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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Daves Shallow SPS 35g


DaveFason

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Ok, well I think I will be able to mimic that :D I am going to purchase some dry rock and scape around acrylic rods and use aquamend to keep it together. The right side of my rock has a VERY cool ledge and I could work off of that but, that rock has more aptasia on it than Pizza face has zits. The only thing that will suck is taking these corals off.

 

I've also been tossing the idea around about using Ozone. I would use a Sanders 25mg/hr unit and hook it up to my skimmer and maybe a air dryer. I am going to look into this but seeing SDguys and Gadgets from RC and R2R it looks like the fish are floating!

 

As for the Apogons Parvulus ( Red Spot Cardinals ) I had 10. Slowly I had them die on me and could not figure out why. Once I bought the Vortech the 4 that were left looked 10x healthier. Here's what I will do the next go around...

 

- Feed twice a day, they will eat ANYTHING and everything. The best time to feed is when the lights go out. In the wild they will hunt at night.

- Tons of flow. When I had two 6025's it was not enough. With the Vortech going full blast they tend to play swim and front and all over

- Realize that you will loose a few off the bat.

- You need a open tank. Plenty of room for them to swim. Mine has never swam in between rocks. Only on the outside.

- Buy as many as your can afford. They are awesome ;)

 

-Dave

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Tryssogobius colini - Blue Eye Dart Gobies. They school and are tiny. >1"

 

I've been wanting to buy some but keep missing out!

 

-Dave

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Ugh!

 

So after reading evils posts about the new wide optic LED spotlights I am seriously thinking about running them.

 

Six on the new tank and only running 90 watts! :D

 

I guess time will tell....

 

-D

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I've also been tossing the idea around about using Ozone. I would use a Sanders 25mg/hr unit and hook it up to my skimmer and maybe a air dryer. I am going to look into this but seeing SDguys and Gadgets from RC and R2R it looks like the fish are floating!

 

The Sander units seem nice. What kind of price can you get it for? The ones I saw were all close to $200.

 

If you don't want to run ozone in your skimmer, you can get an Aqua Medic 1000 hermetically sealed CO2 reactor for $70.

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Dry rock is definitely the way to go if you want to accomplish a really unique aquascape. I have had really great experiences with the EcoRox that I got from BRS. Incredibly cheap, you get a TON of rock per pound, and PEST FREE guaranteed.

 

I envision building another scape for a future tank but like you said, it's simply going to blow having to chip off all of the encrusted SPS.

 

Ugh!

 

So after reading evils posts about the new wide optic LED spotlights I am seriously thinking about running them.

 

Six on the new tank and only running 90 watts! :D

 

I guess time will tell....

 

-D

 

Dave, I'm right there with you on the Par38 wide optic LEDs. I have contemplated selling my TX5 fixture and replacing it with 3-4 of them hung with track lighting. I just haven't quite seen enough results with SPS to persuade me at this point. Coral are currently happy with the T5s and I'm just leery of ruining a good thing ;)

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Uhuru - My LFS store for around 140. As for the reactor, would this go directly to the Ozone box then feed where to the tank?

 

Adam - I know the feeling. The superman would be a ##### and the setosa! Oh well I guess I will have to do it though.

 

As far as the LED's go... I still want to see how people grow SPS with them. My T5's have been amazing and have done nothing wrong. My new tank wont be set up until Feb-March it will give me some time to decide.

 

-Dave

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Uhuru - My LFS store for around 140. As for the reactor, would this go directly to the Ozone box then feed where to the tank?

 

Adam - I know the feeling. The superman would be a ##### and the setosa! Oh well I guess I will have to do it though.

 

As far as the LED's go... I still want to see how people grow SPS with them. My T5's have been amazing and have done nothing wrong. My new tank wont be set up until Feb-March it will give me some time to decide.

 

-Dave

 

Sounds like a good deal! Yes you run the ozone from your Sander unit through silicone airline tubing directly into the CO2 reactor input. You also use a small pump to run water through it, probably 80-100 gph (the benefit here is you can adjust it to maximize contact time without affecting skimmer performance). The CO2 reactor has a bleed valve for gas and a flow output for water. The flow is made up of ozone/water so you run that through some carbon to remove the ozone byproducts/excess ozone, ensuring that nothing harmful goes back to your tank. The bleed valve is left open all the time and you connect more carbon to it, to filter the ozone gas before it goes into the air (with a skimmer it is much harder to do this and you usually end up leaking ozone into your room). Use silicone tubing for everything.

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Uhuru - Thanks for the info. John from iTech does custom stuff for everyones skimmer and this is what I am thinking of doing....

 

Here's a link....

 

http://www.i-techskimmers.com/forums/showt...highlight=ozone

 

He has built an extra carbon holder to the top of the collection cup. Then I would plan on running my BRS ROX on the outside of the skimmers output. With this I think that it would collect all excess ozone products from the top escaping and from the output.

 

So I would run a Sanders 25 to my skimmer using a Jaco fitting and then my RKL to monitor the ORP. I am thinking of running a air dryer too if needed. They make ozone sound so complicated but all in all if you watch it just like your params I think it should be easy. With my new tank I should only need to run 5-10mg an hour, if that.

 

-Dave

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Thanks Uhuru! I really hope I can achieve that air looking tank ;)

 

My only other thought it going BB with the new tank. I dont think I can do it but I may see how it looks first.

 

-Dave

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I would only do BB if you do white PVC on the bottom. THAT would be cleeeean, so cleeeeean, but a lot of work to maintain. Maybe a bunch of urchins would help though.

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So I just got back from the glass shop. WOW!

 

Glass 101

 

-Once you get to 1/2" Low Iron glass there will be a slight green tint. Under that it will be 100% clear, its AMAZING the difference between low iron and standard.

-Beveling. Elos tanks are not beveled, they are flat iron polished. This makes a cut that looks beveled but in reality it is not.

-Standard glass sucks ;)

 

The girl who has been helping me out showed me everything they can do. I am choosing 3/8's flat iron polishing. It really looks AMAZING with the low iron. I should have the glass by Christmas and I will show you the difference. After seeing this I got even more excited about this build and cant not wait for you guys to see the finished product.

 

I also ordered a Sanders 25mg/hr Ozone unit. Whoop! This tank is going to be ultra clear.

 

-Dave

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Jawfish biotype?

 

Left side with overhangs and rock sticking outward ( like in the FW scape ) then an open scape of 3-5" sand for 20".

 

4-5 jawfish and a couple smaller fish and inverts.....

 

Hmmmm :mellow:

 

-Dave

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Jawfish biotype?

 

That would be awesome to see. Love the natural reef shots of Jawfish and other sand dwellers popping their heads in and out of their burrows.

 

Love the mouth on this guy :o

 

 

nature_jawfish_JimChambers.TuckerGA.jpg

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Well I picked up my PVC board and its a BEAST. I should be able to get my glass before or right after Christmas so its really under way :)

 

I had to sell my WM with xmas around the corner. I felt a little down until I got a 500$ PP to my account!

 

The tank is still on auto-drive. Just dosing and feeding and things have been doing great. My flasher wrasse jump today when I was at work so that sucks but I will replace it with a cool fish soon.

 

I'm getting a little bit better with the camera but I really want to try one that feels good in my hands. So I will be shopping around. This gives me tons of practice so I cant complain.

 

PVC Board!!!

pvc-vi.jpg

Undata Macro

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Purple Tip Nana

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ATL Pink Cap Macro ( turned out a little blah )

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Tubs Purple Polyp Birdsnest

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Blenny

birds-vi.jpg

Mummy Eye, EME, BGM

chalice-vi.jpg

Clown

clown-vi.jpg

clown2-vi.jpg

 

Hope you like!

 

-Dave

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WOW....look how thick that PVC is :o . Can't wait to see how it looks when you start putting the tank together and I can't wait until you can build me my tank ;)

 

Pictures look great....looks like you're starting to get a hang of the shallow depth of field with macro lenses. The only thing I can suggest is to be careful to try and take the shots perpendicular to the subject (aka try to not shoot at too severe of angles). Just helps with distortion.

 

Other than that, keep up the good work with the camera and the tank. Things really like nice and happy, healthy, and colorful.

 

-Adam

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Thanks on the tips Adam.

 

The PVC is very thick! After laying it down I have tons of ideas for aquascaping. Having this much depth to work with the ideas are endless.

 

-Dave

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Deleted User 6

coming along great dave!

 

my LFS wants $30 each for mini dart gobies special ordered. Know of an online vendor who has them cheaper?

 

Mummy Eye, EME, BGM

chalice-vi.jpg

 

Nice!

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Not that I know of. Thats a crazy price! I think they cost them 8$...

 

So..... BIG....... DAY........

 

updates tomorrow afternoon/night :D

 

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angel4c.gif

 

And I have OZONE! It wont be hooked up until the new tank is built.

 

-Dave

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