Matt's 3g JBJ Picotope

[Bill Nye]

I fiddled with the light fixture a bit and the PAR38 is now about 14" above the water. It was maybe around 10" above it before. We'll see if this makes a difference...

 

Didnt know you had 40 degree optics, those are pretty serious for such a small tank. Especially with birdnests up top you will want to raise that up. I have my birdsnest in the bottom 1/2 of my tank. If I were you I would buy something you can use on a bigger tank because you seem like you want to upgrade.

 

I saw you were looking at a biocube. I could have picked up a 9 g nanowave for like 50 bucks but im not really a fan of the cube AIOs. If you got the money to spend I would get a slightly bigger picoaquarium. You could get the barracuda but personally if I was going to switch tanks I would move up a little. If you got some time on your hands you could even diy a mr aqua or ada.

[Clavius85]

Just tested my water:

 

dKH - 8

Nitrate - 10?

Calcium - < 400

[Bill Nye]

Weird. You said you dose every day right? I never dose my tank and it always stays stable between water changes and I have a clam (I do wc a gallon twice a week though). What salt do you use?

[Clavius85]

Didnt know you had 40 degree optics, those are pretty serious for such a small tank. Especially with birdnests up top you will want to raise that up. I have my birdsnest in the bottom 1/2 of my tank. If I were you I would buy something you can use on a bigger tank because you seem like you want to upgrade.

 

I saw you were looking at a biocube. I could have picked up a 9 g nanowave for like 50 bucks but im not really a fan of the cube AIOs. If you got the money to spend I would get a slightly bigger picoaquarium. You could get the barracuda but personally if I was going to switch tanks I would move up a little. If you got some time on your hands you could even diy a mr aqua or ada.

I didn't know anything about optics when I bought the ecoxotic PAR38.

 

Weird. You said you dose every day right? I never dose my tank and it always stays stable between water changes and I have a clam (I do wc a gallon twice a week though). What salt do you use?

I haven't been dosing it lately. I had a death in the family so the tank has been kind of put on the backburner. But I did do a 1g water change on Saturday... I think. I can't even remember it's all a blur. Anyway, I noticed yesterday that some of the SPS in the upper portion of the tank wasn't looking so hot. I'm using ReefCrystals salt.

[Bill Nye]

Sorry to hear that. Reefing always takes a backseat to stuff like that so I wouldn't feel too bad about it. From what your saying they just need a little TLC and maybe less light . I wonder how long it will take to notice a difference from raising the lamp. You could even try putting a couple screens over if they are bleaching to let them recover. Good luck!

[Clavius85]

Just tested my Alk and it was at 8. So I added about 2.5ml of B-Ionic Part 1 and it brought the Alk up to 10. I think that's where I would like it to be...

[SparksReef]

What do you do as far as a maintaince like how often do you do water changes? how much? any doseing? sorry for all the questions, great looking tank so far

[Clavius85]

What do you do as far as a maintaince like how often do you do water changes? how much? any doseing? sorry for all the questions, great looking tank so far

At the moment I'm trying to do a 1g water change twice a week. I'm dosing approximately 2.5ml of B-Ionic two part solution daily.

[Mitch619]

Any updates?

 

My condolences for your loss.

[Clavius85]

Tank is still chugging along despite my recent neglect. The little damsel is doing fine, eats well and is very active. Corals seem to be doing better since I raised the light. Cyano is still present but is less than it was before. So it must be directly related to my light. Buying a PicoAquariums.com tank is probably out of the question for the time being due to finances. However, I still want one.

[.Newman.]

btw idk if i mentioned this already but I have had the same HOB filter PITA problem as you for a while now. a few days ago I too the motor off the AC70, rinsed it with SW and got all that sand out of it. plus I rinsed the inside of the magnet that the impeller attaches to. thats probably what the major problem was. the magnet went back very smoothly and the filter is not only quiet now, but is also not stopping any more. I advise you do the same to yours. just drain it first (x_x). he motor is unscrewed at the bottom. dont worry you wont break the seal by unscrewing it from the main HOB structure.

[Bill Nye]

Glad to hear your tank is still doing well. Get us some pictures!

 

 

btw idk if i mentioned this already but I have had the same HOB filter PITA problem as you for a while now. a few days ago I too the motor off the AC70, rinsed it with SW and got all that sand out of it. plus I rinsed the inside of the magnet that the impeller attaches to. thats probably what the major problem was. the magnet went back very smoothly and the filter is not only quiet now, but is also not stopping any more. I advise you do the same to yours. just drain it first (x_x). he motor is unscrewed at the bottom. dont worry you wont break the seal by unscrewing it from the main HOB structure.

 

I clean mine out every once in a while but it always goes back to suck relatively quickly. I cant wait to upgrade to an aio.

[.Newman.]

first time I cleaned mine out in 9.5 months lol. it really needed that!

[Clavius85]

Thanks Newman, I've cleaned out the pump/impeller on the AC several times now.

 

I'd take some pictures but I just did a water change and the tank is very cloudy. While doing the water change I decided to take out the 1/2 unit of Chemi-Pure Elite that I was using. I think the Chemi-Pure was just acting like filter floss in the AC and catching a ton of dirt and debris rendering it useless. So I threw it out and now the only thing in the AC is filter floss.

[.Newman.]

personally i like the insurance chemipure provides against toxic slime buildup and w/e other toxins corals might secrete. yes to some extent it does act like filter floss, but not as well as floss, and the problem is avoided by rinsing the chemi pure bag in old tank water during every WC. I do that weekly. no problems.

[Bill Nye]

Thanks Newman, I've cleaned out the pump/impeller on the AC several times now.

 

I'd take some pictures but I just did a water change and the tank is very cloudy. While doing the water change I decided to take out the 1/2 unit of Chemi-Pure Elite that I was using. I think the Chemi-Pure was just acting like filter floss in the AC and catching a ton of dirt and debris rendering it useless. So I threw it out and now the only thing in the AC is filter floss.

 

I found this as well. I was having cyano problems and I couldnt figure it out so I decided to change my bag of chemipure. Turned out it must have accumulated a bunch of crap even though I rinsed it out alot. Now I just run a crap ton of filter floss over my intake and run the CPE underneath my chaeto.

[Clavius85]

[Bill Nye]

Looking good.

 

Is that birdnest in the middle a ponape? It looks pretty similiar to mine but way bigger. It has purple/red tips with a white/greenish body but its hard to tell.

[Clavius85]

Looking good.

 

Is that birdnest in the middle a ponape? It looks pretty similiar to mine but way bigger. It has purple/red tips with a white/greenish body but its hard to tell.

Thanks. I really have no idea what type of birdsnest it is.

[Clavius85]

Video shot today:

 

http://youtu.be/_VBXwh_kAE8?hd=1

[Wiilio]

Nice vid! I might have to sub

 

How much did your yellowtail hide when you first got it? I know you said it came out and started eating early on, but did it hide much when it wasn't? Mine usually stays under the overhang of my rock and doesn't like to come out into the open, but this is only the second day I've had it.

 

And does it by chance have a name?

[Clavius85]

Mine hid for a few hours. Now it only hides when the light is off. I would just give yours some time and it will eventually get comfortable. And no, I didn't name it. I don't name my fish.

[Clavius85]

Thinking about changing my light... Nanotuners has their 20K PAR38 with 60 degree optics on sale for $88. And BoostLED has their PAR30's on sale for $64.99. Would 60 degree optics be better suited for my tank? And what is the difference between PAR30 and PAR38?

[Bill Nye]

I cant really tell you the difference between par 30 and 38 other than the obvious the par 38 is probably a little stronger. IMO 60 degrees optics is probably better suited to your tank and you will get better color mixing. That being said if you are having success with the light now I probably wouldnt spend 60-80 bucks to get pretty much the same thing.

[Clavius85]

Yeah I guess I'll just stick with the light that I have. Probably makes the most sense.