ScooterTDI

Very cool! Good to see another long nano tank around. My only recommendation would be to turn it so it is a peninsula-style orientation and add some sort of discrete lid. I've had a lot of heartbreak from jumpers even when I had everything covered except a 1"x1/2" opening.

Making progress. I'll need to stabilize the rack by mounting it to the wall. Seems a bit too wobbly otherwise. That is pretty much the coolest exhaust fan ever You know you are getting old when an exhaust fan really gets you excited. It automatically adjusts the fan speed to maintain a user specified temp and humidity range. I'm going to mount it above the door blowing into the hallway. I'll put a normal white 6"x6" HVAC return grate over the opening in the hall so it doesn't look to obvious.

I would think you'd have higher consumption than that with all that sps. I'd increase the dose. My approach is to use a doser, but set the amount to be slightly less than the daily consumption. Then, test daily and make up any shortfall manually. I think this helps to avoid alkalinity spikes when the all consumption occasionally drops for various reasons. My alkalinity consumption is pretty rediculous right now, but it doesn't seem to be going to abiotic precipitation (at least there is nothing visible on any equipment), so I assume it is going to new growth. FYI, my tank will drop several dKH in a day without the doser, so it seems pretty reasonable that you'd be seeing 1+ dKH daily consumption.

Yea, the RO 110 int is on the short list. How has the reliability been on the RO pump? I'm also looking at the Eshopps S-120 mostly for the Sicce pump. The Axium line also seems to be a good, no frills, utility skimmer.

Yea, I have no plans on replacing the display. I really like having a small shallow display tank. The sump won't be giant though. I only have a 38"x43" space. I picked up a two 20L at Petco (dollar per gallon) for a new sump and frag tank. I'll probably go get a third to use as a NSW mixing tank. I was originally going to set up a mixing station in the basement next to the RODI, but all the plumbing, electrical, and pumps to move water to the closet seemed unnecessarily expensive. Easily to just run an RO line into the closet and mix there. Still deciding on equipment upgrades. I want to repurpose as much existing equipment as possible. I'm also considering using the same light/pumps as the display (current orbit loop system). It's not my first choice, but it works well for the display and I can swap components around if any of them break. I also plan to use redundant identical return pumps for the same reason. I'll probably use Quiet One 1200s. They've always been reliable for me and they are super inexpensive. I need a recommendation for a new skimmer though. Total water volume is ~45g. Preferably not too expensive, but consistent and durable. The Ice cap skimmer I have now works great, but recently broke due to poor design on the gate valve system. It's still operational, but difficult to adjust now.

In the process or rearranging the living space in our house, I have acquired a fish room/closet! The aquarium has to move across the room, but now a closet will be directly behind it. First step was to protect the floor in case of leaks/spills. I removed the baseboards, cut out the drywall and plaster around the bottom, replaced with a perimeter of treated wood, then installed a shower pan liner. The wood frame that holds and tensions the liner is made from Ipe wood, so it is pretty much impervious to water. This should hold 20-30 gallons on the floor indefinitely. I'll install a removable, raised, Ipe deck over the frame. A metal rack will hold a sump, frag tank, and mixing station. RO line will be installed from the RODI unit in the basement. Let me know if you have any ideas for this space. I still collecting ideas on how I want this system arranged.

I don't think it's possible to change out the LEDs on these fixtures. They are embedded in what appears to be epoxy.

No one is ever satisfied with their tank, but that's the fun part. There is always something to work on improving. I don't know what the budget is, but there are lots of long term solutions that have been suggested that aren't too pricy. What exactly is the problem with supplementing with t5s in an AquaticLife fixture or getting some led strip lights (reefbrites, sbreef, or similar)?

Fair enough, just trying to help. I didn't know if you were married to the 100% blue aesthetic all day long. I was just trying to find a way for you to keep the light since it seemed that is what you wanted in the original post and all your pumps are on the loop system too. I think you still can keep them by just supplementing with more blue LEDs and/or t5s.

...and sps/acros with the whites turned up under the right circumstances.

No, not at all. Photosynthesis (whether zooxanthellae in corals or algae) utilizes light across the visible spectrum to varying degrees. In fact there is a substantial chlorophyll absorption in the red end and a host of accessory pigments that can funnel energy from other parts of the spectrum into the photosystems. It really wasn't until the advent of LEDs in the aquarium hobby that anyone was running spectra that are this heavily blue. Metal halides and t5s often have significant emmision outside of the blue end of the spectrum. Shallow reefs get very white daylight sun. It really isn't until you get 60+ feet down that the reefs really start to look more blue. You may get increased algae growth, but there is a good chance that would happen with any increase in light. Contrary to popular belief, algae use blue light too.

If you don't like a whiter spectrum aesthetically, you can have it turn up the whites during the day when you're out of the house and have it switch to a mostly blue sunset interval. You're probably using less than half of the par the fixture can produce by only running blues. I'd definitely start there and see if growth picks up. Otherwise, as previously mentioned, either the AquaticLife hybrid or Reefbrite XHO might be good options to boost the intensity without getting rid of the existing lights.

If you turn it all up to 100% you should be getting enough par to at least grow softies, LPS, and lower light sps. The par meter didn't read anything with it turned up to 100%?

I wouldn't totally scrap those lights. I run them at 100% and get good results (but my tank is only about 10" deep.) According to the manufacturer, you should be getting around 100 par at the bottom. I'd just keep the sps up high and just supplement with additional LED strip lights like reefbrites. Those t5 retrofits are a bit of an eyesore unless hidden in a canopy.

Thanks, the back of the peninsula still has a long way to go before it all fills in and starts looking more natural though. Most of the acros are just now beginning to really start growing. I'm usually not very interested in macro shots of corals, but I was playing with my phone yesterday trying to get some good shots:

I believe that was sold to me as "ORA purple tort". Though, I'm not sure ORA had a release by that name. Reminds me of a Cali tort (which ORA did sell at one point). Bruce (bbyatv) often sells pretty big frags of it for a great price.

I'm not culturing grindal worms anymore. The culture never really thrived and developed mites. I gave up after it appeared that the mandarin was plump and growing solely off of prepared foods. She ended up jumping through a tiniest of holes in the lid. Really heartbreaking. Mandarins have always been favorites of mine and I put a ton of effort into training her to frozen foods. After she jumped, I couldn't bring myself to going through all the trouble to train another.

Thanks guys! Yea, that is a yellow digi.

Well, the tank has been up for about a year, so I figure it is time for an update. I've been through many battles in this first year (mostly dinoflagellates and hair algae). With each challenge, I've made changes to my setup and I think I've finally arrived at a functional system and maintenance routine. The most important/effective change to the hardware has been the DIY algae scrubber I made. (Please excuse the salt residue on the glass, I wiped it down before photos and didn't notice that I didn't get it all!)

The cafeteria seems to be a great alternative. Thanks to the WAMAS staff for working that out. I know it must have been stressful. I also enjoyed the presentation. Mr. Scott was quite funny and engaging. Big thanks to gws3 and leishman for the frags I picked up in the raffle!

No, not long term success, but so far, so good. In my experience, it does seem much easier to acclimate these Biota mandarins than wild ones. I could have just gotten lucky though. I generally think there is a lot of questionable information regarding mandarins that gets often repeated, but isn't necessarily true. In my experience, they don't need to eat a prey item every 10 seconds to grow and thrive. They can eat a meal once or twice a day so long as they actually have a sufficient density of food and are given enough time to really fill up. I turn the pumps off for at least an hour when feeding.

When it first came in, I was feeding twice a day. Now I just feed once a day.

FWIW, I have a Biota mandarin in a 12g with no refugium and it is growing pretty quickly and always looking very well fed. When it first came I'm from liveaquaria, it was quite emaciated and very small (<1") though. For the first several months I was hatching artemia a couple times a week and feeding them every day alongside a wide variety of small frozen foods (cyclopeeze, R.O.E, "reef plankton", tobiko, etc.). I've now weaned off of the artemia and am feeding entirely frozen once a day. I think the small size of my tank actually helps with feeding frozen because I can create a high density of food pretty easily. It may be harder to create such conditions in a larger tank. Also, the Biota mandarins come in so small that you might have difficulty finding them even in a 45g until they grow out a bit. It's hard to target feed them if you can't find them easily in the tank. There are also a couple of BTAs in the tank and the mandarin doesn't have any trouble picking at the rocks right around them.