junior Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Well, I have been out of the hobby for almost exactly 10 years. Before that I worked at fish stores, and built systems for people. After a trip to Honolulu, I just had to build a new tank. For the last month I have been slowly piecing together all of the components I wanted to use, and getting everything built. It has taken a bit longer than I planned, but trying to fit everything in that stand was no small feat. Tank: 34g Solana with stand (Thank you, Vis) Equipment: Nanobox Duo M - I love this light, the owner Dave is great to work with. Reefkeeper Lite Plus - Been a bit difficult to program. Wish I would have gone with APEX. Eshopps RS-75 sump - Fits but considering their new cube sump design. Eshopps S-120 skimmer - This thing is great for such a small skimmer Ecotech Vortec mp10wqd - I am amazed at how far technology has come with wave-makers Aquamaxx S-Nano Calcium Reactor - Could have gone with dosing, but I'm used to reactors, and dosing seems foreign to me. Sicce 1.5 return pump - Currently using a mag drive, but its way to loud. Once the new pump arrives I'll be returning it. Now onto pictures since no one likes these threads without them! Currently the tank just has sand, hopefully picking up rock from matt125 this weekend. It is a very tight fit in the sand, but I am able to get to everything. Still mocking up the Calcium reactor, but the CO2 tank will be behind the stand in the corner. Mounted the controllers on the side, and still have yet to do cord clean up inside or outside the stand. Also still need to frost the glass on the front of the stand. My lighting graph just for fun. That's all for now. I'll put more up once I add rock. Also any advice is appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Could a mod help me with editing the top post? I need to reload the pictures, but couldn't find the edit option... Now onto pictures since no one likes these threads without them! Currently the tank just has sand, hopefully picking up rock from matt125 this weekend. It is a very tight fit in the sand, but I am able to get to everything. Still mocking up the Calcium reactor, but the CO2 tank will be behind the stand in the corner. Mounted the controllers on the side, and still have yet to do cord clean up inside or outside the stand. Also still need to frost the glass on the front of the stand. My lighting graph just for fun. That's all for now. I'll put more up once I add rock. Also any advice is appreciated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Looks like you got the pictures to work. Tank looks great and from your post you are very experienced. There are some new technologies but much has stayed the same. One of the admin could fix your post. Send a pm to Jeremy or chief or softy and they should be able to help you. If you pay for a membership you will be able to edit yourself. What are your thoughts for corals? I had a solana once and it's a great looking tank. I have heard good things about nanobox too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 (edited) I plan to be mostly SPS dominate with Zoa in lower light areas and a clam or two in the sand bed. Currently figuring out how to handle the 5 channel lighting system has been the most difficult. Worried about getting the spectrum right to not burn corals. Only ever had the industrial style SE metal halides. Plan to get a membership as soon as possible. Hoping to attend the march meeting. Edited February 12, 2016 by junior 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Yeah I had mh t 5 for my solana. Biggest problem was heat and lost some sps because of that. I'm actually still not sold on leds and will probably go back to an ati t5 set up with my next tank. And yeah figuring out the soectrum took me some time with my maxspect. I slowly built it up but don't have a high par in my tank because I have zoas and Lps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 I went over board with a lot of the equipment, because I know within a few years I will want a 60 cube. I don't want to have to go through selling, and buying all new equipment. The Nanobox is definitely overkill currently, but will have that punch to keep clams alive on the sand bed with a deeper tank. I was against metal halides this time because of the heat/power issues. I remember the summertime battles with them. Would rather heat the tank in the winter than have fans/chillers in the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 I went over board with a lot of the equipment, because I know within a few years I will want a 60 cube. I don't want to have to go through selling, and buying all new equipment. The Nanobox is definitely overkill currently, but will have that punch to keep clams alive on the sand bed with a deeper tank. I was against metal halides this time because of the heat/power issues. I remember the summertime battles with them. Would rather heat the tank in the winter than have fans/chillers in the summer. Yeah totally agree with that. It's easier to deal with the cold then trying to cool down a tank. That's good that you are thinking ahead. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Very nice looking tank! I'm excited for you to get some fish and coral in there! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Good looking build! Good luck with everything! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Thank you. It will be nice to finally get livestock in it. Looking at a sand covered square gets boring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryV Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Hi All Not the best videos but here are a couple of my black sun coral. First one is a time laps of it opening. The second one is feeding. Barry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Very cool Barry! I live time lapse pictures because I'm not a very patient person. ???? Your name to me from now on will be Barry Blacksun! They do look great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 Last couple of days have been a challenge. I discovered that the used tank had a very slight leak from the bottom seal. My short wet test before hand didn't show it. Worst part was I had picked up the live rock from Matt, and was really trying to not stress the corals any more than a fresh tank already will. I was forced to drain/dry the tank, and reseal the whole thing. Last night I got it all back running. Here are the pictures from this morning, looks like everyone is ok. Only concern is getting very little polyp extension from the top corals. Some what concerned my LED's are to intense. I've lowered them down a little to see if that might be what is doing it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 Also decided to order a Tunze Osmolator, adding up to a gallon a day is a bit much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Wow that's no fun! I suppose still a good thing you caught it early. I top off around 2 to 3 gallons a week in my 20 gallon. I just pour in some water when I'm feeding them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanoreefer17 Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Nice looking build, I am in the process of designing a 55g cube, and am really sick of my dosing pump! How do you like the Aquamaxx nano reactor? How do you think it would run on a 55g, w/ 20g sump? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 Need to get an update on this. Currently have a quickly growing collection of SPS colonies. Everything is happy healthy, and settling in. Nice looking build, I am in the process of designing a 55g cube, and am really sick of my dosing pump! How do you like the Aquamaxx nano reactor? How do you think it would run on a 55g, w/ 20g sump? Personally I like the reactor, I wouldn't put it on a tank that large though. My tank has about 8 decent size SPS colonies(about softball size), clam, and a few frags. It handles that just fine, but I have had to turn it up quite a bit. When I go bigger, I will upgrade my calcium reactor first. My reasoning is because I will have up the drip rate. With such a small reactor, your regulator is constantly popping on/off. This would just get worse as I increased the drip rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanoreefer17 Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 I see... Yeah it would be sps dominant, and I am a fan of aquamaxx as I have their co1 cone on my 29g current setup and it rocks. Know of any mid size reactors? The large setups are so pricey Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 (edited) Thought I would add an new update. I was having an issue with my corals browning out to some extent. I decided to just get an apogee par meter. My readings were well below what I expected. I have since increased my output, and I'm noticing some coloring back up. Parameters have been really stable with the ATO, and calcium reactor dialed in right. Watching the sunset monti in the middle color up has been really cool. It was originally all brown, and bleach out on a large section. All of the bleached area is now filled in. It is slowly shifting to that bright orange. Only last thing I am dealing with is a small amount of hair algae. It hasn't been spreading. I think it will just take some time before it dies off. The pictures are from when I was losing color, but the tank has come a long way. Thanks, JR Edited March 30, 2016 by junior Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 One with the blue lifted up, and white turned down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHash-fish20 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Looks good man. How are you liking the NanoBox? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Looks good. How do you like the calcium reactor for such a small tank? Any issues with it dropping your ph? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 (edited) Looks good. How do you like the calcium reactor for such a small tank? Any issues with it dropping your ph? I was worried about the same thing. Currently running it at 6.25ph and a drip rate a little faster than 1 per second. Ph holds prefectly at 8.2. Does help that I have it drip right next to the skimmer. Looks good man. How are you liking the NanoBox?I like it as LED's go. Easy to program and adjust. Only issue I'm having is getting enough par lower in the tank. Growth has been nice on the sps. Same as I used to get with MH. Edited March 31, 2016 by junior 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junior Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 Still trying to get my clowns to get into my BTA. no luck so far. They instead like attacking me anytime I touch the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vis Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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