of the friendly Duncans.

 

 

FTS. Check out how much healthier the Toxic Hammer (upper right) is looking. Why? Pffft.

[pgrVII]

Lookin good sir.

The citron goby is super cool,the chair view is as well.