Newman's Picotope

[.Newman.]

amen (sorry Micro )

[racechase]

i tried

[parishilton]

Sorry to hear what has happened. I think you should seriously consider about buying chiller or ice probe or whatever because all the corals in your tank probably cost you more than that. And it is not just money I am talking about here, time and effort you spent also. Believe me it is not worth losing all the corals because of the problem that is easily avoidable.

[.Newman.]

i will see if a simple fan will keep me good until summer ends. then it all gets easier from there and gives me time to earn enough for a chiller come next summer.

[Mr. Microscope]

ok here is what I did, i plugged my heatsink fan into an outlet thats on all the time instead of only "lighted day hours" With this the temp at night is 79F

if this is the regular pattern throughout a normal week then 82F-79F daily swing is just about nothing. just as long as i dont run into the 90F+ days again >_<

 

@racechase: LOL

 

 

Hmm..sounds like a plan. I'm glad to see a new found confidence. GO NEWMAN! We're all hoping for the best.

 

......however, if you -want- to send me your corals, I think I could find the room for a month.

 

On second thought, maybe I don't have the room. D'oh!

[parishilton]

Hmm..sounds like a plan. I'm glad to see a new found confidence. GO NEWMAN! We're all hoping for the best.

 

......however, if you -want- to send me your corals, I think I could find the room for a month.

 

On second thought, maybe I don't have the room. D'oh!

 

Or ship them to me instead

[.Newman.]

lol

[andrewkw]

I'm not a pico expert, but unless you have an MH over it, I don't see how you could ever need a chiller.

 

I'd suggest a big enough fan and a reefkeeper lite. A reefkeeper lite is just 99$ and it will do a lot of other things. You can plug the fan and even a second fan in. Set one fan to go on when the temp reaches 81 set the second one to come on when it reaches 83. This is how I keep my 112 gallon cool. 2 fans can cool it about 3-5 degrees probably more if I pointed and positioned them better. You could clip a smaller fan to your fuge and maybe place a bigger desk fan over the tank.

 

You will of course need an ATO if you are using fans to cool your pico. Maybe a chiller is more economical? They do take a lot more power though so that's another thing to keep in mind.

[.Newman.]

why would i need a chiller? cuz w/o it my temps reach 90F on very hot daysin the summer. global warming will not make things any easier with each year either.

 

I did point my LED fan onto the water and that seems to be keeping a max temp of 82F.

the ATO on this tank would go nuts if I added my airking fan.

plus that controller costs just about as much as an iceprobe chiller =/

 

thatnks for the help tho, I was going crazy two days ago trying to figure out how many fans to get and how to mount/position them. seems ok for the time being,

[andrewkw]

Do you not have AC in your house? If that's the case you should consider investing in a small unit and sleeping beside your tank.

 

The controller costs the same but it uses less energy and does a lot more things.

[.Newman.]

we have very old AC and thus i am not allowed to use AC in the house

tank cant really be moved. its in the "pet" room right now lol with a sun conure cage and my 10 gal NR. stuff like this 3 gal NR wont be tolerated in any other room than this one.

 

I will think about the controller or chiller for next summer. i might as well just deal with the problem with fans until this summer ends and outside temps drop, and i can finally rely on my heater to keep the temp lower and stable.

[.Newman.]

Ok, as the final update before i go on vacation, here is a bad phone pic of the tank as of now, because i could not get my camera:

 

I have raised the LEDs higher (following Micro's approach) because i think i will have much better growth with less intensity. most of my corals are low light anyway.

I am doing a huge zooplankton feeding of the tank today and I'll be doing a big water change tomorrow to prepare my tank for the month w/o my care.

[racechase]

I wish you the best of luck, my friend

[c_k_kuehne]

we have very old AC and thus i am not allowed to use AC in the house

tank cant really be moved. its in the "pet" room right now lol with a sun conure cage and my 10 gal NR. stuff like this 3 gal NR wont be tolerated in any other room than this one.

 

Sounds like the "pet" room really needs AC.

 

A small 110 volt window AC unit will cost you less then $150 and if you keep it set sort of high (just enough to maintain a stable tank temp) then you really are not going to use much electricity per month. In a year probably less then the cost of replacing a nice pico full of corals.

 

For 80% of the USA a AC unit is really a must have if your going to have a reef tank.

 

I set my house AC at 82 during the day. It does make my RKL and evaporative fan do some work. But my tank has never gone over 81 and I live in Central GA where the average temp for the last 2 months has been 95+ with no end in sight --- the next 2 days is suppose to be 100+ with a heat index of 110-115

[Mr. Microscope]

I have raised the LEDs higher (following Micro's approach) because i think i will have much better growth with less intensity. most of my corals are low light anyway.

I am doing a huge zooplankton feeding of the tank today and I'll be doing a big water change tomorrow to prepare my tank for the month w/o my care.

If you looked at my post about photo-period, one reefer gave very strong evidence (including a scientific paper) about a 4 on 8 off 4 on 8 off photo period producing the best growth. Since you'll be away and not viewing it, this would be a perfect opportunity to see what kind a growth you get.

[scythe]

If you looked at my post about photo-period, one reefer gave very strong evidence (including a scientific paper) about a 4 on 8 off 4 on 8 off photo period producing the best growth. Since you'll be away and not viewing it, this would be a perfect opportunity to see what kind a growth you get.

 

I want to try this, but i don't know how well the 8 off during the day will work with other light from outside sources entering the tank. Can you link me to that post I looked for it but I couldn't find it. I run 11 hours on 13 off right now just because i'm home all day.

[.Newman.]

thats interesting micro. i run my light 8 on and the rest off, but ill program my powerstrip timer thing right now. thanks c_k_k, i'd do that (i'd move my room A unit into that petroom) but none of the windows in that room are made to open for an AC unit... like they have these wierd decorative layers of cross hatched wood on them thats built into the window frame that cant be removed to fit the AC. such a dumb window construction >_< .

[badfish816]

sux about the heat issue bro. you have more wars then any one i know.

[Eashton123]

Newman, I did that fixture mod that you talked about in your thread. My one fluorescent bulb turns on but then after running for a while it shuts off and tries to kick back on every second but can't. Any idea what that might mean? Bad bulb, bad connections? I assume since it turns on the connections 11 22 as evil states in his post are correct.

 

Thanks

Eric

[Mr. Microscope]

I want to try this, but i don't know how well the 8 off during the day will work with other light from outside sources entering the tank. Can you link me to that post I looked for it but I couldn't find it. I run 11 hours on 13 off right now just because i'm home all day.

 

I was doing the same. Here's a link to the post. If you ever want to find another post that I made, I always put a link in my tank thread so that I can go back and find them. This was on page 26.

 

Photo period, How long is your's and why?

[friar1]

I just set up my lights today for this photo period. 6 to 10 am and 6 to 10 pm, which actually will work very well for me, since that is when I am home.

 

And I do have other light filtering into the tank from other sources, so we will see.

 

And Newman? Good luck with your tank during your "Away Time"

 

Friar

[.Newman.]

Newman, I did that fixture mod that you talked about in your thread. My one fluorescent bulb turns on but then after running for a while it shuts off and tries to kick back on every second but can't. Any idea what that might mean? Bad bulb, bad connections? I assume since it turns on the connections 11 22 as evil states in his post are correct.

 

Thanks

Eric

 

thats either you not getting the sequence correct (double check what evil said about that 11 22 arrangement and then chakc again if you did it right) also it can be a bad bulb or damaged fixture...idk it worked real well for my fixture, no issues.

 

and thanks Friar and others. Since i raised the heatsink much higher the fan's exhaust no longer reaches the water so no more cooling . Tank now stays around 84F. It only needs to pull through this last month, then i know temps will begin to cool.

[.Newman.]

back from the 4 week vacation. this tank looked much better that the other one, but still, I lost my nerite snail who crawled out and lay dried up under the light fixture. surely dead, trap door hanging open. Some algae on the glass but the most frightening thing was that I think bryopsis returned and settled in thick mats on the filter waterfall part. nothing on my rockwork luckily since the emerald crab takes care of it well.

hermit crab was seen alive, and so were many new growing cerith snails and one asterinid starfish. two corals bleached completely while i was gone, my Acan and my Blasto. theyre still alive but i doubt will recover their color. ill keep them in the tank in hopes that they will live on.

FTS before i started to clean the glass:

oh and btw when i started to clean the tank, the light fixture fell and the blue string of LEDs stopped working. I tried to solder them together many times but they just wont work. idk if it's the driver or the LEDs themselves but now i only have white light feeding my corals. this FTS was taken right before the thing fell x_x

[badfish816]

welcome back homie!. tank looks great. never better......lol. get it cleaned up and snap a pic. sux about the corals and light. but at least you have a tank..haha.

[Mr. Microscope]

Welcome back Newman!!! Glad to see the tank made it with minimal losses. Sorry about the LEDs though. I hope you had a good trip.