Redfishsc's 11g Shoebox Reef, LEDs, and a live beer bottle!

Looking good...nice video..don't be so critical...Fun is the name of the game, imo.
looks like your having fun...sooooo SUCCESS !! ;D
FYI..I have had much luck and ease of use with Pinnacle products for video editing.8)

 

I appreciate the compliments, thanks!

My future plan (maybe) for this tank is use as a frag tank, but a decorative frag tank. That large shelf-rock I made for this tank will do good at holding frags.


I have a 45g (23" cube) that is a planted tank right now, and I plan on converting it to reef when we move in around 6 months or so. The 45g will be similar to this one, except more dominated by larger stands of soft corals swaying in the current (ie, bulletproof corals).


I may plumb the two tanks together..... which would be good, since I'd only have 1 set of water tests to do, and can move frags from one to the next without acclimating.

 

I seen that once.. quite a task but it was really cool.. separate species as well.8)

 

I've had 3 tanks, a sump, and a big fuge all on one system before. Not terribly difficult. You only need 1 return pump, just split it 3 ways.


If I do this, though, my tank will be "sumpless" most likely. My 45g already has a spot partitioned off in it to hide heaters and such. I haven't decided if I'm removing that and plumbing the tank, or if I'm going to make it a heater corral and refugium. For simplicity's sake, I will probably go sumpless, I'm not growing expensive stuff and have no intent on it lol


It would just be one drain line from the 45g going down to the 11g, and a small return pump (or canister filter) returning the water to the 45g.

 

Dosing sodium ascorbate powder, 1/4tsp still, every day, with the occasional "oops" that I forget. Haven't had a single problem with missing a dose.

Growth was slowing down on some of my softies, so I started dosing some amino acids, which definitely seemed to speed them up, but now I'm getting either dinoflagellates or lyngbya (form of cyano). It's not bad, but irritates me.

I may start dosing kalkwasser soon, since I probably have a low pH in this tank (both lyngbya and dinos seem to love low pH) but I'll have to cut my VC dosing in half. Right now my alk is at 9, which is just fine. But I don't want it any higher.

 

Blew an LED today. It's a neutral white XPG.

It's actually still lit... but extremely dim, and it might actually just be phosphorescing because of the blue LED beside it. Thankfully it died in the "closed" position and thus the rest of the LEDs are still on.

Not a common thing to blow an LED. At least it's a $4 swapout, I hope I have one sitting handy in my pile o'junk.

 

Did NOT blow an LED.

Apparently two LEDs developed a short, at the same time. I took the array down.... tested all the LEDs, and all was fine. Apparently some salt spray got onto the solder pads and grounded them out somehow.


I resoldered everything yesterday and it's working fine now.

 

good news..glad it worked out, looks like your learning a lot about LED. : )

 

I accidentally skipped dosing the Vitamin C for the past week (save for maybe two doses I remembered).

All is fine, but I'm starting to get a dinoflagellate bloom, no doubt because of increased nutrients since the dinos don't have to compete with the bacteria that would have been consuming the ascorbate powder and nitrates.

I started back dosing today, so hopefully the dino-bloom will abate in a few days. It's pretty low level anyhow, but worth mentioning here.

The corals didn't react one way or the other, no "withdrawal" symptoms as some people warn against. But the dinoflagellates seem to be a pest to the zoanthids, some of them won't open all the way

 

Two pics of a stunning turquoise colored acro. I cannot get the color to show as vibrant in this pic as it is in person






A second acro.


Orange digitata, a green spongodes, and a standard turbinaria. Notice the common color of the turbinaria, compared to the vibrant colors of the two monti species.



Green goniopora (not the G. stokesi that dies so easy).




Blue anthelia