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[BC29] solefald's build thread


solefald

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How do you like the ratio of lights?

 

it's pretty sweet. I am still playing around with different brightness settings to find the optimal light and testing different diffusers to get rid of the "disco ball" effect, but so far I am happy. I wasn't too excited at first, but I think i made a right choice with 10 white/10 blue. Blue is way too blue on its own, so im glad i did not get more blues. Still not entirely sure what do to with UV LEDs though. I got only 4 of those and they are too dark on their own, but mixed with blue or white and they are almost invisible.

 

I'm waiting for couple of in-panel voltmeters to come in the mail, so I can see the voltage on the dimmer line. right now i have to unplug the dimmer every time and measure the voltage, to determine current % of brightness.

 

Got my DSLR out of the closed last night. Will have more updates and pictures in a few days.

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Ammonia and Nitrites are at 0. I've tested 3 times since Friday. But Nitrates are at crazy levels and 20% water change did not make them go down. There is currently 0 livestock, except the hitchhikers - some kind of striped worms, asternia stars, some kind of tiny fast moving bugs, these things on the glass... and algae of all sorts.

 

A large water change will not hurt anything. Except your jelly fish since they are plankton feeders and the water change may kill that.

 

 

Holy crap. You were right! These are the Cladonema Jellyfish!

 

http://jellieszone.com/cladonema.htm

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Cladonema+j...539&bih=826

 

Cool I thought that was what they were. I just had never researched it much since I have not experienced them myself.

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This is looking very good. I would consider removing that piece of rock you have in the center. It looks very solid, not porous, and doesn't fit in with the rest of the rock. When everything's covered in corals it may not matter much, but jmo.

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This is looking very good. I would consider removing that piece of rock you have in the center. It looks very solid, not porous, and doesn't fit in with the rest of the rock. When everything's covered in corals it may not matter much, but jmo.

 

big white rock of the small one at the bottom? i kinda like them both. small one at the bottom is from my friends established tank. it's the only thing i have that is covered with coralline algae. the big one on top... i dunno. it looks like a skull if you look from the corner and has a bunch of holes and crevices of every size and diameter in it for fish to swim though. i may play a bit with a placement, but i think i will keep it. and you're right, corals will probably cover it anyway.

 

in any case, im putting together another tank at the moment, so that rock may move there...

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it's pretty sweet. I am still playing around with different brightness settings to find the optimal light and testing different diffusers to get rid of the "disco ball" effect, but so far I am happy. I wasn't too excited at first, but I think i made a right choice with 10 white/10 blue. Blue is way too blue on its own, so im glad i did not get more blues. Still not entirely sure what do to with UV LEDs though. I got only 4 of those and they are too dark on their own, but mixed with blue or white and they are almost invisible.

 

I'm waiting for couple of in-panel voltmeters to come in the mail, so I can see the voltage on the dimmer line. right now i have to unplug the dimmer every time and measure the voltage, to determine current % of brightness.

 

Got my DSLR out of the closed last night. Will have more updates and pictures in a few days.

 

I'm wondering if lenses would help with the disco ball effect

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I'm wondering if lenses would help with the disco ball effect

 

well, everywhere i looked, it said: remove optics, raise the fixture, decrease surface agitation. first 2 are not an option on a BC, unless you are going topless. decreasing surface agitation did not help.

 

i am going to experiment with multiple diffusers. regular fluorescent light diffuser and diffuser film. i am pretty sure it will cut some amount of light, but i think these LEDs have a little too much power anyway.

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So much bryopsis! Good luck!

 

i know! And now this crap is in my second tank that i started last tuesday with some rock from this tank :(

picked up some Kent Tech M and Magnesium test kit yesterday. Hoping that will nuke this garbage.

 

Have to say though, all 6 hermits and the emerald crab jumped on that stuff like its going out of style. Reinforcements from Reef Cleaners are coming this week. Together we can win this battle :)

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So I was bored and decided that my box with power supplies was not good enough. MeanWell ballasts were just jammed in and it had no ventilation. Not good. Added 2 fans (overkill, i guess) and removed the ballasts from its casings and mounted on a piece of PCB board to save some space. Knowing how much voltage does dimmer send to the LEDs at any given time was a complete mystery, so i had no idea what brightness blues and whites were. Added these little self-powered voltmeters, but they are 4.0-30V DC, so i dont see lower range.

All business is now in the back. Party in the front.

 

Anyway, here we go.

 

yWjJol.jpg

 

lghSYl.jpg

 

UWgQol.jpg

 

R0uwvl.jpg

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So, I am having second thoughts about eradicating my bryopsis forest.... It looked sooo good before I started poisoning it with Tech M. I feel bad now... NOT

 

"before" picture taken on Friday last week. About 1/3 of it is now completely gone, another 1/3 is turning white an dying.

Only 2 patches directly in front of power heads are looking "good" right now.

 

u6hTPl.jpg

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I posted this is another thread, but adding here since i use this thread to keep track of things...

---------

So I bought 1 scarlet skunk and one fire shrimp on Saturday last week. They were doing just fine, but Fire was hiding behind the rock all the time. When I was leaving for work this morning he seemed fine, on his usual spot behind the rock.

 

Just got back from work and the first thing I see is Fire on its side and Scarlet Skunk eating him!! WTF? Is that possible that one killed another or it is most likely that fire died of natural causes?

 

This is not a molt. Scarlet Skunk molted overnight and was sitting right next to his molt this morning, so I know what a molt looks like. Plus i see flesh inside the dead Fire.

 

Temp: 79F

pH: 8.02 (8.10 right now)

Salinity: 1.025

Nitrate: 0

Nitrite: 0

Ammonia: 0

Phosphate: 0

KH: 6

CalciumL: 380 (Too low?)

Magnesium: 1600 (Currently dosing Tech M to kill bryopsis. 60% of it is gone, but this explains high Mg level)

 

 

cFkOVl.jpg

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i like your self powered voltmeters, really nice touch to see if your pots are doing the job.

 

for your LED setup, did you do 10CW and 10 cool blue? or royal blue???

 

to my that looks like hair algae, not bryopsis. If your hermits are chowing it, its hair. I dont believe they eat bryopsis. I went through the same thing in my cycle, it never came back. Right before I broke my BC29 down, I did have some bushes of bryposis start to grow, probably came on rogue on some frag plugs or something.

 

your reefcleaners order should help things alot. your emerald crabs gonna need something to eat when all your nuisance algae dissapears

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i like your self powered voltmeters, really nice touch to see if your pots are doing the job.

 

for your LED setup, did you do 10CW and 10 cool blue? or royal blue???

 

to my that looks like hair algae, not bryopsis. If your hermits are chowing it, its hair. I dont believe they eat bryopsis. I went through the same thing in my cycle, it never came back. Right before I broke my BC29 down, I did have some bushes of bryposis start to grow, probably came on rogue on some frag plugs or something.

 

your reefcleaners order should help things alot. your emerald crabs gonna need something to eat when all your nuisance algae dissapears

 

10 CW (i think. it kinda looks like Natural White), 10 Royal Blue and 4 UV LEDs.

 

Hermits don't really eat bryopsis. They seem to be more interested in everything else. Emerald is chowing down on that stuff like crazy, though. Snails are helping alot with algae on the glass too. I'm just waiting until i kill all bryopsis and do a water change before I put any fish into the tank. Don't want them to go crazy on my Mg levels.

 

 

And i just posted on local reef forums. Shrimp death may be related to a crazy pH swing I had after i topped off the tank with RO (TDS 80ppm) water from my LFS. pH went from 8.11 to 7.79 between 7pm and 6:20am on the day my shrimp died. I feel pretty bad now for killing him with my chemical warfare :(

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This has been identified as hydroid larvae, but I am not entirely sure its correct.

u9hDil.jpg

 

Its the medusa growth stage of a Cnidarian

. You get these from liverock and wild coral additions. They can be anything from jellyfish to coral to hydrozoas. this life cycle is mostly pelagic and becomes filter/impeller bait.

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10 CW (i think. it kinda looks like Natural White), 10 Royal Blue and 4 UV LEDs.

 

Ahhh, gotcha, the OP says cool blue is why I was wondering.

 

Yeah your ATO will help those pH swings for sure, the coral will love it too.

 

Are you gonna buy that diffuser material (sand?) for your hood? Would love to see some more pictures of the blending.

 

Hair Algae vs Bryopsis The Bryopsis reminds me of a bird feather, with side veins that are aligned up. The Hair algaie has fluffy needles leaving the axis in all directions.

 

Hows the Kents working? Theres also the Hydrogen Peroxide route.

 

Things are looking good

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Meet the new guy! My other skunk cleaner was pretty lonely after he ate his Fire cleaner neighbor, so I got him a friend

rEgI1l.jpg

 

This guy... may actually be a girl. For the past 2 or 3 days he/she has been opening up the

belly plate and digging in there. According to the information I found, this is how they carry eggs.

Unfortunately I can not get a picture when this happens, because its usually under a weird angle.

3PblPl.jpg

 

Bryopsis is getting better. This picture is 3 or 4 days old. I now have roughly a half of bryopsis you see here....

FxUr7l.jpg

 

 

Aaaand my ATO parts started coming in. I'm going to see if these Frag-a-Saurus Racks thinga are sufficient enough to hold float switches....

uRKaOl.jpg

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If that big rock is loose, throw it in peroxide for 3 minutes and put back in the tank (you can rinse if you like) the nasty algae will be gone in 3 days.

 

I may do that.

 

Was looking at it last night and decided that it needs to be repositioned a bit next time I do a water change. That would be a good time to try peroxide, i guess, but most of that you see there is pretty much gone right now.

 

I also noticed that none of the plants had white tips. It turned out that as soon as white (dying) bryopsis tips appear, cleaners jump out and eat them! Crazy roaches :)

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Just got back from vegas after being gone for 3 days. Bryopsis is completely gone. 100% of it. Every single patch or stem is gone. 100% clear!

 

Some of my rocks and sand are turning green, some kind of new algae? Possibly because i haven't done a single water change in 2 weeks or so, while dosing with Tech M. Going to do one tomorrow.

 

Yay. This means I can now start shopping for a couple of clowns... but re-arrange some of these rocks a bit first

 

27aaCl.jpg

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Definitely following for inspiration for my own biocube, really like your homemade dimmer set up, i'd love to recreate that when I order my aquastyles kit.

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Yay! Just got my first fish yesterday. The tank is 6+ weeks old and fully cycled. Everything seemed to be happy, so it was time to get fish. Strangely enough, out of 5 different LFS that I visited/called, none had regular Ocellaris clowns. Had to go to PETCO (i know, i know...)

 

Got these little guys. They are about 1"-1 1/4" long and have been swimming like crazy since the moment I put them in. Had some frozen baby brine shrimp, so I fed a half of cube to everyone in the tank. It's really funny to see cleaner shrimp do backflips and clumsy hermits hurring to the front of the tank to get their share.

 

So far everyone seems to be happy, fingers crossed. Oh, and my 10G frankentank just got a shipment of algae eaters and new "real estate" for hermits from Reed Cleaners. Thanks John!

 

zVEHil.jpg

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coopnjaxdad

Looking sweet.

 

Huge fan of your control box with the digital displays. Mind sharing the P/N for them?

 

Thanks!

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Looking sweet.

 

Huge fan of your control box with the digital displays. Mind sharing the P/N for them?

 

Thanks!

 

Not at all! These ones are from eBay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...ME:L:OU:US:1123

 

the only problem with them is that they are self-powered and only come on when they get 4V DC on the dimmer line.

 

I bought a new ones from Futurlec (futurlec.com)

Model: XL3BL-20V

These require 12V external power and will show you full range of voltage on the dimmer line. And since I already have 2 12V fans in that enclosure, external power for the displays is not a problem.

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