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bubblemytip
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Couple of pics...
BubbleMyTip's 90 gallon sps dominant tank build
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Natedogg559
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Looks great!
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bubblemytip
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Thanks, Natedogg!
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bubblemytip
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Quick update. Tank continues to get better. Noticing lots of growth on the sps and some coralline algae beginning to coat the rock and back glass. My trochus snails spawned heavily back in July. Today I saw several baby snails around the tank, which is pretty cool as trochus cost about $40ea here in New Zealand. [emoji15]
Alk has been rock solid at 7.7dKH. I’m delivering about 1.4dKH/day from the calcium reactor and all my ato is saturated kalkwasser (over a gallon a day).
The tank also gets some morning sunlight.
Anyway, here are some iPhone pics. [emoji846]
Alk has been rock solid at 7.7dKH. I’m delivering about 1.4dKH/day from the calcium reactor and all my ato is saturated kalkwasser (over a gallon a day).
The tank also gets some morning sunlight.
Anyway, here are some iPhone pics. [emoji846]
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bubblemytip
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So handy being able to remove just the skimmer neck... another plus for UltraReef!
Skimmer draining into a 5L container with an avast Marine pressure switch to turn the skimmer off when the container is full.
Obligatory sps pic
Skimmer draining into a 5L container with an avast Marine pressure switch to turn the skimmer off when the container is full.
Obligatory sps pic
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bubblemytip
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Just added a couple of squamosa clams into my quarantine. Been there 5 minutes but looking good! 76 days till they hit the display. [emoji846]
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bubblemytip
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Better pic:
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bubblemytip
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Some fresh photos. 
things are growing pretty well. Working on removing the Monti cap as it grows too fast.
things are growing pretty well. Working on removing the Monti cap as it grows too fast.
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bubblemytip
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Updated equipment list:
- Tank: Custom 48l x 24w x 20h rimless with 12mm glass, bottom bracing.
- Overflow: Eshopps Eclipse Large, running a bean-animal style.
- Sump: Synergy Reef T26 (storm cloud colour) - not running triton algae refugium, instead using the space for a cryptic zone to keep the display scape minimal.
- Flow: x3 Tunze Stream 3 and a 6055. The flow rectifier is awesome. All hooked up to a 7096 controller with current alternating right:left every 6 hours and 13mins.
- Return: Eheim 1260
- Skimmer: UltraReef UKS-160
- Lighting: x2 GNC AM366 LEDs, with a sexy PMMA mounting bracket, and x2 GNC Silvermoon Actinic 1047 supplementary LED bars, so a total of approximately 700 diodes. Each Silvermoon uses 90 458nm blue and 36 405nm violet LEDS. The AM366 uses 445nm blues and 14,000K whites. So it should look nice and crisp but not too blue.
- Dosing: AquaCare Turbo-Kalkreaktor size 1 with aquacare turbo calcium granulate and zeomag. No pH probe required. Runs for 8 hours/day.
- ATO: IKS Vario Blue 2 peristaltic pump with Avast Marine pressure switch.
- salt mix: Dupla Marin amino active (similar to tropic Marin bioactiv).
- Controller: Neptune Apex Classic, and x3 EB6.
- Heater: Schego with Schego temperature controller (Apex as backup/monitor)
- Cooling: Large pedestal fan.
NY_Caveman
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mmw64
Valuable Member
Beautiful tank. Great job!We are upgraded!! No breakages and corals all seem happy after an initial sliming. Fish can’t believe their luck. All happy, no aggression and eating well.
Skimmer is still breaking in and overfoaming, but it’s such a beast that even though it’s draining into the sump, the gunk is building up inside the cup anyway.
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bubblemytip
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Thanks! Happy with how things are growing. The clownfish started spawning again the other week, so everything is on track... ICP tests have revealed nothing weird is going on. Periodically I manually dose iodine, iron, potassium and manganese. Still dosing nitrate and phosphate (3ppm and 0.02ppm/day respectively). Can't wait until the stags at the back grow up... Need to find one or two nice millepora and then that'll be it until the tank fills in...
Helfish
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Wonderful project! Just read all the posts and subscribed How do you like your GNC leds? Do you get any shimmer with them, or is it more of a T5 look? Have been looking the new GNC Blyrays, however there is so little information on them in the forums. Have found few videos, but they do not show the lights that well.
How do you like your GNC leds? Do you get any shimmer with them, or is it more of a T5 look? Have been looking the new GNC Blyrays, however there is so little information on them in the forums. Have found few videos, but they do not show the lights that well.
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bubblemytip
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Wonderful project! Just read all the posts and subscribed
Thanks!
My lights definitely have some shimmer that I find very natural looking, but they are the older AM series which has the blue leds running at 3w each and I have the SilverMoon supplementary leds.
A friend has the bluray and it is very t5-ish in appearance. If you want shimmer, the supplementary SilverMoon leds add the punch that gives a hint of shimmer.
I found Italian forums with google chrome and auto-translate of the webpage was useful for finding a bit more information when I was looking at the AM series. If the forum requires a sign-in, sometimes results will not appear in google, though. Otherwise try googling ‘plafo and GNC’ and forum, or ‘Gnc and bluray and recensione‘. There is also ‘GNC Italia’ on Facebook and I have found them very responsive to any questions (they speak English).
Here is a ‘tank of the month’ from Italy that I found earlier this year: http://www.ballingmania.it/gennaio2018/
Here is a review of the bluray in Italian: https://www.oltrenaturaroma.it/2018/06/07/recensione-gnc-blueray/
So without derailing this as my build thread, I would not hesitate to recommend Gnc. It has been very easy to deal with them, shipping was super quick and the lights are extremely well built. Not much control (I currently run mine with a simple on/off but staggered timings like old school t5 and halide), but they are made for sps and IMO less controllability means more stability and more success
Helfish
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Great to hear that you have good experience with the light and thank you for the tips and links, will check them out asap The construction on the lights seems solid and GNC is offering 3 year warranty on the fixture, so they must have good confidence on them. Just slightly hesitant with the shimmer issue, as I would so much love a great shimmer, yet good coverage 
Keep up the good work and will be waiting for new updates
The construction on the lights seems solid and GNC is offering 3 year warranty on the fixture, so they must have good confidence on them. Just slightly hesitant with the shimmer issue, as I would so much love a great shimmer, yet good coverage Keep up the good work and will be waiting for new updates 
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bubblemytip
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New fish. Came through quarantine healthy. Now to keep it that way.
Already likes to “surf” in the tunze stream 3s at full blast. [emoji846]
Photos taken before main lights kick on but the tank gets about 45mins of morning sunshine indirectly reflected/refracted off the front glass back into the tank.
Already likes to “surf” in the tunze stream 3s at full blast. [emoji846]
Photos taken before main lights kick on but the tank gets about 45mins of morning sunshine indirectly reflected/refracted off the front glass back into the tank.
