sekkeee Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Awesome setup, I have a 5 gallon rimless but im saving up for a fluval. Will you be keeping corals?? Link to comment
gabe_j Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 OMFG this is the coolest rock work i've ever seen for an edge! seriously thats awesome. good luck with this tank! Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 Thank you on for the compliments on my rock work, I have been trying really hard to make it perfect. I will be keeping coral as well as a pair of O. Clowns. So the other day I hit 0,0,0 and I went to pick up a clean up crew. Feb.11 I got: 2 Nassarius snails-$2 (Super Tongan type apparently) 1 Emerald Crab-$5.99 1 Trochus snail-$2.50 1 Red Scarlet Hermit Crab-$3.99 Also, I picked up a 50w Jager Eheim heater, to keep my water at 79 or so as opposed to 76. Its a little big but I'd rather the heater he a good brand and reliable then loose my tank for a cheapo heater. Unfortunately, according to the LFS guy I acclimated them too long, about and hour or so, and my Red Scarlet didn't make it, also one Nass. disappeared. So I went back 2 days later, and got 2 more snails and another Scarlet (who has a feather duster on his back!!!), my levels are 0,0,0 pH is 8.0, temp at 79-78, and salinity is 1.025. Everyone looks happy and healthy and been eating everything!!! Also today I woke up and my Emerald had molted already, 3 days in, so I figure he is feeling good. Pictures to come Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 whats a great job on your rockwork. I'm glad you are still coming up with ideas of what you want to do with your lighting, i bet you've even had dreams of what you could do. I'm still having dreams of me doing LEDs for my tank Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 Thanks again for the compliments, I have been racking my brain as to what lighting I should get but for now I just wanna get the algae and diatom bloom under control in my tank since the cyano aka red slime algae has started to show up. I just want my rocks BACK!! Hopefully when my crab is done hardening his shell he will get to work and my trochus will eat the cyano. Did a 1 gallon water change yesterday to make sure all my levels were at 0 and that there was enough trace elements for my crab to hopefully harden up and come out ASAP PICS GALORE : Levels at 0,0,0 Time for a CUC The only shot of my Red Scarlet before he passed :-( Nass. aka Joe, roaming the glass Starfish, still going strong Alfred my little butler Emerald crab. Levels still look great. My new Scarlet Hermit, and Trochus still going strong Look on his back, Free feather duster!!! SO COOL Better view of the little bugger :-) First thought "Holy cow I have two emerald crabs?" Alfred turned into KING KONG Levels looking good, wondering about my pH thought, looking like 7.9ish not sure if I should looking into that Cyano and green hair algae galore :-( Starfish (smack in the middle) lost in waiving fields of grass Zombies eating my crabs molt lol gross, yet kinda fun to watch. :-) more to come soon I hope. Link to comment
hunggi74 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 coming along nicely! is the green hair algae REALLY bad for the tank because I really like the look it gives the rock Link to comment
FishStrings Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Its only going to get worse if you leave the hair algae alone. You can try to control it, but hair algae is the worst because it traps debris. I would recommend that you run a phosphate removing media such as phospure or chemipure complete. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Well, I have my scarlet,torches, and emerald eating it all up, I plan to maybe looking into chemipur elite but for now just to keep up with the good water keep up with water changes and cleaning. thanks for the input, I'm sick of seeing the green in my tank Link to comment
tmhasara Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Well, I have my scarlet,torches, and emerald eating it all up, I plan to maybe looking into chemipur elite but for now just to keep up with the good water keep up with water changes and cleaning. thanks for the input, I'm sick of seeing the green in my tank My emerald always decimates that stuff. Shouldn't take long. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yeah, he is, just leaving lots of poop in his wake, but I suppose I can't expect him to leave nothing, an emerald with a bottomless stomach what a dream Link to comment
d9hp Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I really like how you're documenting the cycle so well. This is a great thread. Also, I like your scape in that edge. Those are rad little tanks! Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Thank you, I am getting excited to see what it will look like when I get good Coraline growth and some frags and my clowns in. My goal of keeping this, well basically a blog, is so that other people looking into doing this tank will not have to search all over the place for info on this tank and its quirks. That being said, if your looking into doing a reef tank, RESEARCH TILL YOUR EYES BLEED, lol it will really make your life a lot less stressful (well except for the bloody eyes part). If I help one person figure out a mistake before they make it, I will have succeeded :-) Now for today's Update: Gonna try and email Nanotubers and see if they would be willing to start a group buy for the custom lighting...That would be so great. Looks like nimble nano is going to be up and running soon so I'll be making sure to pick one up ASAP. While I was in classes apparently my whole CUC decided they didn't like my right most rock looking like swamp thing and went to town on the green hair algae, leaving me nice little piles of green snail and crab poop instead. After cleaning this up later I will take a shot or two and test the water. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 Pictures: Ready to see the lawnmowers? The crazy amount of work my CUC has done in a day. Did you see the mowers? :-) Hanging out next to his formers self. Took lots of pics of Alfred for the Claw picture contest this month The snails seem to enjoy racing up the walls Although, they usually just fall off and try it again Gonna be the picture I submit I think, VOTE FOR ME :-) Water looks good, gonna do a water change in a few days, and clean up. The remote is SO CLOSE... Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I'm really enjoying this thread, great job Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 So I have forced myself to the sad realization that my asterina starfish must have been eaten buy someone on the CUC during the green algae decimation. (Alfred, is my current suspect) I am thinking that this week I will be making a new addition to the tank. Not sure if this is true but I've heard that I should add corals first then my fish or shrimp. IDK if that is really necessary, but by the end of this week I hope to have something new in this tank :-) Everyone else is healthy and happy, and I'm spending most of my time looking into what lighting to do. Received an email from nanotubers and they said they would get back to me about a possible group buy on their custom lights. Still gonna be really expensive, I might have to cheap out and get the MR16s till I have tons of money to put into lighting, for now the 90gallon 50/50 light I have on it works, even thought it looks pretty stupid. Thanks redkneecoral, I'm glad you like it. Pics to follow. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 Okay, so a crazy day today. Turns out my 2 nass. snails were not fighting they were mating. There are all little baby nass. all over my glass. 2 actually have shells on them. Little babies!! AND while looking at the tank the sand started to move and all my live stock was accounted for so I went in with a turkey baster to do some investigation....Low and behold my first Nass. did not die, he has been hiding in the sand for over 12 days. So apparently I now have a snail tank instead of a nano reef. I have lots of photos to post but no time with classes, so I'll try and get them up tomorrow night. Also saw a fully established BioCube 14 for 200$ on craigslist....REALLY REALLY wanna get it...I hate this hobby...I cant stop. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 SO... I went ahead and pulled off the swing arms because I didn't want to go with the MR11: http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index....p;productId=541 http://ledwaves.com./Illum-MR-11-LED-Light...ED-p-19620.html OR get the MR16 sockets and Bulbs (both because of not enough lighting for my needs and spot light effect) http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index....p;productId=537 http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index....p;productId=200 I also decided that the nanotubers fixture, while being probably the highest quality pick was to much for me. http://www.nanotuners.com/product_info.php?products_id=746 I have now found out that the 50/50 bulb method probably not enough to sustain LPS corals or just barely and I would like them to be happy. So Coralife 50/50 bulbs are out...Even thought I was all set to go with MlDukes perfect mod, this company has an Online chat, ask them for a coupon code if you go this way, ORDER10PO gives you 10% off for now. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=3180357 http://www.hellolights.com/13wcompactfluor...x?variation=684 or http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores...mp;marketID=101 http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=c...ed=0CFcQ8wIwAA# Also not going to be getting Picod's Par38 20k (no longer in 80 optics) from nanotubers by Evil (lighting Guru) http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/3207...ask-Lamp-Black/ http://www.nanotuners.com/product_info.php...products_id=698 Also not gonna get the flexible, waterproof, blue LEDs since Ill be making something with blues already. All different kinds at just look around here are two: http://www.oznium.com http://www.ledstore4u.com/led-flexible-str...2lrsmspmrv3mg22 SO, I'm left with the hefty task of making my own CREE pendent LED Mod. Luckily there are lots of people who have done this before me. I have to do ALOT of reasearch and probably will bother Evil with some stupid question but hopefully I can read fast, solder faster and get my tank set for actual live stock ASAP!!! Just to name a few: http://www.tcmas.org/forums/showpost.php?p...amp;postcount=4 and http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=255517 I think I have covered EVERY Lighting Mod that I have seen and thought was relativity useful for this tank. I left out T5 and MH lights because I don't think I have seen any. Or at least any that can keep the stock look. Edit: I pmed Evil and he said that the 13 watt 50/50s should support most LPS so I have changed my mind, again, and am going to go with MIDUKES Mod. :-) already ordered. This is what Evil said to me that way you won't hopefully have to bug him as I did. :-P "That mod certainly does look clean, and can certainly work. The added heat into the tank is a bit of a bummer, but can be worked around. It's definitely good for softies, and most lps. If you want to DIY an LED setup, I'd start with 6 LEDs on dimmable drivers, run no higher than 700mA. With the dimmable drivers, you can set the output as high or low as you want. With so few LEDs, Luxdrive Buckpucks would work nicely, and are small and cheap(ish). The biggest hurdle with DIY LED setups is waterproofing the entire array. Even a splash guard isn't enough to fully protect the LEDs from corrosion with them being so close to the water. If you do decide to try LEDs, acclimation is very important. Start with low output and very slowly work your way up to where you need to be. The slower the better." Super knowledgeable guy. Thanks Evil Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 I have no class tomorrow so I can stay up late and research all the possibilities for my LED Mod while Steven Seagal kicks butt on tv. Honestly, that man has a billion movies with all the same plot, all airing at 2 am :-P I have thoughts in my mind about pulling out the stock aqua20 and put in a 30 and use it as a fuge: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=2004830 I also went to the LFS and picked up a Marineland Spare Intake Strainer, to make the intake less visible, cheap but really cleans up the back. Also, my roommate and I decided to finally put something in our 90 gallon Bowfront so we went to the local fish store and got a plant (8$) a huge Gourami(3$) and an Iridescent shark catfish (6$) super happy in the 90 gallon, and MAN freshwater stuff is so cheap :-P So like promised LOTS MORE PHOTOS: Coming to see his pal Relaxing with his buddy Crab Love <3 Yodelayheehoo! Yo, dawg... Water is still good? Grasshopper Technique! What are you lookin' at? New guys in the big boy tank! Big guys getting used to a much larger home. The claw! The Claw!! The claw!!! The claw!!!! Super zoom for baby larva, little nass. Little guy with his shell on the sand! Another with a shell! Another with a shell!! My Trochus likes escargot caviar :-P Link to comment
SAV602 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 That is awesome! Your thread makes me want to update mine with some pictures. You can also stick an AC50 in there with some slight mods to the back plastic column. I had to cut off the portion that the light arm goes onto but I prefer my AC50 much more than the AC20. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 Thank you, I'm trying to do my best to compile all the knowledge from all the threads I have read to make some kind of SUPER Flu-val Edge Thread :-P Oh, If anyone would like...Everyone Vote For Me :-) http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...190&cat=572 Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 After a lot of annoyance and trouble I finally re-scaped the tank. I wish I could of kept it the way it was but there is just no way corals would of flourished. So now that its finally done...REALLY don't ever want to do that EVER again. Like such a PITA. Hopefully, my CuC will be happy with it and find some new places they like. Decided that even thought the Maroon Clown, that is so tiny and awesome in my LFS' tank is smarter to stay away because of the aggression when it ages and because a B&W and Normal Ocellaris Clown will be just as much fun to watch. Going to pick up a frogspawn, blood shrimp, zoo, clowns or something hopefully SOON. Lights are on their way. As soon as they are in I'll be 100% ready for livestock Pictures soon: Link to comment
GreenNoober Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Love the pics Thanks for the updates Link to comment
hunggi74 Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I stopped trying to keep the stock look. Just not able to keep it stock looking and functional without breaking the bank or creating a fire hazard with my nonexistant DIY skills:) I ordered an Aquaticlife T5HO 2x24W fixture that should let me keep zoos and other softies. I haven't tested my water for calcium or alkalinity, but my readings on my API test are identical to yours. I'm just afraid that the more I test my water, the more I'm going to want to dose with one chemical or another! I've read alot of users only doing 25% weekly water changes and nothing else and they've got some seriously nice corals! Your thoughts? Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.