Beware the Shallows! jedimasterben's 80g shallow reef!

[jedimasterben]

The light is awwwwwweeeeesoooooommmmmmeeee!


My normal LFS reopened finally in their new location! I grabbed a male spotted mandarin (to go with my female) and a nice pink monti cap with blue polyps. The mandarin jumped earlier today though. The QT is 95% covered except for the 1/2" between the glass top and the back because of the HOB filters.


Tested parameters a few minutes ago.

Cal - 450ppm [Red Sea]
Alk - 168ppm (9.408dKh) [Hanna]
Nitrate - 8ppm [Red Sea]
Phosphate - 0.52ppm [Hanna]

Pretty sure the phosphate reading is bunk, I had my wife help me out with it. If it was that high, I probably wouldn't have any SPS left. I changed the Phosguard and carbon (1/2 cup PG and 1 cup carbon) and will keep an eye on things. Everything has good polyp extension and no algae growing anywhere to speak of (except on the algae scrubber that finally got set up).

And the tank with the new lights. It's so cluttered-looking, gotta figure out a way around that.

I have four deep red and two royal blue LEDs on the way from LEDgroupBuy to get put on the algae scrubber, the XM-L are powerful, but they use way more power than I need to light the scrubber.

 

[altolamprologus]

I'm loving that algae scrubber! My next tank is definitely going to have one. Be sure to post pics as it fills in with algae

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good bro!

 

[jedimasterben]

I'm loving that algae scrubber! My next tank is definitely going to have one. Be sure to post pics as it fills in with algae

It's already coated in brown algae, just waiting for the turf to take over, but I don't think it will really do that til I get the new LEDs in.

Looking good bro!

Thank you!


I've got a few surprises coming. May or may not include some rasta zoas, pink and green monti caps, birdsnests, acans, sunset monti, and a 'frag' of red planet.

 

[diesel3443]

Are you just running the ATS and no skimmer?

 

[jedimasterben]

Are you just running the ATS and no skimmer?

Yes. Skimmer went offline a while ago, but the system is fishless and rarely fed, so I wasn't in a hurry to set up the ATS, but it's been up for about a week now.

 

[diesel3443]

Very cool. I will be running an ATS with no skimmer as well.

 

[jedimasterben]

*high five*

 

[blesk]

Nice build vhot is your led combo you use.

 

[jedimasterben]

Nice build vhot is your led combo you use.

Thanks!

12x neutral white (5000k) Rebel ES
32x royal blue (445nm) Rebel ES
6x deep red (660nm) Rebel
6x cool blue (475nm) Rebel
6x cyan (495nm) Rebel
7x 417nm violet
6x 430nm violet

All running on Meanwell ELN-60-48P and controlled by a Typhon from BoostLED.

 

[jedimasterben]

I've got a baaaaaaaaaaad itch for some birdsnests. Hopefully I'll be getting some ponape birds from a sorta-local guy on Saturday, and I'm probably gonna order some Tubbs, Bird of Paradise, magenta, and pink birds from Reef Gardener.

I just wish I could get large pieces, not 1-1.5" frags. :/

 

[altolamprologus]

Don't you hate that? I wish more places offered larger pieces instead of tiny little frags.

 

[Reefing8EZ]

Don't you hate that? I wish more places offered larger pieces instead of tiny little frags.

^^ Agreed!!

 

[jedimasterben]

Ordered all those pieces! I've got three dosing pumps coming from BRS (since they were on sale and I'll need them at some point in the future anyway), in the short term, one will be used for topoff water (and I will start dosing topoff with kalk, not saturated at this point, 1/2tsp per 5g, not sure if I'll use vinegar or not) and one for a continuous feeder using a homemade food mix and kept chilled by a wine bottle chiller from eBay. I need to get a controller at some point to make the ATO and dosing easier, for now I'll just be using a wall timer.

Once I add those corals (and the corals from another couple of people, including the red planet), I think I'm done for now. I don't have anything else I really want to add other than start restocking fish.


One day soon (within a year or so), I'll get a bigger tank. Hopefully we'll have moved to a new house by then, but maybe. I've been watching a few of Mark Callahan's videos of his 235g tank, 60x30x30. I think I would only want one 24" tall, though, but I would like one around that size.

 

[jedimasterben]

Got some deep red and royal blue LEDs for the fuge light, they should be here in a week or so, and made my scrubber array.

4x deep red, 4x violet, 4x royal blue, 2x 5000k white driven by a single Meanwell LPC-35-700. I added the violet and white because I had them laying around. Fuge light will go from 6x XM-L to 16x deep red, 6x royal blue, and some 6500k whites I have laying around, ran off of 2x Meanwell LPC-35-700.




Look what I keep finding popping up everywhere!

Those are the local kind, they don't have a hard tube (as far as I can tell at this point, that is), but they just stick to something.


And my pom-pom crab dropped its anemones after a molt I presume, and found a hidden cup coral it looks like.

 

[ritter6788]

Too cool. I love those little crabs.

 

[skinz78]

Nice crab, do the fish bother it at all?

 

[jedimasterben]

They are nocturnal, and too reclusive for me to say one way or another. I don't keep fish that pick at inverts, though.

 

[jedimasterben]

And my entire tank's glass (and sump) are covered in copepods. All the white specs on the picture of the feather duster are pods. :bounce:

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

The pic of the crab is awesome!