Mark's Nanobox Powered 40B -retired-

[vlangel]

Wow, I wish my pics were that bad, ha ha!  The tank looks fabulous as usual.

2 hours ago, markalot said:

Way too busy to have fun on the forum of late but I did manage to take a few bad photos.

 

Old AquaticLife 2 bulb T5 fixture on back, coral+. Blue+ with the quad hanging over the front half of the tank aimed back.   So far no real change other than the tank looks brighter.  Very tempted to hit Dave up for a 36" hybrid fixture.

 

 

The most important improvement for me is the grape coral (Euphyllia cristata) regaining good health.  I've had to start feeding every other day and not Reef Roids but other coral foods.  It's a shame but reef roids does not fully dissolve and leaves red scum on the surface which I have to manually skim off.  Coral Frenzy and Reef Chili do not have this issue.

 

 

The aptasia are healthy as well.    So far only 3 in the rockwork, most are growing on hardware for some reason.

 

 

These pics need to move to the top of the next page.

[Christopher Marks]

The tank looks awesome @markalot, fantastic colors in all the coral! I love the contrast of the all SPS together, the green and red monti caps make a spectacular backdrop to the rest.

[teenyreef]

Looks good Mark, how are you liking the poor man's hybrid lighting approach?

 

When I reef reef roids, I take a pinch between my fingers and hold it under the surface of the water and rub my fingers together to dissolve it under the water. Or sometimes I mix some up in a couple tablespoons of tank water in a cup and pour that in. I don't have any problems with it scumming up on the surface.

[mitten_reef]

FWIW, I see even more "non-dissolved" problem with goniopower. 

[markalot]

On 3/24/2017 at 1:42 PM, Christopher Marks said:

The tank looks awesome @markalot, fantastic colors in all the coral! I love the contrast of the all SPS together, the green and red monti caps make a spectacular backdrop to the rest.

 

Thanks Chris, I really appreciate the compliment!

 

On 3/25/2017 at 0:33 PM, teenyreef said:

Looks good Mark, how are you liking the poor man's hybrid lighting approach?

 

When I reef reef roids, I take a pinch between my fingers and hold it under the surface of the water and rub my fingers together to dissolve it under the water. Or sometimes I mix some up in a couple tablespoons of tank water in a cup and pour that in. I don't have any problems with it scumming up on the surface.

 

I had been mixing, seems some just refuses to fully dissolve, at least from the batch I have.  I am using the large container, says PRO on it which I think proves I'm an expert or something.

 

On 3/25/2017 at 7:12 PM, micoastreefing said:

FWIW, I see even more "non-dissolved" problem with goniopower. 

 

Thanks for the info, I had not tried that one.  I do know my Red Goni LOVES reef roids.  

[teenyreef]

6 minutes ago, markalot said:

 

Thanks Chris, I really appreciate the compliment!

 

 

I had been mixing, seems some just refuses to fully dissolve, at least from the batch I have.  I am using the large container, says PRO on it which I think proves I'm an expert or something.

 

 

Thanks for the info, I had not tried that one.  I do know my Red Goni LOVES reef roids.  

Well, you're definitely a pro! My "nano" sized jar is half empty after two years 

 

I like the goniopower, it is more coarse than reef roids and my zoas like it a lot more than the reef roids.

[markalot]

Yesterday, April Fools Day, I notices the water in the 40 was a little below the rim.  Odd.  I was doing the rewiring for the new UPS and ended up putting my hand below the stand to move the old UPS ... it's wet.  Oh boy.

 

Ends up the cute little output of the AquaC Remora skimmer got a clump of algae on it just enough to overflow the edge of the oh so cute edgeless spillway, which was slowly dripping on the floor behind the tank.  Grrrr.

 

I think I set it up so it won't happen again, hopefully.  I have to wonder if this has anything to do with the random breaker trip a few days ago.

[vlangel]

I am glad that you found it.  Those sort of incidents can easily go undetected if one is not keenly aware of everything.

[samnaz]

Truly beautiful tank. The colors are phenomenal. 

[markalot]

Blue LED photo.  Very bight and healthy looking under blue LEDs.

 

[4x5]

Tank looks great Mark. 

[grinder143]

This is one of the  best looking tanks i have seen. No sump? I probably missed it but what is the filtration on this, i mean in addition to the liverock.

 

[markalot]

1 hour ago, grinder143 said:

This is one of the  best looking tanks i have seen. No sump? I probably missed it but what is the filtration on this, i mean in addition to the liverock.

 

 

Best looking?  Be sure to check out the FTS thread and the monthly winner profiles.  Thanks though, much appreciated.

 

Filtration is a hang on back 'fuge' used as a sump with the heater/dosing/topoff going into it.  Skimmer is also HOB, I mention the name somewhere in the thread, it escapes me at the moment.  

 

This tank is always borderline when it comes to nutrients.  Lack of a decent sump+skimmer means that when I feed I will get an algae outbreak that I have to manually deal with.  Right now it's hidden behind the rocks but there's a lot of algae and scum back there that I need to remove.  I can avoid this by feeding lightly but then the colors and health of the corals decline.

[vlangel]

I say feed away and just deal with the algae.  The tank looks awesome.

[markalot]

On 4/16/2017 at 7:47 PM, vlangel said:

I say feed away and just deal with the algae.  The tank looks awesome.

 

Thanks Dawn, sorry it took so long to reply.

 

The energizer bunny tank is still going.  I occasionally add two part and I started adding 45ml of vinegar to 3 gallons of topoff and 7 tsp of Kalk (+1 over saturation).  Somehow I've been able to keep KH right around 7 every time I test.

 

[vlangel]

9 hours ago, markalot said:

 

Thanks Dawn, sorry it took so long to reply.

 

The energizer bunny tank is still going.  I occasionally add two part and I started adding 45ml of vinegar to 3 gallons of topoff and 7 tsp of Kalk (+1 over saturation).  Somehow I've been able to keep KH right around 7 every time I test.

 

Its sounds like you have a good system going without making this tank super labor intensive.  Good for you keeping Alk so stable!  I am guessing the vinegar is to help with algae, are you seeing any results?

[markalot]

2 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Its sounds like you have a good system going without making this tank super labor intensive.  Good for you keeping Alk so stable!  I am guessing the vinegar is to help with algae, are you seeing any results?

 

Hi Dawn, I should have explained that further.  You can add 45ml of vinegar to a gallon of water to allow super saturation of Kalk, which is normally limited to 2 tsp per gallon.  This way the topoff can feed more Alk / Calcium and I don't have to dose 2 part as much.  Unfortunately it introduces some vinegar into the tank which can drive nutrients too low.  To compensate I now dose a squirt (yea, very sciency) of CaNO3 to hep compensate.  PO4 is near 0 as well as nitrates but the fact the green cap kept it's color indicates there's enough to keep them healthy ... best guess anyway.  

[cnseekatz]

I love your aiptasia.

 

I've got a couple whoppers of my own that fear nothing. They look at the peppermint shrimp, and filefish I add in there and laugh. They find Joe's Juice and kalk paste delicious. Superglue doesn't phase them either. I think a TIG welder MIGHT do the trick, if they weren't firmly attached to base rocks that can never be pulled out of the tank! They vex me, but I kill their babies, so I guess we're even.

[markalot]

On 4/27/2017 at 10:11 AM, cnseekatz said:

I love your aiptasia.

 

I've got a couple whoppers of my own that fear nothing. They look at the peppermint shrimp, and filefish I add in there and laugh. They find Joe's Juice and kalk paste delicious. Superglue doesn't phase them either. I think a TIG welder MIGHT do the trick, if they weren't firmly attached to base rocks that can never be pulled out of the tank! They vex me, but I kill their babies, so I guess we're even.

 

What aptasia?

 

 

A couple of random not very well lined up shots, just to document progress (or decline, or something)

 

 

 

 

 

[markalot]

Zoiks, I actually bought new stuff for this tank.

 

Bought one of these.  Quality is as expected, using one coral+ bulb.  Reflector is actually pretty darn good, but ballast is not great so bulb not running quite as bright as it could.

 

Getto retro is probably the best description.   I like the overall look better with a single T5 bulb in front and still good flicker from the LEDs.

 

... and I even bought some new corals.

 

These little zoa types have always melted on me in the other tank but in here everything seems to survive (except acros) so why not?

 

 

Took a few top downs.

 

 

 

 

 

Added this frag of spongodes from the other tank a few weeks ago and it's doing quite well.  The Nanobox LED's make all these top downs look fantastic IMO.

 

 

 

The seemingly random focus point on this shot is brought to you by Nikon, we know better.  

 

 

The red shrooms and Ricordia tolerate each other but the blue shrooms are killing the green ricks.

 

 

I've had a hard time keeping trumpets healthy.  The blues are declining again, yet the green/brown that was covered in zoas has puffed out and really started to grow past the invasion.  Go figure.

 

[sprite]

Coral looks great Mark!

[markalot]

10 hours ago, sprite said:

Coral looks great Mark!

 

Thanks Sprite.  One day I may have a tank without any SPS, which I think would make my life so much easier, but not yet.   I am amazed how well the caps have grown even though Alk has been bouncing around.  

[mitten_reef]

Hi Mark,

 

Really love the colors in your tank! Can you share your NBR Quad settings?

 

Thanks, 

[jedimasterben]

3 minutes ago, markalot said:

 

Thanks Sprite.  One day I may have a tank without any SPS, which I think would make my life so much easier, but not yet.   I am amazed how well the caps have grown even though Alk has been bouncing around.  

Wasn't that what this tank was supposed to be?

[markalot]

10 minutes ago, jedimasterben said:

Wasn't that what this tank was supposed to be?

 

Yep.

I forgot the full frontal shot, showing just how cheap this setup looks.   

 

 

One day maybe I'll make a movable front shield to hide the ugliness. much like what I have above the 150.  If I make it look bad enough the wife might volunteer to make it for me.   I would welcome any hardware suggestions for hanging contraptions that make raising and lowering easy.