mini_matt Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Morning all! I've been on the forum a few years now running a 16L pico reef for 3years and wanted an upgrade, something big enough to actually have fish! Spotted locally, on a group on the popular social networking site, a rather grubby and cheap RSM130 and with roughly 10x the volume of my 3gal, I went for it! Link to comment
LongDoggy Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Nice. What did you pay? Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 £50 including a free urchin! Link to comment
Jeff_in_FL Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Very nice...I debated buying one of these before I went with my IM Fusion 30L. I'll be following! Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 The first problem (acording to my girlfriend) was that the tank and stand is black and therefore won't 'fit in' with the rest of the living room. So as if by magic..... Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Moved it around a few times before settling on 45 degrees so it can be viewed from both sides of the room. I bought RO water from my LFS and a nearly full bucket of Tropic Marin salt locally for another bargain price of £40 and a couple of water barrels thrown in. Once the salinity and temp was right I found someone breaking down their tank and managed to buy 8kgs of live rock for just £30! Really not sure how I've managed to get such good prices on everything, I just scour the popular networking site and find some bargains! Link to comment
DurocShark Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Great score on the tank! Next, we need you to find a better camera for this tank on said networking site. Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 I played around with the three large pieces I bought and finally had this: Quite a nice pile of rock! Then I was prepared to be patient and wait for a cycle but it never happened! Or if it did it was very fast! The rock I bought had been in the chaps tank for three years and only out of the water for 5-10 minutes so I was hopeful that would happen. Oh, I also bought a second hand tunze powerhead for £10 to add some extra flow! Great score on the tank! Next, we need you to find a better camera for this tank on said networking site. Hahaha sorry for the iPhone pictures, I will add pictures from my DSLR tomorrow, I have taken a few but need to use my laptop to upload which is a pain! Thanks for following along though! Link to comment
APLATN13 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Pretty Epic Bro! Can't wait to see more! Link to comment
LongDoggy Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 All nice deals! Good scouring! Will be following to see the progress. I would have paid you £100 for the tank as is right after you bought it. 100% profit for a quick flip. Seems too late now, and your on the wrong side of the pond mate. Lol Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 The tank glass is quite scratched and she needed it out of the way due to a new 6ft tank! Hopefully the scratches won't bug me too much! I did contemplate buying a scratch repair kit but wasn't sure how much success I would have and was worried about making it worse! After a while I did a few water tests and ammonia was at zero, nitrite zero and nitrate at 5ish so seeing as another local was selling a pair of percula clowns for much less than my LFS I picked them up and took my time drip acclimating them in a bucket Before netting them into the tank Crazy hard to get a good pic of these guys as they never stay still!! I also bought some mushrooms and a ric or two from the same guy selling the clowns which have gone into my 3gal until I have new lights on the RSM, going LED!! Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 So, with the new tank I got a free Urchin, this guy is amazing! Great colours and lots of personality! I added some Pulsing xenia from my 3gal to test the water, I have loads of it and generally don't mind if I lose it but seems to be doing well, hoping the clowns will host it but no luck so far. Yesterday my new lights arrived! I went with the controversial 'full spectrum' Chinese ebay LED that seem to be giving lots of people very good results for not a lot of money! (which you can probably tell by now is mostly how I do things!) That brings us up to date, so today I removed the hood and had a test run with the LEDs and took some photos. These were turned right down (they are two channel dimmable) to 10% on the white and 25% on blues! Link to comment
LongDoggy Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Nice! Glad to see your having good results so far with those eBay LEDs. Ive thought about getting some and might do for a separate project I may be starting up. Looking good though. Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 I will be building a new hood to house the LEDs as someone doesn't want them hanging as a pendant I'll resurve judgement but I have seen people growing SPS with the same light so pretty excited to be able to grow more than just softies! Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 So today was DIY day! My plan was to make a wooden hood to hang the light unit in, this ended in frustration and a pile of half sawn half split wood! Don'y buy cheap tools! Having already considered it I went to plan B and decided to fit the 'black box' inside the stock hood with a bit of butchering Probably should've taken more pictures but was busy hacking away at an expensive bit of moulded plastic! Started by unscrewing and separating the two halves of the hood and removing all the electronics for the old PC bulbs. I then placed the 'black box' in the lower part of the hood and drew around the outside, then using a holesaw, drill and hacksaw blade, cut out what was in the way of it slipping in. Next I just needed a couple holes for the dimmer knobs and for the electrical leads. It's not pretty but will do for now until I can be bothered to wire it into the built in timer, I also need to change the wires so I can close the skimmer flap to hide the mess I made yay! Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 I also picked up a couple hermit crabs from the guy I bought my rock from and they look to be settling in nicely Link to comment
Paleoreef103 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Started by unscrewing and separating the two halves of the hood and removing all the electronics for the old PC bulbs. I then placed the 'black box' in the lower part of the hood and drew around the outside, then using a holesaw, drill and hacksaw blade, cut out what was in the way of it slipping in. Next I just needed a couple holes for the dimmer knobs and for the electrical leads. Where are the holes for the fans? It looks good right now, but you need to make sure that your light can breathe. Those cheap Chinese LED fixtures can work well, but they have minuscule heat sinks and rely on multiple large fans to keep the LEDs from burning out. The two things that reliably kill LEDs are too much current or too much heat and those cheap fixtures don't have much of a safety net for cooling. If the vents are on the side you'll heat your tank up a lot and the fixture will still run quite hot. Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Stock hood fans blow/suck through the hood left to right, the light unit is isolated from the water so no hot air blows onto the water. Plus they're only on about 20percent at the min so the built in fans don't even kick in and unit is cold to touch. I think I still will add some holes on top of where the 'black box' fans are as yes the 'heat sink' is just an Ali plate on this one (older model I think) Link to comment
LongDoggy Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Do you have a spash guard for the lights? Not sure how waterproof the unit is and I can't tell from the pictire if there is one installed. Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 The LEDs are covered by a glass pane that's silicone sealed in the box, I took it apart to check ? Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Where are the holes for the fans? . I thought better of it and took heed your warning You can see basically where I've had to cut the hood apart so the light unit slots right in I've then sealed around to stop any moisture getting to the electrics! How long should I let this cure before putting it back over the tank? Link to comment
mini_matt Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Yesterday I moved some Corals over from my 16l, needles to say what filled that tank didn't make a dent on the RSM! For the time being they are just placed and not where they will be staying but I took some pictures anyway Can someone ID this for me please, it bleached a few months ago, hoping it will colour up This is the Tinyest frag ever! It's only a couple of mm in diameter and found it floating around the tank, very curious to see how big this one will get! My Urchin is growing back the spines he had dropped before I got him too! Link to comment
mini_matt Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Update 19/4/15 I spent a while battling some horrible algae while the tank settled down. I changed skimmer to a Korolia slim skim nano which gave me loads of room in the back for carbon, rowaphos and a bunch of cheato which sorted my algae issues. Link to comment
mini_matt Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Update 23/4/15 Yum! Went a bit mad! Link to comment
mini_matt Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 I bought a pistol shrimp from a local And a full tank shot from today 21/7/15 Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.