ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[ReefWreak]

Also remembered I need to trim back the Chili Pepper Monti. Cap.. Plating montipora that is bright green with red polyps. Kinda cool, grows quickly, killed my poor ORA Chips acro, one of my old-school favorites from shading.

I just need to get around to getting my hands in the tank and getting everything settled on their plugs.

[soulpatch]

if you frag it, I will take it. LOL. Seriously though between me, Tim, and Jason amongst others in my town I can find a good home for it.

[ReefWreak]

Ughhh between the new Philips CoralCare LEDs coming out and the new Apex units, I'm getting upgradeitis. Fortunately I have a firm boot down on any hope of upgrading until I move....

Tank is doing well still, growing nicely, doing my M-W-F vodka dosing, and adding the prodibio every other week (3 supplements one week, 2 supplements the next week, and I don't feed the coral food oily stuff). After feeding the Prodibio Coralvits, my skimmer went crazy for about 4 days, so I'm starting to get green algae on the glass, since I can't skim out the bacteria.... So I may hold off on Coralvits for a while and just do their bacteria/carbon then stronti/Iodi supplements.

Can't interrupt skimming on a nano tank, or else nutrients and algae explode quickly.

[soulpatch]

Buy me the new apex and you can have mine... That way I get the orange/grey and you can have an apex. LOL

[zoobie88]

Great looking tank

Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk

[brob22]

hi reefwreck been away from reef central awhile

do u still use the aquatic life skimmer?

also good looking tank

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by zoobie88

Great looking tank

Thanks!

Originally Posted by brob22

hi reefwreck been away from reef central awhile

do u still use the aquatic life skimmer?

also good looking tank

Welcome back! I am still using the AquaticLife 115. I stopped for a while and tried using macro algae growth in my display instead of skimming, and it worked for a little while, but not longer term. I also noticed that coral growth declined anywhere near the algae (my Tyree Red Dragon Acropora didn't grow at all since the algae was next to it and grew a lot).

Algae turf scrubbers, when properly implemented and maintained, are great, but I'm not going to do it right, so the skimmer was an easier solution for me. I'm also dosing 0.5mL of vodka M-W-F to help increase skimming efficiency (sorta kinda, it's more complicated than that). I do only skim for 12 hours a day, from 4AM to 4PM, when pH would be low, also giving corals time to eat after lights out, before the skimmer picks up all of the solids and nutrients in the water.

And thank you for the comment

[ReefWreak]

Thought I'd share a fun image (and even more fun concept).

How many watts does a 250w metal halide pull from the wall again? (for comparison)

My entire setup (except heater) running yesterday at peak (at their full brightness, 70% and 55%). With lights out, later in the day, the tank was at 98w. My lights are only using like 35w from the wall!

[joedodge]

Those are some impressive results wow

[ReefWreak]

I haven't cleaned the glass in a while, so the best view is from above

[joedodge]

Man that's beautiful!

[LQT]

That growth is ridiculously impressive!

[ReefWreak]

Thanks!

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. That I shouldn't post pics. Because the day I post pics, is the day my white LED string goes out. So the tank should be fine since RBs are still PAR monsters, but I do need to start troubleshooting. So far I know that the driver is fine, because when I hooked the white/color string driver to the blue string of LEDs, the LEDs fired fine. So now I just have to figure out which LED is causing an issue.

I guess that's another benefit of the solderless retrofit. I just hold a spare star up, unplug the mounted one and plug into the temporary testing star, see if it fires, if not move to the next LED in that string. There are ways of testing with 2xAA batteries, but since I'm not familiar with it, I think just testing them one by one, like christmas tree light bulbs will be easy enough. I'll also start with the UV LEDs, since those are generally the first ones to burn out anyway.

Disappointing that I'm losing lights after a year and 2 months, but supposedly RapidLED still have the best track record for LEDs of any of the DIY houses, so I should be glad they lasted that long? And I hope it's only one, because it would be awesome to only have to pay $5 or whatever it is for a new star to bring the whole lighting setup back to life.

[soulpatch]

you are better to test LEDs with a 9v battery. Pretty simple to do. just match wires to pos/neg on battery...

[ReefWreak]

Would I just use the 9v +/- to the +/- of the star, and then add the little "close loop" plug on the other side?

[ReefWreak]

Also, I keep reading around the web to use the 2xAAs to keep the voltage at or below 3v, since it more closely matches the LED forward voltage of 2.2-2.5v. But either way, I'll give that a shot tonight. Fortunately I have some spare stars that I can swap out for a while.

Then the question is, if I'm ordering new UV LEDs anyway, do I just go ahead and make my monster UV LED array, which would be removing the 4 single UV LEDs I have, and adding in 4x of the 4xUV LEDs on a single star that RapidLED sells, and adding another driver into the mix that lives on the same dimming as the RB channel (or at 100%, or manual, not sure, but UV makes a nice pre-sunrise/post-sunset color experience since it's so dim).

First to test, then to figure out replacements.

[soulpatch]

yes to the plug. You need that to complete the circuit.

Yes to ordering in bigger lights. Bigger is always better unless you ask my wife then she will tell you what you have is just fine with her lol

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

yes to the plug. You need that to complete the circuit.

Yes to ordering in bigger lights. Bigger is always better unless you ask my wife then she will tell you what you have is just fine with her lol

Thanks for answering my 3 questions.

[ReefWreak]

So just a quick update, I LOVE SOLDERLESS DIY LEDS!

So the white/color mix string went out Tuesday, been running RBs only since then. Last night decided to take the time to troubleshoot and fix it. Lights off, fans off, unscrew around splash guard, and ready to test.

I figured I'd have to mess around and voltages and plugs and whatever else, but being as lazy ad I am, I instead just grabbed a Cool White solderless led, and started swapping it out, and re-plugging in the lights between swaps to see if replacing one led would fix it.

I figured I'd start with the UV, since they're infamous for burning out first. Well, luck would have it, the first uv led I unplugged and swapped with the CW was the burnt out one,and the string fired right up.

Once I knew which led it was, I just unscrewed the old one, cleaned up and re-pasted the spot on the heatsink, remounted the led then splash guard, and I'm back in business.

So now I'll just order a handful of uv LEDs in case more go out. Good learning experience though and man I feel extra justified that I made the right choice on lighting fixtures.

That's what worries me, od rather have a few spare $3 LEDs floating around than have to worry about my corals with a replacement fixture if there is ever a problem. I guess fortunately there are less issues with the fixtures from manufacturers, but it's impossible to repair them quickly.

Now I just have to consider whether I should keep a spare driver around too, just in case. Though those aren't ready to go wired up out of the box (I'd pay rapidled or another company to have them ready to go for replacement)

Also, remember folks, quick disconnects make life a lot simpler as well with diy or complex projects.

[joedodge]

Always nice to have spare parts laying around no matter what the project is. I've built a lot of emergency lighting led systems for emergency vehicles. Never messed with tank lights tho. Are they fairly dependable quality wise?

[ReefWreak]

Most tank lights don't get messed with much other than some programming. Retrofits are nice though, as you can always customize and play around and tinker.

The quality of rapidled's LEDs are considered some of the best, and are usually at the top of the list of individual led suppliers. You can buy individual led stars off of eBay or other sites, but price is usually consistent with lifetime and especially the eBay ones are known for burning out quickly. Most of the led experts on reefcentral would recommend rapidled for diy projects. There are some other good sources too though of course.

The drivers are dependable because they're Meanwell which is a highly regarded driver manufacturer in the led world, and can be bought anywhere, I just buy them together with the rest of the led stuff from rapid. The only thing rapid actually makes is the cut-to-size heatsink drilled for all in one tank system hoods, and I guess they also design the led stars and their new controller, and they also specify good bins on the LEDs that they have the manufacturer put on their stars (I dunno, maybe they make them in house? I doubt it be you never know.)

LEDs are a fun diy and electronics project for me. I just wish I could guarantee high uptime, but any light goes bad over time.

Ultimately, if rapid doesn't expand their heatsink base, I'd like to make a larger heatsink, drill it, and add it to my cube so that I can have many more LEDs and run them at lower power. That way they maximize efficiency and spread the light even more than they are now, hopefully preventing bleaching from the bottom of some of my acropora.

[ReefWreak]

Woke up to an 84.5 degree tank this AM. Everything seems okay though. I put some icepacks in to bring the tank back to 81. I noticed that the return pump wasn't running (or so I thought), so I turned it on and off, and eventually found out that the stock coralife pump seized, causing the tank to heat up.

Swapped out the stock pump with my waterchange maxijet 900, and all was good again. Dodged a bullet there, glad everything is still going strong.

Ran out of 2 part, so going to have a bit of a decline in the tank until I get levels back again. I have two containers of ESV 2 part, so I'll add those in shortly, they actually take a few days to dissolve because they're so concentrated, but I'll get them up sooner or later and get the tank back on track. I'm excited to have 2x the concentration, so I'll only have to swap the chemicals out every 6 months instead of quarterly. It's a bit more expensive, but lasts twice as long.

[Rakie]

So ReefWreak, I seem to recall you wanting an upgrade a little bit back. If you did upgrade, are you thinking smallish like going to a 50/60g Cube, or shooting for a 3' footprint?

[ReefWreak]

I always want an upgrade! I haven't upgraded. I wouldn't go smallish unless it is my only choice (looking like it'll be my only choice, if I have a choice at all, in the next 2-3 years).

My preference would be to go to a 210g tank with the new Philips CoralCare LED lights, with some T5 supplements and a GIANT calcium reactor. If I can't do that, and had to stick with a 3' footprint, sure, I guess cubes are kinda cool. 60g cube is nice.

Soulpatch was going that way, but ended up settling on a 150g 5', and I think Homer has an 80g 3-4' long tank.

[soulpatch]

By the time Reef is ready for his upgrade I should be ready for mine as well. I'm hoping we can get a special when we order 2 matching 2-300 gallon tanks. I'm thinking 72"x24"x24" or so. Custom coast to coast external overflow for bean animal. Rimless with thin glass strip to lay mesh screens on for jumpers. Drilled returns. Starfire glass of course.

We will differ in lighting and race to see who has better color and growth. RW will run the new LEDs and T5 whereas I think I will run mainly T5 with LED suppliments.

I will only go larger though when I move and can have a function fish room. I want larger sump and ability to have equipment in the open for easier monitoring and cleaning. Also a QT rack on a wall with slide outs that hold the 20 gallon fish tanks. Frag tank as well. And I want a lab coat in said room so I can feel all Dr. Evil and crap.