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n0rk's LEDPico Experiment Bonanza


n0rk

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Cheers guys! I've got a few Acro colonies sitting in my main system that're sort of getting ready to be fragged off to put in... I'm gonna throw the light together and then see how we go. They're going well down the bottom of my holding tank under a 250... I suspect in a tank this shallow with a LED as powerful as this they'll go absolutely wild :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much going on in the pico for now, basically just letting it be and letting things get stable before I bother with anything. I lost every single coral I had in my main display (16 colonies, 41 frags) so I've gotta actually buy coral to go in this system, so for now things are going slow. Hopefully building the array early next week, depending when I can order stuff from Cutter to do it. Put a Peppermint Shrimp in here to keep things happy.

 

Reefing is something I'm not entirely happy about right now. Things suck in life and it's one of my least concerns unfortunately to say. Oh well, I started this and I'll pursue it, but I will be going a lot slower than I would otherwise be.

 

I'll get an FTS when there's a point in doing so.

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I got careless and complacent and made stupid mistakes. I lost everything because I was foolish and forgot the single most important rule in this hobby. Oh well.

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Im sorry man. You have plenty of time to get things sorted and glad you're staying with the pico.

Just letting a tank sit for a long while isn't a bad thing usually.

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Aye, definitely not. When I was talking to Anthony Calfo when he was over here, he was talking about advice he got from the Germans when he was first getting into the more advanced methods of keeping... apparently their advice was to load the tank up with live rock and sand and run it as you would a normal tank for 12 to 18 months... just with no stock. Apparently the results of doing so are incredible, massive populations of infauna and a perfectly stable bacterial culture. I guess in a way I'm aiming for a similar effect to that (granted, on a much shorter timescale) before I throw the ZEOvit on this one.

 

Got a few nice frags that I've asked my coral supplier to put aside in his 1200g tank, when the time is right... this is gonna be fun...!

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Sounds like a good plan. Im sorta doing the same.

 

My father started saltwater back in the early 80s and he always told me if I start a tank I have to let it sit for at least 7 months, so it will be a good experiment.

 

Excited to see how the ZEOvit works out and waiting.

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Good news. I just ordered the lighting gear for this tank... so I suspect I'll be keeping things in it soon enough. I'll establish the ZEOvit later down the line as I'll have to wait about a month before all my stuff for it comes in anyway. Ended up with the following:

 

5x CREE XP-G Cool White R4 w/ 20mm Star PCBs

4x CREE XP-E Royal Blue w/ 20mm Star PCBs

2x LuxDrive 3023D-1000 Buckpacks

1x Sonnar (rebranded Meanwell) 60W 24V Switchmode PSU

 

Hopefully this will leave my world a little brighter sometime soon... :naughtydance:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Guess what...? We have lift-off ;) LED gear and skimmer arrived today, so the tank is primed to be stocked with delightful SPS. Should have the ZEOvit stuff for it in ~3 weeks so then things can REALLY heat up :devil: So... how's it look you ask? Pretty sweet, if I do say so myself (which I do - hence my typing it). I'm astounded it worked perfectly first time, with no hiccups at all... it's been about 6 years since I soldered anything with any real precision so it was an exciting moment when I blinded myself with the Royal Blue array... :lol:

 

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Current mix, it's about 80% of the Cool Whites and 100% on the Royal Blues to appease the family's sensibilities. I'm gonna gradually sweep the CW value up as I add stock in.

 

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My 20D's absolutely appaulling attempt to capture the colour of the Royal Blues. This is with the white point swept all the way to 50000K and a -17 Green tint to try and compensate. No luck, it's just... impossible to capture them.

 

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100% on both. I like that viewing angle... which works because it's my seat at the dinner table too :)

 

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100% Cool White, 0% Royal Blue.

 

All images untouched except the Royal Blue... the quality of the light has to be seen to be believed. Stunning, stunning stuff and I'm convinced I've made the right decision.

 

 

omgomgomg

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Thanks a lot guys :) hopefully getting the Montipora danae that survived my main display's crash back sometime in the next couple of days, then stocking can commence. I'm really eagerly awaiting getting this thing under way... I'll be taking progressive weekly shots to compare growth. I'll also be doing something I never do in tanks... keeping my hands out a hell of a lot more... I hear it yields good results... :happydance:

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Who really thought I could stay away for long? Are you kidding me? Not a hope in hell of that! :naughtydance:

 

IMG_7996.jpg

 

Spot the difference? ;)

 

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Let's face it.. I'd be a pretty poor Acromaniac if I didn't rush out to grab some the first chance I got... :haha: seem to be doing well enough so far, right now I'm in the acclimation phase for lighting. Right now it's about 40% of the Cool Whites only, and swapping over to 50% Royal Blue at night. When I swap over the extension is absolutely insane. I'll try get a shot of it later.

 

 

Let's see how they go! :scarry:

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Well thank you! I hope I can keep providing visual awesomeness for some time to come... :D first time I've attempted a pico so we'll see...

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