JHunt's 30x30x18 SPS Shallow Cube

[Kodski]

Didn't take too long to find some cheap reflectors on Amazon that should work. I'll give them a shot and report back!

Love where this is going. Lol I'm tempted to buy a couple for over my frag tank. I'm not overly happy with my "black box" light.

 

[jhuntstl]

Made a quick canopy this morning. All these lights have been blinding me lately. The corners are aluminum 6x6 post sleeves cut offs that I saved from work. There is a groove that I've used to slip some cardboard in between for the time being. I am googling better options. I'm thinking some sort of 1/8" plastic sheeting of some sort. What do you think? I may suspend this and make it floating in the future.

 

[jhuntstl]

Keep in mind the way the 50w fixtures are mounted. At an angle surrounding the CoralCare. I would have liked to test them mounted more appropriately, but aint nobody got time for that. I think the spread of par and blending of the two spectrums would be better if mounted as if the CC wasn't there.

Coralcare @ 100% all channels. From a couple months ago.

CoralCare OFF, All four 50w epistars on. Two 440nm and Two 20k spectrum. Looks ideal for an LPS/softie tank.

CoralCare @ 100% all channels. All four 50w epistars on. Two 440nm and Two 20k spectrum.

All four 50w fixtures appear to add a good 50-100 par across the board. The par per watt is really not that great, but for the price I paid, I can't complain.

I believe I'll be keeping all four to supplement. I am no lighting guru and still getting the hang of acros, but these numbers look solid to me. We'll just have to wait and see how everything grows.

The tank looks pretty fantastic with the addition of the 440's especially. The shimmer is fantastic. The 20ks maintain the whiter look I prefer during the day, but the 440s give me that pop in the evening. Feels like I have the best of both worlds.

 

[jhuntstl]

Not the most exciting news, but I finally finished my gravity ATO. It consists of an Avast pressure sensor tube, switch box, solenoid, and float valve. I've plumbed it to a 44g brute. The same line feeds my kamoer doser/kalk stirrer. It is, however, independent and not controlled by the solenoid.

I ran a line from the RODI to the 44g brute. Eventually I'll add another float valve on top of the reservoir. I am evaporating A LOT more water since stepping up from a nano to this monstrosity that keeps getting bigger. I'm guessing 42ish gallons will last me maybe 20 days.

 

[jhuntstl]

sbb...

 

[Gedxin]

Beautiful looking pieces. Can't wait to see them take off in your tank

 

[jhuntstl]

Photo dump

Ulva!

Flourescent Macro that popped up out of nowhere =O

Everything happy from @SBB Corals. Polyps out day and night. Very pleased with my order. My frag tank is loaded with gha and dinos at the moment. I've been siphoning it out the last couple days and might try UV soon. No dinos in the display.

I got 6 more Pitho Crabs, 4 Emeralds, and 10 Mexican Turbos. Many to go in frag tank, but didn't want to subject them to dinos.

Aiptasia Eating Filefish. Was eating them the day after I got him.

 

[SaltyT]

Holy cr*p you have a ton of coralline already!

 

[jhuntstl]

Holy cr*p you have a ton of coralline already!

Kalkwasser, baby!

But ya the coralline growth has been nuts.

 

[jhuntstl]

My Blue Eye Tang is soooo shy. I gotta be real sneaky if I want to get a full shot.

 

[jhuntstl]

More crab shots. John @reefcleaners mentioned these Pithos came from the Gulf of Mexico. They are quite a bit larger than their Atlantic cousins!

 

[jhuntstl]

A perspective of my tank rarely shared.

Still haven't trimmed back the leveling shims. I made an incredibly half butt'd attempt at light wire management. Zero attempt at pump controller management. That diagonal brace across the ceiling used to hold the coralcare on the nano. I still haven't taken it down. I'm missing some quarter round against the baseboard.

Sometimes there's just too much crap to do in this hobby.

 

[ReefSlice]

Tank looks absolutely beautiful, glad you could turn it around in the beginning. I wish I could get 1/2 that coralline growth in tank! I started it up about the same time you made the transfer and I'm just starting to see the first specks on my rockwork. My hair algae growth on the other hand is fast and furious!

 

[jhuntstl]

Tank looks absolutely beautiful, glad you could turn it around in the beginning. I wish I could get 1/2 that coralline growth in tank! I started it up about the same time you made the transfer and I'm just starting to see the first specks on my rockwork. My hair algae growth on the other hand is fast and furious!

Thank you!

Been a little over 4 months since everything went south. The first couple months were especially difficult to get a read on the tank. I'd take a few steps forward and then two steps back. It's nice to feel relatively stable now.

I did just recently battle a ton of GHA and dinos in the frag tank, but looks like I may have cleared it up over the weekend. Lots of scraping and siphoning. @mdb_talon was also nice enough to lend me his UV.

 

[jhuntstl]

Pretty excited about my latest acquisition. Found an exceptionally low priced kH Guardian(non-dosing, monitor only) on the FB marketplace. Usually if it's too good to be true, it's a scam. This was not the case. $150 shipped. The seller has also been very helpful and responsive to any of my questions. Reefers are some of the most generous folks I've met!

PH Probe on first calibration appears to still be good. I have the reagent coming Saturday. Hopefully the reaction chamber is in good working order. The reagent itself can be dosed back into the aquarium, which is very convenient. No waste water to deal with.

This is probably the most worthy addition to my system at this point. I am thrilled that I'll be able to log alk trends and react accordingly.

 

[jhuntstl]

Took a lot of top downs today.

 

[jhuntstl]

 

[Gedxin]

There can be only one! Also the slide to the back was awesome.

 

[jhuntstl]

There can be only one! Also the slide to the back was awesome.

Usually the female(bigger pincers) dominates, but I'm gonna give that one to the male.

 

[jhuntstl]