BigAl's Spec V FROGSAWN!

[BigAl18]

And here is my DIY eggcrate media rack. I thought I had chemipure elite but bargain hunted amazon too much and ended up with Chemi-pure. Still worth it to put in for a few months?

 

And a side view for all of those who are counting.

 

No plans for the bottom yet, I have seen some use cheato algae and others is Live Rock rubble and many use nothing, any input as to want can go down below?

[BigAl18]

Just updating the journal, cleanup crew seems happy although I feel like I need a fish to create waste and mor food for these guys.

 

This is a second attempt after I found this guy half way up the wall with his feet wedged in the corner seal. #dedication

 

This guy has a few stringy things that wiggle around and Lind of fight each other. Sometimes I see them biting at the rocks, any ideas?

 

I feel like i may need to add something else to promote a bit of algae growth to feed these guys.

 

I also finally moved the heater into the tank as it was not keeping a consistent temp in the pump chamber. I was having 4degree swings nighttime to day. Now it is less than a degree.

[Muraki]

I have 4 sexy shrimp and a pistol shrimp in with mine. If you get a fish, find a glass top or a screen top... I lost my yasha goby the other week because he decided to jump out : (

[BigAl18]

I read that a lot about gobies. I have kept the plastic cover that came along with this tank that has a nice opening for the light to come through but the light is pretty close making it pretty tough for any fish to get out. As much as I like the rimless look of this tank without the top, I have lost many fish from freshwater tanks in the past to leave it open.

[MisturrTinnie]

Any pictures on how the LED set up was put together? And how hot is the lights running? I like the look of it and I might have to copy your lighting system since it is cheap also. Tanks looking great! Can't wait to see some corals in there thriving.

[BigAl18]

I will see if I can pull up photos later tonight. I have had trouble uploading anything not saved on this site. I can tell you what I used though, I copied someone else on these forums but I can't seem to find the thread anymore. I believe he didn't use anything on the bottom. He also ended up making some upgrades so he could add more diverse corals which I don't really plan on doing. A few zoanthids and some sort of torch/hammer/frogspawn to get long and move with the flow.

 

from Rapidled.com I got 2x the solderless Moonlight kits with 2 LED's each (RB) and added 2x solderless NW cree LED's. I strung one of the moonlight kits together on one driver and added the whites to the other kit, probably maxing out the driver with 4 bulbs.

 

I then used the thermal pads to attach each of them an aluminum bar from Home Depot. The bar came 3' long and I cut a foot off to use for this and drilled two holes to keep it in place.

 

The two moonlights are on the inside, closest together and the other two are on the outside. I then took apart the stock light cut up the plastic on the bottom and put it all around my custom light.

 

All I need now is some cord wrap to make the lines coming from the drivers to the light look a bit more clean. I am VERY happy with the way it looks although I can't attest to promoting coral growth.

[MisturrTinnie]

I am wanting to keep the slick look of the light. Did the flat aluminum bar fit in with just the stock screws? How was the heat with 4 LEDs? I was gonna do 8 LEDs for better growth. Will need it to be dimmable also just in case its too strong. I'm just scared of the heat problem without a real heatsink. It will be a budget build so I don't wanna have to get a chiller.

[BigAl18]

I need to get a timer, but I have my tank in a room that gets LOTS of natural light in the AM so I plug in the moonlights at about 6-6:30 and the day light comes on around noon or one in the afternoon. They stay on until about 7 or 8 and the plastic on top is warm to the touch when those go off., but that's it, the moonlights stay on til I go to bed around 10 or 11.

I considered getting dimmable driver for the day one, but everyone was saying they run a 700mA dimmable driver at around 50% most of the time and the moonlight was not dimmable at 350mA so I figured it would be worth it to try for $10 rather than $30. The person I copied from cut a square in the top to fit a small heatsink on the aluminum bar, but I have not found it to be necessary yet. If you were to add more lights I would suggest adding one though.

 

As far as fit goes, the aluminum bar is approx. 1/4" thick and I made the holes thick enough to fit around the existing female threads in the stock light.

[BigAl18]

UPDATES:

So I went and got two clownfish, most will not approve I know, but they are not even an inch long so when they grow a bit I will have a reason to get another tank or will help them get a new bigger home. So I am definitely done with livestock. No more fish in this one. I have two stores to get fish locally and all they had for gobies were watchmen and black clown gobies.

 

Two of my three hermits (The red legs) have moved into larger shells and one molted too and left his old skin in a rather difficult crevice. He spent a day or two in the same spot after he was in his new shell and then his skin was just shoved in a cave. Pretty cool to see that happen. Anyways, on to the FTS!

 

Front:

 

Back:

[Mattweets21]

This is my specv and I love it ! Yours is looking great!

[BigAl18]

I bought a frag of GSP this weekend and it finally opened up. I wanted to fit it in somewhere else on the "back" of my main rock but the frag wouldn't sit in the way I wanted it to, so here it rests. Probably for the better anyway to just have it settle on a rock on the bottom and cover it like a grassy little mound. I wanted something pretty hardy as my first coral and I am sure I stressed it out pretty good yesterday.

 

It is in a very bright room and only nightlights are on at the moment. I will take some pics later when the daylights go off tonight, it should have good color under the nightlights.

 

In other news, I had a big outbreak of copepods which I was ok with last week, but the water started getting a little cloudy this weekend, not sure if it has to do with the frozen food (H2O aquatics 50/50) or what. From a bit of research it sounds like the cloudiness should go away with the copepods. You can't see the cloudiness very well during the day, but later at night you can. I am planning a water change soon, the only filtration I currently have is ChemiPure in my chamber, I am thinking of cutting up the stock sponge for the second chamber. I also have a block of AquaClear foam that hasn't been used at all, any suggestions to add anything?

[BigAl18]

Quick update, fully open GSP all heads seem pretty happy.

[Coach1993]

So I got my lights yesterday from RapidLED and they went in quite easily as I got a solderless setup. I used 2 solderless nighttime kits and added 2 NW CREE's.

 

IMG_20140209_072021.jpg

 

They are all mounted inside the stock light enclosure on an aluminum bar from Home Depot With the Berquist thermal pads. I aligned them on the bar the way I wanted the lights to set up and peeled the other side off to stick the lights on. I'm pretty sure that the lower power of the drivers will allow the lights to stay pretty cool and the aluminum will be sufficient

 

IMG_20140209_072538.jpg

 

Here you can see the actual light layout in the reflection, all I need now is a splash guard for the lights. Nothing in the tank so I'm tot too worried.

who did you copy the light from? I wanted to check it out. Seems like you found a great way to save money without losing light. I wanted to see how he cut out the head sink. Where did you get a $10 driver? I want it!

[BigAl18]

I did take pictures while I was building this light with my camera, but the photos are too big to upload here and I have endless amounts of trouble with pictures. I store my pictures on google drive and on google plus but can't figure how to share them on here and don't care to open another account for cloud storage elsewhere. I also have trouble copying and pasting but I think it's cuz I use IE11 at work for personal stuff at the office.

 

I used 2 of <a href="http://www.rapidled.com/2-led-solderless-moonlight-kit/">THESE</a> and added 2x Neutral White CREE's on one of the drivers to create a daytime driver with all 6 lights and a nighttime dedicated driver. With a little research they state 4 is the max number of LED's per with this particular driver. I am really happy with the light output although I am considering to add a UV or purple LED to the nighttime set.

 

My aluminum heat spreader is all that was required and it fit into the stock light fixture. It is warm to the touch when I turn the day lights off around 8pm. the drivers get a little warmer although I have not touch tested them to see how they are doing.

[Coach1993]

I did take pictures while I was building this light with my camera, but the photos are too big to upload here and I have endless amounts of trouble with pictures. I store my pictures on google drive and on google plus but can't figure how to share them on here and don't care to open another account for cloud storage elsewhere. I also have trouble copying and pasting but I think it's cuz I use IE11 at work for personal stuff at the office.

 

I used 2 of <a href="http://www.rapidled.com/2-led-solderless-moonlight-kit/">THESE</a> and added 2x Neutral White CREE's on one of the drivers to create a daytime driver with all 6 lights and a nighttime dedicated driver. With a little research they state 4 is the max number of LED's per with this particular driver. I am really happy with the light output although I am considering to add a UV or purple LED to the nighttime set.

 

My aluminum heat spreader is all that was required and it fit into the stock light fixture. It is warm to the touch when I turn the day lights off around 8pm. the drivers get a little warmer although I have not touch tested them to see how they are doing.

where did you find a heat sink that fits? Also I am confused when it comes to what each LED type does. I know blues are just for the look, white to grow coral but what does purple or green do? I see they offer those colors on rapid led

[BigAl18]

Just a few updates:

I added a peppermint shrimp (Shrimpie Shrimp according to my 4yo) to get rid of some aptasia on my GSP rock. Strange that it took almost a month to appear. The shrimp is now my most favorite in the tank, such personality, and he got rid of the aptasia!

Last week, I was having a problem with algae growth on the surface of the tank. I messed around with the skimming piece from inTank every night last week and created more movement in the back but only to see it go back down after a few minutes. Finally, over the weekend, I realized there wasn't as much flow in the first place so my attention went to the pump itself this past weekend.

I made the mistake of keeping the suction cups on the bottom of my 606 pump so it is near impossible to pull the thing out. I was able to use a dinner knife to slide it a bit and found that it had suctioned to the side wall, much better now and surface algae is gone! I am considering to add a Hydor flo to create more movement in the tank, any thoughts from anyone?

I moved the GSP up closer to the light on top of my rock to help it grow and used JB WaterWeld to epoxy it.


I think I went a little overboard, I could have used a lot less and kept it hidden. Not bad for a first timer though.

[BigAl18]

Any advice on removing my minijet 606? I kept the suction cups on the bottom and it keeps getting stuck on the side and restricting flow.

 

I want to wrap it with floss to keep it spaced away from the wall.

[Muraki]

Go in from the larger chamber and try to get underneath the suction cups with a bent knife or something of that sort. Anything flat, bendable, and stiff should work. Once you get it out, remove the suction cups, I find them to be a headache.

[BigAl18]

I forgot about the opening between the two chambers! Thanks Murali, not sure if bendable and stiff work together ? I'll see what I can find tho.

[NanoClown]

Hey man

those lights are looking nice, looking forward to seeing your growth rates and overall outcome of your DIY

[Muraki]

I forgot about the opening between the two chambers! Thanks Murali, not sure if bendable and stiff work together I'll see what I can find tho.

They normally don't! Haha. That is what torque is for when it comes to bending! Or you could always ask help from Bender (futurama)

[BigAl18]

I was able to pull out the pump with access from the other side and actually turned it 90° so the impeller faces the back and there is SO MUCH more room for it that way, and no more suction cups either ?. Now its like a tornado in there, water has never moved like this.

 

Very happy, Thank you again for the advice Muraki, I used a plastic Popsicle stick to pry it up.

[Muraki]

Congrats! Yea I love the 606. I also have an MP10 and I have complete circulation around the tank. I need to get pictures after I get the frags back into place and the new Nanobox light. I am still waiting for my bubble tip anemone to find where he is happy and been keeping everything a safe distance away. With the 606 pump, there should be enough flow to keep a heater in that mini chamber as well. I have a small line for a aerator to help water movement around that tiny chamber.

[BigAl18]

Last week I started what I believe to be a dinoflagellate problem. I hadn't introduced anything into the tank for several weeks. The only thing that changed was a busy week with no time to properly top off evap...I used filtered tap water (tisk tisk I know). It has been kind of fun watching the "Downton Crabbies" go crazy, especially the blue leg. In addition Emerald Legasse has been coming out of hiding earlier too.

 

I am going to update my media rack and use a new bag of ChemiPure wrapped in floss on the bottom and cheato on top to help reduce nitrates.

 

I have read several theories on how to get rid of dino's, from starving them to overfeeding (without water changes) to allow their own naturally occurring bacteria to over grow and kill them. Any thoughts are welcome.

[BigAl18]

DinoflagellateNitrateooking much better. I blacked out the tank for 2 days and used Instant Ocean Nitrate reducer. I will see how it goes over the weekend.

 

I do have a question though. I got a hydor flo to go along with the 606 but can't figure out how to attach it. None of the adapters fit on the angle piece. Do most people just silicone it into a bigger hole?