jcreefer Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 This tank build is literally a project. I acquired the tank in March 2015, and it has yet to see a drop of water as of end of April 2016. But I am being patient as I've modified and acquired numerous equipment throughout this time to get what I want. If there's anything I've learned in this hobby, do it right the first time or don't do it at all. This tank was introduced by IM sometime in 2014. Around the same time, the SR series also came out albeit with a high price tag I (or rather my wife) couldn't justify. The dimension of the 30L was appealing, long enough and deep enough to mimic the SR series. Long story short, to use what I want to use on this tank required some creative thinking. I had a couple of requirements off the bat: closed canopy that housed a LED/T5 hybrid light source, and to reuse my JNS VS-1 (or more commonly called Aquamaxx WS-1) skimmer. Equipment List IM 30L tank stock return pump Sicce 1.5 Dual 1/2in Loclines 2x inTank Media Baskets (thanks StevieT) JNS WS-1 skimmer with Aquamaxx VS-1 upgraded conical bubble plate and new cup 2x MP-10 Radion XR30W Gen 3 with TIR wide angle lenses 24 in Nanobox Hybrid 4 v3 arrays + 2 T5s (2 x Blue Plus) LET 2x39W (36in) T5 retrofits Apex Classic Temp + Lab Grade pH probe Apex WXM Tunze 3155 ATO Cobalt 50W heater Kamoer 3 pump Doser DIY stand and canopy BRS RODI BRS CO2 Scrubber Filtration & Maintenance BRS GFO, change once per month Seachem Carbon, change once per month Purigen, change once every 3 months Phosguard, change once every 3 months MarinePure spheres (second right chamber) 5 gal water change weekly, though been experimenting with 2 week water changes Filter floss, rinse twice per week, changed weekly Feeding - rotates daily Polyplab every three days LRS every other day Rod's Food every other day Reef Nutrients R.O.E Reef Nutrients Oyster Feast Salt and Additives Red Sea Salt (Blue Bucket) ESV B-Ionic 2 Part ESV Magnesium Acropower 2 mL every two days Brightwell KoralColor 1 mL every two days Parameters dKh: ~7.6 Calcium: ~410 (would like to raise this up to 430) Magnesium: 1150 pH 8.2-8.4, avg ~8.31 Dosing: 18mL ALK and 18mL Cal Phosphate: 0.02-0.03 ppm Nitrate: 25 ppm (doesn't seem to impact the coral by the look of it) Livestock & Inverts 2 ocellaris clowns 1 tiger pistal shrimp 4 hermits 2 RBTA at the moment (keeps splitting, went down from 7) Corals Bubble Gum montipora Rainbow montipora Mystic Sunset montipora Setosa Joe Fox Banana something Walt Disney tenius ARC Firework Voodoo Majick Cali Tort Green anacopora Jedi Mindtrick Brain coral Space Invader chalice Mummy Eye chalice Watermellon chalice Yellow Branching Hammer Duncans Nuclear Green Trumpet Bam Bams zoa Rasta zoa (overgrown, +100 polyps) Scrambled Egg zoa King Midas zoa No name zoas Clover corals (sorry, forgot the name) Pics (I'm dumping them in for now and will provide explanations as I go along) FTS-7-4-2020 FTS 8-3-2020 3 Quote Link to comment
Water Dog Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 What T5 bulbs are you / will you be running on your retrofit? Quote Link to comment
Elizabeth94 Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Wonderful choice on the skimmer. Those things are beasts! Nice idea on the radion/t5 fixture, what do you think you coral stocking will be like? Quote Link to comment
rum_pride Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 That is a nice looking tank. Can't wait to see what it looks like filled. Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted May 2, 2016 Author Share Posted May 2, 2016 I'm currently running ATI, Coral +, but I may order a Blue +, for the front to give it a bit more "depth" look. I am a big sucker to encrusting montiporas, but with the light combo, I can grow pretty much everything. And no more shadowing!!! Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted June 3, 2016 Author Share Posted June 3, 2016 Finally got around to do the transfer of the corals. It was a lot more tedious than I had anticipated. I basically moved a few liver ocks over and moved the majority of the livestocks simultaneously. Hooked up the Apex (It is a lot of fun) and is acclimating by starting with approximately 20% intensity on the Radion + 3 hours of the T5 at midday. Here are some of the pics of the tank before I moved the remainder of the live rocks and aquascaped. -Jeff Quote Link to comment
kellerexpress Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 How did you get that skimmer to fit in the skimmer chamber? Did you have to mod? Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 How did you get that skimmer to fit in the skimmer chamber? Did you have to mod? 1)I had to take out the glass baffle by knocking it out. It was very well silicones into place 2)Replaced the glass baffle with a equal sized acrylic 3)Redrill the return and replaced with Locline bulkhead You can see from pics 3, 5-7 where the original holes were. I need to update with new pics. Also, 3 hours of T5 + 25% intensity on the LEDs are way waaaaaay too much lighting for such a shallow tank. I am only at 22% + 1.5 hrs right now. Jeff Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 You haven't updated much on this thread, would love to see how the corals have done under that beast lighting set up. 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 Wow, it’s been 3+ years since I last updated it!! I don’t have any pics hosted any longer, but I do post intermittently on my IG: efiniluvr. The biggest change was switching to NBR hybrid: 4 arrays + 2 T5’s. I’m wondering if the light fixture is sufficient for the Waterbox 100.3. Hmmmm 1 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 1 minute ago, jcreefer said: Wow, it’s been 3+ years since I last updated it!! I don’t have any pics hosted any longer, but I do post intermittently on my IG: efiniluvr. The biggest change was switching to NBR hybrid: 4 arrays + 2 T5’s. I’m wondering if the light fixture is sufficient for the Waterbox 100.3. Hmmmm yup it's been a while. NR accepts direct photo uploads now, there's a limit to on the MB uploaded per day (I think). I've been mostly doing direct uploads, and havne't hit the daily limit. You could also post you IG post on the thread now too, just "copy link" from your post and paste into comment. 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 Hi mitten_reef, I lurk the forum on and off, just to check in on everyone once in awhile, I must've missed those updates!!! Guess with the COVID-10 SIP, it was a blessing in disguise, as it has reignited my passion to get the tank back on track. Confession #1: before March 2020, I would check parameters once/week. I figured if things looked right (by my naked eyeball), then the param's were A'OK. I was wrong. Using Red Sea blue bucket, my pH (daily 7.8-8.1) was a bit lower than the claimed pH, but I thought that was just because with 5 human + 2 dogs, CO2 levels were where it is due to the fact of life. So I hooked up a BRS CO2 scrubber which brought it up to 7.9-8.2. Confession #2: I have not changed or calibrated my Apex pH probe in over 2 years. So now that I'm determined to get the parameters in check. Order a new lab grade probe. Yikes!!!, the pH was off by .2!!! So with the scrubber still installed, the pH was running at 8.35-8.58 for the first few days. After I let it settle, I realized I really don't have a CO2 problem, so I've since disconnected the CO2 scrubber for now, and now it's settled to 8.15 - 8.31. Alk is now being checked on a daily basis, and I've adjusted the dosing to give me ~8.1-8.2 dkh. For the last month or so, I've also been more diligent with Mg and NO3. Mg is now hovering around 1280 and NO3 is what I'm trying to get down, currently at 25ppm, hoping to get it down to 10ppm. The one RBTA transferred from my old Biocube has since splitted into 7, and I've since re-homed 4 of those, but would like to get it back down to 2. With all the diligence, the corals have colored up and are growing, something that has always lacked. It has also made me realize that I want a bigger tank. So I am working towards the Waterbox 100.3. I've looked at the Red Sea 300XL, but I like the deeper display (by 2 inches) and more volume in the DT, so dimentionally, the Waterbox hits the mark. The stand is also something that caught my eyes. Plumbing seems to be a tad better in terms of quality as well. All in all, Waterbox checks alot of boxes, just need to wait until after we move to a larger home to purchase. I'll get pics up later, I promise! -Jeff 2 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 Here are a couple of quick pics from my old iPhone 6S with a clipon macro + blue/yellow filter. Watermelon chalice, a real slow grower 5 of the 7 RBTA. Pic taken last month, now I only have three on this island. Getting back more real estate for corals FTS: 4/6/2020. Have since taken care of the green algae on the right sandbed but swapping out the sediment and carbon block filter in the RODI unit. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 7/1/20 Pics. Borrowing my sons iPad Pro, taken with a yellow filter. Don’t really want to glue anything permanently since we’re planning on moving up to a bigger house and eventually upgrade to a larger tank. FTS Right island Left Island 1 3 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 The yellow camera filter are effective yet so deceiving. IRL, the color temp is around 15-18K, but the pics make it look 10K daylight. 🙃 1 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 43 minutes ago, jcreefer said: The yellow camera filter are effective yet so deceiving. IRL, the color temp is around 15-18K, but the pics make it look 10K daylight. 🙃 Looks good tho, not like some exaggerated orange filtered pics. But I realized those are also shot under blue-only...🤷🏻♂️ Not exactly a good comparison there. 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 7-2-2020 FTS (Morning ramp up, 70% RB + T5’s) 2 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 Phoenix montipora. It’s a slooooooooooow grower. If placed under higher PAR (i.e. near the center), the yellow becomes more pronounced. I like the orangish color more, so it sits to the side. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 Dialing in Alk, trying to get the Alk to within 0.1-0.2 dkH daily swing Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 Iridescence on the Space Invader chalice is incredible Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 6 hours ago, jcreefer said: Phoenix montipora. It’s a slooooooooooow grower. If placed under higher PAR (i.e. near the center), the yellow becomes more pronounced. I like the orangish color more, so it sits to the side. I’m a sucker for yellow monti. 😍 Quote Link to comment
Elizabeth94 Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 Your tank is beautiful. Really like the daylight look in those photos. And the right island is just awesome. Packed with corals 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 37 minutes ago, mitten_reef said: I’m a sucker for yellow monti. 😍 I thought I saw you also have a similar monti 😉 1 Quote Link to comment
jcreefer Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 11 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said: Your tank is beautiful. Really like the daylight look in those photos. And the right island is just awesome. Packed with corals Thank you 😘. Still can’t believe this tank is 4 years old. All the rocks and some of the corals were from my old Biocube, so some of them are actually about 6 years old. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
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