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Coral Vue Hydros

mantisman379

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What the flip is up guys, I'm back on the forums and better than ever!!

 

If your lazy and don't like to read like me just watch my videos!

 

To preface I am a senior college student studying Renewable Energies and sustainability

-Been keeping Reef aquariums since I was in 8th Grade.... 8 or so years? w/e you get the deal

-Trying to have a social life drinking and listening to Post Malone while keep a mildly alarming aquarium addiction (obsession?) 

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So I got this aquarium to downsize from a Deep blue 20 gallon DIY AIO (that's a lot of acronyms i know, Do it yourself All in one, is what it stands for) So the stocking is a little bit tight but one thing i like to challenge is the typical Reef norms, I HATE to follow the rules though I understand in some cases there's logical reason to. I am not talking about throwing  a blue tang in my 7 gallon nano tank or unplugging my protein skimmer and just doing months water changes LOL. No those people are ridiculous but I will challenge type norms and try to use logical reason to support my challenges. Most people would say my Maroon clown and Mandarin need to go and I would agree but not now, I change tanks like your Uncle Steve changes Wives (Every 1-2 years) So this really is not a long term obligation to keep these fish together forever.

 

Okay! If you made this long without skipping you get a pat on your back. Now the Current Tank

Equipment:

-Fiji Cube 7 gallon AIO Pico 

-Maxi Jet 400 return pump (swapped the stock rio because it sucks and doesnt allow the AIO to skim)

-AI nonPrime that ramps all day from 3%-60% 

-Ceramic rings, foam pad, Red Sea Carbon

-Tunze Doc 9001(Baus Skimmer, I love this guy)

-Dosing Kalk in ATO (a Quart jug I mix once a week or so)

-Glass marineland heater that i need to get rid of

Inhabitants starting with fish

-Misbar Maroon clown

-Yellow cleaner Goby

-Tailspot Goby (He is the biggest wuss)

-Mandarin Goby

-Skunk Cleaner (this guys a savage)

-Emerald Crab

-Hermits and snails

-Blue Tux Urchin (love this guy but he kinda needs more room)

-Green Bubbletip Anemone

-Green Frogspawn, Green hammer, Three types of Acans, Pink/green Blastos, Orange Zoas, Xenia

 

Here is a 4K video of my tank check em out! 

I also have an unboxing of my Fiji cube on my youtube page definitely check that out

 

Ill try to update this weekly or whenever something big happens

 

Edited by mantisman379
College kid was the click baity
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Watched your unboxing video on the tank.  That's some crazy bowing for such a small tank at the 2:43ish mark.  

 

Everyone loves pictures and videos, so be sure to post them whenever time permits. 

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Hey guys just a little update because I got a few pictures with the camera (Lumix GX85 if your curious) I found that I have to use slower shutter speed with a kelvin white balance setting to match my LEDs on my AI prime. It seems that LEDs used in AI have a slow refresh rate, as far as leds go so using a shutter speed of anything greater than 1/200th will give a whiter or bluer color since the different led colors have differing refresh rate. 

 

Anyways enough of the technical bs... Fed the tank today before I went out to get my dollar tacos with the crew. My tunze skimmer was spitting out a lot of micro bubbles for some reason, I need to check on it. It makes it look like its snowing in the attached macro picture I took

 

I have been trrying to train these guys to be less camera shy so before and after I make sure to be taking videos and pictures right up at the glass, i find that if you dont approach the tank a lot they seem to be easily startled by people, and thats bulllsheeeet like cmoonn guise.

 

Enjoy that picture sorry its giant, I to have figure out how to compress my photos here

P1000333.thumb.JPG.525b657016e38853e0ace8a54e4a67a0.JPG

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23 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

Watched your unboxing video on the tank.  That's some crazy bowing for such a small tank at the 2:43ish mark.  

 

Everyone loves pictures and videos, so be sure to post them whenever time permits. 

I almost forgot, Yea this tank bows quite a bit but I have been in contact with fiji cube and they are now converting their tanks to all Glass, I seriously see this company becoming a big competitor to Innovative marine nuvo aquariums, especially considering they are designed and manufactured in Minnesota. The owner has been in contact with me and asking me opinion on what i think of the dimensions of tank which are perfect IMO and the dimensions of the rear chamber which have a ton of room (way bettet than the nuvo 10s tiny rear chambers) If you missed the post about the Fiji Cube 7 pico here's the Youtube video I made for it 

 

Whats important is the the glass versions should be ready by the end of the year and the company assured me they would replace my acrylic for a glass one.

If it was up to me I would make a larger version of this tank but a a lot wider, where as this tank is 14x14x8 I would do 20x14x8 inches tall, It would give it the mini large tank effect. I just hate tall skinny tanks. Fiji cube told me they have 2 new sizes of the 7 gallon pico shape in the works, Im guessing a tiny 3 gallon, a 7 and a 15 (he told me the 15 is designed for sure) 

 

This company is huge for us because its small and us as consumers can almost get anything we want in terms of what we want from a AIO reef tank market.

 

Yup that's my awkward squinty a$$, Ill work on my on camera expressions, you guys get the picture though

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2 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

The title of this thread sounds like clickbait. “College Kid” lol you’re a bigass bearded man get over it ?

lol I can change it to bigass bearded man? Everyone at my LFS just thinks I'm a college kid

  • Haha 1
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  • 2 weeks later...
mantisman379

So as I have had this tank running for almost a month now I can say one of the biggest issues I have with the tank besides the bowing, is poor surface skimming performance. The intake level is lower than the final chamber height so the water does not pour over the edge from the first chamber. I have OK picture of this but I will make a video hopefully by next week.

Also I have messaged the company and they making changes to the design, so they say haha.

 

I would recommend holding off purchasing this tank until the glass version is out.

 

In other news I have been having trouble keeping the salinity constant in the tank. Checking with my refractometer I find it swaying from 1.015 to 1.025 within a week or so due to evaporation. Corals seem to be the most stressed though my BTA seems unphased, the fish seem to be fine too.

 

My solution to this is to begin monitoring salinity and temp levels via a REEF keeper, I just have not found the right deal to jump on, 

I would use my DIY ATO but I don't trust it in this small of a system.  

received_1892034300823299.jpeg

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mantisman379

Yea I have noticed so, it seems that the combination of evaporation and topping off, the salinity gradually drops through out the week.

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Interesting to see similar design that i have. I built my own aquarium and i'm having more or less the same issue. But not the evaporation this is crazy !
Need ATO that for sure.

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  • 3 months later...
On 10/9/2017 at 12:54 PM, Scalion said:

Interesting to see similar design that i have. I built my own aquarium and i'm having more or less the same issue. But not the evaporation this is crazy !
Need ATO that for sure.

I was able to seal the top a lot better with a piece of glass and evaporation has gone done significantly 

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