Tinpanva

I'm a little late in getting this thread up and posted, just been a busy month or so. I've finally outgrown my little 29 Biocube, you can only stuff (80+) so many corals into a small tank for so long before you outgrow it. I have hit that point. So the time has come, to move everything from this; to this; Yeah, thats a beer in my reef tank, that's just how we do it down here with the Richmond Reefers, first FTS has to contain a lucky beverage. I'll be moving most of the SPS over, most of the LPS will be sold off to help cover the cost of the upgrade. The equipment (specs) list for the 60 is as follows; 60 gallon Marineland Reef Ready Rimless Cube Marineland Stock Stand Vertex Omega 150 Skimmer Sicce Silent 3.5 Return Pump Nextreef NRS-24 Sump AI Hydra 52 LEDs (w/Director) JBJ NanoGlow LEDs for the Sump ReefKeeper Lite Tunze Osmolater ATO (3) Ecotech MP-10 Wireless Pumps Finnex 200w Titanium Heater 60lbs BRS Reef Saver Dry Rock 60lbs Tropic of Eden Reef Flakes MarinePure Ceramic Biomedia The only real modification I did was to have the rear panel drilled for my return, I opted to use both existing pipes in the overflow for a full siphon drain. I cut the smaller 1" pipe about 6" lower than the (larger) overflow pipe and tune it with a gate valve in the rear of the tank. With the exception of a small trickle, it's dead silent. The sump fit so well, I tried to talk my wife into positioning the stand so that the sump was always visable just so I could stare at it all the time, we compromised, so the answer was NO. The next thing I started working on was the scape, set up a mock tank in the man cave and started putting the BRS Reefsaver rock together, 1.5 tubes of aquamend later I get something I'm excited about, May 03 2015, tank went wet. Under the hood - It looks so much different now with all the equipment mounted, I'll need an updated Pic. With everything being white, it's hard to see exactly how it looks, but you'll have to trust me, it's prety neet looking. Very open with so many coral mounting options. I did an old school cycle, which is to say, a very slow cycle. Brand new sand, brand new rock, brand new water. One thumb sized chunk of raw shrimp, one cup of existing sand from the BC. Almost exactly 30 days later a complete cycle. I was going to do a slow transition over to the 60, but in the end, I did it all in one day. I've only suffered one partail casuality, my ORA Borealis. It's about 80% peeled, but still hanging on. Keeping fingers crossed. Now here we are, at (just over) the 2 month mark. Had a moderate GHA outbreak, mostly on the back wall. Nothing unusual with a new tank. Just for shnits-n-giggles I put my lawnmower blenny in there to see if he would munch on any of it. Didn't have high expectations as I thought he preferred macro or film algae. Let me tell you, he dug into that stuff like an all you can eat buffet. Back wall is clean and top of tank (where he stays) about 80% clean. Bottom half still has some, so I figure a few turbos should finish it off nicely. Corals have colored back up realy nice, a couple still have a way to go, but all in all I'm very pleased. Corals and tank as of last weekend; First up SPS

Do a few local geocaches? If allowed in that area of town. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looking good! Very clean build. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

OMFG, Wade and Tom have reached out to me and apparently they will be spotlighting my little chunk of the ocean. What a huge honor guys! Looks like my Geeked out and Heavly Modified Bio-Cube will be in the official MACNA program book. See, good things CAN happen if you stuff almost 85 corals into a 29 gallon tank. I knew I wasn't crazy. lol

Been using it for years http://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/tinpanva/1 http://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/tinpanva/5 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Super nice Oxy!

Sorry, won't let me edit original post to add these. Found a few more I like. A few fish...

Thanks!

A couple from my biocube, however I just started a teardown, upgrading to a 60 cube. Should be wet in a week or two.

Great looking cube! What type of leds you running? Tank age?

That little submersible light was the bomb, perfect spectrum for macro algae. After my second one broke I changed up and use the jbj nano glow led. Meh, it's ok, grows chaeto. Guess that's good enough.

I have a small 7 gallon rimless I use as my QT. Not the most current picture, I've added liverock, a lawnmower blenny, and a fire shrimp. QT for corals only. Simple HOB filter, custom rapid leds, one mp10 for flow and a heater.

Good start!

I was doing an iodine based dip and still got a really bad case of red bugs about 1.5 years ago. I use Bayer now on everything. I've only lost one coral in 2 years doing it. But it may have been my fault as I did 2 treatments less than a week apart trying to rush things out of my QT. Dumb. I've never dipped the smooth corals like the previous poster so I can't comment. But IMHO, iodine based dips are really only good to prevent infections on fresh cuts.

plain ole seachem reef plus.

Canon T3i 100 macro is my "go to" lens but also use the stock lens and correct distortion post process.

Well, it's a 29 gallon HQI Bio-Cube. Heavly Modified and geeked out. HQI light removed, replaced with an AI Vega LED fixture, which was just upgradded with the new Hydra 52 LED pucks coltrolled by the AI Director. MJ1200 return pump Aquamaxx HOB-1 Skimmer (Chamber 1) In-Tank Media Rack with flow director which contains - Filter floss (Top shelf), Purigen (middle) and bag of nuclear grade carbon and a bag of Rowaphos (Bottom) In-Tank Fuge kit - Big ole ball of chaeto and tons of bugs and pods lit by Nano-Glow LEDs Chamber 3 has ATO tube (Tunze Osomalator), dosing tubes for Calc and Alk which are ran by BRS 1.1ml/h pumps, and the heater (Hydor Theo 100w) Flow is aquired by a pair of wireless MP-10's via the reeflink which rotates through 4 different modes during the day. Entire system controlled by a DA ReefKepper Lite 30lbs of live rock 20 lbs Tropic of Eden Reef Flakes 5 gallon waterchanges weekly, no excuses, never miss a water change. I use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt weighed out at 675 grams per waterchange to maintain a consistant 1.026 APC 1000XL (x3) for the MP-10's and an APC Pro 1000 Backup for the lights or heater as needed. RODI supplied by a BRS 5 stage filtration system controlled by a float switch in a 30 gal container. Food - LRS Reef Frenzy - Nano Coral Food - Coral Frenzy fed on Sundays with 5ml amino supplment & Reef Chilli fed on Wednesdays with 5ml amino suppliment. I keep an on-line log of all my water testing on the Aquatic Log website, but I shoot for the following Temp 78 Salinity 1.026 pH 8ish No3 - I shoot for minimal, but currently 4ppm and dropping Ca 450 KH 8.5ish Po4 .02 mg 1680 fighting bryopsis with Tech M As mentioned, I'm dising Vodka for no3 reduction, and it;s working great. Current Livestock Black and White Clown Orange White Clown Neon Dottyback 6 line Wrasse Flame Hawkfish At last count about 85 different corals. Half a dozen hermits, couple of turbo snails and one nassarius snail. I also have a small 7 gallon rimless quarantine tank, for all corals. Not the most recent picture, it now has a large chunk of live rock, side mounted frag rack, heater, a simple HOB filter, custum rapid LEDs, and a single wireless MP-10 controlled by reeflink also. I think that about covers it, I know, I know, I have a reefing addiction and tendency to buy flashy do-dads, I can't help myself. I'm currently working on an upgrade to a 93 cube with a 40b sump that I will move most (if not all) these goodies to, but to be honest, I'm torn between starting fresh with that tank and just seeing where this little nano matures to, or a complete swap out.

+1 in labs, they calibrate daily and the probes, even if lab grade, still get replaced often. I look at pH as "it is what it is".

Started with 3. Two orange and one gold ultra rics. Added the 2 greens recently.

Wow, that would be a long post. It's that very subject that brought me to this forum. In a nutshell, my no3 has been high at 16+ppm for about a year. I'm not into chasing #s so I just let it go as my tank seemed to be doing fine. Long term, some issues started showing up so after exhausting all the usual things to reduce no3 failed I started looking into carbon dosing. At first I liked the idea of pellets but I didn't have room for a reactor. So even though Randy over on R2R was really suggesting vinegar, I like the purity of vodka and follow the guidelines in this writeup from the guys over at nano-reef. http://saltwater-conversion.com/pages/carbon-dosing I'm about a month into it, and without reducing feeding, continuing with bi-weekly coral feedings and added amino's, my no3 is down to 4ppm. I was quite the skeptic, but the tank is looking better then ever.

I should add, I also started vodka dosing month ago, awesome results.

No not at all, I was lucky enough to pick out a spot that gave him really good flow without being blasted so he's right where I put him. On the downside, he split on me in November I think it was and he came out the other side of the rock. He hasn't moved yet either but he is stinging the heck out of the zoas. As far as dosing goes, I use the BRS 2 part for Calc and Alk. I have them on BSR 1.1ml/hr dosing pumps controlled by my reefkeeper. Not to bore you with the details, but I have each pump set on two seperate timers. Each pump has two 12 hour programs. I did it this way because my power grid isn't too reliable and in the event I have a short term outage or blip, the timer will restart on the next 12 hour program. Worst case senario is I loose a half a days dose unless it a large outage where I'll have to dose by hand. Normally I do a small (by hand) maintenance dose of Mag once a week, usually on Wednesdays which is half way between waterchanges. But right now I'm battling Bryopsis so I'm maintaining a high mag value. Everything else the tank needs comes from my salt (RSCP). Here is a link to my light file, keep in mind it's only a few days old and not completly dialed in just yet. Still looks a little too warm to me. Plus the added UV and Violet are new to me so these may change also. But here's the file anyway. https://www.dropbox.com/s/xlk1un02buu8l10/52%20Ver%201.aip?dl=0

Was a AI Vega but just upgraded the pucks to the hydra 52