kgk's rimless tank (1 Viewer)

[kgk]

Update! No pictures but I promise more soon.

The tank is in Week 6 of cycling. Water parameters look good & I have a good diatom bloom going on. Did a 20% water change & I ordered a CUC from reefcleaners.org that will get here tomorrow sometime.

I took the rockscape apart & haven't tried rebuilding it yet. The pieces are just laid around the tank. I'll get around to it "soon". I've been out of town for most of the last 3 weeks and just haven't had time to mess with it.

I got a sweet ATO res from AquaticExperience. It fits inside the stand; it's 7" wide, 15" tall, 24" long. It's got a flip-top so it's easy to refill. I am really glad I had this built and the customer service was great; great price too. Sure beats the "5-gallon bucket by the tank" method. I am using an Aqualifter & a dual-float switch from AutoTopOff.com as a means to get water from the res to the sump.

And the most fun development - I added the first fish tonight. My daughter & I went to FJW to get a clownfish, and I walked out with a pair of Picasso clowns ... the ones he had in the little tank in the front. They're just settling into their new home now. I am keeping a close eye on them but so far everyone looks fat & happy. Thanks Dennis!

 

[kgk]

2 pictures tonight; click on the picture for the big version. First is the full tank. I still haven't redone the rock scape. The CUC is making short work of the diatom bloom as well.



My 2 Picasso Clownfish.

 

[kgk]

Update! I have been playing with the rock scape some, and I got a new fish. Click on the pictures for a bigger version.

 

[Guest]

clean set up man.

I like your light selection.

Any problems with the lights so far?

 

[soymilk]

I think he had a problem with one unit. Blues didn't work. He opened it and tighten everything and it worked.

Then I think he had all he blues go out again. Seems like a led blew out. The newer g2.1 fixtures have a bypass circuit so the rest of the LEDs will still light up. My fixture has the bypass circuit. You can see it in te picture in my Elos thread.

I'm only answering because I haven't seen kgk around for a while.

 

[kgk]

clean it up man.

I am not sure if you're speaking slang, or what? If you have suggestions for something I could change/do better, I'd love to hear it.

I like your light selection.

Any problems with the lights so far?

Yes. Several, in fact. First problem, about a month in, the timer stopped working on one of the drivers. They sent me a new timer circuit board from Hong Kong. No timer for 3 weeks.

Shortly after that, same driver, the white LED on/off button stopped working. No remedy from Maxspect except to "check the solder connections". I'm a EE ... I did that already ... this was more of an annoyance than anything.

Then the blues stopped working on one unit. Turns out, they are all in series, and if one LED burns out, they all stop working. I identified the burnt-out LED, and I am still waiting for a replacement 4 weeks later.

I have taken down the LED lights for now & replaced it with an 8 bulb Tek fixture, that I bought used from TnT ... since I had no funcitoning lights & was in a bind. I miss the LEDs in a lot of ways, but I so far, the tank seems to be liking the T5's. In particular, the purple cap I have in there took off when I changed the the lights.

I still have the hanging points for the LEDs and I will likely change back when/if they are ever functional again.

The good news here is that they finally have a US distributor & I shouldn't have to wait a month for parts anymore. The bad news is, these are pretty poorly built electronics. The design is shoddy. If I designed a computer this way, I'd get fired... literally fired.

 

[kgk]

I think he had a problem with one unit. Blues didn't work. He opened it and tighten everything and it worked.

Then I think he had all he blues go out again. Seems like a led blew out. The newer g2.1 fixtures have a bypass circuit so the rest of the LEDs will still light up. My fixture has the bypass circuit. You can see it in te picture in my Elos thread.

I'm only answering because I haven't seen kgk around for a while.

Oh yeah, I forgot that when I got the units, one wouldn't work and I had to open it up and debug it to figure out why. Turns out the timer/logic PCB isn't connected to the main board very well ... coupla crappy push pins with nothing holding it down ... very shoddy design, like I said.

I like the lights, actually, when they work. I have had nothing but issues, unfortunately. I should have built my own, but the price on these was too good to pass up. C'est la vie.

 

[kgk]

Since I am here, I will type out some sort of a tank update. You can read about my light turmoil above. I still like the benefits of LEDs (cool, low power, etc), but these Maxspect fixtures have been nothing but trouble for me.

Overall the tank is doing well. I got a bunch of SPS from fishcraze that is all doing great. The Bali slimer went through a tough time in the beginning, but it is coming back, and everything else is doing well. I just mounted all the frags to rocks this week. I had them on an egg crate/PVC stand for a couple of months. The Tyree purple cap I got from fishcraze had doubled in size, and bonded with the egg crate ... obviously I left it there too long.

Fish ... I had 5 fish. The Powder Blue Tang migrated from the 75 when I sold that tank. Then I had the 2 picasso clowns, the flame angel, and I added a 6-line wrasse from Rock-N-Reek. It was doing great & was my son's favorite, and then it went carpet surfing this week, late one night. I replaced it with a Purple Queen Anthias, and my PBT immediately went to town on it ... I eventually had to move the anthias to the sump - and it only has maybe half it's fins left. And to top it off, the experience caused the PBT to break out with Ich. Again. So if you want an Anthias, let me know ... he needs to come out of the sump soon. I should also think about letting the PBT go to a new (bigger) home soon as well, if anyone is interested in a downright mean, nasty ich magnet (that is a gorgeous fish, btw).

My RBTA split, now I have 2. My clowns finally found them & have started hosting both of them. Bad news is, my dual MP40's put out a bit much flow for them, so they both hide in a back corner of the tank ... so my clowns are missing for long parts of the day. That's OK though, they seem happy and are showing mating behavior ... I may try to breed them this winter, we'll see.

I got rid of the Aquatic Experience ATO res & changed to a 20 gallon tank. It just holds more water, and I moved it from under the stand to next to the tank. This gives me more room under the stand, and I can hide it in a wicker basket thing my wife had.

I am using a dual BRS reactor for carbon & EcoBak pellets. I just started this experiment this week as well, so nothing to report yet.

My SWC 160 skimmer has been great. I cleaned it for the first time tonight, and it was a breeze to take apart & put back together. This is a highly recommended piece of equipment from me.

I have been dosing Kalk, but I am tired of the mess. It's just plain messy! So I am moving to 2-part. I have a pair of BRS dosing pumps, but I have not hooked them up yet. That is a task for this weekend. For now, I am dosing manually.

I got rid of my autotopoff.com float switch & Aqualifter setup for the ATO and went with a Tunze Osmolater. I got really tired of the float switches sticking, and this got to be an issue when I was dosing Kalk with this setup. I never flooded anything, but I did hit the backup float two or three times due to the primary one sticking.

I am changing about 12 gallons of water a week, which comes out to a little under 1/2 the system volume per month. It seems to be working so far. One project for the future is to find a better way to do this than the buckets & powerhead method I am currently using.

I will take some new pictures & post them tomorrow when the lights are on. I am sure there is more I am forgetting, but this is all I am posting for now.

 

[soymilk]

"clean it up man"

I think he meant to say " clean set up man "

Haha or at least I think so.

 

[soymilk]

I also need to find a better way of doing water changes.

I just don't have room at my place for a brute trash can mixing station. I'd love to see what you figure out. Thanks for the update on tank.

I've been using my maxspect for about 3 months now without any hiccups. I'm considering moving over to Aquaillumination LEDs.

 

[Guest]

I am not sure if you're speaking slang, or what? If you have suggestions for something I could change/do better, I'd love to hear it.

My bad, sorry about that!

I totally flaked out and forgot how to spell.

I mean to say "clean set-up".

And thanks for the tip on the lights.

 

[kgk]

New pictures!

 

[soymilk]

Awesome. Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about the maxspect.

That's a lot of cuc, do you have any problems with hermit crabs eating sps polyps? I had to take out all my crabs because of that.

 

[kgk]

Awesome. Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about the maxspect.

That's a lot of cuc, do you have any problems with hermit crabs eating sps polyps? I had to take out all my crabs because of that.

I thought I put a post here, but I guess not...
Anyway, I don't have any issues with my hermits (as far as I can see). They appear to be model citizens. I have never seen the Hermit on Snail Genocide that you'd think goes on, according the the Conventional Wisdom on the Internet. But, I do have a lot of snails, so it may be happening. I don't know.

I have several kinds of snails in there. I like the Nassarius snails a bunch, they come out like zombies out of the ground at feeding time, but you never see them any other times. The Dwarf Ceriths are my favorite - I think they reproduce in my tank, I have way more now than I ever put in there - and they mostly stay in the tank. I have some Nerites in there as well - never again. The Nerites do not stay in the tank. I have found them in my living room, dining room ... even the garage (which blew my mind). No more Nerites for me.

 

[RR-MAN]

Sweet looking tank man...love it except the sand. I like BB tanks.

 

[RGH69]

Great looking tank. Clean setup as well. I like how you placed the rock so you have room for sand dwelling critters.

 

[kgk]

Sweet looking tank man...love it except the sand. I like BB tanks.

Thank you! I thought long & hard about sand vs BB. I almost went BB but then where would the Nassarius snails live?

 

[flexrac]

looks great, love the scaping!

 

[Llama]

Sexy... just sexy!

 

[kgk]

Great looking tank. Clean setup as well. I like how you placed the rock so you have room for sand dwelling critters.

Thanks. I like having some open space on the sandbed for sure. It's great for the brains, they seem to like it there, and it gives me options for different

looks great, love the scaping!

Sexy... just sexy!

Thanks guys! For the scaping, I will try take some pictures from the top as well. I tried to build it with a fair amount of caves for the fish to meander through, and I tried to give it some "character" ... meaning not just a flat wall ... the two large rocks by the corners of the overlow stick out, creating "peninsulas" that give some depth and movement to the form of the wall.