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Innovative Marine 25 Lagoon


Thrassian Atoll

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4 hours ago, TILTON said:

Got my NanoBox Duo + M going.  Still figuring out if I like the height and adjusting the colors on Bluefish.  Currently sitting at 5" over the water.  

 

Heres some quick iphone photos.  I am still playing around with my Canon and the white balance.

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Is that purple?  Purple is my favorite lol

(The top of the light I mean lol)

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4 hours ago, TILTON said:

If anybody has any pointers for a photography newb, please let me know.

Make a top down port hole.

 

Or use a clear acrylic vox. Take photos from top down with all water movement off. Move the acrylic box over the coral and take a pic through that.

 

They come out much clearer. These are top down20170704_142408.thumb.jpg.fdee6d32d24e674b00644c82bba3a94e.jpg

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Thrassian Atoll
6 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Is that purple?  Purple is my favorite lol

(The top of the light I mean lol)

 

It is!!  Looks good.  It needed a splash of color.

Just now, Clown79 said:

Make a top down port hole.

 

Or use a clear acrylic vox. Take photos from top down with all water movement off. Move the acrylic box over the coral and take a pic through that.

 

They come out much clearer. These are top down20170704_142408.thumb.jpg.fdee6d32d24e674b00644c82bba3a94e.jpg

20170704_145516.jpg

 

Those look good!  I will look into a top down box.  I am going to pick up the Canon 100mm f/2.8 as well soon.  

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Thrassian Atoll

Decided to remove about 10lbs of sand.  My sand bed is now .5"-1" all around.  Did this to make it easier to keep clean and also to help from blowing around and duning, which I still need to get my MP10 positioned perfectly to create less sand movement.  I am hoping over time that dies down.  

 

Ordered a bunch of new stuff today for testing and also new salt.  I decided to already switch from rscp salt to DD H2Ocean.  I did a lot of reading and decided that the rscp alk levels would be to high for where I want it.  Hopefully the h2ocean keeps it around 9 DKH.  If I decide to run a uln system later, I'll probably switch the regular Red Sea and keep alk levels around 7.5 dkh.  

 

Testing equipment i ordered.  

 

Hanna Alk DKH checker

Hanna UL phosphorus checker

Hanna PH probe

red sea nitrate

red sea calcium

 

I was reading reviews on the Hanna calcium checker and they were terrible.  People said it always reads really high.  Wonder why the others do so well and the calcium one sucks?  

 

Cycle is almost over I think.  

 

Ammonia at .25 

Nitrites at 0

nitrates at 10

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Thrassian Atoll

Cycle has been complete for about a week, so I decided to add some of my CUC and also buy a couple of cheap Monti Caps to see how they do.  

 

Clean up crew consists of 2 ceriths, 1 astrea, 1 spiny star astrea, 1 trochus, 2 nassarius, 2 nerites, 2 tiny hermits.  All of them are pretty small.  I will see how they handle keeping the tank clean and add more if I need to.  The hermits are extremely tiny.  I will keep an eye on them and make sure they do not bother my snails.  

 

I picked up 2 monti caps.  1 red piece and not sure what the other one is.  The non red one I think is blue with green polyps.  Hes a little browned out.  Got a good deal on them.  I dipped them in Bayer real well before putting them in the tank.  They are now at the bottom side of the tank on a frag rack.  I am hoping they do well, but I know sps and tank maturity should go hand and hand, so we shall see. 

 

I also ordered some baby brittle stars, mama mia worms, pods, and coralline algae plates.  I am sure I could of got all of that for free or really cheap somewhere, but went a head and bought that from Indopacific sea farms.  

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Thrassian Atoll
2 minutes ago, schgr.cube said:

Looking good! Give me that light, please and thank you. :happydance:

 

Haha, I am enjoying it more and more everyday.  Glad I did not buy a radion.  

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Thrassian Atoll

I will probably order a fish this week from the lfs.  Have no idea what I want first.   I really wish we had more options for our Nano's.  Seems like most of the stuff I like requires bigger tanks.  

 

My my list is pretty much 4 fish.  

Midas Blenny, Flasher wrasse, yasha goby with pistol shrimp, Helfrichi fire fish.

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Thrassian Atoll

Unfortunately, my red monti is starting to lose its flesh around the edges.  I am not sure if it's going to keep going or stop or what.  If it gets bad I will try and frag the part that's still good.

 

I am guessing its due to the fact that my tank is only 3 weeks old and most people say to wait months before you introduce sps.  Nothing good happens fast in this hobby, and I am not sure why I love it so much being the most impatient person in the world. ? 

 

I will keep monitoring it and update how it goes.  The other monti looks exactly the same with no rtn happening.  

 

You can see in the photo where it's losing its flesh.  

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Awesome tank and equipment list! I'll be following along.

 

Sorry to see the monti struggling, I've had some decent success with montis in my IM10 and usually keep them mid-tank where the flow and light are strong but not rediculous.

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Thrassian Atoll
5 hours ago, _badger said:

Awesome tank and equipment list! I'll be following along.

 

Sorry to see the monti struggling, I've had some decent success with montis in my IM10 and usually keep them mid-tank where the flow and light are strong but not rediculous.

 

Thanks!  It's weird.  The other one has looked the same since I bought it and it's sitting right beside the red monti.  

1 hour ago, JTM1991 said:

That is an awesome tank, I eventually want to step up to an IM so I'll be following along.

Thank you.  I like this tank way more than my old Biocube.

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Christopher Marks

I just wanted to say hi and welcome you back @TILTON! It looks like you're all settled in to the new community website now, we rolled out the big change earlier this year :)

 

Your new system setup is stellar, your aquascape is just my style, and that NanoBoxReef light is a killer combo with the tank. It's amazing how far nano reef keeping has come just in the time you've been away, right?

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Thrassian Atoll
3 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

I just wanted to say hi and welcome you back @TILTON! It looks like you're all settled in to the new community website now, we rolled out the big change earlier this year :)

 

Your new system setup is stellar, your aquascape is just my style, and that NanoBoxReef light is a killer combo with the tank. It's amazing how far nano reef keeping has come just in the time you've been away, right?

 

Thank you!!!  Yeah, it's pretty crazy how far technology has come especially for nanos.  What's even more crazy is the AIO boom!  5 years ago it was basically 4-5 options for AIO nano tanks?  Now there's a ton and a ton of picos as well.  

 

It looks like LEDs are about the only options for lighting anymore.  I actually wanted T5s but API didn't offer any arms, only hanging kits for the higher end models.  Metal Halide seems to have completely disappeared.  

 

There is also so much more knowledge now with everything from dosing, to balancing parameters, to coral dips.  

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Thrassian Atoll

Received my shipment from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms.  I ordered a few things including, amphipods, mama-Mia worms, Bristle worms, coraline algae plates, baby brittle stars.  I also received 6 free strombus snails.  

 

Shipping was great.  2 day free delivery from Hawaii.  Everything was triple bagged.  That was all double bagged inside of a cooler.  Everything arrived alive.  Couldn't be happier.

 

Heres a photo of the spaghetti worms. 

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Thrassian Atoll

First fish is in!!  Yasha Goby!!  The LFS has candy pistol shrimp as well but it was hiding in a rock.  They are going to try and get it out for me tonight or tomorrow so I can pair them together.   I'll get some better photos later with my Canon when I get my tank cleaned up and see where he dicides to make his home.  

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2 minutes ago, TILTON said:

First fish is in!!  Yasha Goby!!  The LFS has candy pistol shrimp as well but it was hiding in a rock.  They are going to try and get it out for me tonight or tomorrow so I can pair them together.   I'll get some better photos later with my Canon when I get my tank cleaned up and see where he dicides to make his home.  

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Great choice for a first fish for this tank! I've always loved Yasha Gobies, but have never owned one. I may have missed it if you have already said it, but what other fish did you have planned?

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Thrassian Atoll
1 minute ago, schgr.cube said:

Great choice for a first fish for this tank! I've always loved Yasha Gobies, but have never owned one. I may have missed it if you have already said it, but what other fish did you have planned?

 

Thanks!!  I just ordered a Midas Blenny.  Should be at the fish store Wednesday and I will have them hold it for a week probably to see how it does.  

 

Other than those two, I am thinking Helfrichi Firefish and a flasher wrasse.  I'll see how it goes after 3 with my water quality.  Don't want to push it with SPS dominant plans.  

 

Going to take a few more weeks until I get my artfullyAcrylic top too.  Might have to throw some screen or something on there after I get the midas until I get my top.

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