Chyendra's 30 Hex

[Chyendra]

Yes, I switched from the stock Jbj bulb to a Pheonix 150w 14,000K

[JBM]

how do you like the color on the 14k bulb? is it blue enough for you.

[Chyendra]

The color is perfect, I love it. I used to run actinic with my 14k Ushio, which it needed, but the Pheonix is blue enough without actinics IMO.

 

I'll try to get an updated pic of my tank with the Pheonix. That last FTS is with the JbJ bulb.

[JBM]

really? Ushio isnt all that blue... but the pheonix is? Good thing i checked your thread, cause it's time for me to swap out bulbs... i have a 14k pheonix, but was considering ushio (because it seems like a better name)

[Chyendra]

Don't get me wrong, I really liked my Ushio, and I got great coral growth and color from it, but I had to supplement actinics. I had a 70 watt, and maybe the 150watts are bluer?? but they are nice bulbs, and mine lasted for a long time (10 months plus) it just got yellower over time. I would have gotten a ushio again, but on my new tank, I don't have room for actinics.

[Chyendra]

Ok, I finally had some free time to take updated pics after cleaning my tank.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chyendra]

 

 

hmm... I guess I'm at my upload limit? I suppose a FTS will have to wait.

[lakshwadeep]

Get a free photobucket account, and post the IMG code.

[Chyendra]

 

[uwwmatt]

Your tank is really looking nice.

[squirrelieygrrrl]

hey Chyendra

 

the tank looks amazing! after seeing how good your tank looks im definitely gonna upgrade to my hex once i have some spare cash to sink into it.

 

now ive got the upgrade itch. lol

 

tc hun

[Chyendra]

thanks Matt. I think it's finally maturing. I didn't want it to look like a frag explosion, but it's just so hard to say no!

 

Squirrlieygrrrl: Thanks for the comments, The hex shape is fun, but it takes alot of rearranging to find just the right spot for each coral (how close to the light, how much flow.. ect) Good luck with your's, I'd love to see a few more hexagons on the site

[squirrelieygrrrl]

lol, i hear ya there.

 

i didnt wanna put a bunch of frags in my tank either.... so much for that idea. lol

 

btw.... sowee for the painful redundancy in my prior post.... its late... im not making as much sense as i usually do! if i do at all. lol.

[Chyendra]

I figure its time for an update, and time to clear my mind of all the stuff I've been trying to figure out lately.

 

Where to start.... well, about 4 months after getting my phoenix bulb, my sps colors began to fade again. I can't figure out why, except that the initial drop in par was just enough to fall below what they needed. As a result, I thought that maybe I would try to feed them more, so see if that would help. So I got some Rod's coral food, and some DT's. Not long after I started feeding the tank more heavily, I got a bryopsis outbreak, which I've been battling all summer. I since Stopped feeding anything but the fish, and I've been trying to pull it out/suck it out with my siphon, but it grows back very quickly. It seems to be isolated to two different rocks, but the rocks are on opposite sides of the tank from one another, and my entire rockwork is glue together, so there's no way I could just remove the rocks to clean them. It's been rough I wouldn't wish Bryopsis on anybody. NOTHING eats this stuff! I went through 3 different emerald crabs, and I got a Tuxedo Urchin (which supposedly eat it but mine is more interested in coralline algae). I was considering a lawnmower blenny, but everyone I talked to seemed to think that it wouldn't eat it. So, I've been trying to remove as much as I can in during my NOW weekly water changes (I was doing every other week until then, which seemed to work great).

 

Any hints on how other people have beaten this? My phosphate levels are 0 and my nitrates are between 5-10ppm but my test kit sucks, so who knows. I started dosing vodka, and I haven't noticed very much of a change, but I just started last week to we'll see. I'll check my levels again tomorrow.

 

 

Besides the bryopsis, and the fact that all my SPS are turning brown under my 150w MH, the rest of the tank is good. My LPS are thriving; my orange monticap is growing like a beast! It's starting to shade the corals beneath it so I might have to gently start breaking some pieces off. It's so pretty though, I'm reluctant to change it. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

 

True to their reputation my firefish jumped out of the tank I was procrastinating putting an eggcrate top on the tank because he seemed to be doing fine, but it only takes 1 wrong jump

 

I've replaced him with a little 6-line wrasse so hopefully he will get along with the gramma, clown, and neon. (all which seem very happy and healthy)

 

So I'm reconsidering my lighting, and wondering if I could get more out of a 150w MH if I had a better reflector (The viper one seems really bad after comparing it to other fixtures) I also replaced my Phoenix with a 12K reeflux, hoping that it would have a higher par than the phoenix, but no changes so far after 2 weeks of using it. It's not as blue as the phoenix, so I'm thinking about looking for a different fixture that has T5 Actinics incorporated in it, but my tank is only 20" wide at the widest part, so It's been a challenge. Any ideas? I'm on a student budget so I'm trying to keep it under $200 if possible.

 

Well, thats my story. I will try to get updated pics soon.

 

 

Oh, and I ordered an Auto-topoff DIY kit from Bulkreefsupply and a refractometer. I'm finally going to get serious about stabilizing my SG. I hope it helps my SPS.

[skimlessinseattle]

I have never experienced bryopsis, but I do know a lot of people on this site use Kent Tech M to solve the problem. A level of 1600 seems to be the magic number. Just keep it there and the bryopsis should die off. Oh, and you're gonna need a big bottle of it! I'm sure someone here who has experienced it first hand can let you in on any and all of the fine details. Good luck with that battle!

 

If you are dosing vodka, make sure you are skimming 24/7 as the bacterial blooms dosing produces can have a detrimental impact on your tanks oxygen supply if you don't remove the growing bacterial biomass from the water column. Also, your nitrate and phosphate levels will definitely go down, but to remove them from your system, you have to skim the bacteria using those molecules out.

 

If you aren't skimming, I would suggest going the refugium route instead to knock those levels done to zero. I recently added a 10 gallon display fuge to my 29 display tank; results were and are stellar!

 

Sorry to hear about the firefish. You will however enjoy the 6 line! I love to watch mine pick pods off the rocks. His belly is always bloated with them!

 

I have zero experience with HQi lights, so I can't help you there - I have problems getting my t5ho's to look the way I want so I feel your pain. Hope the SPS regain some good color.

[Chyendra]

Thanks for the reply!

 

I order some magnesium supplement from bulkreefsuppy because I heard that high mag will help kill the bryopsis too. Does it matter what brand?

 

I am skimming, I have an aqua C remora that runs 24/7

 

My project this summer was to build a display fuge, but my display tank isn't drilled, and I was having so much difficulty with trying to figure out how to plumb it that I sort of gave up. I just really didn't want to see something go wrong and have water all over my apartment, or worse, lose some of my favorite corals. Thats when I decided to go with the vodka dosing method.

 

Do you have a build thread of your display fuge showing how you plumbed it?

[louphoenix]

Hi,

 

I'm new to nano-reef but i've been reefing for quite a long time. I myself have a 65 gallon sumpless Hexagon tank that's been up for well over a year. I didn't battle bryopsis but hair algae, which sprouted around 6 months after I set up the tank. I was able to beat it, after taking a few things into consideration.

 

1. Flow. At first I was running a couple of maxijet 1200s which did ok for a while, but did not provide the turbulence necessary to keep detritus from settling down. I solved this by replacing the maxijets with 2 Koralia 2 at the top of the tank, blowing across so their paths meet and create random turbulence and then I placed 2 Koralia 3's 3/4 of the way down to the bottom of the tank, also blowing on a cross pattern. The K3's are on a Seio Controller, which switches their power between 50 and 100% every 30 seconds. This creates a great deal of turbulence with flow that keeps anything from settling down.

 

2. Skimming. Since I don't have a sump, efficient skimming becomes paramount. I was running a Remora too, with the Maxijet 1200 pump, but it left much to be desired. After much research I pegged it down to either the Tunze Reef pack HOB and the Deltec MCE600. I chose the latter and i've never looked back. IMO, it is by far the best HOB skimmer out there. I also like that the pump is housed inside the skimmer, so you don't have to deal with having to look at some ugly pump in the tank.

 

3. Deadspots. Looking at your pictures, you have a bare bottom tank, which makes it easier to maintain. In my case, i've always liked sand, so I have a 3 inch sandbed in mine. At first, I set up my live rock right on top of the sand, but it was a big no-no after realizing that most of the hair algae clumps were accumulating at the bottom of the tank, where the rock meets the sand. I solved this by putting straight PVC fittings/connectors (they're thicker and just the right size) upright on the sand and setting up the rock on top, which lifts it away from the sand and allows flow to reach beneath the rock. I read that the PVC fittings will trap sand inside and become nitrate factories, so I solved this by drilling 1 inch holes across the PVC fittings, so that the sand inside would not be isolated and my snalis / worms / other creatures could navigate freely in the sand, right through the PVC fittings.

 

4. Feedings and dosing. Definitely customize your feeding schedule so that all your corals and fish get just enough to eat... not too much and not too little. Make sure you rinse your food and use additives (like selcon) properly. I always use 1/4 less than the recommended amount for my tank and that keeps nutrient levels in check. As far dosing goes, I maintain a strict schedule of C balance A-B dosing every day, and I also add Magnesium as needed (usually once every two weeks for my tank), I use Seachem's Reef Magnesium and that's worked very well. I also dose amino-acids every two weeks. It's easy to go overboard with the dosing and the additives, so I do things in small portions, slowly incrementing overtime if needed.

 

5. Photoperiod. You have new bulbs, so your light output shouldn't be losing intensity at all. I use a Current Outer Orbit fixture in my tank: 150W Ushio 14K with 2 65W actinic PCs. I keep SPS in the top of the tank, LPS in the middle and softies at the bottom. Everything is growing well. When I dealt with hair algae, I did extended periods of complete darkness (1 or 2 days) which helped a great deal in getting rid of it. SPS weren't too happy about it, but they bounced back well.

 

I added an HOB refugium some time ago, which was a DIY project I did using the AquaClear 70 filter and a mini PC light fixture. After modding it I am running Chaeto in it and it has made a world of difference in terms of nutrient loads and copepod/amphipod population.

 

I also run GFI on a phosban reactor and Carbon and Purigen in the media chamber of the skimmer. That really helps in keeping the water crystal clear and it neutralizes the effects of coral aggression.

 

Hope this helps you in some way. I know it definitely worked for me!

 

L.

[Chyendra]

WOW

 

thanks for all the ideas.

 

I'm rearranging my powerheads and adding my ATO as soon as I get a free evening to work on it.

 

I got the magnesium supplement from Bulkreefsupply, but I haven't had time to mix it up and dose any.

 

I think the vodka dosing plus removing as much as I can once a week is helping. It doesn't seem to be growing back as quickly, and my tuxeo urchin is finally cleaning that rock, so that might help too.

 

I'll let you know how it goes.

[louphoenix]

Good! doing small and frequent water changes is the best way to remove nutrients from any tank. Post some pictures soon... I always enjoy seeing other Hexagon reefs! I will start a thread for mine soon. I just gotta dig up some of my older pics for comparison.

[Chyendra]

Interesting comparison between lighting.

 

Viper w/ JBJ 14k bulb

 

Viper w/ Pheonix 14k

 

Viper w/ Reeflux 12k

 

Odysea w/ stock bulb 14k + actinics

 

Odysea w/ Reeflux 12k + actinics

[louphoenix]

The reflectors make a world of difference... I'm digging the last picture (Odysea with 12K Reeflux).

[Chyendra]

Yah, I think this fixture, (dispite the mixed reviews) definetly has a better reflector than the viper. I think the 12k + actinic combo is just right to bring out the best colors. We'll see if the reflector difference and the addition of actinics is enough to color up my SPS again. They keep going brown on me.

[JBM]

i also have an odysea. i love it.

 

granted i dont use there ballast.

 

i like the pics

[Chyendra]

What ballast do you use with it? Did you find one that fits the plug or did you have to rewire it?

[Militant Jurist]

Your tank looks great! I'm kind of surprised that most of your SPS is browning out under your lighting. I'm also contemplating adding a display fuge to my tank, and I've been seeing a few members using a gravity HOB overflow. It seems simple enough, and at least one member has been using it for a while with success, saying that it consistently restarts itself, even after power-loss. It's a bit nerve wracking, but I'm tempted to try it!

 

I noticed a few pages back that you mentioned being in vet school. I know a bit about how demanding vet programs can be, and it's nice to know I'm not the only doctoral student crazy enough to put in the time required for a successful SPS tank!