JBJ 28g HQI, College Reefin

[pudge1515]

Hey thanks L34NN3 your tank is looking really good too and those zoas were sold to me as blue death palys and they are growing fairly quick.

 

Here are the pics of the new open top I made.

 

Side view

 

Front View

 

Let me know what you guys think

[Sexy Shrimp]

Awww why didn't I think of that?!!? I have stupid light spill

[hppd432]

Pudge what can I say but Sweet..................................

[RAF007]

Pudge...How has that MOD worked out for you...I dont know if I am willing to make a MOD that drastic...But the tank looks great as always...

[pudge1515]

Hey RAF,

 

I still love the mod and like I said I think the tank still has the sleek look of the stock closed hood. It just lets more oxygen exchange occur at the surface and it also helps cut down on heat a lot also so now I can run my actinics on at the same time as my MH if I want. The great thing about it is that the legs are screwed on with tiny screws so If I ever wanted to make it a closed top again alls I have to do is take off the legs and fill in the small screw holes on the inside clear plastic cover with clear silicon so no water gets into the lights. The corals love it also. I could tell a difference the next day in the color and fullness of all my corals improved. When are you gonna get some pics of your tank up?

[RAF007]

LOL...I know...I am slacking, I am going to do water change and get some new inhabitants so I will take pics and post them...

[pudge1515]

Got bored today so I took some random shots of the tank.

 

Here is Optimus on his favorite perch

 

Random side shots of some zoas and my acan

 

Miam Huricanes, man these things grow fast

 

To end it I will give you a current fts. I dont know why but I really like this fts cause it shows the true layout of my tank without any distortion from the glass like the last fts. Well enjoy and thanks for looking!

[RAF007]

WOW!!! Like the Miami Zoa's...Its all about the U!

[JourneyReef]

The tank looks awesome. My issue is that i get so excited to get coral in the tank that I settle for cheap and lackluster corals...seems like you are really selective and get only those super bright beautiful guys. Where do you get most of your coral?

[pudge1515]

Hey Raf, ya they are awesome zoas but it was kinda tough buying those cause im such a big oklahoma sooners fan and I go to college there.... lol, jk.

 

Journey I know exactly what you mean. I have had several tanks over the past 4 years and have learned my lesson on not being patient and doing impulse buys on average corals and not waiting for the good ones. I am still learning though and I am trying to be patient for one of vendors on the site Dustin, who owns Zoanuts were I get most of my corals from, to open up his new shop here in oklahoma so I can finish stocking my tank with what I want.

[colinadam]

Looks great as always!

 

I'm curious, do you know what type of rock you have? It looks good.

[pudge1515]

Hey Colinadam thanks. As for the rocks, I have no idea what type they are, lol, I have never really paid much attention to what type of rock I am buying but more to the shapes of the rocks. I do know that the huge rock on the left side of the tank is base rock that I got from my lfs along with some more base rock on the bottom of the other sides. There is also a mixture of a couple of pieces of live rock from other tanks that I have had in the past and I think they may have been marked fiji at my lfs. Hope this helps a little.

[ns1166]

Hey Colinadam thanks. As for the rocks, I have no idea what type they are, lol, I have never really paid much attention to what type of rock I am buying but more to the shapes of the rocks. I do know that the huge rock on the left side of the tank is base rock that I got from my lfs along with some more base rock on the bottom of the other sides. There is also a mixture of a couple of pieces of live rock from other tanks that I have had in the past and I think they may have been marked fiji at my lfs. Hope this helps a little.

Any updates on the tank or new pics?

[flipit13]

what a beautiful reef you are making i am new to the reef hobby and you just cleared up a question and concern i was having about the hqi lights and heat issue. where did you get the legs for the canopy? and what mod did you do to the canopy with the other light you added for dusk?

 

keep up the great work

rick

[ns1166]

I did the same set up. I bought those exact same legs at petco to be honest with you. I mounted the double azoo fans on the back of the tank blowing some what across the water as well as some towards the back chambers

[pudge1515]

Hey guys not much to report. The tank is doing great and the only thing I have added is paly frag that is an RPE look alike for $10! I am waiting for it to color up cause the tank it came out of had pc on it but its responding nicely to the MH and is getting its red back with a bright green mouth. My tank is also going to hit the 6 month mark tomorrow . It doesnt seem like it has been that long. I am going to be ordering 3 new ricordias for my ricordia island today. The colors I am getting are supposed to be rainbow, pink/green, and I think I might go with just a plain green one for the last cause I dont have that color yet. Well I will post an updated FTS tomorrow for the 6 months shot and I should be recieving my rics by later on next week.

 

Hey flipit, as for the legs you can just get them at petco or petsmart for like $10, but I just added them to the tank so I could get better oxygen exchange to the water and so I could have my actinics on at the same time. I never had any heat issues before the mod. The fan blowing across the back chambers kept it at a constant 80 degrees. Hope this helps.

 

Well thanks for looking and happy reefing!

[Colione]

Hey Pudge,

 

Cool tank!! It's really close to what I am going for, so it's good to read about yours.

 

What did you use to put the actinic lighting in the hood? Was it a nanocustoms thing? or did you just do it yourself?

 

Keep posting!

[horizons2098]

i've really enjoyed looking at your tank pictures to see how to set up a tank with so many vibrant colors, and i must admit that i recently purchased a 28g hqi w/ your tank being a major deciding factor as to the final purchase! reading your thread it seems that everyone else says the same thing, so congrats on having a thread that is so highly regarded!

 

my questions are: do you have a website that you referenced for how to build your light mod? also do you know if such a product is sold to raise the canopy off of the tank?

 

thanks for any help much appreciated!

[horizons2098]

i've really enjoyed looking at your tank pictures to see how to set up a tank with so many vibrant colors, and i must admit that i recently purchased a 28g hqi w/ your tank being a major deciding factor as to the final purchase! reading your thread it seems that everyone else says the same thing, so congrats on having a thread that is so highly regarded!

 

my questions are: do you have a website that you referenced for how to build your light mod? also do you know if such a product is sold to raise the canopy off of the tank?

 

thanks for any help much appreciated!

 

 

OOPS i see the question was already answered above!!! thanks for keeping an awesome thread up though!!

[pudge1515]

Thanks everyone for the awesome comments, they are much appreciated. Sorry I have been lacking on keeping this tank thread updated. I have been busy with tests all week and I am about to start a new job so life is pretty hectic right now. I am going to try and get an updated 6 month shot of the tank up sometime later today.

 

Hey Horizon im glad that you went with the HQI. You wont be disapointed if you have anymore questions about how i got the hood raised just shoot me a pm and Ill run you through it in more detail. Ill answer your light question below.

 

Colione, as for the light mod I just used two old 27 watt pc lights from an old aquapod hood that I had laying around but I know that nanocustoms.com sells a great 2x 18 watt pc package that is really easy to install specially made for the 28 gallon HQI. I think they also might have a video they can send you to show you how to install the lights but its pretty simple. If you need any specific details on how to install the light just send me pm and ill try to help you or anyone else out with it.

 

thaks again guys and Ill get some pics up here in a bit

[pudge1515]

Ok finally! I got some updated pics of the tank after I did my water change. Everything is doing great in the tank. I am also about to switch over from Instant Ocean to Tropic Marine salt. I didnt have a problem with instant Ocean but I heard Tropic Marine's trace elements were more up to par than IO are. I have also posted pics up of my modified hood so you guys can see how I did it.

 

First I went up to Petco and got some coralife legs made for their pc light fixtures (they come in black and clear). Now when I got these there where no holes for screws to go so I had to drill two small holes for my screws. Just a word of caution I would use really skinny and short screws for this and i also found some black ones lying around so they are less noticeable. The skinnier the screw the easier it is to hide if you end up wanting to go back to the closed top, all you have to do is fill in the small screw holes with clear silicone so no salt or water gets into the fixture. Ok now after you get your pilot holes drilled you wan to pick the placement of the legs. Now to screw on the legs I took off the clear plastic covering that protects the lights. After you have CAREFULLY picked the placement of the legs you can start to screw in the legs. Be carefull that you dont cover up any of the moon lights with the leg placement. Here is a pic of how my legs look. See in the picture I drilled the screws so the heads of the screws would be inside the light fixture so I didnt screw into any of the lights. See below

 

 

 

I could have used shorter screws but I was too lazy to go back to home depot and I found these lying around my garage..

 

Well thats about it. Its a pretty simple DIY it just takes patients and planning so that you place the legs straight and where you want them. If anyone has anymore questions about it just shoot me a pm and ill be glad to help you out.

 

Ok on to the updated 6 month and 3 days FTS and such.

 

First pic of some new Palythoas that I got that kind of look like RPEs for $10. They are starting to color up nicely under the MH. They came out of a tank with crappy PCs...

 

Here is a pic of some GSP that I had to move cause something kept dragging it under the rock that it was setting by but now its getting some nice polyp extension and should grow out nicely

 

And last but not least the FTS for the 6 months. Not much has changed but if you look real close at the corals you can see some growth, lol.

 

Thanks for lookin guys and happy reefing

[AcroporaLokani]

Nice mods to the hood, And your corals seem to be loving the 150 watt HQI.

[horizons2098]

hey thanks for posting that light tutorial it was much appreciated. the temp is running too warm for me when it's a closed top at up to 84 degrees; plus i like the idea of more oxygen exchange anyway. keep up the great work- your posts have taught me so much more than what i was getting from the lfs! thanks again

[ddr_phish]

Wow your tank looks absolutely crazy! I love it, especially the Fiji Yellow Leather! Is that an anemone in the top right corner?

[berv]

Thanks for everything Pudge! Will definitely try your suggestions! If I end up with a tank half as good as yours, I'll be happy!