Schg
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Posts posted by Schg
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I ended up picking up a (dirty) Innovative Marine 20 gallon for $50 that doesn't have a pump, but I have one that will fit just fine!
Need to either find a stand or build on, and go set it up at the new house ASAP. I suppose I should start a new thread?
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On 11/4/2022 at 1:20 PM, howaboutme said:
Thanks for the update! Good luck with the move, it's never easy. My suggestion is to start over. Transferring is always a risk. At least you have all or most of the equipment depending on if you want a new tank or not. I applaud your efforts to work w/ the lilly pipes but I did think that it was going to be a difficult task.
Yeah I think it is very manageable overall honestly, but I am having to major issues:1. I can’t get the surface skimming right, and once I do it’s just too noisy. I think it’s too much flow to push through pipes with the surface skimming.
2. The tank is too small for the lily pipes to push as much flow as I need appropriately. I need to split the outflow to spread the flow out, but that would hurt the aesthetic of my setup.
I think it wouldn’t be hard for me to figure out, but with the move and everything I feel like I need a simpler setup. I may just see if anyone has another IM 25 Lagoon to move into for now.
22 hours ago, YHSublime said:If you’d like, drop it off, and come pick up when ready. I have an established 12 gallon for emergency. Same safe setting as my dt. Too easy. Just text me.
I appreciate that, I may take you up on it! I am debating just swapping into a different tank and turning this one into a planted tank for my office in the attic. -
On 10/29/2022 at 7:54 AM, howaboutme said:
Any updates on your lights? How are the luxdiums fairing?
The luxdium is doing great, I can definitely tell the colors are getting better overall with the coral.
My tank as a whole is pretty neglected at the moment, as I have had a LOT going on with everything, and a bunch of hiccups with getting the house (lender related). Fortunately I just closed on the house yesterday and moved 80% of my stuff up, but I am unsure on what to do with the tank.
I think I bit off more than I could chew with the super clean setup using lily pipes, it just isn't working how I want it to. I am debating going with another tank setup either temporarily or permanently. I may search for a IM 25 lagoon again instead, I loved that tank....
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4 hours ago, YHSublime said:
Yeah yeah, it'll have to be soon, my schedules about to get rocked. I'll send a text.
Sounds good, I’ll be around most nights!18 minutes ago, howaboutme said:What's the chiller for? Last I heard Columbia, MD has the same climate as the rest of the DMV...Do you not have or us A/C during the summer?
lol it is, but there are two problems; I don’t have AC in my house, and I’m also moving to Florida soon. Temps are just too inconsistent in a 9 gallon anyway. -
1 hour ago, YHSublime said:
Closed loop definitely sounds better. Tank is looking nice! Love that you're getting a chiller!
I don't know if you meant literally or figuratively, but I agree with both lol. It is proving easier to work with and is MUCH quieter.
And yeah, I have an idea on how to plumb it cleanly, but need to get it in my hands first. Waboss won't be able to give it to me until the end of this week. I'll also have a doser soon, if I can convince someone to come meet up with me to grab a beer or two
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Back to a closed loop:
I know I talked about dropping the sump, and after weighing back and forth on things a bit, I decided it was for the best. I wasn't able to get things where I wanted them with flow and cleaning the overflow, but I also had a hard time with the small glass lily pipes (I broke one). I decided to pick up some 17mm Aquario Neo Flows and went back to a closed loop, this time on the wavemaker pump instead of the canister filter. I have to say I am much happier with this setup, and things are easier to clean overall (although I didn't do the best job today for this FTS.
I have a Ice Probe chiller I'll be picking up next week that I need to plumb into this setup, which I do have a plan for. Once I have that figured out, I'll grab a decent shot of inside the cabinet.
A few photos from today, I snapped about 50 of the hi-fin goby since he was out for quite a while, but couldn't really get the shrimp in the same shot!
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Glad you decided to set up the doser finally, hope it helps! Does this mean you aren't going to use that bluetooth one?
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1 hour ago, YHSublime said:
Every time tanks start getting blasted with PAR I love it. That glue is hiding in plain sight.
Hah, yeah I did bring the LEDs down a bit, I know LED PAR and T5 PAR really just tend to impact corals quite a bit differently. I'll bring the LEDs back up after things have acclimated a bit, and need to re-check things once I buy new bulbs.
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Rigged up a little T5 hybrid setup this weekend, going for a bit of an industrial look since it will fit the eventual surrounding aesthetic. I will probably change up the fixture a bit more to make it cleaner, but it works great and I am super stoked to have a hybrid fixture again! Ignore the dirty pipes and glue I forgot I left out.
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On 8/15/2022 at 12:00 AM, YHSublime said:
All looks tops!
Thanks brother!1 hour ago, lowsingle said:Where did you get the fuzzy chiton? Those are hard to come by
Darren
I got it from Reef Cleaners, which I’ve always had great experiences with. It shipped perfectly and seems to be doing well in my tank so far.
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Grabbed a few shots tonight as I figured I should start trying to document growth and color and whatnot. I am still getting a feel for things with this camera and lens, but I am SO impressed when I do get it right:
Forest Fire Digi, looking a bit more fire than forest
Money Cowrie
My hi-fin goby decided to make a BRIEF appearance for the first time ever tonight, so I wasn't able to get a solid shot of him
GSP
Mummy Eye Chalice isn't looking too hot still, but is starting to look better
Nano conch
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In the two minutes I was able to spend with the lens testing it out (I am technically working right now
), I am VERY happy with this purchase so far. I'll have to spend a bit more time with it after work, as I am honestly still learning the new camera as well.
First test photo of my new favorite invert, the Fuzzy Chiton:
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Four pickups today (only two pictured):
- Rastas
- Crown Royals
- Red Hornets
- Mohawks
I had to re-glue my Radioactive Dragon Eyes onto a plug as the RFA decided to re-home itself right on top of them. I'll find a new spot for them once I glue these down.
Also had my PAR readings done, and found that my light diffuser was REALLY too effective, and cutting the PAR down by about half. That kind of explains why I was having a few things brown out on me. I removed it for now and am going to acclimate everything to the light a bit over the next week or so, but should be able to increase to 100% power on the new puck. I'll post up my readings later.
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2 hours ago, howaboutme said:
Nice! What's your workflow? Are you taking the raw files through lightroom or ps?
I am going back to my old workflow of using Lightroom Classic as I like their Color Calibration settings a lot more than Lightroom CC. I do push into Lightroom CC once I'm done with color, as I like some of the other settings in the newer version.
I previously was just using Lightroom Mobile, as the quality coming from the T7i just wasn't enough that I cared to do anything more, and just opted to get the mood more where I wanted it than the quality and color.
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Sorry, two more. Been playing with the camera a bit more. I am really going to enjoy this!
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Just ordered the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro lens, should be here Thursday! Also having someone come over tomorrow to run some PAR readings, and they are bringing a few zoa frags with them.
Just another shot from messing around with the new camera, pretty nice to be able to get decent color and even a fairly solid shot handheld at night with low light. I am definitely impressed with it!
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21 hours ago, howaboutme said:
Looks good! How are the lights treating ya so far? No algae bloom from switching lights?
So far so good! I have no algae or anything, but I did knock my light profile down to about 50% of max power to acclimate for a bit. I really need to get my hands on the PAR meter (already submitted my name to be on the wait list) and get some measurements to see where I need to end up once I'm fully acclimated.
Things do appear to be coloring up a bit after losing color during that 1 week period of issues I had during the transition, but its going a bit slow. I started dosing Red Sea AB+ 3 days ago, so hoping that helps a bit too.
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We ended up getting rid of our Canon T7i today, and picked up a Sony A7ii on a pretty amazing sale.I still need to get the hang of the new setup, but I feel like this is so much better than I was able to get out of the Canon, even with just the 28-70mm lens it came with.
I will need to wait for this, but I'll be grabbing a Sigma 70mm macro lens in the nearish future.
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I decided to switch my inflow pipe for the closed loop to a smaller (13mm) pipe, and it doesn't appear to have cut off the flow much at all. It DID make a massive difference visually though, as the left piping nearly disappears inside the tank. You can see the float switch I am using as a safety for the return pump, but I have plans to make that disappear a bit more over the next week or so.
Current status on the tank:
The good:
- Got a few more frags, including more neon GSP to fill out that rock on the left (I didn't want the non neon GSP to take over), a small acan, duncan, and a few more zoas including Utter Chaos.
- Things are definitely on the upswing from the tank transition, with most things that were unhappy looking substantially better.
- Flatworms are almost eradicated it seems.
- All of the new inverts seem happy any health, aside from a few small losses. The Fuzzy Chiton is probably my new favorite thing in the tank.
The bad:
- The coral that lost its color after the tank transition is still kind of dull looking, mostly a few less exciting zoas and all the SPS. I plan on starting Red Sea AB+ and Reef Roids this weekend to see if that helps perk them up a bit more quickly.
- The Jedi Mind Tricks Monti and the Red Monti I have are both looking pretty bad, not sure if they will recover.
- I have a leak somewhere that I am having a really hard time tracking down, every time I open up the stand I see standing water at the bottom of the stand. Really not good, so I might take everything out of the stand this morning and try to track this down.
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2 hours ago, lynn.reef.nerd said:
Love the pics
Thank you!
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Had a delivery show up from Reef Cleaners this morning! I'll try to finally grab some decent livestock shots once everyone settles a bit, but most seem happy and healthy so far (minus the Porcelain Anemone Crab losing a leg).
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58 minutes ago, YHSublime said:
Looks real clean
Thank you!41 minutes ago, howaboutme said:That's great! Are you able to combine the presets? Say go from ultra pop to ultra blue to reef daylight and back for a day's cycle?
So I made a custom scheduled preset that kind of starts with Ultra Pop, then swings between Ultra Blue and Optimized throughout the day before ending on Ultra Pop, but I need to adjust it a bit. But yes, you just need to put the percentage values they give for a specific preset into your settings as you make a schedule. -
On 7/29/2022 at 4:48 PM, howaboutme said:
That's great to hear! Glad the install went well. That video they have did make it seem pretty straight forward. I know picts don't always do it justice or show correct but put some up anyways!
Finally got these for you!
Decided to try to grab some photos of the new puck from Lux, just to give an idea of the spectrum and presets they recommend. Just as a reminder, this is the Luxdium Gold puck shown on an AI Prime HD. These photos are mostly unedited, although I tried to get the Ultra Pop preset a bit closer to how it looks in real life (unsuccessfully):
Optimized III:
Ultra Pop:
Ultra Blue:
Reef Daylight:
schg's Ultum Nature Systems 45u nano
in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum
Perhaps!
Either way I'm going to wait, as I still need to clean this one up. I did have my eye on a sumped 30 gallon cube as well, which I would prefer overall but the seller hasn't responded. If he does I may buy that and sell this.