Friar's 20 Galllon -- Still Alive!

[friar1]

So, I put my LED Cooling fan on a diet. I did not like the noise it made running at full speed, so I put a 5 volt transformer on it instead of 12VDC and it is much better. The heatsink almost keeps the leds cool enough by itself, so all I really need is a little air movement. Now, very little noise and plenty of cooling!

P.S. Paperclip is Not to scale!

 

 

[markalot]

LOL at the paper clip. Man that tank is small!

[friar1]

Ha! yeah. Giant paper clips hold baggies in the water.

This tank is WAAAAy quieter than the 4 Gallon Finnex. The fan I had on that one was really loud. Can't hear this tank really at all!

[friar1]

My giant red brittle star disappeared into the first chamber of the pre-filter. haha, he likes it dark and that is where extra food goes after feeding.. He will probably get huge in there!

he sticks his arms out of the slots of the overflow when its feeding time!

[friar1]

The Brittle Star came back into display tank.

Got a new cleaner shrimp

and a new Prism Goniastrea. Pics later. The Prism is a much larger frag than I am used to getting. Only one head, but very large. From Vivid Aquarium in canoga park

[friar1]

Here is High Fin Harley with the new coral (Excuse the color, still trying to adjust the lighting. It loosk much better in person):

 

Another of Harley:

 

And the New Shrimp "Scamp"

 

[markalot]

I have the hardest time with frogspawn. They seem to be so much more sensitive to flow than either hammers or torches. Yours looks fantastic. Love the firefish.

[friar1]

Thanks Mark! The Frogspawn seems to like the flow where it is. Because I have the powerhead at a right angle to the outlet of the canister filter, the flow on the frogspawn is not constant, it is more turbulent. But if I want to feed it specifically, I have to turn everything off. It does not hold on to food very well. With everything off for a half hour I can watch the food slowly disappear into it's oral disc.

Harely is very pretty, but not much of a swimmer. Good thing it hangs out in the front of the Tank!

[friar1]

just a quick note: The Emerald Crab is still alive. Thought he was dying a few nights ago. But he is still active in the tank.

[friar1]

So,

 

I think now that it was a mistake to use neutral and warm whites for the white light part of the LED mix on my tank. :sigh: I am now going to have to take the fixture off (not an easy task) and put in some cool whites instead. I think I will get more out of my reds and oranges that way. What do you think?

 

Brian

[markalot]

So,

 

I think now that it was a mistake to use neutral and warm whites for the white light part of the LED mix on my tank. :sigh: I am now going to have to take the fixture off (not an easy task) and put in some cool whites instead. I think I will get more out of my reds and oranges that way. What do you think?

 

Brian

 

Not a mistake, remove the red and orange and replace with more blue or something in the 420nm range. The key to using warm white is to eliminate the red LED's and the disco effect. Warm and to some extend neutral white produces plenty of red and amber light.

 

The best BuildMyLED light I've created uses warm white mixed with lots of blue and violet.

 

In my opinion, of course. Almost all of my LED knowledge comes from reading here. Jedi is a good source, and look at the spectrum that the Maxspect Razor uses.

 

http://maxspectusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=21#Specifications

 

The R420r M16000 model mixes Warm, Cool, and a lot of blues. No reds or nasty greens.

[friar1]

So,

I found the shrimp Scamp, cleaning Nemo today! Cool to watch

[friar1]

Here is a picture of my Brittle Star. i have had this guy since the 1.5 gallon Pico

 

[friar1]

So, I know I haven’t made any updates for awhile, but you know nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Please excuse the pictures, I have not been able to get a good tank shot yet, it is what it is.

 

I have a lot to mention, the first being is that I got tired of the “Full Spectrum” lighting I was trying to dial in. I could not get the coral colors with enough pop, and I noticed that some of my corals began to lose coloration and some others were gaining. If you remember, I had some Ultra Violet, a couple of reds and a couple of Warm Whites in the mix with Royal Blues and Cool Whites. It turns out that the Ultra Violets and Reds were have a detrimental effect on some of my coral, most notably the red/green Caulastrea coral and the Prism Goniastrea. Interestingly, the Neon Green Caulastrea (Trumpet) coral was quite unaffected by this light. Whether it was too much or just being in the mix, I do not know. I had both the reds and violets turned down to almost nothing, though the controller program I was using has a bug that turned the violets on in the middle of the night for an hour at high intensity. I suspect that for a twenty gallon tank, these colors are just too much as well as me not being able to get the coral colors to show the way they did in my four gallon. I also had a huge problem with Algae in the display part of the tank.

So I took all the warm or neutral whites and the violets and the reds. What I have now is just Royal Blues and Cool Whites. After playing with the mix, I am very happy with the tank right now. Algae problems are gone, though I cannot say for sure it was the reds, I believe that was a major contributor to the algae. The controller fades up the lights and fades them down to off in a very smooth progression. I am thinking about adding a temp sensor to the controller, but I like my good old fashioned thermometer.

 

One of my hermit crabs decided to change shells and for the first time since I have been keeping hermits, this one chose a non-cerith shell to make his home in. I also found a molt from the cleaner shrimp, so it appears to be doing well.

 

The Clown and the Gobie are both eating and healthy. No sign of disease on either, which I am thankful for.

 

The refugium area in the back is now larger since I took out the first baffle because of the holes becoming plugged up with algae. I plan to just cut off the bottom of that first baffle and put it back in, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. Don’t really need any mechanical filter any more, since the refugium catches most of the stuff that goes through there. I do not know how the refugium is actually doing, since I did not leave myself a way to really observe it other than trying to peer into the top of it, which really does not give me a good view. There is algae in it, mostly GHA though. I have a light on a reverse photo period in the back that just shines into the refugium. It is a plant light type of spectrum. Hopefully that will help the tank. I have been observing the display and the GHA and Bryopsis that was in there is almost gone, what crops up is consumed by the crabs.

 

I have some kind of hitchhiker polyp or anemone, though I suspect it is an anemone. I am hoping it is not Aptasia, it is brown in color about a quarter inch in diameter and with brown tentacles. IT really looks like a polyp, but not like anything I have ever seen. Picture a brown Palythoa and you get the idea. Only it is smaller than a Paly usually is and with longer tentacles, not the curled short ones of a Paly. I will keep my eye on it to see if it reproduces or moves.

 

The Neon Green Trumpet colony that I have had for some time is growing huge! I love this one, seems like nothing stops it’s growth, and it just keeps on growing. May of the heads on it now are doubling, so now it is growing as a colony at a much faster rate.

The Candy Cane that I have had as long as the trumpet is in just the right spot, although you have to look through the side of the tank to get a good look at it, finally has the classic color of a Candy Cane Coral. I hope the Prism will do the same as it also is getting a little shade from the lights. Nothing on the pillar right now, since the only thing that would do well up there would be SPS. I don’t think I could get SPS to grow well in this tank because of the fish and the feeding.

 

The fish do not get fed every day, maybe every other day or just a couple times a week. And they are target fed as are the corals. I can no longer “Feed the tank”, since my water changes are not as large as when I had the 4 gallon, when typically I would change out 50% of the water every week. I am changing 3 gallons per week, this seems to be much better than the 2 gallons a week I was doing earlier this year.

 

Well that is all for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

 

Brian

[friar1]

Oh,

And when I was looking at the tank last night I saw one of my large Ceriths laying eggs! Trippy. Would hope that some would survive. They are on the glass just below the sand line.

[Imaexpat2]

Thanks DannaM

 

Yeah, my problem is, I am REALLY scared of flooding from an ATO. Don,t really have room for the reservoir either. I will have to think about this...

 

My SG was waaaay up! hehe forgot to test often. Guess I got too cavalier with the 4 gallon. But the zoas and rics are still alaive, so no harm no foul

I went to the LFS and bought one of those reptile drippers and just set that up to drip about 32 ounces of RO/DI water into the tank to compensate for evaporation. Its cheap, low tech and wont flood the place if it "malfunctions"...just a thought.

[friar1]

Thanks for the suggestion Imaexpat, but I pretty much have evap under control. I put a lid on, which is acrylic, so that it warps after sitting there for a while so that I have to turn it over after a week or two. Which means it doesn't fit right backwards, which means there is more gas exchange during those next couple of weeks. In any case evap is down to a manageable rate.

[friar1]

And as far as filtration goes, I am now running ChemiPure Elite and Purigen. I had started with the phosphate removal media from API made for that canister filter. It did not seem to do that well (Probably just too much red light in the tank) so when it came time to get more media, I got the Chemi Pure and Purigen.

Water looks good, tank looks clean. Too bad I can't really show it off, since I am needing a better camera.

[friar1]

So, update,

I broke down and added a skimmer. I saw the ad for the Mame skimmer and thought what an interesting idea. Surely I could DIY something like it. Sure enough, there are a lot of threads out there detailing a Mame DIY clone. SO I got a water bottle, a Whisper 40 Air pump, only $9.99 some airline, some 1/2 inch ID vinyl tubing, a 1/2 inch elbow. Silicone the elbow to the bottle, Got a limewood airstone, cut the bottom off the water bottle, connected it all up, ran the 1/2 inch tubing to a jug on the floor behind the tank and presto! A decent DIY skimmer. It is not counter current, it is just a straight up foam maker collecting tea colored skimmate in the jug already. Cost was about 19.00 altogether.

I needed to do it this way for a number of reasons. One, I am flat broke and can't afford the only skimmers I could find that might fit in my back chamber. This way I could be sure of the fit. Two, I did not want a collection cup hanging out at the top of the tank and preferred the look of the Mame to anything else that might fit. If I get rich, I might try the Mame but right now this Project is working as it should. Three, I do not have a sump where I could stick a fancier skimmer, even if I had the cash to buy one. From what I have read, this will be better than nothing for my tank. I have it in the first of the three chambers in the back of my tank. Because of the way my canister filter is set up, water flows through from the top to the bottom of the first chamber where the skimmer is, so the water entering the skimmer is always from the display part of the tank, and being refreshed all the time. Should work pretty good, even if it is not counter current.

 

I also added another power head to the tank for more flow. Did not feel as if the flow was enough for the tank. I took some pics, but ran out of batteries in my camera before I could post them. Will post later.

[friar1]

So here are a few pictures of the tank with one of the top of the skimmer. I really should take the skimmer out to show how simple it is, but I wanted to capture the look of it in the tank. Since it is in one of my back chambers, the bottle only shows at the top. After a week, it is producing dark tea colored skimmate.

 

Adjusting is easy, since I have a magnet in the bottle and I use a magnet on the outside of the tank to hold it in place, Just move the bottle and magnet up or down to adjust. Right now, the skimmer is producing very dry bubbles. Next week I wil lshow you a picture of the skimmate I am capturing.

I am having problems with algae, probably due to my not being able to maintain my Canister filter. I am sure there are lots of nutrients stuck in there now. I will clean it today though. If you remember, my original idea was to put some filter floss in the first chamber of my back chamber in order to capture organics and solid waste, but this did not work out so well. Now I hope to use the skimmer to capture some of that waste before it hits the canister filter, and just run chemical filtration in the canister as I am doing now. In this next picture, you can see the algae at the bottom of the tank in front.

 

 

Here is a picture of the tank, you can see the top of the skimmer is not very obtrusive.

 

 

Trumpet Coral still looks good though. here it is under the blues.

 

[metrokat]

Moar pictures friar!

[friar1]

More pics coming when I clean Tank. I need to show the Skimmer in full.

I decided that I also need to buy a 1/2 Black vinyl tube instead of using the clear tube for the route from skimmer to jug. The clear one is already growing algae. Ha!

 

Also need to snap a pic after a few days of skimming to show skimmate, since I threw out what had collected by today before I started taking pictures.

[friar1]

So, Here's a picture of the collection bottle. A one gallon jug sitting on the floor. When it gets nasty I can empty it easy enough. It hides behind my DVD collection.

 

 

And here is the skimmer in the first back chamber. The water flows into this chamber and down to the bottom and then into the next chamber where is rises to overflow into the last chamber that houses the heater and canister filter intake. I di realize something while cleaning the canister filter, I have been over feeding to get the corals to grow. Probably the main reason for my algae bloom, as the canister filter was really quite clean. Still going to keep the skimmer though, since what the jug has collected is rather nasty looking.

 

 

And here is the skimmer so you can see it is very simple. Just a limewood airstone and airline, with a 1/2 inch elbow at the top.

Yes I got that nasty algae off the stone before I put it back in..

 

No,

It is not the perfect skimmer, but for 20 bucks? I think it's a win.

[metrokat]

Hey that's an easy skimmer to make! Hmmmmm .

What's the dohickee on the right with the black knob on top?

[friar1]

That is the outflow to the canister filter underneath. Canister is running Chemi Pure Elite and Chemi Pure Elite Blue. I need to get some purigen.