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Macintosh Classic - pico reef


MarsRover

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Hello All,

 

Recently re-entering the reef world after about 9 years out of the game.

 

Since this is my first post, I figure I'll introduce myself a bit: Back in high school (2005/2006) my first job was at a great tropical fish and reptile store in Maryland, Totally Fish. I worked there for a few years untill it went out of business. Went to college in 2008 and had to sell off my reef and various reptiles and fish. Haven't reef'd since.

 

In college I unearthed (literally unearthed....it was buried in the animal sciences courtyard at University of Maryland) a Macintosh classic. I have been wanting to make a tank out of one of these for YEARS so i hoarded the rusty box until after i graduated college and moved it all out to California for work.

 

I have since built a tank out of the Mac. classic, cutting, bending, and bonding the acrylic myself which was a fun learning experience.... It's about 3Gallons.

 

IMG_0478.jpeg

 

 

Anyway, I've had my tank setup now for about 2 months (est. 8 Sept. 2015). Have a few lbs of live rock and about 1" deep of live sand. I have a SUNSUN 602B canister filter with Seachem Purigen (100ml pouch) inside. For lighting i have the Elive Tank Mounted LED Mini Track Light with 1 pod (2 blue 2 white).

 

IMG_6873.jpeg

 

 

A few a weeks ago i purchased a bicolor blenny (who has made quick work of the algae on the walls....) and three little hermit crabs who have been pretty happy, and a small richordia, who has been medium happy...... from a LFS.

 

 

IMG_2127.jpeg

 

I tested the water and everything was good and clear so i decided to go to a different LFS and pick up a few SPS's..... literally the next morning they were all bleached out.... i'm afraid i might have killed them (you can see the 4 still on their frag plugs down in the sand in front... i started them down there expecting to move them upward towards the light slowly.....) and my sad richordia to the right....

 

IMG_2404.jpeg

 

To that point I had been working off of what i remember from back when i worked at the tropical fish and reptile store as a teen. After realizing last night that I don't have a heater in my tank and my tank temps are around 65degF, I purchased a 50W submersible heater from petco (in a panic while kicking myself....) preset to a temp of 78dF. Checked the temps this AM and they are holding at 78.

 

After feeling horrible for probably killing these living corals, I decided it would be a good idea to get back into the community with my new adventure and get some guidence.

 

Please feel free to provide me with constructive critisism, comments, suggestions etc...

 

I'd really appreciate it!

 

Thanks folks,

 

-MR

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Very unique definitely! When it comes to SPS though you need to make sure you are testing for the right elements and that lighting doesn't really look sufficient IMO. What exactly are you testing for?

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Thanks everyone! Means a lot coming from experienced folks online who have probably already seen it all :D

It was quite a struggle to build the arylic box to fit inside and it feels great to hear others like it.

 

Brandon: I'm not sure what "airstone driven reef" means exactly? I do have an airstone tucked in the back there.

Nanoreefz: I have been testing NH3/NH4, NO2, NO3, pH, dKH (all with Red Sea's Maraine Care kit) and Calcium. As for lighting, do you think i should get another pod? or should i switch to a new lighting system all together?

 

Thanks

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Thanks everyone! Means a lot coming from experienced folks online who have probably already seen it all :D

It was quite a struggle to build the arylic box to fit inside and it feels great to hear others like it.

 

Brandon: I'm not sure what "airstone driven reef" means exactly? I do have an airstone tucked in the back there.

Nanoreefz: I have been testing NH3/NH4, NO2, NO3, pH, dKH (all with Red Sea's Maraine Care kit) and Calcium. As for lighting, do you think i should get another pod? or should i switch to a new lighting system all together?

 

Thanks

I think the airstone driven refers to what is making water movement in your tank. Some of the vase reefs are "airstone driven" meaning the only thing that pushes water around is the airstone present. Otherwise some people use hang on the back filters to provide water movement, water aeration, and filtration. I'm not sure what the top/back looks like to see if you could utilize one of those or not.

I'm really excited to see how this little tank evolves. I also have a 3 gallon pico, although mine is a little more of a standard tank! :lol:

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Merthynia, thanks for the explination! In building the tank, i tried my very hardest to maintain the exterior look of the computer. I'll send a picture when i get home from work (haha as though i'm working now.....) but i use a very small canister filter (sunsun as mentioned in the OP) for mechanical filturation with perigen in there for chemical filtration. This allowed me to keep the exterior box almost complete. I had to cut a hole in the top, back (where the handle is if any of you remember these guys) so light would go through. Ideally i'd like to wire up some LED's myself and integrate them into the inside of the box.

 

Thanks folks!

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so maybe this would be a good place to ask for advice on lighting,

 

The couple montipora frags have completely bleached in less than 24 hours of introducing them into my tank. Could this have happened due to the fridgid temps i had in my tank upon putting them in (in the mid 60s.....) or lack of light? or both?

 

I have since fixed the temperature problem.... now we are floating around 78dF.

 

I'm afraid though, after talking to some folks, that i don't have enough light in my tank. I'm going to go to the LFS today and pick up two more pods for my light, i'm going to get another white/blue pod like i have now and then get a red/blue to put inbetween the two white/blue pods. Comments?

 

I also moved my richordea and the monti frags (the one that might not yet be dead....) up as high as i could.

 

I guess i would like some input on my lighting situation and whether lack of lighting could have bleached out/killed these SPS's so fast as over night?

 

Thanks

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still looking for some recommendations on my lighting questions above. I'm considering biting the bullet and going for an AI prime.... to crazy???

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Welp, decided to go and pick up another pod for the time being. I got one of the blue/red pods to add to my blue/white pod.Th

 

Think i'm going for the AI prime today.

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Thanks Tamberav.

 

I went with the AI prime over the nanobox because of the automation via wifi etc etc...

 

Came in yesterday. Looking forward to figuring out how this light works and setting up a schedule!

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Neat idea! You will love the AI Prime, such an awesome light for the price. I have had zero issues with mine and it has been keeping my corals very happy

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Thanks Tamberav.

 

I went with the AI prime over the nanobox because of the automation via wifi etc etc...

 

Came in yesterday. Looking forward to figuring out how this light works and setting up a schedule!

 

Yeah that prime is gonna be awesome. Just to throw my two cents in there I would only run that light at maybe 30% to start out with. That thing is incredibly powerful and depending on the optics you got on it (I think it comes standard with 80 degree lenses) you run the risk of burning the corals (been there done that :-p). Ramp up the intensity about 5% maybe 10% each week and watch how things react and don't run it higher than probably 60%-75%

 

In a perfect world you would want to measure the light lvls in the tank with a par meter but that is a luxury many of us don't always have. Although if you have a local makerspace, tinkerspace, etc in your area they usually have one you can use. After a while you will be able to notice light deficiencies in corals. Certain corals will appear to "reach" for light when they don't get enough while others will get pale and eventually entirely bleach out if they get to much.

 

You seem to be off to a great start and I can't wait to see how this bad boy develops. Just remember when getting advice on reefing to take everything with a grain of salt. You ask 10 different people a question about your tank and you often times will get 10 different answers with each person swearing by their method. Each tank is different and what works for one may not work for another. On that note there are some really really smart people on here who have been doing this longer than some members have been alive. I would recommend browsing through other build threads to get ideas and see what others have done.

 

Good luck and happy reefing!

 

PS. You should post some pictures of your filtration too.

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Thanks Tfish and elizabeth!

 

my filtration is very basic. The way we built the tank, the back sheet curves in to create a lip so as to minimize splash out when i move the tank. I knew i needed a canister in order to keep the look of a clean aquarium and for ease so I purchased a SUNSUN canister filter (dirt cheap) for mechanical filtration and added purigen into it for chemical. Other than that, i just routed the in/out lets via a small hole i cut in the top/back of the case:

 

IMG_7269.jpg

 

I have the outlet from the canister in the aft, top-right of the tank (as seen viewing the front of the tank) and then i have the inlet pipe to the canister filter is in the aft, bottom-left of the tank. I injected some bubbles into the inlet pipe for flow visualization in the tank and i have a nice diagonal flow field across most of the front of the tank (circulation going aft-top-right, fore-center, aft-bottom-left) with, of course, eddy currents due to rock etc for the folks that don't like as much flow. This "jet stream" allows for a nice diagonal section across the view-field for high flow inverts and areas of low flow in the view-field for low flow inverts....hopefully :)

 

 

As for a PAR meter, I have one on order. It's coming in in a few days. I ordered the BioTeck Marine PAR sensor from doctor F&S. excited to check it out.

 

For now, this AM i figured out how the AI programming works and have this as my settings for the time being (thanks Tfish for the 30% recomendation. I actually guestimated that would be a good place to start when i made the schedule before i saw your post this morning and i was relieved to see your mind matched mine!)

 

My current AI prime program:

Lunar lighting: Blue 5% on the lunar effects program going from 22:00 to 05:30

0530 - Lunar cycle program with only blue at 5% all others off

0600 - Blue 3% (all others off)

0630 - Blue 5%, cool white 3% (all others off)

0700 - Blue 5%, cool white 5% (all others off)

0800 - All at 35%

1840 - All at 35%

2000 - Blue 5%, cool white 5% (all others off)

2030 - Blue 5%, cool white 3% (all others off)

2100 - Blue 3% (all others off)

2200 - Lunar cycle program with only blue at 5% all others off - 0530

 

Let me know what you all think! i'm going to install the AI today hopefully and take some new pictures!

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Fantastic idea for the tank to re-use the old mac :) its given me an idea for my pico too!

Are you running just purigen and filterfloss in the external canister?

 

I cant comment specifically on the AI prime, but the lighting schedule looks mostly ok.

I personally would ramp your blues down to 1% or even completely zero during the middle of the night... very very very low.

 

Are you getting much evaporation?

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fishfreak0114

 

The couple montipora frags have completely bleached in less than 24 hours of introducing them into my tank. Could this have happened due to the fridgid temps i had in my tank upon putting them in (in the mid 60s.....) or lack of light? or both?

 

I have since fixed the temperature problem.... now we are floating around 78dF.

 

I guess i would like some input on my lighting situation and whether lack of lighting could have bleached out/killed these SPS's so fast as over night?

 

Thanks

I would definitely peg the bleaching on the cold temps, some people black their tanks out for a couple days to help deal with severe algae/cyano issues and the corals are fine. Did you drip acclimate them?

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Fantastic idea for the tank to re-use the old mac :) its given me an idea for my pico too!

Are you running just purigen and filterfloss in the external canister?

 

I cant comment specifically on the AI prime, but the lighting schedule looks mostly ok.

I personally would ramp your blues down to 1% or even completely zero during the middle of the night... very very very low.

 

Are you getting much evaporation?

 

Oh ohh!! whats your idea?!?!!

 

If by filterfloss you mean the three grades of foamy-spongy-filter stuffs, then yes.... + purigen :happydance:

 

for the night time, with the AI lunar cycle program, you have to set it to 5% in order to keep it from being dark pretty much all the time because of how the program works.

 

From AI:

 

Here's is a technical explanation on how it works:

1) Lunar Cycle reduces (never increases) intensities of all LED colors for the programmed hours of the day. It is a rough approximation of the 8 phases of the moon that occur throughout the month.
2) Intensities are reduced in 8 steps by multiplying the current intensity by a fractional number. The calculation is done every night at midnight, and one of the 8 multipliers are then applied to the current intensities based on which phase of the moon.
Intensity Reduction

 

New Moon

.10

Waxing Crescent

.20

First Quarter

.40

Waxing Gibbous

.60

Full Moon

1.0

Waning Gibbous

.60

Third Quarter

.40

Waning Crescent

.20

As you can see, a full moon has no effect of intensities (multiplied by 1.0), so the nighttime intensities need to be set to the brightest, full moon level desired.
Important Notes:
- Results are truncated to whole percent. Be careful when setting the "full moon" intensity less than 5%, or you will have 0% intensity for most of the month. The absolute minimum nighttime intensity to use Lunar Cycle should be no less than 5%.
- A full moon only lasts 4-5 days for the entire month, so the intensity setting of 5% won't be seen for 3 weeks.
- The year, month, and date must be correct for all of this to work.
- There are no intermediate steps or graduations beyond the 8 steps listed. The intensity reduction simply changes 8 times a month at the midnight hour.

 

 

Thus, it'll only be at the full 5% during full moon. Otherwise, it'll be less!

 

 

 

I would definitely peg the bleaching on the cold temps, some people black their tanks out for a couple days to help deal with severe algae/cyano issues and the corals are fine. Did you drip acclimate them?

 

Yeah, i figured thats what it was after talking to Jim's daughter and her husband at Jim's Exotic Fish store near LAX yesterday.

 

To acclimate, i did the way i used to back at the tropical fish store, swap about a 1/3 of the water that came with the animal with my tank's water every ~15 mins or so for about an hour.

 

After talking to the folks at Jim's yesterday, and seeing my Richordia kinda wither when i turned on the AI prime for the first time yesterday at 35%,

 

I decided to change my lighting numbers for now:

 

IMG_0695.png

 

 

So for the peak of the day this is what i'm working with:

 

IMG_2998.png

I plan to ramp up my lighting over the next couple months up to 35%, leaving red and blue at 5% and UV probably somewhere at 10% or below (as per recommendations of Jim's daughter)

 

 

And as an update, here is my AI installed as of last night!!!! AI prime "puck" just sitting on top of the tank:

IMG_7284.jpg

 

The top of the tank with the AI prime lifted. Had to drill a 3" hole to allow the LED's in.

IMG_7290.jpg

 

 

IMG_7286.jpg

 

for those of you wondering where my heater is, and my anemone (Neopetrolisthes ohshimai) crab is hiding out (hugging the heater), had to take the tank out of the Mac case so i snapped a picture of the back of the tank:

IMG_7282.jpg

 

IMG_7292.jpg

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Ah yes i totally understand what you mean now, thats fantastic!!

 

I have a 13l pico and quite often see old tiny CRT TV's at second hand stores and the like, thought i could do similar to what you have if i can find one the right size to fit

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Ah yes i totally understand what you mean now, thats fantastic!!

 

I have a 13l pico and quite often see old tiny CRT TV's at second hand stores and the like, thought i could do similar to what you have if i can find one the right size to fit

Nice aer0!

 

it's going to be hard to find a case to fit a tank (i custom made the tank to fit the case, bent the acrylic and all which was fun! and challenging...) but i bet you'll find one. Be careful ripping apart old electronics. Some of them (like the Mac Classic) have crazy high Capacitors in them that remain charged for years and will kill you if they discharge through you.

 

-Ben

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Those bulbs are fine for reefs but the bulbs it has are the only bulbs for that fixture.

 

 

Thanks Tfish and elizabeth!

 

my filtration is very basic. The way we built the tank, the back sheet curves in to create a lip so as to minimize splash out when i move the tank. I knew i needed a canister in order to keep the look of a clean aquarium and for ease so I purchased a SUNSUN canister filter (dirt cheap) for mechanical filtration and added purigen into it for chemical. Other than that, i just routed the in/out lets via a small hole i cut in the top/back of the case:

 

IMG_7269.jpg

 

I have the outlet from the canister in the aft, top-right of the tank (as seen viewing the front of the tank) and then i have the inlet pipe to the canister filter is in the aft, bottom-left of the tank. I injected some bubbles into the inlet pipe for flow visualization in the tank and i have a nice diagonal flow field across most of the front of the tank (circulation going aft-top-right, fore-center, aft-bottom-left) with, of course, eddy currents due to rock etc for the folks that don't like as much flow. This "jet stream" allows for a nice diagonal section across the view-field for high flow inverts and areas of low flow in the view-field for low flow inverts....hopefully :)

 

 

As for a PAR meter, I have one on order. It's coming in in a few days. I ordered the BioTeck Marine PAR sensor from doctor F&S. excited to check it out.

 

For now, this AM i figured out how the AI programming works and have this as my settings for the time being (thanks Tfish for the 30% recomendation. I actually guestimated that would be a good place to start when i made the schedule before i saw your post this morning and i was relieved to see your mind matched mine!)

 

My current AI prime program:

Lunar lighting: Blue 5% on the lunar effects program going from 22:00 to 05:30

0530 - Lunar cycle program with only blue at 5% all others off

0600 - Blue 3% (all others off)

0630 - Blue 5%, cool white 3% (all others off)

0700 - Blue 5%, cool white 5% (all others off)

0800 - All at 35%

1840 - All at 35%

2000 - Blue 5%, cool white 5% (all others off)

2030 - Blue 5%, cool white 3% (all others off)

2100 - Blue 3% (all others off)

2200 - Lunar cycle program with only blue at 5% all others off - 0530

 

Let me know what you all think! i'm going to install the AI today hopefully and take some new pictures!

 

From what I can tell everything looks great so far. The only thing I would recommend (and I may be reading this wrong) would be to run your whites down to half of the blue lvls. The white often will drown out a lot of the colors and corals need more blue than white as it is. Other than that I'm super jealous of the tank. Keep up the good work.

 

Here are my final lvls for the hydra over a 20g tank for reference (After probably 2 months of ramping up the lighting). Keep in mind my hydra is actually a secondary light so i would normally run the lvls probably 10%-15% higher.

 

cUdjssg.jpg

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From what I can tell everything looks great so far. The only thing I would recommend (and I may be reading this wrong) would be to run your whites down to half of the blue lvls. The white often will drown out a lot of the colors and corals need more blue than white as it is. Other than that I'm super jealous of the tank. Keep up the good work.

 

Here are my final lvls for the hydra over a 20g tank for reference (After probably 2 months of ramping up the lighting). Keep in mind my hydra is actually a secondary light so i would normally run the lvls probably 10%-15% higher.

 

cUdjssg.jpg

 

 

thanks tfish, are those numbers: 10, 70, 15, 15, 70, 70, 40???? Also what are those color codes? RY? how do they translate?

 

thanks

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thanks tfish, are those numbers: 10, 70, 15, 15, 70, 70, 40???? Also what are those color codes? RY? how do they translate?

 

thanks

 

 

The color codes are for channels. Cool white, violet, red, green, blue, royal blue, ultraviolet.

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