plantman1028 Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Beautiful tank.....looks awsome! Link to comment
andrewkw Posted December 30, 2010 Author Share Posted December 30, 2010 So I figured out the stupid sexy shrimp are finding their way into the overflow. This is how they can go undetected for months. 2 of them actually made it in again, I got one out with my finger but the other is more skittish and is still back there. I'm assuming they go in during water changes when the pump is off and the hole is big enough but it would be possible for them crawl around where the pump is and make it in as well. Once I get the last one out I'm going to put some mesh there to prevent this from happening again. My PAR30 bulb from rapid led has shipped! Once I get it and a decent desk lamp for the bulb I will likely add a 3rd mangrove. Also have some changes in mind for the tank. The chalices will move down to the bottom with the additional light. I managed to buy a tiny hammer frag so I think that can go up top. I also got a tiny orange plate but I'm not quite sure it's small enough. It's approximately 2" so I don't know if I can squeeze it on the sand or not. I could cut it in half, but they take forever to become round again so I'm not sure I want to do that. Link to comment
Akiowalt Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Your tank is awesome!!! Yesterday I check with the data on Dymax LED, my LFS comment that this lighting is poor and unable to last longer. You make the right choice of changing them. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 If the Robot lights just stayed at their original brightness I'd keep them, but if you run 3 and replace them even once a year that's $90 a year. Almost as much as it costs to replace my T5 bulbs, well more then half as much anyway. Here are the first pics of 2011, hopefully the last pics with my robot led fixtures. I expect my par30 bulb sometime this week. I saw my pom pom crab today for the first time since I added him. I kinda thought he might have died. He is really small. Also looking at my chalice it was practically begging to be fed. Everything else got fed too. Some top towns and the hitchiking cleanup crew As soon as the new bulb comes I plan on adding a small hammer coral, and maybe a few more LPS frags as long as I can squeeze them in. I epoxied the xenia colony to the rock to give me a little more sandbed space. I expect the zoos to regain come colour and maybe actually start growing a bit faster. After that I may be out of room for all but the smallest new editions. Link to comment
Zo0k365 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Incredible photography! Tank is nice too.. Link to comment
anjay Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Nice tank!! Also, do you think the minijet 606 is too much flow? I had one laying around and I believe it's the same size as the 404 since I was able to get it to fit into the back chambers on my IQ3... Looking forward to pictures with the par30! Link to comment
andrewkw Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 Nice tank!!Also, do you think the minijet 606 is too much flow? I had one laying around and I believe it's the same size as the 404 since I was able to get it to fit into the back chambers on my IQ3... Looking forward to pictures with the par30! thanks, are you sure it's the same size? The 404 just fits, and that's with taking the covers off it. The more flow the better. Link to comment
will46r Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 I love how your tank looks. My wife mentioned how cool a Fluval Chi looks, I'll show her your tank as a nudge towards another SW tank Link to comment
anjay Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 thanks, are you sure it's the same size? The 404 just fits, and that's with taking the covers off it. The more flow the better. Just pulled out the pump to verify it is indeed a 606. I forgot to mention that I took off the covers as well... Link to comment
SmithErick Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Get that PAR 30 lit up. I want to see the color on the Pico. I have a 38 from nano-tuners on order in 20k but have been looking at the PAR 30 from Rapid for the meantime. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Still waiting on the PAR30. Hopefully tomorrow, with all the holidays it seems like it's been taking forever but really it's only been in transit a few days. Anyway I took this picture the other day in the morning, just sunlit. I'm getting new blinds but I already threw the old ones out so the tank has been getting a lot of sun. Corals seem to like it. Today my sexy shrimp were mating which is interesting in itself, but afterwords they went nuts bouncing around the tank. I guess they were just that happy. Check out this video I shot which was taken shortly after the photos. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 give them some privacy bro, Link to comment
evanski Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 give them some privacy bro, Shrimp pron, IMO! Link to comment
Akiowalt Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 your photograph always stunning me Link to comment
pj86 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 By far one of my favorite tanks on the forum. Are you going to try to raise the baby sexy shrimps? Link to comment
WRH Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I've been watching your thread since late September. I just signed up to the forum today though. I thought i'd post a comment, saying that your tank has been both inspirational and good proof that I am on the right track for my own Dymax pico reef. Some questions if you don't mind? Have you thought about lighting upgrades? The Robot LEDs are no longer impressive to me as they were upon purchase, and the newest ones available seem to be of lower quality (so today returning them to the store). Have you upgraded the pump? (and to what?) What are you using in the larger media section? Link to comment
skippsterr Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I just got my par30 today. One of the few perks is liveing in Cali so since it shipped out of Fresno, . I got it in 3 days. I took the advise of someone from this thread I think, and got a 600w/250v fixture from Home Derto. It is one of those shop lights, but really works good. I removed the shroud and its perched on top of the IQ3. I may have to give you some competetion and start my own thread of 1st pico tank part duo. It looks REALLY nice. If you want, I can send pics. Link to comment
WRH Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I just got my par30 today. One of the few perks is liveing in Cali so since it shipped out of Fresno, . I got it in 3 days. I took the advise of someone from this thread I think, and got a 600w/250v fixture from Home Derto. It is one of those shop lights, but really works good. I removed the shroud and its perched on top of the IQ3. I may have to give you some competetion and start my own thread of 1st pico tank part duo. It looks REALLY nice. If you want, I can send pics. Skippsterr, I'd be interested in your thread Also I'd like to see your light and setup. What is your opinion on a par30 vs the par 38 for the dymax? Link to comment
ljungberg Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Skippsterr, I'd be interested in your thread Also I'd like to see your light and setup. What is your opinion on a par30 vs the par 38 for the dymax? One of the coolest tanks I have ever seen. Great job mate. I decided to order one myself to set up at my office desk :-) Link to comment
andrewkw Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 Have you upgraded the pump? (and to what?) What are you using in the larger media section? It's a mini jet 404, I also have a second powerhead, see earlier posts. I have 2 mangroves in the media section. So I finally got the par30 bulb today from rapidled. With all the holidays it took forever to come despite being sent priority. I was really surprised how heavy the bulb is. My cheapo fixture couldn't stay up. So I did something interesting that is completely hidden by the tank. I used half a dozen rubber bands to attach to the base of the fixture to a spindle of cdrs. I will probably do something else later but this works for now. Turned the bulb on and put it over the tank. Guess what? I didn't like it ! The colour is much more natural it looks roughly 20k but after having 10k over the tank all it's life it looked a little too blue. More so the shimmer was just too much. 10x more shimmer then MH if not more. It almost looked like the light was flashing due to the shimmer. I decided to try a defuser. It's just some plastic thing used for crafts, I used to run an ATS on my frag tank and had these left over from years past. Once I put this over the tank it got rid of much of the shimmer. I liked the open top look but this works. Now that the bulb has been up a few hours I'm really liking the colour. It's much more marine natural compared to those dymax robot led fixtures. I have to admit I never would have upgraded if not for the fact they were dimming out. Let's hope this Par30 bulb lasts even half as long as its advertised. I also added some new corals. Some new acan lords which never really did well in this tank. Probably due to the poor lighting and sexy shrimp eating them. Well the lighting is replaced and I'm feeding the shrimp more so I'm hoping these ones will do better. I also added this tiny hammer that I bought a few weeks ago thinking it would be perfect in this tank. The colour really pops under the LED's. One new zoo, purple star polyps, a favia, a tiny chalice that didn't do well the first time, and last an orange aussie fungai. I got this a few weeks ago, I wanted to put it in this tank but I didn't think it would fit. Low and behold it fits, but just barely. Do you think it crowds the sand too much? I am considering cutting it in half that way it will fit better, but a half moon shaped fungai may be a little weird. I know you can frag them, but I also know it could be a year or longer before it's round again. Finally also in the mail I got new Elos test kits. I have been using Salifert for years, but decided to make the switch. I've never tested anything in this tank other then nitrates once or twice and the results surprised me. NO3 = >1ppm CA = 450 KH = 7.5 MG = 950! I did a water change when adding the new corals and also added some magnesium to the water to bump it an additional 200ppm so it should be sitting in the 1250 range now. I will retest in a week. I'm also surprised the alkalinity is so low. I use coralife salt and it usually mixes to 9.6. I may have to start dosing, or at least perform a water change every week not because of water quality but to replace trace elements. It was nice to see the nitrate at almost 0 I figured there would be 5ppm if not more due to the lack of a skimmer. I typically take all pictures in this tank with my old pentax k100d and 100mm 2.8 macro lens. This is the only nice lens I own, however my other cameras are canon. A long time ago I got the pentax wet and it stopped working for like 6 months, it was more expensive to fix then it was to get a new body. I ended up getting the canon which is a lot better but I can't use my macro lens with it. Anyway the pentax is having trouble getting accurate colours. I'll have to keep playing but I'm sure I can get it eventually. So for these pictures I used my canon rebel xt with the stock 18-55 lens. So no marcos. I am pleased with how close I got the colours. I did not edit my photos in any way other then rotating the fts so its the right way. As long as you get the white balance right you shouldn't have to photoshop your pics to show off your tank. I do think to get a proper fts I'm going to have to take 2 pics and slice them together. With the top of the tank so much brighter it's hard to expose everything properly. I doubt anyone's still reading this really long post, but I'm sure lots of people have scrolled down to this point to see the pictures I took a video when I first put up the par30 to show the shimmer. I will take a new video tomorrow but much of the corals are still not happy with me poking them and knocking them over trying to get new stuff in. If I ever did a pico again I think I would really cut down with the live rock and then make sure I could get my hand in where I wanted to place future corals first. pumps off The new hammer shades my micro frogspawn but I think it will be okay. New acan looks happy for now, hopefully the shrimp wont eat em. I moved the one chalice down. I left the other at the top but I will monitor it. I thought at first I could cut some of the plug off to give it more space on the bottom, but it's since encrusted almost the entire plug New favia, I want it on the rock but I knocked too much stuff. I'll try and mount it next water change. my defuser FTS that is very accurate colour wise, but it's a little dark. I found increasing the shutter speed just blew out the top half of the tank so I'll leave this for now and work on getting a better one soon. Hopefully tomorrow everythings open and I will get a new video. I hope reading this super long post did not waste too much of your lives.. 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Osric Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I've been waiting for you to get this light :-) FWIW I think the crazy shimmer is at least due in part to how much surface agitation you have. To really compare with MH you'd have to stick this tank under an MH light - have you done that? According to Delbeek/Sprung shimmer is good for your livestock. I am not sure if they would include the hyper-shimmer you have or not :-) ... but you might read what they have to say and see if you want to leave the top off when you're not near the tank. Volume I page 182 and Volume III pg 450 (it really bugs me how much of these two volumes are duplicates, as an aside). They're not super strong about it but see for yourself. Looks like it's plenty of light for the tank. I was considering the next size up but this looks like a nice scale - other than the shimmer and weight are you happy with it? Osric PS did you retest mag after your water change? because the salt would have pumped up the level and then you dosed based on the test before? Link to comment
steve101 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Hi Andrew , lovely tank , i have a very simular tank , a TMC aquagrow its 8 litres . any hows could you post a pic of the tank with out the diffuser , im sure everyone else will want to see it , we can vote what looks best then ! Link to comment
brandolando4 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Can u fit the mini jet 404 in the back chamber or is it hiding behind the lr Link to comment
.Newman. Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 so you finally got it? your substrate doesnt look too crowded yet, I'd say its just right atm. I kind of like how your maxi mini nem looks now. more elegant in this light. You will grow on the purple/blue look of the light as time goes on. I too didnt like very much what my DIY fixture did, but the shimmer was actually something I was looking for (tho mine didnt give off too much because my surface agitation isnt too high). But over time you just get used to it you know? plus the effect the blue has on making corals colors more pronounced as neon is always nice to see. although I see it makes many things purple according to your picture, some animals still manage to have some of their color reinforced. Lol it seems like your sexy shrimp are already gaining on your acans They shouldn't be too violent if you keep them fed as you say. I actually expected them to stay on the mini nem most of the time, do they do that or no? The other benefit of the eggcrate diffuser thing is the possibility of keeping a fish actually IN the tank. Link to comment
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