ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure! - Page 11

soulpatch · 01/26/2016, 02:41 PM

dont think I ever noticed top back of your tank. Is that a spray bar or is your thermometer in the tank?

ReefWreak · 01/26/2016, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulpatch

dont think I ever noticed top back of your tank. Is that a spray bar or is your thermometer in the tank?

Both! No not really. It is a spray bar. It's how the tank was set up since I bought it (used) originally. It's about a foot or so of that green eheim plumbing, with a few holes drilled in it. It's horribly clogged, and filled with algae and filter feeders, but it works. I really need to clean my pump and that return line.... The pump is filled with sponges, and that return is filled with general debris... It's probably pushing 25-50gph through the back section. It's barely fast enough to keep alkalinity from precipitating...

soulpatch · 01/26/2016, 03:00 PM

ugh. Yes time for a deep cleaning mate...

ReefWreak · 01/26/2016, 03:02 PM

I was planning on us both upgrading to the mid/large tank clubs at the same time, so we'd both be moving on and up together. But that didn't happen for me, so I guess I should clean my tank

I hate this bowed front glass, it's such a pain to clean without getting wet.

soulpatch · 01/26/2016, 03:21 PM

I have Cabo sending me his unused overflow so I can tap in the cube for now. I will be switching to a SC aquarium eventually though for the flat glass and since it is plumbed with an overflow to make things easier. But I need to sell some things first.

Perhaps I will list the biocube up on craigslist and see what comes of it. I bet I would get at least 400 for it all on there then I would barely have to pay anything for the new SC setup.

ReefWreak · 01/26/2016, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulpatch

I have Cabo sending me his unused overflow so I can tap in the cube for now. I will be switching to a SC aquarium eventually though for the flat glass and since it is plumbed with an overflow to make things easier. But I need to sell some things first.

Perhaps I will list the biocube up on craigslist and see what comes of it. I bet I would get at least 400 for it all on there then I would barely have to pay anything for the new SC setup.

Yeah I would definitely go that route, and not re-plumb the biocube in. I would probably keep mine to use as a QT long term (if I have room), but I wouldn't plumb it in. Just take 10g out of the cube and replace it with 10g out of big display tank (drop in the bucket, literally and figuratively), easy peasy.

soulpatch · 01/26/2016, 03:34 PM

Yeah I will list it this weekend and see if I get any bites. I figure $400 or so for the setup with the LEDs, skimmer, sand, rock, and such is more then worth it. Then I will have most of the 575 needed for the sc 45 gallon tank and stand...

I like the plumbed in route as it is less I have to worry about like in our PM earlier this week. For the cube now I can use the HOB overflow from Cabo to get things running without going through a ton of pain with the tank.

ReefWreak · 01/29/2016, 01:04 PM

I've only seen one asterina since the last purge, so that's good. I'm sure more exist. At least they haven't exploded in population at any point.

Everything has been going pretty well. Last night I spent a lot of time reading threads on Lime colored LEDs,and there were some interesting threads like this one on optimizing LED coloration for our tanks. When Jedimasterben and Sherminator chime in on a LED thread, I listen.

So I spent about 30 minutes last night swapping out two of the LEDs, the only Green LED in my setup, and swapped it out for a Lime, and then I also figured I was at it anyway, so I swapped out a Cool White for a Cyan. I bought Lime and Cyan when I bought the whole full spectrum RapidLED retrofit kit, and just haven't really had the time (or desire, honestly) to mess with the spectrum, since I've already been getting such great growth and colors out of my setup, but I figured since I had them, and it sounded interesting, I'd go for it.

I was going to swap out the fans too, since I bought potentially quieter fans on ebay that were the same size, but no-brand, however when I just plugged them in and compared them, they didn't seem much quieter. The noise from the stock fans could be due to vibration, which I wouldn't hear the way they're set up now, however I didn't want to go through the work of replacing the fans to only end up with ones just as loud, so I left it for now.

I do love tweaking things tough! I don't notice much change in coloration at this point, but it'll be interesting to see over time if it makes a difference. I may play with brightness as well to see how that impacts the coloration of the tank (and ultimately the corals). Always playing and tweaking with something!

soulpatch · 01/29/2016, 01:11 PM

Blah blah blah. If you want to tweak things or put stuff together jump on a train down to my neck of the woods and I will put you to work.

Interested to see how the new lighting works out for you. I need you to get some good colors and such on some of your pieces so I can get frags sooner or later.

As an aside you planning on doing reefapalooza again this year? I think it is end of June again.

ReefWreak · 01/29/2016, 01:29 PM

While the growth hasn't been good on the SSC, man the colors have really started popping on it. Too small to frag at this point (though I have raised frags from a single polyp or two when I had a big tank with space and good frag space).

If RAP is in NYC/NJ again, I'm there. I'm not going to San Diego, which I think is/was MACNA?

soulpatch · 01/29/2016, 01:31 PM

Yes MACNA is in San Diego. I might actually consider going out there just because. LOL. Airfare is cheap so if I had someone to split a room it would be worthwhile for the weekend.

RAP is supposed to be in NYC again this year and I will def be going to that.

ReefWreak · 01/29/2016, 01:48 PM

Then I'll very likely be at RAP. MACNA not too sure, but that's out in September (usually) so there's time to think about it.

I'll plan to be out west visiting you before RAP. Next few weekends are booked up with visitors and trips (I'm so popular!), but I'll definitely come out and visit before the tank is up in full swing.

And for what it's worth, even if my corals color up and go crazy in my tank, they'll be totally different in yours. That's one thing I've definitely seen, is how different even named, aquacultured for generations, lineage corals with strict expectations can have such dramatic differences in ultimate color depending on tank conditions. I just posted in Jackson6745's thread about how the ORA Pearlberry I got from him is very traditional coloration, however as everyone in the thread noted, his is almost green/turqouse bodied with purple polyps, which is very non-traditional, and it shifted from his color to everyone else's color as it got used to my tank.

soulpatch · 01/29/2016, 01:55 PM

I have some finishing touches to do to the basement and put it back together as the tank construction slows. We will be redoing our kitchen as well this Winter/Spring. All in though I am planning to try to have a get together at my house in the Spring. There are enough of us in the area or close enough to make the trip in. You, Tim, Cabo (Lee), Muchumatt, MrTan, ect. Do some dogs and burgers on the grill and hang out talking shop and whatnot.

ReefWreak · 01/29/2016, 02:06 PM

That sounds great. I'll come from NYC and bring the... bagels...?... and ... bad attitude...?

Though everyone loves something from Brookyln these days, so maybe I'll just buy something from there for everyone to fawn over lol.

Yea it would be great to have a saltwater get together at your place in the spring. I'll bring plenty of frags for everyone.

soulpatch · 01/29/2016, 02:23 PM

We can head up to my LFS as well and I am sure with the $$$ I am dropping there in the next couple weeks (as well as last year) that he would do an event for us. I will plan something out.

homer1475 · 01/29/2016, 03:29 PM

And here I sit... way up north!

You guys keep the get together, I'll keep the snow.

soulpatch · 01/29/2016, 03:34 PM

I would do it in the spring before your busy time so no excuses Homer.

And I have enough snow right now thank you very much...

Hope_L · 01/30/2016, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

Lets see if this attached picture looks any better (and more reasonably sized) than the other one.

I manually forced my camera to do HDR mode, and I think the pic looks better as a result.

Wow!!! Beautiful!! B

ReefWreak · 01/30/2016, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hope_L

Wow!!! Beautiful!! B

Thanks!

Just for your feedback, I'll share some more!

Also, some pics of the new lighting setup. I swapped out the Green cree LED for a Lime LED, and swapped out one of the cool whites in the back of the tank for a Cyan. The tank looks very white now without needing as much white LEDs. I actually like the look. I even liked running an XM 10K when I had it, because it looked like the ocean when you were snorkeling.

ReefWreak · 02/03/2016, 02:54 PM

Hump day. 6 month growth comparison. Not bad. Wish I had more room for the corals to grow without growing into each other. I'm still trying to sell some frags on a local site, but it's tough to get anyone to come by unless you're giving it away for free, and even then, most of the time people flake. Oh well. I'm happy with tank growth!

ReefWreak · 02/07/2016, 09:27 AM

So I might have made a mistake (or 5) and bought some new corals at a Cherry Corals live auction last night... So I need more room for corals. I'm not sure anyone will be able to help me much with this, but does anyone have any thoughts on whether it would be okay to move my right MP10 further up closer to the glass similar to the left MP10?

The right one has been there since the first MP10, right after I started the tank, and I thought a more central location would get more flow circulating through the tank. But now that I have two, I think that if I moved the right one to line up with the left one I would benefit in a few ways:

1. it would increase "clashing" and mixing of the flow from the two pumps, which would cause more "random flow" which is how we used to have to create good flow back in the day before controllable pumps, by just having 2 powerful pumps blow into eachother or the glass. This would potentially be good for coral growth as well as mixing of dead areas and the water column in general.

2. I would be able to plant some of these new corals on the front right hand side, where I haven't been able to before because the flow would shear the flesh off of the coral if I put them in front of the pump (ask me how I know....).

I'm just nervous that I may lose flow in the back of the rocks/tank and it would be a deadzone back there.

For reference, the pumps have been on "Reef Crest" mode now the last 2 months, at about 65% power. I moved it over from their eco-flow setting, because I can see that any of the acros that grew into the flow have started losing flesh only on the side that the MP10 is on, so it must have been too much laminar flow versus when I ran the old pump at reef crest mode, because I didn't used to have that problem. Or maybe when I cleaned the newer MP10 its first time, I replaced it further back than it was before and all of this would be restoring it to it's original location?

Pic for reference:

ReefWreak · 02/07/2016, 09:33 AM

Also, I just looked back at pictures from a long time ago, and the MP10 on the right has always been in the same spot. I wonder why corals are starting to shear flesh though since adding a second pump. Maybe they've grown into it, maybe they're stressed, maybe it's from changing the flow pattern. I still wonder if I should move it forwards though.

homer1475 · 02/07/2016, 11:43 AM

Yeah it definitely looks like your blasting those corals. It's hard to tell from your top down pics how close it is to the top of the tank, but I might even try just moving it up the glass instead of forward.

ReefWreak · 02/07/2016, 11:57 AM

Well, I had to get the big tongs dirty anyway to clean some zoanthids off of a frag anyway, so I went and raised and moved the MP10 forward, so that they are exactly parallel.

I'll watch longer-term and see how flow is going in the back. Already it looks like the corals towards the back of the tank are getting less flow, the polyps are blowing around less, but we'll see how they do over time.

What is neat is that the fungia plate coral in the front is definitely now responding to the flow blowing each way. Before it kinda just blew one way, then stayed steady, then blew the same way again, even when the powerheads were reverse of each other and cycling. Now that they are parallel, it's definitly blowing one way, then the other way. Maybe I'll do a video.

I'm also not sure how much room it opened up, but some room is better than no more room!

LQT · 02/14/2016, 01:49 PM

How do you like the repositioning of your MP10s so far? Is the flow along the back wall sufficient with the pumps moved forward and parallel to each other? I'm picking up a second MP10 for more even flow. My single is currently toward the front third of the glass as well...

01/26/2016, 02:41 PM	#251
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	dont think I ever noticed top back of your tank. Is that a spray bar or is your thermometer in the tank? __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/26/2016, 03:00 PM	#253
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	ugh. Yes time for a deep cleaning mate... __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/26/2016, 03:21 PM	#255
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	I have Cabo sending me his unused overflow so I can tap in the cube for now. I will be switching to a SC aquarium eventually though for the flat glass and since it is plumbed with an overflow to make things easier. But I need to sell some things first. Perhaps I will list the biocube up on craigslist and see what comes of it. I bet I would get at least 400 for it all on there then I would barely have to pay anything for the new SC setup. __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/26/2016, 03:34 PM	#257
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	Yeah I will list it this weekend and see if I get any bites. I figure $400 or so for the setup with the LEDs, skimmer, sand, rock, and such is more then worth it. Then I will have most of the 575 needed for the sc 45 gallon tank and stand... I like the plumbed in route as it is less I have to worry about like in our PM earlier this week. For the cube now I can use the HOB overflow from Cabo to get things running without going through a ton of pain with the tank. __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/29/2016, 01:11 PM	#259
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	Blah blah blah. If you want to tweak things or put stuff together jump on a train down to my neck of the woods and I will put you to work. Interested to see how the new lighting works out for you. I need you to get some good colors and such on some of your pieces so I can get frags sooner or later. As an aside you planning on doing reefapalooza again this year? I think it is end of June again. __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/26/2016, 03:02 PM	#254
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	I was planning on us both upgrading to the mid/large tank clubs at the same time, so we'd both be moving on and up together. But that didn't happen for me, so I guess I should clean my tank I hate this bowed front glass, it's such a pain to clean without getting wet.

01/29/2016, 01:04 PM	#258
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	I've only seen one asterina since the last purge, so that's good. I'm sure more exist. At least they haven't exploded in population at any point. Everything has been going pretty well. Last night I spent a lot of time reading threads on Lime colored LEDs,and there were some interesting threads like this one on optimizing LED coloration for our tanks. When Jedimasterben and Sherminator chime in on a LED thread, I listen. So I spent about 30 minutes last night swapping out two of the LEDs, the only Green LED in my setup, and swapped it out for a Lime, and then I also figured I was at it anyway, so I swapped out a Cool White for a Cyan. I bought Lime and Cyan when I bought the whole full spectrum RapidLED retrofit kit, and just haven't really had the time (or desire, honestly) to mess with the spectrum, since I've already been getting such great growth and colors out of my setup, but I figured since I had them, and it sounded interesting, I'd go for it. I was going to swap out the fans too, since I bought potentially quieter fans on ebay that were the same size, but no-brand, however when I just plugged them in and compared them, they didn't seem much quieter. The noise from the stock fans could be due to vibration, which I wouldn't hear the way they're set up now, however I didn't want to go through the work of replacing the fans to only end up with ones just as loud, so I left it for now. I do love tweaking things tough! I don't notice much change in coloration at this point, but it'll be interesting to see over time if it makes a difference. I may play with brightness as well to see how that impacts the coloration of the tank (and ultimately the corals). Always playing and tweaking with something!

01/29/2016, 01:29 PM	#260
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	While the growth hasn't been good on the SSC, man the colors have really started popping on it. Too small to frag at this point (though I have raised frags from a single polyp or two when I had a big tank with space and good frag space). If RAP is in NYC/NJ again, I'm there. I'm not going to San Diego, which I think is/was MACNA?

01/29/2016, 01:31 PM	#261
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	Yes MACNA is in San Diego. I might actually consider going out there just because. LOL. Airfare is cheap so if I had someone to split a room it would be worthwhile for the weekend. RAP is supposed to be in NYC again this year and I will def be going to that. __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/29/2016, 01:48 PM	#262
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	Then I'll very likely be at RAP. MACNA not too sure, but that's out in September (usually) so there's time to think about it. I'll plan to be out west visiting you before RAP. Next few weekends are booked up with visitors and trips (I'm so popular!), but I'll definitely come out and visit before the tank is up in full swing. And for what it's worth, even if my corals color up and go crazy in my tank, they'll be totally different in yours. That's one thing I've definitely seen, is how different even named, aquacultured for generations, lineage corals with strict expectations can have such dramatic differences in ultimate color depending on tank conditions. I just posted in Jackson6745's thread about how the ORA Pearlberry I got from him is very traditional coloration, however as everyone in the thread noted, his is almost green/turqouse bodied with purple polyps, which is very non-traditional, and it shifted from his color to everyone else's color as it got used to my tank.

01/29/2016, 01:55 PM	#263
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	I have some finishing touches to do to the basement and put it back together as the tank construction slows. We will be redoing our kitchen as well this Winter/Spring. All in though I am planning to try to have a get together at my house in the Spring. There are enough of us in the area or close enough to make the trip in. You, Tim, Cabo (Lee), Muchumatt, MrTan, ect. Do some dogs and burgers on the grill and hang out talking shop and whatnot. __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/29/2016, 02:06 PM	#264
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	That sounds great. I'll come from NYC and bring the... bagels...?... and ... bad attitude...? Though everyone loves something from Brookyln these days, so maybe I'll just buy something from there for everyone to fawn over lol. Yea it would be great to have a saltwater get together at your place in the spring. I'll bring plenty of frags for everyone.

01/29/2016, 02:23 PM	#265
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	We can head up to my LFS as well and I am sure with the $$$ I am dropping there in the next couple weeks (as well as last year) that he would do an event for us. I will plan something out. __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

01/29/2016, 03:29 PM	#266
homer1475 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 5,313	And here I sit... way up north! You guys keep the get together, I'll keep the snow. __________________ 80G SCA Build: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2560256 Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht: "He's just taking his lunch to work"

01/29/2016, 03:34 PM	#267
soulpatch Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Downingtown, PA Posts: 4,017	I would do it in the spring before your busy time so no excuses Homer. And I have enough snow right now thank you very much... __________________ 150 SC tank build: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2550948 Some have bar tabs. I have a coral tab at my LFS. Life goals.

02/07/2016, 09:27 AM	#271
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	So I might have made a mistake (or 5) and bought some new corals at a Cherry Corals live auction last night... So I need more room for corals. I'm not sure anyone will be able to help me much with this, but does anyone have any thoughts on whether it would be okay to move my right MP10 further up closer to the glass similar to the left MP10? The right one has been there since the first MP10, right after I started the tank, and I thought a more central location would get more flow circulating through the tank. But now that I have two, I think that if I moved the right one to line up with the left one I would benefit in a few ways: 1. it would increase "clashing" and mixing of the flow from the two pumps, which would cause more "random flow" which is how we used to have to create good flow back in the day before controllable pumps, by just having 2 powerful pumps blow into eachother or the glass. This would potentially be good for coral growth as well as mixing of dead areas and the water column in general. 2. I would be able to plant some of these new corals on the front right hand side, where I haven't been able to before because the flow would shear the flesh off of the coral if I put them in front of the pump (ask me how I know....). I'm just nervous that I may lose flow in the back of the rocks/tank and it would be a deadzone back there. For reference, the pumps have been on "Reef Crest" mode now the last 2 months, at about 65% power. I moved it over from their eco-flow setting, because I can see that any of the acros that grew into the flow have started losing flesh only on the side that the MP10 is on, so it must have been too much laminar flow versus when I ran the old pump at reef crest mode, because I didn't used to have that problem. Or maybe when I cleaned the newer MP10 its first time, I replaced it further back than it was before and all of this would be restoring it to it's original location? Pic for reference:

02/07/2016, 09:33 AM	#272
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	Also, I just looked back at pictures from a long time ago, and the MP10 on the right has always been in the same spot. I wonder why corals are starting to shear flesh though since adding a second pump. Maybe they've grown into it, maybe they're stressed, maybe it's from changing the flow pattern. I still wonder if I should move it forwards though.

02/07/2016, 11:43 AM	#273
homer1475 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 5,313	Yeah it definitely looks like your blasting those corals. It's hard to tell from your top down pics how close it is to the top of the tank, but I might even try just moving it up the glass instead of forward. __________________ 80G SCA Build: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2560256 Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht: "He's just taking his lunch to work"

02/07/2016, 11:57 AM	#274
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	Well, I had to get the big tongs dirty anyway to clean some zoanthids off of a frag anyway, so I went and raised and moved the MP10 forward, so that they are exactly parallel. I'll watch longer-term and see how flow is going in the back. Already it looks like the corals towards the back of the tank are getting less flow, the polyps are blowing around less, but we'll see how they do over time. What is neat is that the fungia plate coral in the front is definitely now responding to the flow blowing each way. Before it kinda just blew one way, then stayed steady, then blew the same way again, even when the powerheads were reverse of each other and cycling. Now that they are parallel, it's definitly blowing one way, then the other way. Maybe I'll do a video. I'm also not sure how much room it opened up, but some room is better than no more room!

02/14/2016, 01:49 PM	#275
LQT Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Fairfield, CT Posts: 1,516	How do you like the repositioning of your MP10s so far? Is the flow along the back wall sufficient with the pumps moved forward and parallel to each other? I'm picking up a second MP10 for more even flow. My single is currently toward the front third of the glass as well...