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My New Manta Ray, Evil's Par 38, and whatever else comes along


TonyMontana

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  • 2 weeks later...

Added a cleaner shrimp and got my autotopoff installed. Also added a GSP. Ill put pictures up when it decided to come out. Still in shock at the moment.

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Great tank! Great score on the live rock too....covered in purple corraline! Really like the "cleanness" of the tank. Any pics of tha ato?

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Tank looks really nice and clean. I have had my eye on one of these things, as the dimensions are just about perfect for what I want to do. I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind though.

 

First, it looks like there is a bit of spillage on the light. It sounds like the fixture (which is very clean looking - I have used 2 PAR38 bulbs before and getting a decent fixture is their only drawback) does not adjust vertically. That being said, what optics do you have on your PAR38? What optics would you think would be the most optimal for this set-up to prevent light spillage?

 

Second question is in relation to the rear chamber. Do you think there is enough room (with your heater, ato, etc) to dry dock an MP-10? I believe it would require about a 2.5"x2.5" dry dock area. I see that there is a media rack in the second chamber, and like it there. I would hope you could dry dock an MP-10 and still have the media rack. If so, I'm all but sold :-).

 

Thanks for the help ,and watch out for those GSP. Unless you want them to be the centerpiece of the tank, you might reconsider them with such limited real estate B)

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Tank looks really nice and clean. I have had my eye on one of these things, as the dimensions are just about perfect for what I want to do. I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind though.

 

First, it looks like there is a bit of spillage on the light. It sounds like the fixture (which is very clean looking - I have used 2 PAR38 bulbs before and getting a decent fixture is their only drawback) does not adjust vertically. That being said, what optics do you have on your PAR38? What optics would you think would be the most optimal for this set-up to prevent light spillage?

 

Second question is in relation to the rear chamber. Do you think there is enough room (with your heater, ato, etc) to dry dock an MP-10? I believe it would require about a 2.5"x2.5" dry dock area. I see that there is a media rack in the second chamber, and like it there. I would hope you could dry dock an MP-10 and still have the media rack. If so, I'm all but sold :-).

 

Thanks for the help ,and watch out for those GSP. Unless you want them to be the centerpiece of the tank, you might reconsider them with such limited real estate B)

 

Hey,

 

So you are correct the lamp fixture does not adjust vertically. I have 60 degree optics and yes there is some spillage. I'm ok with it because i feel that with the 40 degree optics, although there would be less, would potentially nuke my corals. I could be wrong, as I am still new to this, but I can say that I do like the coverage the 60 has given me.

 

In regards to your second question the three rear chambers are 3 inch deep. The second chamber is 5 inch long with a baffle at the bottom making it slightly less than 5 inch at the bottom. The media rack is moveable mind you and is roughly 2 inch deep. My suggestion would be to talk to chris at picoaquariums.com and see if you could adjust the sizes of the rear chambers for you just to make sure. There is ample room in the first chamber to perhaps make the center chamber slightly longer to accommodate your needs. Or you could just see about building a custom tank with slightly different dimensions which I bet wouldn't cost too much more really. I highly recommend working with him as he is more than willing to help you get what you are after.

 

This is almost the excat set up I was looking at! You have the Manta Ray 12? Did you get the Hi Clarity one?

 

Hey,

 

Yes it is the 12in and I just got the regular glass.

 

Some new stuff. Added a 2 1/2in crocea clam up front, a red mushroom, a zoa colony, and a ricordea colony with a large green colony and two smaller orange ones.

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toothbrush FTW. thats how got some hard to remove algae off my sand line in my pico. you just have to put some power into the toothbrush and keep on brushing lol, it takes a while if its something like that tough green algae or coralline but you'll eventually get it off.

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toothbrush FTW. thats how got some hard to remove algae off my sand line in my pico. you just have to put some power into the toothbrush and keep on brushing lol, it takes a while if its something like that tough green algae or coralline but you'll eventually get it off.

 

Hey thanks,

 

I will definitely try that. I got a small second diatom bloom. Rechecked all my parameters and everything is good so I dunno, whatever. The Ric, Zoa, and Clam are doing great. The mushroom has shrunk from the size in the picture. There is a little spawn that you can see in that picture as well that appears to be growing. Not sure why the little guy shrunk down. I'm praying it's because he wants to spawn some more little guys but who knows--he may be dying a slow death.

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hopefully he's fine. a diatom bloom signals that you had a mini cycle of some sort. parameters checked out fine because w/e happened, the ammonia was either already used up by the diatoms or was converted to nitrates and those were also already used up. usually when you see an algal bloom, you wont see any nitrates or they will be less than normal. thats because the algae grows by feeding off them.

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hopefully he's fine. a diatom bloom signals that you had a mini cycle of some sort. parameters checked out fine because w/e happened, the ammonia was either already used up by the diatoms or was converted to nitrates and those were also already used up. usually when you see an algal bloom, you wont see any nitrates or they will be less than normal. thats because the algae grows by feeding off them.

 

I appreciate the feedback. We'll just wait and see. It is finally nice to have some coral in there and see them grow. I love the clam too...for me it really adds something fun to watch. Any thoughts on getting one Newman?

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Me getting a clam? I want to get a green one for my 10 gallon. I already have a scallop in there right now, I figure another bivalve couldnt hurt right lol?

Idk if I would want my clam in my 3 gal pico though. There is the risk of it not liking the pico, getting sick and fouling my tank. It would of course eventually outgrow my pico, plus idk where i could fit it into my scape? I'm planning a maxi mini anemone and 3 sexy shrimp for my pico when the contest is over, and idk if the sexy shrimp would bother the clam...Oh and my emerald crab in there would definitely want to eat it lol, that should be the primary reason i dont want a clam in my pico.

In other words, its best that if I were to get a clam, I'd put it in my 10 gal :)

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Me getting a clam? I want to get a green one for my 10 gallon. I already have a scallop in there right now, I figure another bivalve couldnt hurt right lol?

Idk if I would want my clam in my 3 gal pico though. There is the risk of it not liking the pico, getting sick and fouling my tank. It would of course eventually outgrow my pico, plus idk where i could fit it into my scape? I'm planning a maxi mini anemone and 3 sexy shrimp for my pico when the contest is over, and idk if the sexy shrimp would bother the clam...Oh and my emerald crab in there would definitely want to eat it lol, that should be the primary reason i dont want a clam in my pico.

In other words, its best that if I were to get a clam, I'd put it in my 10 gal :)

 

 

I highly recommend it... definitely my favorite thing to look at in my tank.

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Another question...for those using a Par38 or something similar do you do anything for lighting at night or just let the tank go under complete darkness? Just curious how much growing happens at night in the dark...I notice all the corals shrink up with no light. Thanks for the responses.

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plantman1028

I made a cheap little moonlight with 4 blue 450nm leds. Cost me 14 bucks for the led lights on ebay, square tin "stud" from Home Depot for 2.50, and a scrap piece of acrylic. I plug that into a timer that kicks it on at 8 pm and shuts it off at 11pm. Really looks good.

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I made a cheap little moonlight with 4 blue 450nm leds. Cost me 14 bucks for the led lights on ebay, square tin "stud" from Home Depot for 2.50, and a scrap piece of acrylic. I plug that into a timer that kicks it on at 8 pm and shuts it off at 11pm. Really looks good.

 

Does it matter if you leave the tank completely dark at night?

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not really. If you can stimulate natural moonlight correctly, then apparently some animals may feel more secure since some moonlights argue that they can improve breeding rates or such other things. but leaving a tank dark works fine if you dont have moonlights.

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