schg's Ultum Nature Systems 45u nano

[Schg]

5 hours ago, howaboutme said:

Looks great! Is that light stand conduit?

Thanks! And yes it is, just bent it and painted satin white, then ran the cable through and mounted it. Wanted the light to be less of a focus on this tank. 

[Schg]

Cloudy shot of the successful transfer, and a little glimpse of just how little the pipes interfere with things:

 

[YHSublime]

awwwwww yeah!

[Schg]

15 hours ago, YHSublime said:

awwwwww yeah!

 

Yeah, I am excited as H-E-double hockey sticks, everything is working great so far with the setup itself.

 

I do think my sharknose goby may have died, I can't find it anywhere and it is definitely not a shy fish. I also have to sort out these temps, as without having central AC in this house, my tank temp is currently 85*... have a clip on fan coming this afternoon for the sump, hoping it will help enough and not kill me with evaporation.

[Schg]

A little good, and a little bad:

 

Good:

• Things are still running great with the glassware, even after multiple times turning the pumps on and off, so I feel pretty good about this working long term.
• My Lux order shipped, hopefully I'll have the new puck in a few days to see how it looks! I'm very excited for this.
• The fan seems to have brought the temp down, so I'm not as worried about cooking the tank long term, but I'm still going to look for a chiller for a more reliable solution long term.

Bad:

• I'm not sure if it was the heat, the transfer, I didn't let the PVC glue cure long enough, or a combination of multiple things, but I have a decent bacterial bloom going on. I'm not sure how much it is impacting things, but I am going to do a 40% water change once I have a minute to step away from work and see if that helps.
• I still don't see my fish, and I have lost 3 pieces of SPS already. I am a little worried about my jawbreaker mushroom too, it isn't looking amazing at the moment...
• My temperature controller doesn't seem to be working right, it is reading the temperature (whether in the water or outside of it) at ~180*F. I am going to see if I can calibrate it, otherwise I might have to order another one...

[Schg]

Things are looking a little clearer so far, hoping the water change helps out. I'll probably do another water change tomorrow, just to try to clear it up a bit faster.

 

[howaboutme]

Looking good! I'm excited to hear about the Lux order and will likely not be too far off from ordering it myself.

 

Question about the sand. Is it new? I see kind of a DSB and the lower half if it black. Is that just shadow or as a result of running in another system? I'm trying to if this has anything to do w/ your deaths.

[lynn.reef.nerd]

Is the lux for all AI primes or just the older version?

[Schg]

14 minutes ago, howaboutme said:

Looking good! I'm excited to hear about the Lux order and will likely not be too far off from ordering it myself.

 

Question about the sand. Is it new? I see kind of a DSB and the lower half if it black. Is that just shadow or as a result of running in another system? I'm trying to if this has anything to do w/ your deaths.

 

It is new sand, and it is about 2" deep on average, which is what I tend to do in most nano tanks. I think more of what you are seeing is just the shadow on it. I neglected to mention that I also had the lights off the old tank for about 3 days straight while I sorted out the new light mount, so it was probably a combination of factors here all at once. I'm not super worried about it, it already looks DRASTICALLY better in the last half hour after the water change.

 

No ETA on the Lux yet, its coming from California so probably sometime next week.

 

14 minutes ago, lynn.reef.nerd said:

Is the lux for all AI primes or just the older version?

 

It is for any of the older Prime or Prime HDs, but doesn't work with the 16 since thats a different chip setup.

[lynn.reef.nerd]

5 minutes ago, Schg said:

 

It is new sand, and it is about 2" deep on average, which is what I tend to do in most nano tanks. I think more of what you are seeing is just the shadow on it. I neglected to mention that I also had the lights off the old tank for about 3 days straight while I sorted out the new light mount, so it was probably a combination of factors here all at once. I'm not super worried about it, it already looks DRASTICALLY better in the last half hour after the water change.

 

No ETA on the Lux yet, its coming from California so probably sometime next week.

 

 

It is for any of the older Prime or Prime HDs, but doesn't work with the 16 since thats a different chip setup.

 

Makes sense. Most of the upgrade would be for folks with the older gen. 

[YHSublime]

Looking fresh!

[howaboutme]

Which light puck did you order and why?

[Schg]

18 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Looking fresh!

 

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, howaboutme said:

Which light puck did you order and why?

 

I did the Gold one. I feel like I am always happy with whatever I can get out of the blues with lights, but it is the whites that I am pretty unhappy with on this light. After reading the info and data posted on the Humble Fish thread Lux was a part of, I feel that the whites on this should hopefully get me where I need to, while still being able to get a solid offering out of the blues.

[howaboutme]

1 hour ago, Schg said:

I did the Gold one. I feel like I am always happy with whatever I can get out of the blues with lights, but it is the whites that I am pretty unhappy with on this light. After reading the info and data posted on the Humble Fish thread Lux was a part of, I feel that the whites on this should hopefully get me where I need to, while still being able to get a solid offering out of the blues.

 

Thanks! I'm leaning towards Gold as well. Looking forward to your thoughts.

[Schg]

1 hour ago, howaboutme said:

 

Thanks! I'm leaning towards Gold as well. Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

For sure, I definitely will! Hoping I can see the difference in lighting with @telegraham getting the Blue one, thinking we can compare and contrast.

 

 

Things have cleared up completely the tank is looking much happier already. The SPS I thought were goners don't seem completely out yet, although there is quite a bit of skeleton showing on some of them. So far only three pieces affected, hoping they can recover but they were all free either way.

 

I'll grab a photo a bit later today to show the tank a bit better, but this setup seriously looks SO clean in person. Looking head on, the glass really almost just entirely disappears inside the tank.

 

I put in an order for some inverts from Reef Cleaners, which will ship Monday and hopefully be here first thing Tuesday. The order was for the following:

• Babylon Snail
• Bumble Bee Snails
• Cortez Cerith Snails
• Dwarf Cerith Snails
• Dwarf Planaxis Snails
• Dwarf Trochus Snails
• East African Cerith Snails
• Limpets
• Money Cowries
• Nerite Snails
• Virgin Nerite Snails
• Pom-Pom Crab
• Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp
• Porcelain Anemone Crab

Some of this will be going in the sump as I prepare for that to be a diverse environment as well, but I am excited to start getting more inverts into this tank. I'll wait for the pistol shrimp to make sure it arrives okay, and then pick up my Hi-Fin Goby I want so I can see how they rearrange the sand bed. ?

[Schg]

I adjusted the scape a little bit already, as I was having a hard time envisioning how certain things would grow in with the old one. The new one looks a little boring from the front in photos, but looks great in person and looks especially good from other angles. I also think it has some nice open space in the middle for activities (or a nice little ric garden!).

 

First proper FTS:

 

From above:

 

And a semi-side shot to show the business of the glasswork on that side, but it really still isn't as obtrusive as other options.

[YHSublime]

So much room for activities!

[Schg]

47 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

So much room for activities!

I'm not 100% sure I'll want an empty sand be for anything, but its easier to fill an empty bed than to remove rock thats in the sand later.

 

 

@howaboutme turns out the puck will be here today (that was quick), so I'll be able to give initial impressions earlier than I thought!

[howaboutme]

1 hour ago, Schg said:

 

@howaboutme turns out the puck will be here today (that was quick), so I'll be able to give initial impressions earlier than I thought!

 That's awesome! Looking forward to your thoughts. 

[Schg]

1 hour ago, howaboutme said:

 That's awesome! Looking forward to your thoughts. 

Installation was quick and easy, no issues whatsoever. Played around with the presets that Lux provided, and do really like the crispness of their "Optimized III" full spectrum preset, its a really much better looking white overall. I am going to need to mess around with a new schedule layout, and will likely need to borrow a PAR meter to make sure I am not cooking my coral here, but I REALLY like the spectrum so far. I was also able to get a really nice showoff blue with their "Ultra Pop" preset, I think this will give great results over time.

[howaboutme]

2 hours ago, Schg said:

Installation was quick and easy, no issues whatsoever. Played around with the presets that Lux provided, and do really like the crispness of their "Optimized III" full spectrum preset, its a really much better looking white overall. I am going to need to mess around with a new schedule layout, and will likely need to borrow a PAR meter to make sure I am not cooking my coral here, but I REALLY like the spectrum so far. I was also able to get a really nice showoff blue with their "Ultra Pop" preset, I think this will give great results over time.

 

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!

[Schg]

Took this for someone on Facebook, but figured I would show it on the forums as well. I will have to think of a more elegant solution for the fan eventually, but it is doing the trick right now. The yellow/orange outlet box is for the float switch, which I am trying to set up in the display as cleanly as possible. Hoping the switch will disappear as much as possible, but it is worth it for the safety factor of shutting off my pump in the event of a potential overflow.

The Y split clear tubing is attached to the AQQA wavemaker pump I have, and is how I get most of my water flow.

 

[Origami]

Fans are great - both for cooling and to increase kalkwasser dosing if using that supplementation means. Your tabletop fan solution is a fine one - typically very affordable given the typical replacement cycle.

[Schg]

21 minutes ago, Origami said:

Fans are great - both for cooling and to increase kalkwasser dosing if using that supplementation means. Your tabletop fan solution is a fine one - typically very affordable given the typical replacement cycle.

 

No you are absolutely right, and it certainly is doing the trick to keep the temps down (it was up to about 85* without the fan ), but the evaporation is really just a LOT with it. I also plan on running the fuge soon, and would prefer to lose the fan so I can stuff a light in its place!

[Schg]

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: