ml86743 Posted April 12 Share Posted April 12 What a cool little tank! Have you decided how you’re going to light this bad boy?? Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 38 minutes ago, ml86743 said: What a cool little tank! Have you decided how you’re going to light this bad boy?? Thank you! I’ll be using a Kessil A160we with their mount and controller. I’ve had an AI, Maxspect, Kessil and T5’s in the past. Kessil was my favorite. I’ll probably order it all next week sometime. Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 It seems like the tanks is processing the ammonia into nitrite fairly well, nitrite into nitrate quite a bit slower. Nitrite is testing at around the 5ppm mark, not sure if I should do a small water change to bring the level down so as not to stall things. Any input? I’m going to order the rest of my equipment this week however I’ll still keep the tank dark until the cycle is 100% over. Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 Doing a water change will interrupt the cycle and it will take even longer to complete Just wait it out until nirtite is 0. Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 6 hours ago, geekreef_05 said: Doing a water change will interrupt the cycle and it will take even longer to complete Just wait it out until nirtite is 0. That’s how I’ve done it in the past however the Dr. Tim’s directions say to do a water change when ammo or nitrite gets over 5ppm. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
colormegone Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 I would Just let the tank do its thing. Once you add livestock is when I would do a water change. I cycled my rock using Dr Tim's way and still have not done a water change. I've been feeding it ammonia once a week to keep it going strong till moving to the Display tank in 6 weeks or so. Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 3 hours ago, colormegone said: I would Just let the tank do its thing. Once you add livestock is when I would do a water change. I cycled my rock using Dr Tim's way and still have not done a water change. I've been feeding it ammonia once a week to keep it going strong till moving to the Display tank in 6 weeks or so. Right on, thanks! Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 While I was checking out the tank last night I realized that I had a small leak from the return bulkhead inside the rear chamber. After taking it all apart and redoing it the leak persisted. Turns out it was from the actual bulkhead which is siliconed in. I put a bead of superglue for now which stopped the leak, I think I’ll run some aquarium silicone over it in the future for a permanent fix. I also spent some time getting the wire management as organized as I could. Turned out decent for just using zip ties and cable anchors. 3 Quote Link to comment
Airedale.Reef Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Looking good so far! Excited to see the tank under the Kessil soon! 👌 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 9 hours ago, AiredaleReef said: Looking good so far! Excited to see the tank under the Kessil soon! 👌 Thank you. Should be here today! Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 Kessil is officially mounted over the tank. I also purchased the Spectral Controller X but haven’t wired it up due to me not using the lights quite yet. Photo is using my phone so color rendition is what it is. 5 Quote Link to comment
Airedale.Reef Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 This is coming along nicely! You will enjoy the Spectral Controller! It is more of a set it and forget it, but you will be able to dial in a dawn/dusk setting, as well as some other fun effects (lighting storm, cloud cover, rainbow etc.) Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 27 Author Share Posted April 27 Lighting Update. After setting up the Kessil and spending a day with it, I came to the realization that I really didn’t enjoy the color spectrum at all. It looked too “cold” regardless of what I did to tune the color. The wife came home later that evening and commented that she “hated it” which confirmed my thoughts, Kessil isn’t going to work. BRS was super accommodating and agreed to take the return. In place of the Kessil I have ordered an EcoTech Radion XR15 pro which should be here end of this coming week. It’s a lot of light for an 18” cube but I’ve seen others be successful with this combo. 1 Quote Link to comment
KC2020 Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 10 hours ago, Crawford_T said: ... I have ordered an EcoTech Radion XR15 pro which should be here end of this coming week. It’s a lot of light for an 18” cube but I’ve seen others be successful with this combo. I think you'll be happy you're making the change. It's only a lot of light if you turn it up all the way. I'm running the XR-15 pro with the Reefbrite add-on kit over my WB20 cube. The RBs are on a dimmer through my Apex. It's the closet to T5 shadowless light and spectrum I've found. And you can grow any coral you like. 1 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 28 Author Share Posted April 28 1 hour ago, KC2020 said: I think you'll be happy you're making the change. It's only a lot of light if you turn it up all the way. I'm running the XR-15 pro with the Reefbrite add-on kit over my WB20 cube. The RBs are on a dimmer through my Apex. It's the closet to T5 shadowless light and spectrum I've found. And you can grow any coral you like. I’m glad to hear from someone with a similar setup. How is the light spill off of the sides? Also, what percentage are you running? I was thinking of starting off at around 40-50% My LFS uses Radions and they look amazing. Quote Link to comment
KC2020 Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 It is a nice light. I think you'll be happy. It's certainly easy to adjust and so you'll be able to tune it to your liking. I'm using the diffuser and a hood on the XR-15 so the spill is pretty limited. The Reefbrites swivel in their brackets so I've got them pointing slightly inward. The tank is only 2 months old so I'm running at 25% with the T5 type spectrum. I may change that as I add more stoney corals. Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 28 Author Share Posted April 28 8 minutes ago, KC2020 said: It is a nice light. I think you'll be happy. It's certainly easy to adjust and so you'll be able to tune it to your liking. I'm using the diffuser and a hood on the XR-15 so the spill is pretty limited. The Reefbrites swivel in their brackets so I've got them pointing slightly inward. The tank is only 2 months old so I'm running at 25% with the T5 type spectrum. I may change that as I add more stoney corals. I just saw that people make hoods for them today. If the spill is too much I’ll pick one up too. 25%, ok so maybe I need to chill with my planned starting % The plan is a mixed reef. I’ll start with easy stuff, zoas, acans, ricordia then go from there. I’d like to keep a few sps up top eventually but I’ll be taking it super slow. Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 28 Author Share Posted April 28 14 minutes ago, KC2020 said: It is a nice light. I think you'll be happy. It's certainly easy to adjust and so you'll be able to tune it to your liking. I'm using the diffuser and a hood on the XR-15 so the spill is pretty limited. The Reefbrites swivel in their brackets so I've got them pointing slightly inward. The tank is only 2 months old so I'm running at 25% with the T5 type spectrum. I may change that as I add more stoney corals. What hood are you running? Quote Link to comment
KC2020 Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 Starting at a lower power setting means you can always go up after you see the response of your corals as opposed to burning/bleaching them before you realize you've started too high. The spectrum profiles in Mobius are a good place to start and the present allow you to select 20%, 40% of power or higher and then you can adjust it from there. For Zoas and lower light LPS I think you'll be able to tell pretty quickly what light level they like. The hood I'm using is this one from Printed Reef. I'm sitting about 10' from my tank and LEDs were in direct line of sight so the hood is essential. 1 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 29 Author Share Posted April 29 I’ll be using the RMS mount for now so I think that puts it at 8”. Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 29 Author Share Posted April 29 Well, we have life! The wife and I stopped by our LFS as he let me know he had a new shipment of clowns. We ended up with a “black snowflake” and an “orange storm”. Both are quite small but beautiful colors, hard to capture without light but I did my best. 3 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted April 29 Author Share Posted April 29 24hr update. Both clowns are doing very well, exploring and eating when fed. I added the MP10 foam cover as the storm is quite small and I don’t want to risk it. I’ve also added a diy mesh lid (BRS with Neat Aquatics rimless corners) and a VCA return extension for better surface agitation. I’ve also started dosing Microbacter7. No light yet means no algae, Radion should be here Wednesday. Cheers NH3/NH4-0 No2-0 No3-5/10ppm Temp-78F Salinity-35 1 Quote Link to comment
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