Teenyreef's IM40 Not-So-Teeny Tank - August FTS

[teenyreef]

9 hours ago, Tamberav said:

That skimmer looks great! Only downside I can see vs tunze is how high it sticks up. Do you a link to the tube holder? 

At first I thought I wouldn't like the cup sticking up, but once I got used to it, I really appreciate being able to tell how full the cup is. 

 

Here's a link to the tube holder. Looks like I lied about the price, it's actually almost $12. But it has Prime shipping 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TE955XA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[CAD-Aqua]

16 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I've had some folks ask for a more detailed review and pictures/videos of the new Cadlights PLS-50 skimmer. I've had it for a couple weeks, so here are my thoughts (spoiler alert: I like it).

 

There was no manual and the packaging was a little sketchy, but the manufacturer acknowledged that the first few units they shipped were still waiting for those items and they didn't want to hold up shipping. I've been promised a manual as soon as they're available.

However, setup was obvious and easy. If this was my first skimmer, I might have been a little lost, but I could have figured it out from the pictures online. But anyone who has run a standard skimmer would know that the air line goes to the pump, the pump goes into the skimmer body, and the cup goes on top. That's really all there is to assembling it.

 

The depth adjustment is done via an adjustable hook. There's a lot of range in the adjustment, but you have to loosen screws that are on the body of the simmer to adjust it, so you have to set the depth with the skimmer out of the tank. For my tank, I didn't have to change a thing. There's also a set screw to help hold it in place so the adjustment easy as tight or loose as you want.

 

It's super easy to adjust to flow rate into the body, just by rotating the body by less than half an inch. So you just move it a tiny bit at a time until the bubbles are up to the neck. I did a one hour vinegar bath, dropped the skimmer in on the hook, adjusted the flow, and I was getting good skimmate ten minutes later.

 

After the first day or two, it got noisy and rattly. I pulled it out, made sure the pump was seated all the way in, put it back in, and it's been very quiet ever since (about two weeks now). 

 

Here's a picture of it mounted in chamber 1 of the tank. The hook is on the right side, next to the red air line:

 

I'm getting awesome skimmate. This is about five day's worth, nice and dark:

 

Which brings me to the only thing that I don't like so far - I'm used to twisting the cup to work it out of the skimmer body. But that turns the skimmer body a little bit unless I hold it really tightly, and turning the skimmer body changes the flow rate that I had so carefully adjusted. Now, I just wiggle the cup back and forth to work it out, and then make whatever tiny adjustments are needed to get the flow readjusted again when I put the cup back in.

 

Here's a video of the skimmer in action. If you turn up the volume, you'll be able to hear it running. But it's really pretty quiet, I have to go over to the tank and listen for it before I notice it.

 

 

I'm very impressed. It's small and quiet but it's a beast 

Hi, Teeny

 

Wow nice! great details and pics. heres a tip for your collection cup.

 

To make it slightly easier to remove and put back in the collection cup, you can rub a little bit of unscented vaseline right onto the gasket. you dont need to apply it anywhere else.

 

Thanks

CAD Lights

[teenyreef]

1 hour ago, CAD-Aqua said:

Hi, Teeny

 

Wow nice! great details and pics. heres a tip for your collection cup.

 

To make it slightly easier to remove and put back in the collection cup, you can rub a little bit of unscented vaseline right onto the gasket. you dont need to apply it anywhere else.

 

Thanks

CAD Lights

That's a great idea, thanks! I noticed it was easier to remove already when I did it for the third time. I'm sure the vaseline will help a lot.

 

Scott also let me know he's posted the instruction manual in the PLS-50 Elite II announcement thread. It's on page 2: 

 

[Indiana Reefin]

Now that’s some nasty expresso skimmate!! 

[Sps_Addicted964]

On 1/5/2018 at 8:47 PM, teenyreef said:

@CAfirstReef PM'd me to ask a few questions. Among others, he was wondering about my filtration/back chamber set up, so I thought I'd share those details here on the thread. Some day I really need to update the first page of this thread with my setup details!

 

Left chamber #1 (far left): Tunze 9004 skimmer (the big end chambers are the only ones big enough for this skimmer)

Left chamber #2: probes and dosing tubes

Middle chamber: return pump and ATO sensor

Right chamber #2: two pieces of bio brick (I used one 8x8x1 block and cut off two pieces small enough to slide down lengthwise into the chamber)

Right chamber #1 (far right): InTank media basket running a filter pad. About once a month, I add some granular activated carbon and run it for 3-5 days before taking it back out.

 

i run the filter pad instead of floss because the InTank basket shelf is only about an inch below water level and it's hard to get floss to cover the shelf evenly.

I like the InTank basket better than the IM caddy because it tightly covers the whole chamber, forcing all the water to go through the media.

I also run NoPox, 1.5ml/day currently.

 

Finally, it's really important to stir up the detritus in the back chambers periodically. I'm not changing water much, if ever, in this tank right now, but I used to drain water from the back chambers when I did water changes. Now I squirt water around back there with the turkey baster, or I just insert the siphon hose in the back chambers and blow into it to stir it up.

 

What is a "filter pad"? I use the floss and it clogs up after just a few days. I'm looking for something that I can just rinse and re-use, and something with a little more flow.

[teenyreef]

On 2/28/2018 at 7:29 PM, Indiana Reefin said:

Now that’s some nasty expresso skimmate!! 

I agree! I could never get the Tunze fine tuned to be this dark.

[teenyreef]

22 hours ago, Sps_Addicted964 said:

What is a "filter pad"? I use the floss and it clogs up after just a few days. I'm looking for something that I can just rinse and re-use, and something with a little more flow.

I buy these and cut them into 3"x4" squares. I think I get about thirty or forty squares from each order, and I go through one or two a week.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B50UPE0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[teenyreef]

Wow, it's been a crazy month! My daughter got married at the beginning of the month and then I went on travel the week after, and I'm just now starting to catch my breath.

 

The tank is doing fine - I've been battling cyano on the sand, and daily sand-stirring wasn't really cleaning it up, so I finally bumped up the NoPox dosage even though nitrates were only about 2 or 3. I'm glad I tried it - the cyano literally disappeared within two days. Now I just need to keep an eye on the nitrates so that they don't zero out and make all the corals pale. But so far, so good! Here's a quick top down I took last weekend:

 

 

The corals in the frag rack are from a local reefer. I wanted a new JF Fox Flame (far right) because the bleaching event in my cookie jar killed the one I had. I also lost the PC rainbow in the same event (far left), so it was nice to get both of those replaced. And while I was there, it just so happened he had some small frags of Walt Disney Tenuis at a very reasonable price (second from left), and then he threw in a freebie un-named acro (second from right). Fingers crossed they all survive and color up. I'm being very careful to acclimate them to the light - I started the frag rack near the bottom and I'm moving it up about an inch a day.

 

Here's a closer look at the new frags. Not much color yet on the WD frag.

 

 

[HarryPotter]

Nice rack and crazy top down!!!  I love the montipora swirling together. 

 

[teenyreef]

10 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Nice rack and crazy top down!!!  I love the montipora swirling together. 

 

I just liked your post, then realized I should actually reply 

[Tamberav]

So pretty and so much diversity!

 

WD is so hot right now, I see them showing up in a lot of tanks, my LFS has a frag of it for sale even. JF is on my wishlist

[Indiana Reefin]

If you ever just want to give your setup away.. I mean I guess I’ll take it ?

[teenyreef]

13 hours ago, Indiana Reefin said:

If you ever just want to give your setup away.. I mean I guess I’ll take it ?

Haha, thanks! 

[teenyreef]

14 hours ago, Tamberav said:

So pretty and so much diversity!

 

WD is so hot right now, I see them showing up in a lot of tanks, my LFS has a frag of it for sale even. JF is on my wishlist

Thanks! Both the PC Rainbow and the Fox Flame have died premature deaths in my tanks more than once. There have been various reasons but nothing inherently wrong with the tank environment, so I keep trying again. 

 

 

We have a great local reefing community in my area. The guy I got my WD frag from sold it for $80, which is much cheaper than the normal price. He has a beautiful tank and is always sharing frags with local reefers. 

[teenyreef]

I got the camera out to take a picture of the idaho grape monticap trying to surround the Mr. Pacman acro for the really cool thread @Rene started (the Coral Fight Club): 

The monticap doesn't like getting stung by the acro, so it's just trying to surround the enemy:

 

While I had the camera out, I got a couple more random pictures...

The mummy eye chalice is slowly recovering from being bleached. The green is coming back in places, and the white spots are getting smaller. Also, the blueberry shortcake is finally starting to show a little blueberry color on the new growth on the edges:

 

The evil favites are way back in the corner where they can just sit and look pretty and not kill anyone 

 

This is the Cherry Corals Voodoo Magick, which is supposed to be a really cool orange color with a green base. As you can see, the green base part is doing great 

The California Tort, on the other hand, is on point.

 

The Oregon Tort grows slowly but is getting encrusted, so hopefully it will grow faster soon. It's still partly green but I can see blue in the edges of the new growth. I think more light will help.

 

This no-name acro from ASD is starting to get some cool green/yellow highlights in addition to the blue. It may be one of my favorites when it gets bigger and gets fully colored up.

 

[fishfreak0114]

Even if some of the colors aren't what they're supposed to be, they're amazing!  It looks like a rainbow vomited on your corals  

[teenyreef]

On 3/26/2018 at 1:10 AM, fishfreak0114 said:

Even if some of the colors aren't what they're supposed to be, they're amazing!  It looks like a rainbow vomited on your corals  

Lol, I love rainbow vomit!

[teenyreef]

So I got sucked into the upscales microlados grow out contest: 

 

I blame unfair peer pressure.

 

Since I was already buying one coral, I decided to order a few more, you know, just to make the shipping worth while. 

 

And then after I asked about some out-of-stock corals, Holly from @Cultivated Reef started texting me pictures of sexy corals that weren't on the web site. And then, well, what would you do if you saw this no-name colony? Of course I had to order a frag . 

 

 

Also inbound, Joe's Rainbow acro, leng sy monticap, a couple florida ricordea for the 10g ric garden, and an ice fire echinata. Oh, and of course, the upscales microlados.

 

Now I need to figure out where they are all going. I'm thinking about evicting or relocating the blue leather coral because it takes up a lot of room in the back corner of the tank, and using the space to build up a little more upper rock space in the back corner.

 

And of course some corals will go in the 10g and the TeenyCookie Jar. But at least the microlados, Joe's rainbow, and the cool tabling acro should go in this tank. Along with the WD tenuis and maybe the JF Fox Flame. So I definitely need to make more room!

 

[mitten_reef]

Man, I didn’t get the personalized concierge shopping service. 

 

But WOW, that no-namer is a beauty. And a solid list of incoming frags as well!!

[4x5]

So many colours.  The NB really does make those corals glow in the pictures, I've always loved the colour they bring out. I'm also struggling with a few patches of cyano, they are so annoying.

[DaveFason]

The tank is looking stunning John. Great work. 

 

-Dave

[HarryPotter]

I like that no-namer! I picked up a small frag of something similar recently, a mystery blue tenius. Only photo I have is under room lighting tho. 

[vlangel]

On 3/27/2018 at 11:09 PM, teenyreef said:

So I got sucked into the upscales microlados grow out contest: 

 

I blame unfair peer pressure.

 

Since I was already buying one coral, I decided to order a few more, you know, just to make the shipping worth while. 

 

And then after I asked about some out-of-stock corals, Holly from @Cultivated Reef started texting me pictures of sexy corals that weren't on the web site. And then, well, what would you do if you saw this no-name colony? Of course I had to order a frag . 

 

 

 

 

Ha ha, you are too easy tiny!

[teenyreef]

On 3/27/2018 at 11:18 PM, micoastreefing said:

Man, I didn’t get the personalized concierge shopping service. 

 

But WOW, that no-namer is a beauty. And a solid list of incoming frags as well!!

Thanks! The frags arrived today and they look great. From left to right: ice fire echinata, Joe's Rainbow, PC rainbow, upscales microlados (the contest frag), CR tabling acro, and JF fox flame. The PC rainbow and fix flame, were already on the rack, the rest came from @Cultivated Reef. I took the WD tenuis off the rack and mounted it up high on the rocks.

 

 

[teenyreef]

On 3/28/2018 at 2:19 AM, 4x5 said:

So many colours.  The NB really does make those corals glow in the pictures, I've always loved the colour they bring out. I'm also struggling with a few patches of cyano, they are so annoying.

I am super happy with the combination of the Nanobox LEDs for color, and T5's for additional PAR and reduced shadowing. 

My cyano completely disappeared after bumping up the NoPox, and nitrates are steady at 4, which is fine. Before I increased the NoPox, nitrates actually measured lower, around 1 or 2. That's just goes to show how much algae can mask the true nitrate level.