Hey,
Been lurking for a short time and figured I'd start a thread to document my progress. I had a 40 gal hex tank that was severely undercared for. I had my green slimer, pink lemonade, and red planet in there for a couple months. I decided to downgrade and pay more attention to my tank, so got the nuvo 16 and upgraded some equipment. The tank was started in early August.
Equipment:
Nuvo 16
JBJ Unibody
MP10
Tunze Osmolator
inTank Media Baskets
Spectrapure RODI 90
Live:
2x Ocellaris
Bunch of snails, 3 hermit crabs
Various SPS frags
$0.01 Macroalgae from Reefcleaners
1 mangrove in the back
Frogspawn
I try to keep my alk right in between 8-9. Calcium at 420-440. I'm using kalk in my ATO, and dosing every couple days to keep alk up. I do weekly 2-3 gal water changes since I don't have a skimmer. It may be too much, and I might do 1-2 gal/ 2 weeks.
When I had my 40, I didn't have the MP10, lights, or osmolator. I really did not care for the tank as much as I could have and my sps suffered. After I downgraded to the Nuvo, green slimer has really bounced back in color, but the pink lemonade and red planet are not looking so good. They are both encrusting pretty well, but color and PE is very lacking. The pink lemonade is getting a nice purple rim where it is encrusting. I'm hoping to nurse them back. How long till they forgive me?? lol
Also, I got a "Tierra del fuego" at the last swap, but the colors are definitely not showing any green, and the pink is muted/dark. The underlying color is just white. The top tip is super pink, and I'm hoping that'll spread. I can see it encrusting from day to day, and hope it'll be a fast grower.
I also killed all the chaeto that I got from reefcleaners. It just slowly started turning white and very brittle. I had it in one of the back chambers with a 1w underwater led. I ended up just taking all the dead parts out. I think the red gracilaria (i think) was just outcompeting it.
I have my blue leds running from 1pm - 10pm, with the whites on from 2pm - 9pm. The JBJ is at 100% for both white and blue leds. The MP10 is running at 100% on reefcrest mode.
Also, I have no coralline at all! I guess it'll come with time. I have coralline on some of my hermit crabs so hopefully that will seed the rest of the tank.
Any tips on how to increase color? Should I increase the timing on my lights? Not sure if the lights are strong enough. I think the par at 15 inches is around 130 (according to http://reefbuilders.com/2011/11/30/led-reflector-jbj-unibody/), and my tank is about 12 inches high. The light is 3-4 inches from the water. Anybody think I need to increase the lighting? I have the 8 watt leds that came with the tank that I can put on.
Also thinking about buying the innovative marine skimmer that just came out, but is on backorder everywhere. They may have been having quality issues with the desktop version, and pulled them off the shelves to fix it.
Sorry for low quality pics, they were taken with an iPad.
I doubt you guys even read this far, so I will stop here for now! Let me know what you would change/improve if this were your tank!
FTS: 11/12/12
View attachment 8501
View attachment 8502
Very Uncolorful Tierra del Fuego
View attachment 8503
Browned out Red Planet
View attachment 8504
Faded Pink Lemonade
View attachment 8505
Been lurking for a short time and figured I'd start a thread to document my progress. I had a 40 gal hex tank that was severely undercared for. I had my green slimer, pink lemonade, and red planet in there for a couple months. I decided to downgrade and pay more attention to my tank, so got the nuvo 16 and upgraded some equipment. The tank was started in early August.
Equipment:
Nuvo 16
JBJ Unibody
MP10
Tunze Osmolator
inTank Media Baskets
Spectrapure RODI 90
Live:
2x Ocellaris
Bunch of snails, 3 hermit crabs
Various SPS frags
$0.01 Macroalgae from Reefcleaners
1 mangrove in the back
Frogspawn
I try to keep my alk right in between 8-9. Calcium at 420-440. I'm using kalk in my ATO, and dosing every couple days to keep alk up. I do weekly 2-3 gal water changes since I don't have a skimmer. It may be too much, and I might do 1-2 gal/ 2 weeks.
When I had my 40, I didn't have the MP10, lights, or osmolator. I really did not care for the tank as much as I could have and my sps suffered. After I downgraded to the Nuvo, green slimer has really bounced back in color, but the pink lemonade and red planet are not looking so good. They are both encrusting pretty well, but color and PE is very lacking. The pink lemonade is getting a nice purple rim where it is encrusting. I'm hoping to nurse them back. How long till they forgive me?? lol
Also, I got a "Tierra del fuego" at the last swap, but the colors are definitely not showing any green, and the pink is muted/dark. The underlying color is just white. The top tip is super pink, and I'm hoping that'll spread. I can see it encrusting from day to day, and hope it'll be a fast grower.
I also killed all the chaeto that I got from reefcleaners. It just slowly started turning white and very brittle. I had it in one of the back chambers with a 1w underwater led. I ended up just taking all the dead parts out. I think the red gracilaria (i think) was just outcompeting it.
I have my blue leds running from 1pm - 10pm, with the whites on from 2pm - 9pm. The JBJ is at 100% for both white and blue leds. The MP10 is running at 100% on reefcrest mode.
Also, I have no coralline at all! I guess it'll come with time. I have coralline on some of my hermit crabs so hopefully that will seed the rest of the tank.
Any tips on how to increase color? Should I increase the timing on my lights? Not sure if the lights are strong enough. I think the par at 15 inches is around 130 (according to http://reefbuilders.com/2011/11/30/led-reflector-jbj-unibody/), and my tank is about 12 inches high. The light is 3-4 inches from the water. Anybody think I need to increase the lighting? I have the 8 watt leds that came with the tank that I can put on.
Also thinking about buying the innovative marine skimmer that just came out, but is on backorder everywhere. They may have been having quality issues with the desktop version, and pulled them off the shelves to fix it.
Sorry for low quality pics, they were taken with an iPad.
I doubt you guys even read this far, so I will stop here for now! Let me know what you would change/improve if this were your tank!
FTS: 11/12/12
View attachment 8501
View attachment 8502
Very Uncolorful Tierra del Fuego
View attachment 8503
Browned out Red Planet
View attachment 8504
Faded Pink Lemonade
View attachment 8505
