Tswifty's Custom 40g Rimless Build Thread

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by 2frosty4u
Christmas wrasses are excellent jumpers....I had one once for 2 days, He made a pinpoint leap of faith through a quarter size hole in the eggcrate next to the hob filter on my qt. I found him laying on my workbench in the morning next to the qt....I was pi$$ed.
I hope you have better luck than I did.

Yeah I may leave the tank covered and lights off all day tomorrow. Not sure yet. I'm a little more worried about the Mystery Wrasse taking him out though. She was definitely ticked and on the prowl cruising the tank like she knew I snuck something into the tank right as the lights went out.

[Tswifty]

[Taqpol]

Are there any wrasses known to eat flatworms but not prone to being bullies like a six line? I'm having a bit of a planaria outbreak myself....

[OwNeD162]

They are some seriously awesome numbers TJ !

My sixline is as quite as can be, never picks on any of the other fish, and never attempts to eat any of the coral

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by Taqpol
Are there any wrasses known to eat flatworms but not prone to being bullies like a six line? I'm having a bit of a planaria outbreak myself....

Here's the list of guys I've been told have been known to take out flatworms, of course it's always hit or miss:

- Target Mandarin Dragonet
- Leopard Wrasse
- Wrasses in the Halichoeres genus
Ex:
+ Radiant Wrasse
+ Melanurus Wrasse (Hoeven's Wrasse)
+ Yellow Wrasse
+ Christmas Wrasse

Originally posted by OwNeD162
They are some seriously awesome numbers TJ !

My sixline is as quite as can be, never picks on any of the other fish, and never attempts to eat any of the coral

Thanks, I found them a little unusual as well, but kind of expected with how shallow the tank is. The light output is much more intense towards the front of the pendants than the back. Also, the conduit light rack doesn't have the pendants exactly centered over top of the tank from front to back. Therefore, the pendants are slightly offset towards the front pane. So while I assumed that the sand bed in the front of my tank was the lowest lit area, and safest place to house lower light demanding corals... in reality it's one of the most intense areas of the tank. The safest place for lower light demanding corals turned out to be near the top of the rock work in the rear of the tank, which posted 50-150 PAR in certain areas.

Over the next few days, I'm going to try and relocate some of my LPS/Polyps into the less intense areas throughout the tank, then more than likely begin moving in an SPS only direction from now on with this system. I'll also be looking into some new lighting options. I may try to get my hands on a 250w Lumen Brite/Radium combination since I already have HQI ballasts to fire the Radiums, and see how that works out. I think I could get away with 1 Lumen Brite versus the 2 PFO Mini Pendants.

[melev]

What are the odds we would both be taking PAR measurements on the same night?

What is the acrylic thickness of your tank? Are the walls staying straight and true, or are you seeing any deflection? What are the dimensions again?

[maroun.c]

Nice numbers TJ.
Those clearly change some concepts people (at least me) might have.
- I would put a high light coral exactly below the center of a bulb where it seems the center bewteen two bulbs gets much more light which might expain some of my lower light corals fading in colours.
-the loss of ligtht at water surface is impressive and maybe that's due to reflection. my reflectors can be rotated to target different areas and I might be loosing lots of light in because of increased angle of light hitting the water.
-loss of light between top and bottom of tank is not as big as one would think. so maybe growing those clams on the sand is not a bad idea afterall but that would mean my zoos and mushrooms are getting way much mre light than what they need and may be I could substitute them for SPS
It would be nice if such comparison of light intensity loss can be made with T5s to truely assess how light intensity varies between MH bulbs and T5s which I presume would be a lot faster with T5 as they're not focused as MH.
Wiush people would start stating at which PAR specific corals are doing the best instead of Low, med low, medium high and high which could easily be way off looking at your readings and comparing them to what one would have thought...
any idea if using a par meter would allow you to better decide if it's time to change bulbs or not? or does the Color shift which I assume can't be measured with a PAr meter have a big role to play?
Thanks for posting those.

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by melev
What are the odds we would both be taking PAR measurements on the same night?

What is the acrylic thickness of your tank? Are the walls staying straight and true, or are you seeing any deflection? What are the dimensions again?

The walls are 3/4" thick, and have been holding up very well. I only have a slight bit of bow on the front pane, in the center, near the top... but it's very slight.

The OD dimensions of the tank are 30" x 22" x 16"

Originally posted by maroun.c
Nice numbers TJ.
Those clearly change some concepts people (at least me) might have.
Thanks for posting those.

Thanks. However, since my tank is only 16" tall, and the light is realistically only passing through maybe 14" of water to the sand bed, I wouldn't consider my tank the best to use for making changes. PAR values on specific corals would be fine, but values from top to bottom could be misleading due to how shallow the system is.

Originally posted by maroun.c
- I would put a high light coral exactly below the center of a bulb where it seems the center bewteen two bulbs gets much more light which might expain some of my lower light corals fading in colours.

I would imagine where the highest intensity is located would depend a lot on the type of reflector being used. With these reflectors the light seems to be more intense around the edges of the reflector rather than the center. Also, there is much more PAR in the area between the two pendants than I would have imagined. Like you stated, I also assumed under the center of the pendant would be the most intense area.

Originally posted by maroun.c
-the loss of ligtht at water surface is impressive and maybe that's due to reflection. my reflectors can be rotated to target different areas and I might be loosing lots of light in because of increased angle of light hitting the water.

The light loss at the surface is more than likely because I did not turn off the flow, and there's a lot of surface agitation.

Originally posted by maroun.c
Wiush people would start stating at which PAR specific corals are doing the best instead of Low, med low, medium high and high which could easily be way off looking at your readings and comparing them to what one would have thought...

I agree, it would be nice to see PAR readings for specific corals rather than a person's interpretation of what type of lighting they think the coral is in.

Originally posted by maroun.c
any idea if using a par meter would allow you to better decide if it's time to change bulbs or not? or does the Color shift which I assume can't be measured with a PAr meter have a big role to play?
Thanks for posting those.

You're supposed to be able to tell when a bulb is spent by PAR readings, as the intensity will drop as the bulb ages. I believe Sanjay or someone wrote an article regarding it, and has the percentage decline you should expect to see over the life of a bulb... I'm not positive though.

Originally posted by maroun.c
It would be nice if such comparison of light intensity loss can be made with T5s to truely assess how light intensity varies between MH bulbs and T5s which I presume would be a lot faster with T5 as they're not focused as MH.

I took PAR readings on my 90g tank which I ran T5's over. The numbers were pretty strong as well. Personally I think T5's and 250w halides are pretty even when it comes down to intensity and penetration. At least that has been my experience with them.. but then again there are a lot of variables to consider... ballast, reflectors, bulbs... etc.

Here were the T5 (6 x 54w) numbers on a 24" deep tank... the bulbs were 8" off the water I think. I didn't take any readings above the surface of the water though. I believe the readings were taken right below the surface of the water, even with the bottom of the overflow, middle of the tank, and on the sand bed.

Middle of the tank:



Front of the tank:

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the info TJ.
Any suggestions on which PAR meters to go with or specific things to look for in a PAR meter?

[Tswifty]

I've always used the one manufactured by Apogee.

http://www.apogee-inst.com/

[Tswifty]

Bad news regarding the Christmas Wrasse.

Found him stuck to the VorTech this morning... I don't think he was there for long, but obviously not a good sign. Of course I freaked and immediately dialed down the VorTech. The wrasse then sprung free, and started swimming around normally again before darting back into the rock work. Anyway, if I would have been thinking, I would have netted him and tossed him into QT. Now I'll more than likely never see him again. when I added it, I didn't realize how thin it was... or I would have QT'd it from the start. He hasn't eaten yet to my knowledge either. I've had such bad luck with wrasses for some reason. This will be the 5th wrasse since I added the Mystery Wrasse that mysteriously (no pun intended) disappears, if in fact he ends up biting the dust... none of which jumped.

- Female Christmas Wrasse (LiveAquaria)
- Melanurus Wrasse (ReefHotSpot)
- Sixline Wrasse (ReefHotSpot)
- Melanurus Wrasse (ReefHotSpot)
- Male Christmas Wrasse (LFS)

I'm giving him 10% odds on surviving now.

[Tswifty]

On a side note, I took my little sister to the Pittsburgh Aquarium today and was severely disappointed. So much had changed since I last visited it a year or two again... most for the worse. I took my camera, but the batteries died on the first shot (of course). However, I prepared, and brought back-ups... but oddly enough, the back-up batteries couldn't power the camera? Very odd.

Anyway, I think we only spent 30 minutes in the Aquarium... and that was mostly ID'ing fish for my little sister. The best part of the day was spent watching the Polar Bears swim around from the underwater tunnel.

[Tswifty]

Spent about an hour messing with the CO2 bottle, regulator, and solenoid tonight/this morning. No CO2 has been flowing since Thursday morning. I assumed my solenoid had jammed again, but after disassembling it then reassembling it (so I was sure it was open) no CO2 was still flowing. Looking at the gauges on my regulator, it says I should still have 1lb of CO2 left... however, I'm guessing that the gauge is off and the bottle is probably empty. So I'm going to get it filled again later today.

Also, I'm a little sick and tired of the faulty solenoid. Especially since I contacted the company regarding it a few weeks ago, and never heard back. I've had to take it apart at least once a month to un-jam it when it locks up. So tonight I wrote an email to them, and will hopefully get a replacement soon.

[melev]

I totally agree about those solenoids, and that is why I try to dial mine in as best possible. I'm going to have to buy a new regulator and solenoid, whether I like it or not.

Hopefully, you'll have some luck with that company.

[2frosty4u]

I've always heard that bad things come in three's:

1. Christmas wrasse getting stuck
2. Pittsburg Aquarium sucked
3. Co2 regulator stuck and sucks...

Hopefully that's your three bad things and now the good things will take a turn. I hope the wrasse makes it through his ordeal.

[Tswifty]

What a mess... took my CO2 bottle down to get filled today. I told the guy to check how much was in it first, because I didn't think it should be empty yet. So he took it over to check it, and it was still almost full!

After that, I walked inside to ask the guy if he could check my regulator. All he says he can do is hook it up and see what happens... of course it works immediately. So I'm not sure what the deal with it was, but now the CO2 is working again?

[scaryperson27]

It could always be worse you know. Glad to hear it worked itself out. What do you think the problem was?

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by melev
I totally agree about those solenoids, and that is why I try to dial mine in as best possible. I'm going to have to buy a new regulator and solenoid, whether I like it or not.

Hopefully, you'll have some luck with that company.

Yeah, I get nervous every time it clicks off, because i never know if it's going to jam or not. I think when I can swing it, I'm going to change to the Aquarium Plants regulator. I haven't heard back from Reef Fanatic yet, but I emailed them on a Friday, so I was fairly certain I wouldn't get an answer before the weekend.

What regulator are you currently using?

Originally posted by 2frosty4u
I've always heard that bad things come in three's:

1. Christmas wrasse getting stuck
2. Pittsburg Aquarium sucked
3. Co2 regulator stuck and sucks...

Hopefully that's your three bad things and now the good things will take a turn. I hope the wrasse makes it through his ordeal.

Haha... hopefully that's all... I'm going to pick up the Chromis and Sixline Wrasse in Ohio today, then will have everything back here in a few days.

Originally posted by scaryperson27
It could always be worse you know. Glad to hear it worked itself out. What do you think the problem was?

I have no idea... I would imagine something was blocked or clogged in the line.

[DiscoReefRover]

Sneaking across the border again are we ....lol

[Padrino]

TJ,
Which regulator from aquarium plants are you looking at? I also am looking to replace my regulator with a better one that can adjust the pressure unlike our reef fanatics. I also want a better needle valve that is more sensitive. The ideal needle valve from rex's planted aquarium is 70 USD but it looks like the best. Are you looking at the manual regulator or their electronic one?

[scaryperson27]

Yeah you must have shaken it loose.

[Tswifty]

Back with some new guys...

- 5 Green Chromis
- 1 Blue Tip Stag (experiment piece)
- 1 30k Lokani

Also, I decided what I want to try and do lighting wise with my tank. I'm going to try and pick up a DE Lumenarc Mini Pendant and use my current Pheonix 14k bulb since they are still pretty darn new. However, if I can only find an SE Pendant... I'll make the switch to Radiums. I'm also going to stay with 250w as it will be the cheapest switch right now, because I wouldn't need to purchase a new ballast.

[Tswifty]

New piece, 30k Lokani



New Chromis





Picture of the large Bartlett that I thought looked funny.



Picasso Clowns





Top Down of the clams... the photo box shaded the picture though.



My Unknown White Acro is finally white again.



Recently cut Candy Apple Palythoa frag. I'm trying to start another colony.

[Tswifty]

Some Acan pictures. Most are holding up extremely well under the intense lighting. The Rainbow Acans seem to be the only ones suffering.









My Green Millepora that is looking worse and worse by the day. Any ideas, or suggestions about what to do?

[Tswifty]

Some FTS's... I moved some rocks around to open up the sand bed a bit more.