Coming Out From Lurking In The Shadows.

[st1doppelganger]

Hello I've finally made an account on this forum after observing this forum for some time.

I'm in my thirties and have been an aquarist for since I was a pre teen.
Ive had a variety of tanks ranging from fresh, archer fish Biotope (in a hex), Planted Tanks, Softie, LPS, SPS tanks & even ponds.

I also have raised and bred several species of reptiles and amphibians in my past as well but the one passion that has stuck with me is the passion for marine aquariums.

I currently have a modified fluval edge 6 gallon that I did a Cree & Luxeon DIY light system on but have decided to give up the edge because it's a nightmare to do maintenance in and I'm tired of my monthly contortionist session I have scheduled with it.

My new tank is an Inovative Marine Nuvo Nano16.

I'm currently waiting for a MakersLed heat sink to be delivered so I can gut my edge light and use the LEDs on the new heat sink.

 

[ritter6788]

Welcome! Glad to have you here. Make sure to post lots of pics.

 

[st1doppelganger]

First edge light.

Second edge light with tri stars.

Early pic

Later pic.

Current pic is after I had the majority of the coral die from a heat spike while I was at a funeral out of state.
I will admit I neglected it quite a bit after my prized corals died and this is the recovery photo a few months after the tragedy.

 

[st1doppelganger]

At least my blue eyed monti looks good for now but it's fused a couple pieces of live rock together so it will be broken when I remove it from the tank since it won't fit thru the edge opening blahaha. Looks like I'll have at least two blue eyes monti caps in my new tank.

 

[larangcon]

Welcome, Sorry to hear about your terrible ordeal with the heat spike

 

[st1doppelganger]

By the way this pic is of a stock edge AC impeller (I think AC 20) compared to the AC70 that is a direct replacement for an impeller swap.

Just FYI for the fellow edge owners out there because it increases over all flow dramatically.

 

[st1doppelganger]

Welcome, Sorry to hear about your terrible ordeal with the heat spike

It happens it's what killed my LPS tank as well when I lived in SD and almost killed the hobby for me back then.

LEDs are awesome but I guess their no match against ambient air temp when your not running your AC in your home for a couple of weeks durring summer when temps were a 100 or more.

 

[st1doppelganger]

My Betta tank as well lol.

 

[st1doppelganger]

And I'll admit I'm a terrible person because I have kept a Randall's goby with a candy pistol shrimp and two ocellaris clowns in this tank for over a year with absolute no water quality issues.

I will admit I have gone more grey when I fought bryopsis algae for about 5 months and have had hair algae issues in the beginning but I relate these issues to phosphates leaching from the stupid aqua cultured rock I purchased.

Now I'm battling blue ochtodes so if any of you have had success taking out this desirable (not in my case) macro algae I would be grateful.

 

[st1doppelganger]

The randalls goby and his shrimp hard at work burying frags of coral of course.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Woo hoo and welcome! Looking good!

 

[st1doppelganger]

Woo hoo and welcome! Looking good!

Thanks I just got discouraged after the heat spike but the new nuvo tank I have and the makersLED heat sink I have in the mail has got me excited to start back up.

Im just on a tight budget since I have 2 kids under 3 and am trying to acquire the parts for my STI motor rebuild at the same time as this build LOL.

 

[st1doppelganger]

Just received my heat sink today and once I figure out how to reseal my leak in my nuvo 16 correctly I will be gutting me edge light and installing everything in this heat sink.

I also have to figure out a stand or I might make a book shelf type unit where I can mount the light directly above the tank from an above shelf.

 

[st1doppelganger]

I plan in mounting my pre existing inventronics drivers in them as shown in this pic that I got off the net. I'm figuring I can make a nice DIY kit that looks clean an still have room to upgrade in the future with the led makers driver and ofcourse more LEDs. If you guys ask why I went with a full 24" heat sink it's because I want to be able to use this heat sink on future tanks if I ever upgrade and I also didn't want any dark spots that I've seen some smaller sized lights cause on tanks.