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My 55+ Gallon Money Pit


andy

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I miss the extra punch to the coral's color, but I don't miss the heat. Now that the Reeflux bulbs are running full bore the tank heats up a LOT faster; the difference is so large I'm wondering exactly how much PAR the bulbs put out on the M58s... not much at all, for sure.

 

It's too soon to tell if the corals miss that spike in the blue spectrum. I doubt they'll even notice it, given the overall increase in light levels.

 

Heat is definitely a problem though. Last night, for the first time, my controller turned off the lights because tank temp rose too high (lights off at 83F). I'm going to try a split photoperiod... 4 hours on in the morning, 4 hour break, then 4 more hours, then off for the night. That should help keep the tank cool. I'm worried though, I don't see plonking down $600 for a chiller.

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exhaust fans seem to be a cheaper route then going all out with the chiller IMO . I use a 4 inch inline exhaust fan($50 through sunlight supply) mounted under the house and a dryer duct bulit into the hood to remove the majority of the heat. I figure might as well remove the heat directly from the source before it has a chance to heat up the tank water. This also helps to remove a majorirty of the humidity. With 2 250w and 2 t5's my temp has never been above 77, even had to buy a bigger heater believe it or not. I was also able to mount the mh alot closer to the water since I am removing a majority of the heat. The ambiant temperature in the hood never rises above 78. Just something to think about before buying a chiller. I've even seen this done with computer fans just moving the heat outside of the hood itself. I perfer to get that hot humid air outa the house asap.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I get no PE during the day, thanks to the efforts of my PITA Flame Angel. To get polyp-laden pictures, I've been forced to shoot a couple of hours after lights out. Here are a few (relatively) successful attempts, lit only by a speedlight:

 

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SWF had three happy looking female Lyretail Anthias in stock for $12 a pop, so...

 

anthias01.JPG

 

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Two of the three are looking good (exploring, eating, interacting with the other fish), the third is... not so much. Hopefully she makes it through the night, but I'm doubting it -- she has that "dead fish walking" look (sad)

 

They're all females; one of the three is obviously the dominant female, so I expect she'll be switching teams any time now.

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all_three.JPG

 

Lyretail #3 has made an appearance. She's kind'a pale, but is eating and tooling around the tank. I'm really surprised, after almost 3 full days of hiding in the rock I had pretty much written her off.

 

Got a shot of the coris wrasse as well:

 

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Thanks. I think I'm now at the hairy-edge of bio overload though -- my last load of skimmate STANK (for the first time ever). It's either the extra fish, the Rod's Food or the new PE Mysis I'm feeding... or a combination of all three (sick)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lyretail #3 kicked the underwater bucket a few days ago :( Bummed, I thought it had turned the corner. Now to find a similar-sized replacement.

 

On the positive side, I replaced the two Singlecontrollers on the Tunze Nanostreams with an AquaSurf module for the ACjr. So far, I'm impressed -- it gives a lot more control over the timing of the pumps, allowing synchronization and fraction-of-a-second switching. By following the timing suggestions in the manual to alternate the flow back and forth (.8 sec, setting up an interference pattern in the 4' tank), I've got a decent wave motion in the tank (1/2" crest at the surface of the water). Supposedly, using this method a #6200 Stream can do a 2" wave all by itself..

 

Now, I just need to win the lottery so I can afford to replace the Koralias with more Tunzes.

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