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Islandoftiki's Nuvo 30 Peacock Mantis Tank


Islandoftiki

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Islandoftiki

You'd be very surprised by that, I would start it around 45% and work your way up from there.

I decided to start it off at 65% on whites and 75% on actinics and let it stew at that for a day or two, then slowly start ramping it up over a couple weeks.

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jedimasterben

I would raise it no more than 5% weekly (or every other week). LEDs are very focused in their distribution, unlike the T5 you had. Just don't wanna see anything bad happen :)

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Islandoftiki

I thought I'd try my hand on making some plaster molds for slipcasting clay decorations for some of my fiance's mugs, vases and bowls. These are a couple of the master pieces that will be used to build the molds. Not too bad for my first try, I'd say.

 

B8933EDD-orig_zps75c7e2fa.jpg

 

Bonus points for you if you can identify what they're supposed to be!

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Islandoftiki

Watchman or sleeper goby and a cuttlefish/squid

 

Looks good.

 

Yes!

 

Yellow watchman goby and a cuttlefish?

 

Woohoo! Two people recognized what they're supposed to be. I must have done a decent job. I haven't worked with clay in over 20 years.

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Islandoftiki

That cat shrimp is just begging for a laser pointer.

 

I tried her with a laser pointer a while back and she only barely reacted to it. I'll try it again and see if that has changed.

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I tried her with a laser pointer a while back and she only barely reacted to it. I'll try it again and see if that has changed.

 

She may not perceive the red wavelength ....

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Ivy didn't really react to it either. She saw it but then figured out where the source was coming from and got more interested in what I was holding. My damsels chased it though lol..

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Islandoftiki

Ivy didn't really react to it either. She saw it but then figured out where the source was coming from and got more interested in what I was holding. My damsels chased it though lol..

 

If I remember correctly, Barney chased it all over the place. Damsels definitely chase lasers.

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Islandoftiki

Just tried it again. Betty had zero interest in the laser pointer but she was exceedingly interested in the camera and tripod I had set up just in case something interesting happened. Barney went after it about 4 times and gave up.

 

I've got the LED's set so low while the corals acclimate to the new light that the flicker is messing with the camera shutter and causing scrolling horizontal lines in the video. That should go away as the LED's get ramped up to their normal setting.

 

Speaking of LED's. I also raised the fixture up to it's maximum height that the bracket allows. I'm running 60% max on the whites and 65% max on the blues for a week or two, then slowly ramping them up about 1% every couple days.

 

My initial assessment of the Maxspect Razor Nano is that it's a very nice light. I absolutely love the fact that it ramps up and down from the max brightness setting like a normal sunrise or sunset would. Apparently this doesn't really offer any improvement as far as the corals are concerned, but it's a lot nicer than having the lights unceremoniously shut off all at once. It's also a really good looking light. If I had any improvement to suggest, it would be to make the bracket arms about an inch and a half longer. If you clamp the light to the center divider of the tank, the lid doesn't fit. If you attach it to the back wall of the tank, it sits back about 1 inch farther thank I'd like. I'll contact Maxspect and see if any of the bracket arms for their other lights are longer. I could also make my own. They're really simple tubular aluminum arms with a mandrel bent 90 degree bend and they're tapped in several spots for set screws.

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Ivy didn't really react to it either. She saw it but then figured out where the source was coming from and got more interested in what I was holding. My damsels chased it though lol..

Sounds like my cat :)

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Islandoftiki

Here's a little update on the Maxspect Razor Nano and some observations regarding the new light.

 

All of the corals are looking good and I have not noted any loss of color so far. At 60%A, 65%B some of the palys/zoas were showing a slight inclination towards reaching up toward the light, so I bumped up the brightness 1% on both channels. I'll leave it there for a couple days and reevaluate.

 

I have noticed a reduction in nuisance algae (not that there was much more than trace amounts, but it is less). Also, I'm not having to clean the glass every day to keep it sparkling clean.

 

 

Other than that, the tank is requiring dosing to keep the alkalinity up, but not for calcium. The mag levels are still higher than average from the Tech M dosing for bryopsis.

 

Betty and Barney are doing great. One unexpected bonus from the LED's is that Betty's den is darker inside due to the way that LED's tend to cast shadows from their more focused beams. This is a good thing for her.

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Now that I have had some time to get a read on this tank, I'm going to start adding Kalk into the ATO water to assist with maintaining alk and calcium. More specifically, I'm using Brightwell Kalk +2.

 

I use a 5 gallon bucket for my ATO reservoir and I'm starting off with a modest 1 tsp of kalk per 4 gallons and see how that goes. I'll ramp it up if necessary.

 

I cut a piece of lighting diffuser and put it on 1/2" stanchions so the ATO pump will be sitting at least 1" off the bottom and won't be sucking up any of the settled kalk. I doubt there will be any at 1/4tsp/gallon though. I do suspect I'll need a stronger kalk mixture, but better to err on the conservative side at first.

 

68F03894-orig_zps923ccef8.jpg

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Betty and Barney are two of the most entertaining characters you could ever hope for.

SPS growth is awesome. I've been dosing AcroPower on top of everything else, and that really has made a noticeable difference.



How much do you dose as it is, and what is your evaporation daily? You can calculate exactly how much kalk you need :)

 

I'm currently going through about a gallon of ATO water every week and I lose about 1dkh of alkalinity in about 5 days.



How much do you dose as it is, and what is your evaporation daily? You can calculate exactly how much kalk you need :)

 

Also, the calculations got a little complicated for me to figure out with Alk, Calc and pH. The tank has been running a pretty steady 7.8 pH this winter (I don't know what it will be once the windows get opened up since it hasn't been up and running that long).

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jedimasterben

One gallon weekly? Hmm. That's basically nothing lol.

 

1/4 teaspoon of kalk per one gallon of water will raise calcium in 30 gallons of water by 3.37ppm and will raise alkalinity by 8.4ppm (0.47dKH). I'm not sure what your total volume is, but dealing with such small amounts of kalk it won't matter a whole lot.

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One gallon weekly? Hmm. That's basically nothing lol.

 

1/4 teaspoon of kalk per one gallon of water will raise calcium in 30 gallons of water by 3.37ppm and will raise alkalinity by 8.4ppm (0.47dKH). I'm not sure what your total volume is, but dealing with such small amounts of kalk it won't matter a whole lot.

 

Total water volume is probably around 25-26 gallons.

 

Like I said, I was having a hard time determining the exact ratio in addition to maintaining stable pH while slowly bringing pH up a bit, but I figured it would be safer to just go really conservative and test regularly to find the ideal solution. I'm sure I'm currently at least one third to half of what will ultimately be needed. Anyhow, better to err on the side of cautious and test frequently for a couple weeks.

 

Also, the gallon per week depends a lot on relative humidity which has been really up and down this winter.

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jedimasterben

Gotcha. That's one reason I don't like topping off with kalk, which can vary, I prefer to run on a pump on a relay/timer to dose a measured amount, then adjust water level manually every week or so.

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Gotcha. That's one reason I don't like topping off with kalk, which can vary, I prefer to run on a pump on a relay/timer to dose a measured amount, then adjust water level manually every week or so.

 

Well, I have two aqualifters coming tomorrow, so I might switch to the timer dosing route. However, I was surprised at how many reliable sources recommended kalk in the ATO water. It seemed like a less ideal situation, but so many people prefer it.

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jedimasterben

It's preferable to 2-part since you don't need a lot of it, and it doesn't add extra sodium or chloride. It also binds CO2 and converts it into calcium carbonate, raising pH.

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They definitely can see it, and it's funny as heck when they chase it.

 

 

Indeed and I guess when I posted originally that they have such better eyesight than anything else in the tank that indeed they may be able to perceive the wavelength of the red light too ...

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