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Cultivated Reef

RollaJase's Trip Off the Deep End - Custom Rimless 55G


RollaJase

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my fav fish is the flame angel and a big reason i want to upgrade is so i can have one. i hope i get one that doesn't nip...

 

I just got a coral beauty. Unless they chow down on a coral I don't really mind the occasional nipping. I have a theory some of the nipping might be getting rid of bad things. I know when I had my Flame Angel in my old 40 I didn't notice AEFW until I removed him for nipping at the acros, at which point the AEFW population exploded. Could have been a coincidence, but Angels are omnivores.

 

I thought about the Flame vs Coral Beauty ... the Flame is gorgeous and I was set on getting another one until I saw a Coral Beauty in a big SPS cube tank up here. Spectacular looking fish.

I really do like Angels, I think they are very pretty fish, they remind me a lot of fresh water Gourami's in the way they are put together and the patterns. I like that theory of yours Mark and I think I'll highly consider replacing the Foxface with a dwarf Angel. They are a smaller fish for one (4" as opposed to 7") and as you said, they are omnivorous so they will still graze on algae from time to time. I'd probably be looking at the Coral Beauty as I know they are readily available and reasonable priced. The Flame Angels I know are expensive an I almost had a heart attack when I checked the price on a Potter's Angel last night.

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HarryPotter

I love the Coral Beauty too. I want both =P.

 

Im considering either a Coral Beauty, Flame Angel, or yellow tang (small) for my "Show" fish

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The flame angel was one of my first fish in my old 6ft tank. Love how they dart in and out of the rockwork. Never had issues with mine and my corals, but he/she did die on me a few years later, for no apparent reason. Was swimming badly one day and dead the next. I'm not sure I could bring myself to own another one!

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I love the Coral Beauty too. I want both =P.

There are so many pretty Angels and fish in general, I would love to have them all but sadly I can't afford to have a tank the size of a swimming pool haha.

 

 

Im considering either a Coral Beauty, Flame Angel, or yellow tang (small) for my "Show" fish

I very nearly considered the Yellow Tang over a Kole Tang but seeing the size they grow and the fact that I want to keep the fish for the long haul I think the Kole will be a safer, more humane choice for a 55G (gotta appease the Tang Police).

 

The flame angel was one of my first fish in my old 6ft tank. Love how they dart in and out of the rockwork. Never had issues with mine and my corals, but he/she did die on me a few years later, for no apparent reason. Was swimming badly one day and dead the next. I'm not sure I could bring myself to own another one!

I had a friend who's brother had one also, amazing fish. He had a mixed reef and it would nip at SPS from time to time but it was only minimal damage to large colonies that recovered quickly. Sadly it didn't last long either, it was found one morning being consumed by the anemone haha. The circle of life I guess.

 

Dang, scared to ask- what's the price on the potter angel? There listed at 80.00 on live aquaria- ouch!

Flame Angels and Potter's Angels are not native to Australia so the price is quite high for us, they come from Hawaii. Flame Angels are $125 minimum and that is for the commercially farmed ones. I don't believe Potter's Angels are farmed (collected only) so the price is roughly double from what I have seen.

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Soooooo. kinda have been impulse purchasing the remaining hardware and equipment that I need for this build over the last few days. As it stands the only major things left to purchase out of the stuff I need immediately are the new skimmer and my lighting solution. There are a few smaller items and projects that I can piece together after the tank is in place and cycling.

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ATI Sunpower or dimmable Power Module. All T5 with some LED accents, but not too much and not to bright. :)

No T5 this time around I'm afraid. It's hard enough trying to justify the tank to my parents let alone trying to explain why the new fluro's over a new tank (that they still don't know about btw) is sucking down so much power. This will be an all LED fixture for now but I would love to go hybrid in the future. I have something special planned for the lighting ;).

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No T5 this time around I'm afraid. It's hard enough trying to justify the tank to my parents let alone trying to explain why the new fluro's over a new tank (that they still don't know about btw) is sucking down so much power. This will be an all LED fixture for now but I would love to go hybrid in the future. I have something special planned for the lighting ;).

 

Perhaps with a cube you can use LED and save power, not with a longer tank though. I'm only saving about 100 watts vs when I had my Razors over the tank. :) More heat, and bulb changes of course.

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Perhaps with a cube you can use LED and save power, not with a longer tank though. I'm only saving about 100 watts vs when I had my Razors over the tank. :) More heat, and bulb changes of course.

Hmm, you are right I guess. I'm going to stick with LEDs for now though and see how I go. I was considering two fixtures before coming up with a plan thanks to some advice from Ben. I can always run my Sol initially until I get everything up and running properly but would love to eventually get Dave at NanoBox to build me a Hybrid.

 

There is also the associated costs with the T5 fixtures that I have to consider. The ATI and Guisemenn units over here are crazy expensive, the bulbs aren't on the cheap side of things either. I'm definitely not taking the easy nor the cheap way with the solution I settled on but it still comes out better value than a T5 setup at this stage. One day I will have my T5 lit mega 50,000G SPS reef with built in jacuzzi, one day.

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May have just splurged on 75% of my lighting components...

 

My two Jebao RW-4's arrived on Friday last week, I'm yet to give them a test run but hope to do so tonight.

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Well, one of the RW-4's isn't quite right, makes a very audible buzzing while ramping and during general use. The other one on the other hand is flawless. Very easy to set up, nice magnet/suction cup mounts (magnet doesn't fall off the glass if the pump isn't coupled) and boy, does it move some water! With the pair I can move up to 8,000LPH (2,114GPH) of water which in total would be a little over 38 times my display volume and all with a very small (and generally quiet) footprint.

 

Lets see if the seller tries to back out of a replacement pump...

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Well, one of the RW-4's isn't quite right, makes a very audible buzzing while ramping and during general use. The other one on the other hand is flawless. Very easy to set up, nice magnet/suction cup mounts (magnet doesn't fall off the glass if the pump isn't coupled) and boy, does it move some water! With the pair I can move up to 8,000LPH (2,114GPH) of water which in total would be a little over 38 times my display volume and all with a very small (and generally quiet) footprint.

 

Lets see if the seller tries to back out of a replacement pump...

 

Gotta hate that huh? I was one of the first to buy up on high power LED units from China back in the day and they were horrible with their quality control. I was also one of the first to buy VorTech pumps and damn some of them were farking noisy (and others were fine)!!!

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Gotta hate that huh? I was one of the first to buy up on high power LED units from China back in the day and they were horrible with their quality control. I was also one of the first to buy VorTech pumps and damn some of them were farking noisy (and others were fine)!!!

The price you pay I guess for ordering online. It's a shame the Jebao products aren't stocked in stores locally, otherwise I would have gone that route. Yes, I heave heard lots of horror stories when it comes to the cheap chinese LEDs. They seem to have come a long way though and you can get some great lights on the cheap from China if you are that way inclined. I picked a MP10 close to 2 years ago now I would say. While I do like the control and the fact that it keeps the power cable out of the tank I have never been happy with the noise. They are rather expensive also for what they are but I guess they are one of a kind and you do pay for that. I need to get around to pulling my MP10 out of my cube so I can sell it off now haha.

 

Email has been sent to the seller. Their return policy is 3 days from delivery of the item, today is the 4th day if you include the weekend. We shall see what they say I guess.

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No response from the seller what so ever. So far I have gone the eBay route and requested a refund/exchange through my buyer account. Now it's time to escalate it to a dispute.

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Escalated the claim through eBay and within 1 hour their claims team refunded me the cost of the pump plus the share of the freight for the item, that's pretty good service, much better then a PayPal claim. Now, do I buy another pump from the seller knowing I will get an AUD power pack or buy one from China knowing it will come with a foreign power pack that I can swap with the one from the faulty pump? Option 3 would be to take apart the faulty pump and hope the noise is caused by rubbing or something simple.

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Not much too those pumps. Carefully take the pump out of the brackets, making sure not to lose the rubbery grommets that are on both poles. Remove the grommets, twist the front off, and then inspect the blade assembly to see if it has any burs or other defects. Except for the prop there are no moving parts.

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Not much too those pumps. Carefully take the pump out of the brackets, making sure not to lose the rubbery grommets that are on both poles. Remove the grommets, twist the front off, and then inspect the blade assembly to see if it has any burs or other defects. Except for the prop there are no moving parts.

 

Thanks Mark :). I managed to get the pump apart with ease but to me, it looks like all is in order. I think the noise 'may' be the impellor magnet rubbing against the inner plastic. I am going to try the pump with the impellor from the pump I know works. If it makes the same noise I know the issue with the pump is the motor. Oh well, at least I'll have a spare housing, shaft, impellor and power adapter laying around.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I know I haven't made any serious updates in a while and for good reason. I have been roped into working in the vineyard the last few weekends, this weekend will be no exception. I guess I need the extra cash after booking a 10 night holiday to Phuket for mid February 2016.

 

I have been making progress here and there. Lots of wheels are in motion when it comes to the stand. The water proofing is done and filling of holes and smoothing of joins is mainly done. I have noticed that there is a 10mm drop on the stand toward the front right corner. This has skewed the cladding and is something that I will have to fix also. This was caused by warping pine, should have got treated pine but oh well, nothing the orbit sander and some 60 grit disks can't fix, will help me level the stand quickly. Once the stand is level I will cut the holes for the plumbing in the top and fix that into place also.

 

I have all Sunday to myself this week and it will be spent in the shed working on this! I need to get it done as I know my tank is 3/4 built now with the builder! I aim to get the vents I want to make in the rear of the stand finished and I want to get the shelf for my doser made. I also want to make a control box for the DC return pump and the two RW-4 controllers. This control box will be integrated into the left hand cladding and I am undecided whether to mount the control box directly to the cladding or or mount it to the stand and cut a access panel into the cladding. I also want to try and get the mounting for the power boards completed as per the models on the first page. Lots of minor stuff to do before I can get the stand in place, it isn't had work, its just trying to find the time to get it all completed in the meager time I have to myself over the weekends and evening.

 

Also, I almost have 100% of the parts I require for my lighting choice. The last remaining bits and pieces are in the post and on their way to me. I have been awaiting 4 packages over the last few weeks. One arrived yesterday, one arrived today and the other two should arrive by the end of next week. All will be revealed in due course ;).

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Yay! Glad to hear you're making progress!

 

Working in a vineyard probably isn't as amazing as it sounds, but it sure sounds like it'd be pretty idyllic. Eddie (zia) and I just spent a day wine tasting at 5 different vineyards in Anderson Valley, CA. Its always so beautiful in wine country.

 

A 10 day trip to Phuket sounds AMAZING! That's one of the places I really want to go on vacation. Please share photos and tell us all about the trip!

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