# *sigh* Back In The Hobby I Guess



## hyphen

after relative inactivity in the aquarium hobby, i decided to hop back in. i was shopping for supplies for my elong and snapper and found a 28g jbj nano cube for $300 with the deluxe stand included. it's the CF model so i likely wont be stocking many sps, but i don't have the time or patience for them anyway.

finished rockscaping with about 25lbs of dead rock i had laying around, got 20lbs of crushed coral, and a few pounds of live rock to seed. i'll be adding some live sand tomorrow i think. i hate spur of the moment purchases :/

ill be using the overflow as a small fuge. i saw some small magnetic LEDs that can fit onto the back to grow some chaeto and may pick up a tunze nano skimmer if it will fit in one of the slots in the back.

anyone have any nice nano setups to show?


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## CLUSTER ONE

15g softies reef with 10g refuge.


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## Grosse Gurke

I have a 39 gallon cube....and the Tunze nano skimmer is great. I will see about getting some pictures....I really need to trade in some of the overgrowth I have going on so once I do that I will get a picture.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Can you get me a pic of the Tunze too? im thinking of getting one and going to an AIO but im not sure where the baffles would have to be to hide the collection cup. Im interested in where the waterlevel is compared to the cup if your able to get a clear shot of it. Also its in tank/sump only right? On a couple sites with it for sale it seems to be saying it can be a hob. I'd be wanting a in sump not hob.


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## Grosse Gurke

Not sure I can get a good picture...but I can try. My tank has the built in overflow and refuge in the back...and it fits nicely back there. The water level is about 1/2" below the bottom of the collection cup. I have the Doc 9002 I believe...and it is in-tank or sump only...I dont know how it could be hung outside the tank. The powerhead enclosed in the housing....I suppose you could dismantle it and do some kind of DIY thing...but I wouldnt see the point.


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## hyphen

righteous, i definitely wanna see some pics. ive heard good things about the tunze. the other small skimmers look too cheap and i've had my experiences with cheap skimmers in the past.

i'm already looking at things to upgrade. just trying to decide if i want to upgrade my lighting to LEDs (aquabeam 1000?) or pickup a mp10 first.

nice soft setup cluster


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## CLUSTER ONE

From what I hear aqua c remora and tunze nano are the way to go on smaller tanks if you want a skimmer. Remoras a hob and tunze would be good for in a aio chamber/sump. I beleive the tunze is the same price as the remora nano. I'd probably go tunze as I beleive i've seen people take a couple notches out of the AIO hood then you can fit the tunze in and have it completely hidden though you would have to double check as there are a couple AIO around 30g so I may be thinking of a biocube not nanocube.

For upgrading i'd probably just do a larger return and then mayby see if you can use some Y pipe to break the output into 2. A koralia is another option that would be alot cheaper then a mp10. Im running a K1 on my tank and it works great for 30$ compared to a couple hundred for a mp10.


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## Grosse Gurke

My tank doesnt have a lid...so the Tunze works well...I would say that in an enclosed tank you would need to cut quite a large hole....probably about 4" to account for the cup.


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## hyphen

yeah i read somewhere that youd need to dremel out about 3" from the canopy on the nano cube. that got me to thinking about maybe going with the glass top with different lighting. the nano cube currently has 2 returns and 2 pumps, one on each side of the tank, though the stock pumps which are pretty weak. i like the controller because you can alternate the pumps in intervals. maybe ill just upgrade the pumps.

you guys have any experience with leds?


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## Grosse Gurke

After you mentioned it...I started looking on Ebay...you can get them pretty cheap now. I might upgrade...my light gets really hot.


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## hyphen

yeah i was thinking of getting either supplementing with some aquabeam strips or getting a standalone tile like the aquabeam 1000. they also have par38 leds which fit into a normal incandescent socket but that only seems like an option if i retrofit or go with a glass top. however, they're cheap as hell @ 65 bucks a pop and you can really get creative and make some slick setups if you have the time and resources.

there are the larger fixtures but i want to make sure that they're strong enough to grow lps and maybe some easier sps like birdsnest in the future. also, ceiling mounting isn't an option for me. i have really high ceilings and don't want 20ft wires. maybe you can be my test dummy, jeff.


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## CLUSTER ONE

I think something like a 150W MH pendant would work good especially if you want sps. I've been considering some par 38 bulbs but the problem is they are more spot lights as they don't have a huge coverage so you would need a few bulbs. Their advantages are they are low wattage, last a long time, and have good depth penitration If you were doing par 38 I'd prboably do like 3 or so to get a pretty good coverage. The good thing with these is you can just use them in some floor lamp.

There are also of plenty DIY you can buy where you just soder some leds to a heatsink and wire eveything. If your looking to diy something in your canopy you may want to check out nanotuners as they have plenty of lighting upgrades that could give you ideas.

Other then DIY or par 38 bulbs any pre fab led fixtures are often a ton of money so you are probably better off doing a diy pendant.


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## shiver905

For that tank, 
Id personnaly consider 150W halide pendent.
You can put one together for very cheap if you shop used.
Theres ballests and pendent everywhere. You just need to invest in a decent bulb.

As for mounting: you can do a light hanger.
I made these for about 15$.










good luck!


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## Grosse Gurke

I was thinking about trying out something like this...but I have no idea what size I should get for a 39 gallon cube....any ideas?

Light on ebay


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## hyphen

Grosse Gurke said:


> I was thinking about trying out something like this...but I have no idea what size I should get for a 39 gallon cube....any ideas?
> 
> Light on ebay


what are the dimensions of your tank and what corals do you have? the par readings seem decent. i would personally go with the evolution 60watt ufo version. it's a better known name and comes with a 2 year warranty. it's a little bluer but you can always swap out some of the blue diodes (460nm). personally, i think i'm going to try out the evolution 120watt. i've read some good reviews and saw a video with the par readings and they outperformed 250w metal halides and t5 fixtures. it's about $320 but you get an extra year on the warranty, can opt for 50/50 on the colors and in your case it covers a much larger area.

Evolution 120w PAR readings:

926 PAR at surface, 565 PAR 5" underwater, 263 PAR 19" underwater, 115 PAR 23"

LED unit you linked me to:

2" depth - 645 Par, 12" depth - 177 Par, 24" depth - 77 Par

But if you don't have any light hungry corals then it might be overkill.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Grosse Gurke said:


> I was thinking about trying out something like this...but I have no idea what size I should get for a 39 gallon cube....any ideas?
> 
> Light on ebay


 I've heard things bout other lights from "ledwholesalers" and the general review was they were not really suffiecent for a reef with more then soft corals. For the price I would probably agree its not sufficent as the leds you want to use like Cree sell for 3-7$ each plus things like optics so those leds are probably not nearly as powerful. I think a MH light would be the easiest thing to do.


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## Grosse Gurke

I have a 150 mh right now. The tank is probably 22" square. I am not really into the whole coral thing. Dont get me wrong...love the color...I just dont see myself having the dedication it would take to keep most of them...so for me...I only have soft and easy to care for stuff. I dont have the light it would take with the 150 watts anyways.


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## hyphen

in that case those leds should work just fine. you would be surprised at what you can raise with a single 150w mh in a small tank and moderate dosing/feeding.


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## Grosse Gurke

Sounds like led wholesalers are a sh*t company...at least in reading all the fraud claims online. Wont be ordering from them.


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## Grosse Gurke

If only this was a good quality product....but reading about the company online I dont think it is.

par38


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## CLUSTER ONE

if your looking for par 38 spotlights there are:

-evilc66 (nanoreef led guru and nanotuners employee) par 38
-boost LED
-rapid LED


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## Grosse Gurke

I am thinking about setting up a 12 gallon nano in my office. I have the tank...and one of these lights would work well...but I do like the dimmable option.


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## hyphen

ecoxotic makes a par38 led lamp, but it's a bit more expensive, between 70-100 each i think. on the upside though, they use cree diodes. just slap it right into a incandescent socket and you're good to go. i saw a couple pico reefs with these on top.


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## CLUSTER ONE

hyphen said:


> ecoxotic makes a par38 led lamp, but it's a bit more expensive, between 70-100 each i think. on the upside though, they use cree diodes. just slap it right into a incandescent socket and you're good to go. i saw a couple pico reefs with these on top.


 I beleive ecoxotic is very similar to the evilc66. One thing im not sure is these have 5 leds and some of the others have something like 7 so im not sure how comparible they are and if the 5 led ones have better leds or if the ones with 7 leds would be better. The evil pars go for about 120$. Most other bulbs will run you around 80$. Nanotuners has some evil66 bulbs on sale for I think it was 100$ now but i think it only the 40 degree optic ones which would be a bit narrow.


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## klink67

Grosse Gurke said:


> If only this was a good quality product....but reading about the company online I dont think it is.
> 
> par38


I am actually considering one of those for my 3 gallon pico. I can get an evil par38 for around the same price, but I dont need that kind of power for my pico, also the remote dimming is really cool!

Were are these reports? If there lights are unreliable then I wont buy it, but I havent found anyone that owns there par38 other than a guy on nano-reef that had there cool white version.
My link

I talked to this member to see what he thought about it and he said it worked great and grew his coral well. I would imagine there blue and white bulb and there other lighting would be the same.


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## Grosse Gurke

I just googled ledwarehouse reviews and came up with about 6 people that were unhappy. Some saying the lights were basically flashlights and not good led's at all. Others having bulbs burnout in months and no replacement...things like that. Might be worth a try at that price.


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## klink67

If I go with evils par38 I wont be able to dim it and since its 12k it will be good for growth but I like more actinic color. I will check out the reviews and make a decision tomorrow.


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## CLUSTER ONE

evil also has a 20K version that will be more blue. Id go evil or something as if you attach it to some nice floor of dest kight it will look alot sleeker over the tank then some larger led array. I beleive 12K is 3 white 2 blue and 20k is 3 blue and 2 white.


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## hyphen

went to go pick up a hammer frag from a local reefer. $5/head, i only wanted 2 but he ended up hooking me up with 2 extra heads and fragged his grape and purple rim monti caps for me for $30 for everything. it wasn't planned but i couldn't pass up the deal. the idaho grape frags were pretty big, about two 3" pieces and same with the purple rim. got a deal on a florida ric too. got one with 4 heads for $30.

partial cleanup crew is in there. 5 hermits, 2 turbo snails. caulerpa is chillin in the back compartment with leds for light. nitrates are low but i had a phosphate problem (.25ppm). nasty diatom and dino breakout but it's cleared out in the last couple days.

ill post some progress pics later.

the lady and i are going to be moving furniture around soon and i may end up moving my tank. after all that i'm pulling the trigger on the evo 50-50 120w leds.


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## hyphen

Got a nasty algae outbreak from doing a water change with tap water. I got sick of lugging water so I ordered a 5 stage ro/di unit a couple days ago.


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## His Majesty

frags are looking pretty


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## CLUSTER ONE

For lights another option is reefledlights.com. I have been pricing some out any and 18 LED setup will be about 200$ plus shipping. These are retrofit kits but you can get some prewired strips so you just have to connect the leds to the driver, For your setup you would probably want at least 24-30. These setups come with a heatsink too so you have everything you need, I've seen a bunch of people mod thes kits into the hood. These kits also use cree XRE or XPE LEDS so they are some of the best on the market while im not sure how good the leds in the fixture you want are,

Check out these kits as I think you should be able to get a lot better lighting for the price.


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## hyphen

Got this guy today and had to talk my gf out of naming it nemo.










I'm actually going to opt out of LEDs for now. I'm leaning towards t5s again. I saw a local reefers full t5 sps tank setup with some pinkish hues in it and led supplement and I was blown away. I've had some badass t5s but never customized the colors. I may go this route.


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## His Majesty

is that a low grade picasso clown? or some sort of onyx?

so many variants out there its hard to tell. nice specimen though


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## hyphen

i would consider him more of a low grade onyx. the only problem is that there's not enough black from his peduncle to dorsal area. either way, a welcome addition to the tank. thanks


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## hyphen

some news, i got really tired of these weak ass pc lights so i decided to ugprade. the day i decided to upgrade i found a deal on a 4 week old ati sunpower 4x24 unit. with the deal it was like i got new bulbs for free.

my monti caps are bleached, which is no bueno and phoszorb has proven to be worthless in my tank. next paycheck (too many big bill this early in the month) ill be investing in a reactor and some gfo. i feel like i need to do an overhaul on my tank already and its not even 2 months old.

anyway, i'll get pics up when the hardware comes in, the lights shipped today so maybe sometime next week.


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## Ægir

Be sure to acclimate corals and the tank to the new light... especially if its WAY brighter than your last fixture.

That could be why things are bleaching out...

As for the phosban and reactor thing... its better to find the source of the phosphates and fix it, as opposed to adding another piece of equipment/more work to maintain. It could also be your tank is extremely new, and things havent balanced out yet.

Maybe beefing up the filtration and flow in the tank, or modifying what you have to be more efficient?


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## hyphen

the montis actually bleached before i got the lights, i won't have them until thursdayish. i had high phosphates in the tap water, which i've stopped using a little while ago. i also checked my bundle of caulerpa that i have in the back and there was some die off so that could've been a part of it too.

i'm definitely going to be upgrading most of everything. i need some maxijet 1200s and a new skimmer, those will be purchased next pay check as well. i may even wait on the reactors and try running some chemi-pure elite to see if that'll clear things up. the brs reactors are pretty low maintenance though. if they're anything like phosban reactors then it's just a matter of replacing the media and wiping it down every month or so.


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## Ægir

hyphen said:


> the montis actually bleached before i got the lights, i won't have them until thursdayish. i had high phosphates in the tap water, which i've stopped using a little while ago. i also checked my bundle of caulerpa that i have in the back and there was some die off so that could've been a part of it too.
> 
> i'm definitely going to be upgrading most of everything. i need some maxijet 1200s and a new skimmer, those will be purchased next pay check as well. i may even wait on the reactors and try running some chemi-pure elite to see if that'll clear things up. the brs reactors are pretty low maintenance though. if they're anything like phosban reactors then it's just a matter of replacing the media and wiping it down every month or so.


The high po4 water was helping your fuge grow, and when you stopped using it you prob killed some, which in return made more phosphates... viscous cycle

easy solution... stop using tap water for good and thats a huge part of it. 2) get rid of the caulepera while you still can, it sucks in so many ways (going asexual and covering everything faster than aptasia) and cheato is a safer bet, or mangroves?

If you beef up the skimmer, flow to keep waste suspended, and use 0TDS water you should have no need for a reactor... If the problem still exists, it could be leeching from the rocks, or you are over feeding.

Have you looked at any of the sure flow mods for maxi jet powerheads? they move an insane amount of water for a reasonable price, but they dont work well with wavemakers or switching on and off.


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## hyphen

i've been using ro/di for the last couple weeks, tds meter reads 0 as it should on a new unit. i didn't know the negative effects of caulerpa though, i guess i should ditch it. i have no space for mangroves, just gotta get some chaeto. it's what i had originally wanted, but the lfs didn't have any and instead offered me a bagful of caulerpa for free.

i doubt i'm overfeeding, i only feed a little bit of mysis and cyclops every other day and change out about 20% of the water every week.

just looked at the sure-flow stuff. not sure if it would suit my purpose. the maxijets will be working on the wavemaker as the return pumps out of the sump (this is an AIO setup).

i went ahead and just bought all the sh*t i need. we'll see how everything goes once i set everything up.


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## hyphen

so, i lost my clown while i was in san luis obispo... like literally lost it. shes nowhere to be found, no body (i removed like 60% of the rock because the base rock i used was ugly). oh well :/

in other news, my equipment is all here and installed. opted out of a reactor and decided to run chemi-pure elite. turns out, that water i had used from the lfs had a tds of 194+. basically, it was ruining my system. ive changed close to 50% of the water with my own r/o over the course of a couple weeks. the crap water from the lfs explains why i haven't been able to get rid of nuisance algae and why i had a major cyano outbreak.
















- some poly fiber pads
- jbj ato
- brightwell kalk +2
- koralia nano 425gph powerhead
- 2x maxijet 1200
- tunze 9002
- chemipure elite
- ati sunpower 4x24

i had a bitch of a time getting the 9002 to fit in the back-center chamber. i sawed off the magnet and accidentally took a chunk of the plastic casing with it. i had to remedy that by patching it with another piece of acrylic and some water proof cement.

lastly, ive been in touch with a fabricator in building a custom light stand for the sunpower. it's pretty neat because i'm working with my own designs. i'm eager to see how well it turns out. might be another couple weeks. but until then it'll have to just sit on the tank.


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## hyphen

okay, so the cement was a HORRIBLE idea. i had my doubts but used it anyway and it fell apart. luckily, none of it got into the water column and i was able to pull it out. i bought some lexan plastic and silicone and will be using my dremel to patch it up again today...properly. also, i'm going to have to use a different pump for the ato. its pushes in too much water too fast. bad idea when i start mixing kalk. i think i'm also going to slowly swap out my substrate. the crushed coral is getting way too dirty.


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## hyphen

picked up some frags today.

i've got them on the floor acclimating to the light. polyps are starting to extend.









purple polyp birdsnest. this one is 2 frags on a single rock, both with multiple branches. 








green slimer. it broke off the rock and i found out all my super glue was dried solid. i'll be reattaching it to the rock when i move it up, i don't want to stress it too much.








neon green birdsnest, multiple branches








powder blue acro, a little brown but the polyps are a deep blue.








as you can see, i fought and won the battle against cyano. lights off for 2 days, siphoned water through a filter sock and poured back in and then a water change the day ofter. lights on the following day and it hasn't grown back. next week i'm moving the frags a little higher and then picking up an acan frag pack from the guy i got my ro unit off of.

i'm also getting rid of my turbo snails. they're too clumsy and knock sh*t over too much. my ricordea have been blown all over the tank because the damn snails keep pushing it around. they also kick my frogspawn around far too much.


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## WhiteLineRacer

are these the ones you were talking about?

They look in very good condition, great shots too.

I feel your pain with turbo snails, my rock is all "balanced" as I'm a lazy git. So sometimes the snails will knock off a balancing coral.
I do like turbos though so I put up with their bullishness.

Can't wait to see the nano mature


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## hyphen

WhiteLineRacer said:


> are these the ones you were talking about?
> 
> They look in very good condition, great shots too.
> 
> I feel your pain with turbo snails, my rock is all "balanced" as I'm a lazy git. So sometimes the snails will knock off a balancing coral.
> I do like turbos though so I put up with their bullishness.
> 
> Can't wait to see the nano mature


yessir, these are the ones. although, he forgot one of the frags i wanted, which was a red planet. but it's no biggie. i may opt to get a millepora or something.

but yeah, i love the turbo snails, i just hate putting my hand in the tank to move sh*t around. they've got a lot of character haha.


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## hyphen

frags are doing great. i reattached the slimer to the rock. the blue stag acro is definitely not as blue as it is in the pic. i'm struggling to adjust the white balance to the bluer look of my T5s. anywhere, here are some pics of the polyp extension.




























i've been in talks with another local guy to get some high end acro frags from him if these guys make it. from the looks of it they'll be okay.


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## His Majesty

aww the frags are so cute and pretty







glas they are growing steadily


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## hyphen

His Majesty said:


> aww the frags are so cute and pretty
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> glas they are growing steadily


thanks







no growth just yet, they've only been in the tank for 2 days. but i'm hoping that they will take off soon. if i get 1mm a day i'll be happy, lol.


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## shiver905

Update?

That ati fixture is ALOOOOOOOT more light then your previous PC fixture.

-

BTW everything is looking great!


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