Hexahedron Heaven - 6.68 ft3 of love

[915MANG]

Looks good, what light did you go with?

[rnmb1988]

Originally Posted by 915MANG

Looks good, what light did you go with?

I am using an AI Hydra, it got moved over from my current MDT, a 24g Cardiff AIO. I Will start moving all the coral and fish from it, to this slowly in a month or so.

[915MANG]

Yeah that's what I have on my 34g. What sucks is they now came out with the hydra 52 upgrade

[ajherrera2]

technology advances so quickly in my opinion the decision is really between needing to have the latest all the time or a piece of equipment that will do what you need it to do.

It seems like every time i buy a piece of tech they come out with something newer within a month or so of my purchase. part of the game i guess..

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by ajherrera2

technology advances so quickly in my opinion the decision is really between needing to have the latest all the time or a piece of equipment that will do what you need it to do.

It seems like every time i buy a piece of tech they come out with something newer within a month or so of my purchase. part of the game i guess..

True I think I will protest by not upgrading. At least until I have money $300 to upgrade from AI Sol to Hydra 52. I have 3 lights!

[ajherrera2]

LOL i never upgraded my sol blues either and still get great color and growth from my corals. Keep in mind that i also run a t5 unit on my tank.

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by ajherrera2

LOL i never upgraded my sol blues either and still get great color and growth from my corals. Keep in mind that i also run a t5 unit on my tank.

Hmmmm, that's a thought! Cheaper to add some T5s.

[ajherrera2]

Originally Posted by 915MANG

Hmmmm, that's a thought! Cheaper to add some T5s.

Not in the long run, bulb replacement costs me much more annually than the one time upgrade cost, however, I believe the spectrum output from a t5 bulb is much more beneficial than straight led.

Nice build progression man! sorry about the hijack keep the progress and fine attention to detail coming.

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by ajherrera2

Not in the long run, bulb replacement costs me much more annually than the one time upgrade cost, however, I believe the spectrum output from a t5 bulb is much more beneficial than straight led.

Nice build progression man! sorry about the hijack keep the progress and fine attention to detail coming.

Im going to add 2 54watt T5s.. Run them for 4 hours a day. Should last onger than 9months.

[rnmb1988]

Thanks guys, good conversation, but you forgot one aspect/option. I now have two cheep manual control dimable LED units on my other two tanks. I use two timers to control them and give a sunrise & sunset effect. Its not the quality of the AI Hydra or other full control LED's, but then again the light only cost $130. Got it off Amazon, here --> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Like I said, its just another option.

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by rnmb1988

Thanks guys, good conversation, but you forgot one aspect/option. I now have two cheep manual control dimable LED units on my other two tanks. I use two timers to control them and give a sunrise & sunset effect. Its not the quality of the AI Hydra or other full control LED's, but then again the light only cost $130. Got it off Amazon, here --> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Like I said, its just another option.

Thanks, I made my own thread. Hows your tank? I see you got it filled, looking good.

[mrcyrus]

Originally Posted by rnmb1988

Thanks guys, good conversation, but you forgot one aspect/option. I now have two cheep manual control dimable LED units on my other two tanks. I use two timers to control them and give a sunrise & sunset effect. Its not the quality of the AI Hydra or other full control LED's, but then again the light only cost $130. Got it off Amazon, here --> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Like I said, its just another option.

Can you link the dimmers also?

[rnmb1988]

Originally Posted by 915MANG

Thanks, I made my own thread. Hows your tank? I see you got it filled, looking good.

Cool I will look it up and give it a read.

Originally Posted by mrcyrus

Can you link the dimmers also?

The dimmers are part of the light.

[mrcyrus]

Oh ok, you mean starting the blues first and then others after. I was thinking you found a gadget that did the full crank up of the dimmers for sunrise. Still, its way cheaper than paying close to a grand for a light that will be out dated in 6 months. We've been getting ripped off ever since leds came out so for once im glad china made a cheaper product. Honestly, I get tired of saltwater companies slapping their logo on stuff and tripling the price. It all started with "high quality nori" f'n ridiculous....

[rnmb1988]

Originally Posted by mrcyrus

Oh ok, you mean starting the blues first and then others after. I was thinking you found a gadget that did the full crank up of the dimmers for sunrise. Still, its way cheaper than paying close to a grand for a light that will be out dated in 6 months. We've been getting ripped off ever since leds came out so for once im glad china made a cheaper product. Honestly, I get tired of saltwater companies slapping their logo on stuff and tripling the price. It all started with "high quality nori" f'n ridiculous....

Agreed......and its not in just the aquarist hobby.....look at any car....

[rnmb1988]

When I opend my boxes of sand to start washing it I found I had 80lbs of very fine sugar sand....not what I wanted. I contacted Marko Rocks and told them about wanting the coarse sand not the fine sugar sand, and even though it was my fault for not looking at the web page correctly they said if I paid for the shipping, they would send 80 lbs of coarse sand fort he cost of shipping. What am I going to say....YES! Way to Go Marko Rocks!!!
So the sand came in tow days later and got added to the tank on Thursday the 22nd. On Friday I added this:



Which resulted in this:



This is seeding the tank to kick off the biological cycle. I will add the bottle of Fritz zyme 9 I have and then when I see the nitrite and nitrate make there swing and are just about zero I will put three green cromis in the tank to keep the cycle going. I may add some live rock from my refugium too.

So the tank has been running and I am waiting to see the shift in the water parameters, I have been testing every night, here are a few of the results

May 24th



May 25th



May 26th



May 27th



May 28th



No cahnge in any of the readings, but it has only been 5 days....maybe tonight there will a little change.

[915MANG]

I'm in the same boat with my 34g Solana. So now I've been doing my water changes on the 120g. Then placing the 120g water into the 34g.

[mrcyrus]

If you dont want to keep chromis use mollies, then just give them away. Much cheaper.

[rnmb1988]

Originally Posted by 915MANG

I'm in the same boat with my 34g Solana. So now I've been doing my water changes on the 120g. Then placing the 120g water into the 34g.

That is what I will start doing this weekend with my water from the Cardiff, kind of seems strange to put used water in a new tank, but man it speeds up the cycle like crazy!!

I got the Cromis for 2.99 each.....and they are nice fish so they will stay.

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by mrcyrus

If you dont want to keep chromis use mollies, then just give them away. Much cheaper.

Do you have any mollies ready to go for saltwater?

[915MANG]

Yeah its strange to do that, but I'm ready to put some life into the nano!

[mrcyrus]

Not right now, but the don't need to be ready, just buy them and acclimate like any other fish.

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by mrcyrus

Not right now, but the don't need to be ready, just buy them and acclimate like any other fish.

No to get Hijack this thread again, but ive read it take 6hours - 2weeks. But they add a natural food source to the Reef once they start having babies. Also eat GHA.

[mrcyrus]

Hijack away lol. I speak from experience not what I read. I had a swarm of black mollies in my 240g for that purpose. A school of about 40-50 of various sizes upto 4", yes they grow to four inches. The great thing is they are barely noticeable and constantly breeding. Then, I got a lion fish. 2 weeks later they were all gone. Anyhow to my point. When ever I got low on females, or they went on sale for 1$ at petco I would grab a few, poke a few holes in the bag and plop them in shortly after. You sure it wasn't 6 minutes? Lol.

[915MANG]

Originally Posted by mrcyrus

Hijack away lol. I speak from experience not what I read. I had a swarm of black mollies in my 240g for that purpose. A school of about 40-50 of various sizes upto 4", yes they grow to four inches. The great thing is they are barely noticeable and constantly breeding. Then, I got a lion fish. 2 weeks later they were all gone. Anyhow to my point. When ever I got low on females, or they went on sale for 1$ at petco I would grab a few, poke a few holes in the bag and plop them in shortly after. You sure it wasn't 6 minutes? Lol.

Thats pretty cool, I saw a video on it. American Reef Channel with Mike Paletta. He talks about maintaining a frag tank into his existing tank. Explains how mollies are good for the tank, ect.. But Yeah im sure it wasnt 6mins. But hey, you have the experience. I watch a lot of Youtube to satisfy my Reef Tank addicition, my tank and these forums can not satisfy my hunger for knowledge!