Chyendra Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 Hey thanks! I felt like the 150w was enough for softies and LPS but definitely not SPS. Everything is more colorful and growing faster with the 250watt, and my SPS are finally growing, but still not as colorful as theu could be. I'm still working on getting the right water chemistry balance it seems. Hey! I've been so busy since I started clinics that my tank has been a little neglected. My Anemone also split twice in the last month, so I've been working on moving the clones out and selling a few other colors just to make some space and start saving up for a vortech. I finally got some pictures taken yesterday! Hope you enjoy despite the fact the tank hasn't been cleaned in a few weeks. Front: notice how small the RBTA is! It split 3 times since the last photo was taken. Left side Right side: the candy cane and acan garden has grown alot! Link to comment
DansTundra Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 The tank looks awesome!!! Could you tell me the name of the round red coral towards the bottom? The candy kanes are looking great too Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 OMG, this tank looks so much better since I last seen it. Outstanding Yeah what it that red coral, it's beautiful Link to comment
Chyendra Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 Are you refering to this coral? It's a Cynarina or Donut Coral. This is one of my oldest corals and my pride and joy I bought it as a nearly dead skeleton for $5 over 3 years ago and now look at it! I've seen similar corals at my LFS selling for $100. It's not for sale I'm very pleased with how everything is doing, the tank is much more colorful since I stoped vodka dosing. The only problem area is still the SPS. I'm not monitoring my nitrates as closely anymore but rather using GFO to keep my phosphates low. Hopefully this will help, and I think getting some extra flow with a vortech would help to. Thanks for checking out my system! Link to comment
gena Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Oh my...that donut coral is an awesome success story! It would be my pride and joy too....great job Your tank looks fantastic! Link to comment
DansTundra Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Are you refering to this coral? It's a Cynarina or Donut Coral. This is one of my oldest corals and my pride and joy I bought it as a nearly dead skeleton for $5 over 3 years ago and now look at it! I've seen similar corals at my LFS selling for $100. It's not for sale I'm very pleased with how everything is doing, the tank is much more colorful since I stoped vodka dosing. The only problem area is still the SPS. I'm not monitoring my nitrates as closely anymore but rather using GFO to keep my phosphates low. Hopefully this will help, and I think getting some extra flow with a vortech would help to. Thanks for checking out my system! Yeah that's is the one. That is awesome that you were able to bring it back with the skeleton showing. I will deff be on the look out for one. Love it's red color. Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 What an extreme beauty you made happen buy caring for it and now look what you have thriving in ya tank I love it Link to comment
chrishayes Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 hey chy, been away awhile but I am in need of some help from you. Good news is that my tank is doing well even after I changed from phoenix to ushio 14ks which if youre ever trying to decide on, stick with the phoenix! Ugly ugly ugly! Bright but ugly...anyhow, things are cooking along great, got a dosing pump setup from brs for two part and an aqualifter for kalk to maintain ph when it dips below 7.8 which has worked quite well. I too stopped vodka but after the ushio swap algae became a problem again. No biggy tho and the sps have been doing great with the stability that the dosing pumps have created plus the extra par. so some good some bad. ANyhow, I switched from the stock accela pumps to mj1200's due to the accelas being loud and the mjs were just louder! one was significantly louder than the other... anyhow, I was just running one pump constant instead of the two on the wavemaker because when the loud one switched on the whole tank rattled and irritated me to death. using just one pump left one side of the tank kinda lacking even with the mp10 so I tried using a minijet pump just to put some movement on that side. I ran the 1200 and the mini at the same time which rose the tank water level about 1/4". I thought it was no big deal but woke up to water on the floor...problem was its not coming over the top! I have a leak in my damn tank... Anyhow, im not draining this tank and removing everything to a tub to let silicone cure on the hopes that itll fix it. So I am getting a marineland cube! either the 45 like you of the 60. I am hoping that a local deal for a 250watt galaxy select a watt and a lumenmax2 pendant comes together so I can run this with a radium! Ill stick to phoenix or radium from here on out thatnks! Sell the lighting for the 28 or just store it and look for a replacement used for my son when he gets old enough to want a bigger tank than his 8 gal...thats neither here nor there, I dont like the overflow on your tank, they look terrible to me and im not gonna listen to a bad overflow when i have the option of putting together a top notch system. All I hear are complaints on your overflow but I would like to know your thoughts on whether if you had to do it again knowing what you know, would you stick with the stock or get a gl#######s nano or something and drill your own? the cost is nearly identical comparing a rr cube to a standard cube with a gl#######s kit... Tank is looking great by the way! remarkable the direction it has taken in the last few months! sps look like they are coming on! keep up the good work and let me know if there are any pros and cons that you have found with the tank after having it as long as you have now! Chris Link to comment
Chyendra Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hey! sorry to hear your tank is leaking, but awesome that you have a good reason to upgrade now! The lighting sounds perfect for a 45 gallon cube. I often think that my 250w isn't enough light, but If I had a better ballast and a better reflector, I think 250w would be fine. If I could do it again, I would run a SE bulb so i could run a radium. It stinks that radium doesn't make a 250w DE bulb. what are they thinking?? I hate my overflow... hate it. The overflow box doesn't take up too much room in the tank, but that means their is almost no room to work inside of the box. I'm designing a new plumbing design which will ultilized both of the bulkheads as drains, herbie style, and I'll continue to use my SCWD on a split return. I don't know if my new design will work or not... we'll see... IF I had to do it all over again, I would make a false wall overflow with glass (so that I could scrape the coraline algea off it, I don't like the look of coraline only growing on a portion of the back wall). And then I would do a herbie overflow or a Beananimal overflow (you can find these designs over at RC) Which would mean you would have to get a custom drilled tank, or drill it yourself. You would lose a few inches in your display footprint, but I think it would be totally worth it to have a silent, failsafe overflow. That's my advice. A little more costly up front, and takes some thoughtful design, but a lot less headache in the long run. AND get a custom stand made big enough to put the size sump you want under it. That was another big mistake, I can only fit a 10gallon sump in my stand, and now that I want to upgrade skimmers, it's really hard to find a good skimmer to fit into a 10 gallon sump. Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hey your tank looks really great! Love the scape. Link to comment
Fail_sh3d Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 this tank is great. Keep up the good work! Link to comment
chrishayes Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 yeah I am building the stand and want to find an acrylic sump with a deep dimension so I can have a decent fuge section and run a swc cone in there along with sock for drain and all the dosing lines and what not need a home too...I dont want to be limited anymore with room. Im tired of it with this nanocube! I think ill do a removable side panel for the rkl and power strips and dosing pumps on the inside and the display on the outside. I got another pc4 recently to run the dosing so theres quite a bit of junk...I did manage to fit it all in my tiny cube stand along with a 2.5 gal top off resevoir so I know I can do it in 30" sqaure and still have a nice sump. I have a call into the lfs about a 60 which is custom order for them, the price is 225 vs 171 for the 45...I asked them to see if they would qoute me for starphire glass as well. if its 300$ish I think itd be worth it for the extra volume and clarity. Dont you? My concern is lighting of course. right now I have the 150w with an e ballast which is the same as your aro basically. not able to really drive a hqi correctly but it works with all the bulbs ive tried in the past. I was gonna do the radium instead of the ushio but i just couldnt brting myself to ruin that much cash by underdriving it which would make it blue blue blue and only last 6 months. However, I do have 2 of these ballasts and am an electrician so its no biggie to retro them both into a hood. or even switch to 175w se and run the monster iwasaki 15k that puts out like 80+ par. But...I dont want a bulb that looks like this ushio, period. I could run some 80watt 24" vhos though but that throws another pile of cash at it. SO, I want a radium that is properly driven for that perfect look and par that that bulb gives. Thats my dream light and this is kinda my dream tank(at least one that is $manageable right now, I have had a mid 90's oceanic(when they were still making top shelf tanks) 125 long in the garage for 15 years that has never had water in it cause my dream was and still is an in wall) but this is the best I can do that the wife will let me have! my options then are a 250w or 400w ballast radium combo and I think I want it open top for obvious reasons and i just dont like the bulky canopy look. so pendant is the way to go and that wont let me run any actinics which sucks! however i see plenty of happy reefs and reefers running just a radium. how do you like the look of just the phoenix in your tank? want/need actinics? My concern is that you are running a 250 over a 18" tall tank and probably want/need more light for your sps, right? the 60 is 6" taller so that kinda worries me that a 250 over it really isnt enough. I jsust dont think I could swing the extra $power for a 400 not to mention that I would have to run it longer without any supplementals. I mean i wanna be able to look at it for more than a 5 hour window... What are your thoughts? also, could you post som closeups of your stand structure and the skin? I LOVE your stand sans the crown molding( my house is kinda too contemporary for that style) although I like your look. so I want to replicate it with a few twissts. Thanks for letting me ramble! Im off to drain my tank into a rubbermaid then cutting all my HEAVILY encrusted corals off the rock then Im bleaching my rock to kill that damned murderous peanut worm and bubble algae once and for all. Then its into a trashcan to cook for god knows how long...what a process this leak is about to be! wish me luck and i wish you were closer so I could feed you beer and pizza to help! Link to comment
Chyendra Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 Thanks for the comments everyone! Chris, the 60g cube is 24"x24"x24" correct? I'm not sure that much is gained by having the extra height on a cube besides a bit more water volume (which could be accomplished with a larger sump). I've struggled with aquascapeing taller tanks, so maybe look around at other people's 60g vs 45g and get an idea of what kind of aquascape you like. Personally, I like the 18" height on this tank. It's easy to reach in and clean, and I don't have to worry about light penetration as much. I really like the look of the 250w pheonix. i don't like crazy actinic 20k blue (the 150w pheonix is too blue for me). The 250w pheonix is a little whiter, which I like. I've thought about adding actinic/blue plus T5 bulbs or LEDS to add a little extra par and pair them with a higher PAR 10k bulb, but I haven't made the switch yet. I'm saving for a vortech Like I said, I think a single, overdriven radium bulb is the way to go. All the nicest tanks I see seem to run radiums. I'm sure there are nice tanks with 250w bulbs on them too. Just my experience is that my SPS frags that I've had since janurary have yet to color up more than just the tips. Do they need more light? Less nutrients? more flow? your guess is as good as mine, but something just isn't working right now. All the best on your project! seems like it's going to be quite the overhaul. I'll try to post some more pics of the stand. Link to comment
chrishayes Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 well I went with the 45. I took your advice about aquascaping and realze it would be tough on a 24" to not make a fruit stand in the end... But my 28 was only 18 and I had coral all the way up to the surface and they didnt do too well with the halide and inch from them. However on this tank i bought a 250 lumenmax 2 pendant that will be like 10" off the surface so the coral that grows up will be fine. So I now have the tank, sump tank-baffles, light, ballast and wood for the stand. Starting the stand tomorrow. then getting glass cut monday for baffles. I still need to order my skimmer and return pump plus decide if I am gonna do the g l#######s or a diy overflow. On my way though. Link to comment
Chyendra Posted September 8, 2011 Author Share Posted September 8, 2011 The day I've been saving for has arrived! My new MP10es has arrived that is! No doubt this is a powerful pump, but it's really loud! It sounds like an engine reeving up. Does this thing quiet down with time?? Link to comment
chrishayes Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 The day I've been saving for has arrived! My new MP10es has arrived that is! No doubt this is a powerful pump, but it's really loud! It sounds like an engine reeving up. Does this thing quiet down with time?? Dont fret, mine was the same way! I even called ecotech asking for a return label!lol dang things are horrible for the first few months not weeks like they say...give it time, then some more but it wont ever be silent. Its livable now 2 years later and on the new 45 I took the rubber spacer out and its a LOT quieter than it was on my 28. Just run it at half speed until it starts to quiet down, thats what I did. CONGRATS on the purchase! Do you feel its enough flow in our tank? I dont. I have 2 mj1200 mods plus 500gph return plus I just added the mp10 at 100% short pulse to start and it is completely overpowered by the mj's. Link to comment
Chyendra Posted September 9, 2011 Author Share Posted September 9, 2011 How thick is the glass of your 45? I thought we had the same tank and I measured 5mm glass, which they recommend the spacer for. Was it significantly quieter with the spacer? I'll have to reserve judgement about if it's enough flow after I see how my SPS respond. Right now, for flow, I have my return pump (mag 9.5 dialed back slightly) split with a SCWD, my MP10 set at reef crest 100% during the day and about 70% while we're home, and a koralia 1 opposite the MP10. Link to comment
TheNordCelt Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Tanks looking great! Link to comment
jr973 Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 cool lookin tank glad i checked out your thread sorry to hear about your blenny going carpet surfing i know i had my share of loses to the same isssue no lid Link to comment
Rocket Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Just read a years worth of posts. Your tank has come a long way. Awesome tank! Link to comment
chrishayes Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 I was able to situate my tank last night and play with flow and for sure there is either something wrong with my mp10 or its just not powerful enough. I have to put it in long pulse mode to get the flow across the tank. I do suspect something is wrong with the pump as it has started to whine like a loud venturi on a crappy skimmer. It started this while it was on the temp bin which I assc with the very thin plastic and using kalk right near it causing precip on the propellar but its still doing it on the new tank after a thorough cleaning...dang it I may have to send it in. As it is, I like the flow with the 2 mj 1200 mods much better as do the corals. booo Link to comment
Chyendra Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 Thanks for all the feedback! It really has come a long way in a year I will post some new pictures after the tank gets a good cleaning this weekend. A new change recently, is that I'm not longer putting vinegar in my kalk solution. it was helping to increase the saturation of kalk I was dosing (since I was needing to add more each day than evaporation allowed for) but the extra vinegar was producing a "carbon-dosing" like effect. SO i was seeing pale, sad corals similar to when i was dosing vodka. I've gone back to regular saturated kalk (2tsp kalk/1gallon RO) and after just a week everything is looking better. I'll have to supplement two part to keep up with my carbonate use, but thats ok for now. Link to comment
Chyendra Posted September 13, 2011 Author Share Posted September 13, 2011 Updated pics! This is post accidental vinegar overdosing so everything is a little paler than normal still, but they are on their way to recovery. Center Left side Right Side Link to comment
Chyendra Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 The plumbing is finished and works beautifully, I'll try to get a pic and diagram up soon. Link to comment
Chyendra Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 2 new additions!! Purple firefish goby! and male carpenter flasher wrasse! both look super healthy and are already eating. I'll try to get some pics up Link to comment
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