Mark's 40B and 46 bow

[bucknellreefer]

Pretty low power in both tanks, about 5 inches below the surface. Any increase in power sucks air. It's certainly an issue because these beasts are so powerful. It's hard to believe until you see it run. When I installed the first one in the 46, way up where it is now, full power, it sucked air and blew sand around and made a complete mess of the place.

 

Okay, that's definitely good to know. I've been on the fence because most of the reviews I've seen have been either "it's great in my 75!" or "lol my corals are so pissed in my 20!"

 

You are using the adjustable power supplies to run them at 12V correct?

[markalot]

Okay, that's definitely good to know. I've been on the fence because most of the reviews I've seen have been either "it's great in my 75!" or "lol my corals are so pissed in my 20!"

 

You are using the adjustable power supplies to run them at 12V correct?

 

Correct, and I am one notch below the lowest setting. Just looked at your low rider ... awesome tank, but I have my doubts you could run a WP25 strong enough without sucking air.

[bucknellreefer]

Correct, and I am one notch below the lowest setting. Just looked at your low rider ... awesome tank, but I have my doubts you could run a WP25 strong enough without sucking air.

 

Boooo, I guess I am back looking at adding more Koralias.

[markalot]

Boooo, I guess I am back looking at adding more Koralias.

 

I provided bad info, I should have measured first. On both tanks the pumps are almost exactly 2 inches below the waterline, not 5.

[bucknellreefer]

Well that's certainly more doable!

[markalot]

More photos, mainly playing with the camera and lenses here but I did clean the glass. Well, mostly. I also re-added my ReefBright White/Blue strip to the front of the 40 and turned off the T5 above it. I really like the shimmer and clarity this LED provides, but I also like the color of T5. If stability is the goal, I ain't providing it. Apparently change is my middle name!

 

-front-

ReefBright Blue/White 30" LED

Purple+

Blue+

Coral+ <-- also a change

Blue+

 

I used by 50mm 1.8 lens which I paid good money for and then haven't used yet. Wow. I'm trying to figure out why pictures are so much better. I think fine detail at a distance is key, but why so much more color? I'll have to go read up on it. Anyway here are a few FTS with the lens. I am standing 8 to 10 feet away from the tanks to get all of it in.

 

 

 

 

 

Page break quote.

[Veng]

This tank is looking awesome these days, keep it up!

[markalot]

Put a Neon Goby in the 40. He finally ate yesterday so I think he's going to make it. You can see the tiny guy on the lower right in the middle pic above, but I wasn't going to say anything until he ate some food.

 

He's sleeping in the front right corner where the Chromis likes to sleep and this morning they were side by side. We'll see how this works out. Now that I have the WP-25 in the tank I'm going to start using night mode on the MP10 to see if that changes sleeping behavoir. The Blenny and Rusty have their rocks, but all the other fish sleep in odd places, usually crammed in a corner.

 

Since re-arranging the tank I lost track of the Rusty again. Every few weeks I'm convinced he's dead, then a few weeks later I'll see him again. Grrr.

[Sunar357]

With my 40G build I was hoping to just be able to use the WP-25 and have my return split going in front and behind my rock. May have to get a cheap powerhead for the other side, eh?

[markalot]

With my 40G build I was hoping to just be able to use the WP-25 and have my return split going in front and behind my rock. May have to get a cheap powerhead for the other side, eh?

 

Oh no, no need. I have my WP25 running at the second to lowest voltage on wave pulse mode, at the middle speed setting. Full blast this is capable of removing all the water in your 40 and driving the tank across the room into a wall.

 

I might have exagerrated, but not by much.

 

I prefer cross and chaotic flow, which is why I have two pumps in my 40.

[Sunar357]

LOL Good to hear! I'll have to watch out for the wall! =D

[markalot]

Playing with the lights over the 46 (when am I not playing with the lights?).

 

I have a BuildMyLED strip that I customized with 4500K white, Royal Blue, UV, Cyan, and Deep Red. It washes everything out, so I messed around sliding strips of black plastic in front of the various LED colors and once I was happy got out the black tape and blocked them off. I was running this beast at 1/4 brightness, so I had some room to spare.

 

Covered 50% of the 4500K LED's

Covered the cyan LEDs (these looked terrible, might be the LED and not the color).

 

This left be with a purplish light with enough 4500K left to look balanced. Time will tell if this works for the long haul, but visually it's quite a difference.

 

Last week I re-arranged the rocks and added a Gold torch, a green and yellow Yuma (please don't melt), and moved my green pocillapora from the 40 into here.

 

 

Caught the flasher flashing and the Blenny propped up against the glass, looking for me.

 

You can see the BuildMyLED unit that sits int he front, angled slightly toward the rear. Back lights are T5HO, Coral+ and Blue+.

[markalot]

Now for the 40 and another round of AEFW.

 

I had not done a good coral basting for 2 weeks and when I hit the ORA Blue Voodoo 2 large AEFW fell off. I caught one, but the other is still in the tank.

 

The damage:

 

 

It is interesting that these worms seem to be specific to coral that is supposed to be a dark blue or purple (brown in my tank). No sign of it on any other coral except for the original "test acro" and now this.

 

Spoiler for the rest of these boring pics.

 

 

 

 

I'm worried for my favorite neon polyp acro, which is why he's near the front of the tank where i can clearly see any damage.

 

So far no sign of the pest on it.

 

 

Nor on the big slimer.

 

 

 

Same with my unknown strawberry acro clump, which continues to slowly become better looking.

 

 

 

 

 

Let me finish this up with a quick FTS of the 40.

 

[markalot]

Most of my pictures are really dark here on my work computer.

 

I'm trying to set the exposure so only a few light areas are clipped, but apparently I need to compress the dynamic range of the photos to make them more viewable. Where the hell is my digital photo processing for dummies book ....

[metrokat]

Mark I would really not switch corals from one tank to the other till the AEFW and other pests are for sure eliminated. No sense having 2 tanks with the same problems.

[msscha]

He's sleeping in the front right corner where the Chromis likes to sleep and this morning they were side by side. We'll see how this works out.

LOL -- in my tank, it's the clown and the neon goby who hang around, especially during feeding time. My neon eats like as much as the clown, and is much faster!

[markalot]

Mark I would really not switch corals from one tank to the other till the AEFW and other pests are for sure eliminated. No sense having 2 tanks with the same problems.

 

They are in both tanks. The 46 only has a single acro, a milli, and it is infected. Apparently they LOVE milli's. If I can't get good color out of it then I'll remove it and the 46 will be acro'less.

 

Good idea though. Maybe for if/when I re-build the 40 in a year or so.

[markalot]

Re-done FTS. Seeeing if this looks any better on my work computer.

 

 

[Felicia]

Looking good! I love those two new FTS's.

[markalot]

I must now turn in my Tang Police badge, I have moved to the dark side.

 

LFS guy I trust (as much as I can trust a LFS employee) figures about 1 year, maybe a year and a half if I'm lucky before I should bring this yellow tang back in for a smaller one. He has no problems selling larger tangs, and he's re-sold my Flame Angel, Hawkfish, and my sixline is still cruising one of their display tanks. So he's in there, already picking at my small clump of hair algae and turning it into coral food.

 

As someone coming from freshwater the Tang Police job sounded perfect for me. I knew little about reef keeping and about the tang, and all these experts talking about Tang swimming range made the rent-a-tangcop job sounds perfect.

 

Now that I have one of these guys in my 40 my observations of his behavior are quite interesting. He was eating within minutes, which sounds common. He hasn't come down with anything yet and wiped out my entire tank, which also sounds common. He's not showing any of the typical stress behavior that a fish uncomfortable in it's environment might. Not swimming up and down the glass, no rapid darting from side to side (like my Chromis does). Instead he slowly and gracefully swims from rock to rock picking as he goes. Sometimes he stops in the back to grab a big bite. Opening up the rock work a few weeks ago to allow space in the back for flow and swimming probably helps.

 

The thing about a young tang in a 40, though, is that you must recognize it will outgrow the tank (IMO). Kind of like stocks in the stock market, you must set aside emotional thought and set rules for when the fish must go (or stock must be sold). You sell before the stock starts to drop (fish gets stressed). We'll see if I can stick to these rules, I make no guarantee.

 

Ask me in 10 days how this is working out. I've never gotten any diseases from this store, fish always healthy and eating, demonstrably, prior to me purchasing. It only takes one time, though.

 

The interesting exception to eating was the Rainsford Goby. Could not get him to eat, I looked at LiveAquaria and saw it was an easy fish and bought it for half price. I was warned this fish would die ... so far he's 8 months old, fat, and I have no idea what he eats besides the occasional mouthful of gravel, some hair algae, and things on the rocks too small for me to see. I do find it very interesting that flatworms have never shown up in my 46 even though I have them in the 40 and I've moved corals from one to the other and back.

 

Back to the Tang, this article is what made me question the space limitations. http://coralmagazine-us.com/content/arrested-tang-police-i-refuse-confess

 

Why is it people focused on the Tang and not the myriad of other fish, many smaller, that really do need more space? Based on behavior I think my Blue/Green Reef Chromis might be one of those fish. He will occasionally, for no apparent reason, dart full speed from one side of the tank to the other, and he has hit the glass lid a few times. Recommended tank size is 30 gallons. Why? The clown, on the other hand, might need 5 gallons, and then only for water stability.

 

But what do I know...

[markalot]

40 FTS

 

 

Heavy editing to try and get it to look like my eyes see it. Current T5 bulb layout

 

--front--

Blue+

Blue+

Coral+

Coralife 6700K

Purple+

Blue+

--back--

 

 

And now the 46 ... I have apparently hit nirvana with this damn tank and it pisses me off. This is an untouched photo, no messing with exposure, no messing with color balance.

 

 

I'm running a LOT less light on this tank. A single T5 fixture running (front to back) Aqua Blue Special, Blue+

 

A custom 24" BuildMyLED fixture with 90 degree lenses, sitting in the bow, aimed slightly back.

 

 

Two of the above side by side inside the fixture. 2 of the 450nm led's are blocked by the center brace. In addition I took black electrical tape and covered the Cyan led's and 4 additional white led's (leaving a total of 6 white led's uncovered). This creates a very blue/purple light that really makes the orange monti's and red acans look good. The 405nm also adds pop to the frogspawn and ORA Supernatural monti. I'm tempted to create another custom fixture with another 405 replacing the cyan, and another red replacing one of the whites.

 

This is what I was working on: http://www.buildmyled.com/custom-report-details/?partNo=PS3090SS11LJLDJTLDLTJDLJL

 

 

With that haphazard combination of T5, LED strips, and black tape I end up with light that not only looks good but things are really coloring up without me doing much of anything. I look over to my bright 40 and see white and brown. Why? Perhaps a 6 bulb T5 unit on legs, 3 inches above the water, and over glass, is still to bright?

[markalot]

Ok,

 

believe it or not I got the tripod out, turned off all the pumps, and actually took some real pictures with slow shutter speeds and small apertures. I can actually get some decently sharp pictures in the bowfront, as long as I'm a few feet away from the tank. Pretty darn happy with how these turned out.

 

No, I did not make sure the glass was spotless.

 

Corals are sharp, fish are blurry or ghosts.

 

 

Blenny posing up top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a FTS of the 40. It's neat how the smaller aperture and slower speed brings out so much more color. You can almost see the different bulb colors. You can also clearly see the lights from the 46 in the glass.

 

 

 

[Zia]

Great pics. Tanks are looking saweet! Lovin all that SPS and color going on. Good jobby job.

[markalot]

A few closeups from the 40. Did not turn out as well as the ones from the 46 did, colorwise, but images are sharper.

 

 

 

Next pic ... My $5 unknown pocillopora frag appears to be pink. Really bright pink. Idaho Grape monti lower left, and my very first SPS, the purple stylo.

 

 

[Zia]

Man that pink BN in the first pic is growing out so freaken cool! Totally shows how it got its name!

Lots of encrusting going on up in here! That's my favorite when the SPS starts to grow/spill onto the rock, best feeling ever!