tecsavi

Audible, Thanks. I can't wait until this tank settles in and I really start getting some growth out of it. It's a catch 22, get a larger more stable tank but you have to wait for it to mature all over again. I am really wishing I would have bought two of these tanks, they are very nice. My ultimate goal is a rimless 36"X36"18" tank so there's no budget for 3 tanks. Overklok, I like the ability to be able to script on the Apex but man those things are pricey when compaired to the reefkeepers. As with everything I lean toward the cheaper units at first and then want more capability in the future and upgrade eventually (you would think I would have learned by now). I like to tinker so I should just bite the bullet and get an Apex unit.

I second getting something other than just two stunners. I have a 250w Phoenix 14k bulb and you barely notice the actintic. I would think the 6500 bulb would be brighter and was them out even more.

I found out that Marine Depot carries Ebo Jager heaters. I might just have to yank the stealth out and banish it to the saltwater mixing bucket. Did your heater stick on the on position to get that bubbling or did you just happen to notice it? One of the features I wanted to use a controller for was to shut these things down if a heater sticks on. I also heard that dedicated Ranco controllers are better at it though.

I have never bought one but had one come as a hitchhiker on a purpletip acro colony I had. It use to stay in one area near the base of the colony and never seemed to harm the coral much. I did see some irritation of the tissue on the coral where the crab was always at. The coral kind of grew around where the crab was. The crab never harmed and acros and just seemed to use it as shelter. I tried to ID it but you will find there is very little information out there on specific types of crabs. Acro crabs is kind of a generic term for any crab that lives in an acropora. I myself would be leery of trying to buy one as you might get one that like to eat where it lives.

Ok this is the 4th time in the past week I have read about these stealth heaters having either a meltdown and in one case it exploded and tore up a sump. I have one of these in my tank and it's making me uneasy. Way too much livetock at stake to have something like a heater take everything out. In the past I used Ebo Jager heaters and they were pretty tough and never failed on me. I haven't seen these anywhere. What are you going to replace your heater with?

Sorry to hear about your Dino's. I've never had to deal with them but have heard many a person that have had quite the battle getting rid of them. Sounds like you already have a good plan to battle them though. I like your thinking on the lighting upgrade. If you get dealt lemons, make lemonade. Good luck and I hope the battle doesn't take too long.

I saw a picture of your tank when I was browsing a thread on RC last night. Great looking tank and amazing color! I might just take you up on that offer and also swing by BRK for the first time while I am down there. Your tank appears to have very simlar dimensions to mine so it would be a good compairson.

Actually I have to admit my girlfriend is very supportive of my addiction and she is getting interested in the hobby too. We are finishing off the basement and she already designated an area for a new 36' X 36' cube tank. I have to say I was shocked the other day when she asked for a clam for Christmas though. She oogles the fish in the store while I am checking out all of the corals. An expensive LED fixture might be another story though. I see a trip to NY and Tiffanys in the near future...

Very good point. Looks like I am scrapping building that test kit holder. Thanks for all your help and imput. On a side note. Would you mind me contacting you from a business standpoint? I am in the disaster response/recovery business and we use pelican cases for custom built mobile networks, communications systems and RFID equipment. We have a need for custom built inserts to protect our equipment. Not sure if you work on a smaller scale.

Great points on the Aqua Illumination modules. The adjustable color intensity kind of ties in with one of my next purchases, a controller. Does anyone know if these types of features are programable through a controller like an Apex or a Reefkeeper? Man, you guys are a such a bad influence. I'm trying to justify spending another $1000 for a controller, upgraded skimmer, custom sump and return pump. Now I am considering going to an all LED lighting setup..lol. I think that's why I come on here to validate my reef addiction. Thanks for being my enablers. I can hear it now "New lights? What new lights? I got those things a long time ago. You just noticed them?"

I just think it is amazing how so much life can appear to spring out of nothingness. I remember finding new stuff in a tank that had been running for 4 years. A friend gave me a stereo microscope and I was dumfounded by the microscopic life in a reef. I wish I could have been able to take pictures of the things I found. I am sure this is the reason why long established tanks are so stable and successful. Everything has long ago reach equalibrium and there is such biodiversity in the system. I guess feeding along with everything else has to be done in moderation and ramped up slowly. Old reefer and Paul B, just curious, have both of your tanks been established for years?

Thanks Kalid, It's always good to hear people are liking my tank.

After you mentioned the Panorama strips I went and looked them up again. I didn't realize they have a all blue 453nm strip that's 12w. I accidentally looked into the 6w stunners and saw blue spots for about 10 minutes. Those 12w strips would probably burn a spot on my retina..lol The one I saw before was a mixture of blue and white LED's. I can see how two of those blue strips would be much better to augment the halide. I was thinking on setting up a little pico tank in my office, maybe I can retask the stunners for that tank. I think you are right about seeing other people's LED systems to help me make up my mind. This tank is in my living room and it would be really nice not to have to hear the fan for the halide even though it's pretty quiet. There is that huge plus of reduced power consumption, being able to change the spectrum dynamically, not having to replace bulbs and being able to maintain the spectrum for so long. I am seeing some great growth and stellar colors out of the tanks I have seen online running LED's. Are you running a halide/LED combo on your tank?

Sure, I will draft that stuff up in CAD this weekend. I thought about not having room for that extra compartment after I looked at the box again. Just curious, what does your CNC machine use to cut the foam? Waterjet?

Glad to hear your move was successful. All of your pre-planning paid off in the end. Murphy always seems to rear his ugly head at times like that and it sounds like you beat him. Another piece of advice, try running some carbon in your tank for the next week or so. I always worry about my corals sliming up from stess during a move and that seems to help a lot. I also use a turkey baster to blow off the corals and the stuff on my rockwork that was kicked up in the move. The skimmer takes out most of it but the fish and corals get a free meal as well.

Thanks for the great comments, much appreciated. Trocafella, Even though the stunner strips don't put out as much light as I like they still are very impressive. I have been holding back on going LED for quites some time now because I have see so many fads in lighting come and go in the past. Halides always seemed to be the tried and true champion. Now that I see these stunner strips I can tell that LED is the way to go. I am sure that you will soon see the halide on my tank replaced with an LED setup. I still see a lot of improvements in technology like dimmable drivers and people adding different color emmiters to get the sweet spot on spectrum with the LED's. Believe me, I've been sold on LED, just waiting for the dust to settle a bit.

I totally agree. All of the tanks I would classify as "extremely successful" have lots of biodiversity of the life in them. It is the life that is low on the food chain that is the foundation for all of the other larger life in out tanks. The more diverse and plentiful they are the more successful you will be with the larger life forms such as our corals. I think that feeding your tank is a huge part of keeping these sometimes microscopic organisms in healthy numbers is the key. Not only do they uptake nutrients but they serve as a food source for other creatures higher up the food chain. We can not have health populations of higher level creatures if the organisms at the bottom of the chain are not healthy and diverse. I had the pleasure of seeing David Saxby's tank in London. Granted he has a huge system but the biodiversity in his tank was staggering. On the higher end he had schools of Anthias and Tangs. He had amazing coral heads that were over a meter in diameter. That being said when I looked very closly into his tank there was a myriad of smaller organisms that were everywhere in his tank. There were sponges, forams, truncates, and some things I have never seen in my life. They were everywhere, and I mean everywhere. He fed that tank a mixture of everything from large chunks of fish all the way down to phytoplankton. The amount he fed was enormous and I would compair it to chumming when you are deep sea fishing. Everything in that tank was in a feeding frenzy. I am not advocating dumping tons of food into your tank but I do think we need to feed all of the creatures in our tanks. Not just the corals and fish. We have to slowly build up to these frequent and higher levels of feeding but I think they are essential to a successful system. Reefs are a food buffet in the wild, that is why there is so much biodiversity there.

Roni, Thanks. My old tank was chocked full of rock and I was trying to avoid that with this tank. Sometimes less is more.

Thanks. I have to say that I have wanted a cube for a while and I really love this new one. We have a pretty modern living room and it fits the room perfectly. Now I am wishing I had bought the second tank he had for sale that matches it. Have one on either side of the couch..lol

Well I finally have some pictures of my new cube tank now that it's up an running. I moved everything over from my hex tank and I am so much happier with this new tank. I am looking forward to letting everything settle in on this tank as I have unfortunately as this is the 2nd move in 6 months. It also went through very high temp issues when my A/C went out this summer for two days. I wanted a minimalist aquascape and now plan to add a small column on the left hand side of the tank for more SPS. I am using about 95% man-made rock and the remainder is small peices that came with coral attached. This small amount of live rock has seeded the man-made rock with featherdusters, forams as well as small patches of coraline are starting to form. My last tank had all live rock so waiting for this rock to grow coraline will take some getting use to. I was able to build 3 small caves and 6 holes in the rock structure and the wrasse loves swiming through them all. These holes also allow for lots of flow through the rockwork. The majority of my corals are either captive rasied frags or corals that were given to me by a reefer who was moving (thus some of the LPS corals). Looks like a bunch of colored sticks right now but I enjoy watching everything grow into colonies. I just added two Ecoxotic Stunner strips (453nm & 403nm) to the tank last night but didn't get as much blue as I thought I would when the halide is on. They look spectacular when the halide is off though. I am probably going to add either two more 453nm strips to hopefully get more blue in the spectrum. The tank came pre-drilled with a corner overflow but I ended up capping in off until I can get my custom sump built. Once that is done I plan on adding an Avast skimmer and a refugium into the mix. I am seriously not liking all of the gear hanging off the back of the tank but I'll have to be patient.

I would hold off on adding the sand until your tank gets settled in after the move. No need to add another stressor to your corals and fish. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1 on having extra water on hand at the new place that is up to temperature. +1 on using 5 gallon buckets with lids to move. The lids keep the water from sloshing out when you are driving and it is way easier to carry a 5 gallon bucket of saltwater (40 lbs) as opposed to a rubbermaid container which holds more and weighs more. The lids on the buckets will also reduce heat loss from the water as well. I put your corals of individual bags in a bucket of water to maintain the heat. Put your fish in a bucket with no rocks so nothing gets smashed by moving rock. I did a very similar move as yours about 6 months ago and my biggest issue was heat loss in the water durning the move. I would assume it would lose even more heat now that the weather is much cooler. In any case good luck with your move and I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

Actually it would be almost exactly the same as yours but no p04, replace that with a Hanna phosphate checker. I use all Salifert test kits. Do you have slots for all of the reference charts for the tests? In the bottom I just want to have misc equipment storage.

Ahh! Can you send me a dwg?

I can do either one, whatever format is easyier for you to load into the CNC machine. Do you have an existing file of the template for your tool kit that I can modify? Everthing looks like basic squares and circles but your refractometer looks like a custom shape. I also have a briefcase sized locking pelican case if you are interested in it.