LITTLE BLUE| IM30L (picking up pieces after the crush)

[A Little Blue]

Few pics with that camera under various conditions (dark, light overexposure conditions, indoor/outdoor and fast moving objects) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[specore]

21 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Few pics with that camera under various conditions (dark, light overexposure conditions, indoor/outdoor and fast moving objects) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very nice!

[specore]

I'm removing mine with each water change.  Probably take me about the same amount of time as Andy Dufresne needed to tunnel out of Shawshank 🙂

[A Little Blue]

Photo dump.

It’s official, due to vac and some ALK swings, two sps acros are gone. Will need some replacement to fill that space. Perhaps some Black Friday deals could fill that void. Other than that, everything is doing fine. I’m going to order some complementary lighting to add some “pop” to IM30 and rent PAR meter from BRS to finally get some solid numbers on light output. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LJ-Precision]

Great looking tank and thanks for sharing your journal with us.

[Christopher Marks]

Looking good @A Little Blue! You're running out of room for new coral 😄 

 

Nice white balance on your photos too, another lens filter?

[A Little Blue]

4 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Looking good @A Little Blue! You're running out of room for new coral 😄 

 

Nice white balance on your photos too, another lens filter?

Not really....... using the same cheap set of filters on new Rebel SL2 camera. 

Just experimenting at the moment. Standard lens that came with the camera is giving me a bit of a fisheye effect. Looking into a better lens options. 

White balance is extremely important to take color accurate pictures. Something that matters a lot to me as my goal is to present honest and realistic window into my tank and everything that lives in it. l have a lot to learn tho. 

 

There’s still some room for frags. I like to over-seed the tank with various frags and let the strongest kind claim their Darwinian prize. Besides, it’s almost impossible to please every single coral. There will be casualties and I am totally fine with that. 

 

Thanks for clearing up a bit of misunderstanding earlier @Christopher Marks

😉

[A Little Blue]

9 hours ago, LJ-Precision said:

Great looking tank and thanks for sharing your journal with us.

Absolutely and it’s my pleasure @LJ-Precision👍

[specore]

Looking good man!  I'm sure you'll find something to fill the voids 😉

 

[A Little Blue]

On 11/21/2018 at 11:32 AM, specore said:

Looking good man!  I'm sure you'll find something to fill the voids 😉

 

Any brown sticks should do it. Don’t like spending big $ on flavor of the month stuff. Waiting for my CC replacement since card nr was stolen during vacation trip. Might have to move my butt and visit trusted LFS. Just hate to set myself up for disappointment and risk of unwanted pests. Frag tank is having an issue with flatworms so I can’t really use it for quarantine at the moment. 

Wide angle shot (all the way down to a close up) of my living room with a bit of perspective on location of this setup. There is enough room for 120-200g tank but life would probably become a hellish nightmare. 🤣

Besides, I need that space for other toys. 

 

 

 

 

Pic came out a bit too warm 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

14 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Any brown sticks should do it. Don’t like spending big $ on flavor of the month stuff. Waiting for my CC replacement since card nr was stolen during vacation trip. Might have to move my butt and visit trusted LFS. Just hate to set myself up for disappointment and risk of unwanted pests. Frag tank is having an issue with flatworms so I can’t really use it for quarantine at the moment. 

Wide angle shot (all the way down to a close up) of my living room with a bit of perspective on location of this setup. There is enough room for 120-200g tank but life would probably become a hellish nightmare. 🤣

Besides, I need that space for other toys. 

 

 

 

Pic came out a bit too warm 

 

 

 

Tank looks good! 😊  In some of those pics it looks like there isn’t any water because it’s so clear. 

 

[A Little Blue]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

Tank looks good! 😊  In some of those pics it looks like there isn’t any water because it’s so clear. 

 

Thanks!👍

It’s pretty clean in real life. Few reasons why it looks the way it does:

(for anyone that cares or aims for similar results)

•Macro-fuge prevents any algae outbreaks in display tank (other than filament algae that needs very little maintenance weekly. Could probably go 3weeks without touching the glass). 

•Halloween Urchin got hired several weeks ago to help out with lobophora platting algae that came on one of the frags (long ago) and now spread out enough to become a concern. Happy to report that Urchin is a valid solution yo deal with this problem. 

• dosing live phytoplankton daily. 

• keeping Mg over 1500

• using carbon (small amount passively in the bag, high flow area in back chamber) and changing it every other week. 

• I feed heavy (fish/corals). Small amounts, several times per day. That prevents any waste and trapped uneaten food that might affect water quality. 

• and very important - high flow

[A Little Blue]

One 360X ordered.

Added another, much smaller Urchin. 

Added Banded Pipefish to Q-tank to learn a bit more about these guys. 

(Sorry for crappy phone picture)

[Christopher Marks]

Neat addition, pipefish are so cool! I am still surprised to see them pretty widely available in stores these days.

[A Little Blue]

1 minute ago, Christopher Marks said:

Neat addition, pipefish are so cool! I am still surprised to see them pretty widely available in stores these days.

Why does that surprise you @Christopher Marks??? 

This particular one was in my LFS for months and I watched it closely but wasn’t sure if I want to commit to something I really don’t know all that much about. 

The most popular Pipefish that sells out almost immediately at my LFS is the Dragon Face. Probably because it suppose to help out with acro eating flatworms. Do they really help overcoming that problem I can’t really say for certain. 

[WV Reefer]

38 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

One 360X ordered.

Added another, much smaller Urchin. 

Added Banded Pipefish to Q-tank to learn a bit more about these guys. 

(Sorry for crappy phone picture)

😯 It’s soooo cool! 

[A Little Blue]

1 minute ago, WV Reefer said:

😯 It’s soooo cool! 

If I can keep it alive than yeah, for sure. 🤣

[Christopher Marks]

I just remember a time when they were quite rare in the aquarium trade, and now they're even captive bred. Pretty cool!

[A Little Blue]

Just now, Christopher Marks said:

I just remember a time when they were quite rare in the aquarium trade, and now they're even captive bred. Pretty cool!

 

Just now, Christopher Marks said:

I just remember a time when they were quite rare in the aquarium trade, and now they're even captive bred. Pretty cool!

I see, but a lot have changed in the past 10-20 years. What was impossible to keep and grow is now a common practice. One of the great things about this hobby. Army of hobbiests breaking stereotypical believes everyday. 😉

[VaporCountry]

Just started following, love what you have done with this 30L. Im going to be starting a 30L build here shortly!

[A Little Blue]

59 minutes ago, VaporCountry said:

Just started following, love what you have done with this 30L. Im going to be starting a 30L build here shortly!

Great, you’ll have fun with that build for sure. Not the easiest tank to scape due to its limited depth and height but it still fun to work with. Many ways to go about filtration options and lighting as well. 

[VaporCountry]

1 hour ago, A Little Blue said:

Great, you’ll have fun with that build for sure. Not the easiest tank to scape due to its limited depth and height but it still fun to work with. Many ways to go about filtration options and lighting as well. 

Yea I'm worried about the scape. I bought the Nanobox quad light but its 6 weeks wait while being made. Filtration I am doing a mess of Marine pure spheres. I plan on putting them under InTank floss holders in chambers 1 and 5. I bought the cadlights PLS-50 Elite II after seeing some good reviews. Then just run carbon in a mesh bag and dose some lanthanum chloride for phosphates when needed. Oh and a ChaetoMax led for macro in chamber 2. How does that setup sound? I'm just doing an LPS only tank with maybe some mushrooms. Never had success with SPS so i'm staying away. Kudos for being able to keep them in a nano.

[A Little Blue]

15 minutes ago, VaporCountry said:

Yea I'm worried about the scape. I bought the Nanobox quad light but its 6 weeks wait while being made. Filtration I am doing a mess of Marine pure spheres. I plan on putting them under InTank floss holders in chambers 1 and 5. I bought the cadlights PLS-50 Elite II after seeing some good reviews. Then just run carbon in a mesh bag and dose some lanthanum chloride for phosphates when needed. Oh and a ChaetoMax led for macro in chamber 2. How does that setup sound? I'm just doing an LPS only tank with maybe some mushrooms. Never had success with SPS so i'm staying away. Kudos for being able to keep them in a nano.

It sounds like a good start. There are few things I would like to point out from my own experience. Not sure if I understood  the way MP spheres are to be used. If you are going to fill both chambers with those spheres, it’s really not necessary and overkill. They have huge surface area to colonize bacteria so anywhere between 8-12 should be more than enough to provide biological filtration for your tank. You can also use filter mesh bag for ease of maintenance in case you need to rinse them off from sediment build up and detritus. 

Skimmer is useful tool but unnecessary in the first few months. Once your stocking increases the need for more aggressive “nutrient” export will be beneficial. That’s when skimmer might really come in handy. Carbon is fine, I personally like to use it in small amounts  (5-6 heavy tablespoons) however, I change it every other week as its effectiveness diminishes quite quickly. 

InTank floss seems perfect. I use something similar as I really hate filter socks. Replace them often since clogged filter floss will slow down your return flow and might lower water level in pump return chamber, not good. 

Your macro grow light seems like a good choice. I am big on macro algae filtration and it seems to work great when setup correctly. Some people have problem growing Chaeto but don’t be discouraged if it happens to you. I had that issue and switched to Sea Grapes which is growing like a weed. 

And lastly, take it slow, with filtration, stocking, lighting etc......it pays off. I never had algae outbreak, diatoms, Cyano or Bryopsis (Knock on wood) so yeah, it can be done. And if you get the hang of it and figure out what your tank needs, how it behaves, you will become comfortable enough to try something new (like sps) which isn’t necessary more difficult but it has different needs. 

And don’t forget to have fun and keep away from anything that will make this hobby more difficult than it has to be. 

[A Little Blue]

360X arrived yesterday. Still waiting for matching controller. It has potential. Not sure how am I going to go about lighting this tank..... 1-360X with both A160s or go with two 360X and use A160s on future project? But I’ll figure it out once this light is installed and ran for few months. 

 

PAR reading from Marine Depot. I’ll do my own readings as I am a bit sceptical about these numbers (surface and mid-tank reading in particular). 

 

[specore]

12 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

360X arrived yesterday. Still waiting for matching controller. It has potential. Not sure how am I going to go about lighting this tank..... 1-360X with both A160s or go with two 360X and use A160s on future project? But I’ll figure it out once this light is installed and ran for few months. 

 

PAR reading from Marine Depot. I’ll do my own readings as I am a bit sceptical about these numbers (surface and mid-tank reading in particular). 

 

Somehow I have a feeling you'll end up with two 360x's 🙂