I'm glad the coral snow helped. It really helped me :)

Yeah I they told me that too but I refuse to pay the insane price of the ZEOzyme. The idea for me was to use the basic ZEO system to get my nutrients down and a FEW additives if needed. But also to keep costs down. I don't want to start dosing hundreds of dollars of products and be counting drops all day. IMO then ZEO is very inconvenient. I am already finding the 5 drops a day of two additives and 5ml a day of the ZEOstart getting old.

I figured it would but not this fast. WOW. A whole sand bed of cyano almost gone in two days. Plus coral PE seemed better right after dosing coral snow.

I'm on my fourth day of dosing the coral snow with zeobak and its helping a lot as well :biggrin:

What are you doing with the ZEObak? Just dosing more?

I never bothered to increase the dosage or anything myself. Just dosed the coral snow.

Hey GSP nice win last night. sorry to but in but J&l has a 3l auger style zeo reactor on for $279 in the clearance section. Carry on

Yeah I am kind of tired today :D That took a lot out of me :lol:

Now back to the aquarium build...

...To make matters worse, the Hydra's very breath was lethal. Even smelling its footprints was enough to kill an ordinary mortal. Fortunately, Heracles was no ordinary mortal. He sought out the monster in its lair and brought it out into the open with flaming arrows. But now the fight went in the Hydra's favor.It twined its many heads around the hero and tried to trip him up. It called on an ally, a huge crab that also lived in the swamp. The crab bit Heracles in the heel and further impeded his attack. Heracles was on the verge of failure when he remembered his nephew, Iolaus, the son of his twin brother Iphicles......


































Just wanted to add some more myths to the thread

5ml or 0.5ml?

Glad to hear the PCS worked.

I've been dosing 4 drops daily in about 3-4ml of coral snow.

Prior to this I dosed the zeobak separately, 4 drops 3x weekly and the coral snow about 2-3x a week at about 2-3ml.

I've dosed coral snow even before I started the zeovit regime as that and the coral vitalizer were what got me to switch from ultralith.

Hahaha...yeah not 5ML!!!

.5 ml twice a day :)

Oh OK, I see. I was told here to increase the Bak while using the Coral snow to deal with the cyano but on the ZEO forum, one of the experts there advised me that was really not necessary. I guess he said it wouldn't hurt anything but he wouldn't do it. I was told to just keep doing what I am doing but dose the coral snow.

For me this is working, so I am going to keep up this way until all the cyano is gone and then use coral snow twice a week.

So I finished the framing and priming of the stand today. One thing I am still not sure of is whether to use foam or just plywood under the tank.

I have 1/2" to work with. The "skin" plywood for the sides and doors has to cover whatever I use underneath the tank and I figured 1/2" space should be fine. I can add another 1/2" if needed but I prefer not to.

If I do use foam, what is the best to use? In the past I have used that thick pink foam but I really don't think that stuff is necessary. I would prefer something much thinner.

I am leaning towards just using a sheet of plywood under the tank I think though. We'll see.

Glad to hear the Zeobak and Coral Snow worked out. It never worked out for me, but things that work for everyone else, usually don't for me, so I'll just add that to the list of other items that cause me to believe I live in a different universe subject to differnt physical laws than everyone else.. :nejutral:

Well I missed dosing yesterday and it has come back pretty bad. Its amazing how quickly it is coming and going.

Come to think of it, I missed dosing before going in to work today too...not just the coral snow but everything.

I am kind of starting to feel like ZEO is a bit too much "work" for me. Maybe saying too much work is not what I am feeling but I guess kind of too much messing with the tank. I got sick of 5 drops of this and 5 drops of that after about a week.

Meh...I doubt I will continue ZEO on the new tank. Too much work IMO and I can get the same/similar results other ways. I do think its a great system but just not for me. I don't like daily maintenance on the tank ;)

:lol: Did anyone try catching that crab with a trap? Someone should market it.

LOL...I bet that crab is just a myth :) We will have to wait and see if its one of the myths that are to be dispelled.

On another note, I got my Lumenbright reflectors today and they are pretty sweet! Much larger than I though, which is a good thing. They are also very deep (also good) so I see why you can keep them relatively high off the water and still get great PAR. Apparently they do not spill much light into the room.

Its nice to finally have some quality reflectors!

I will take some pics of them after I unwrap them tonight. I will be building a small hanging "rack" for them out of aluminum. I had planned to just hang them individually but I think for leveling purposes, having them on the same rack would be good. Just going to be a very simple rectangle to bolt them to. Not welded or anything...just screwed. Most likely it will be all painted black.

Have you tried that new zeozyme? I've been thinking about giving it a shot to help with my Green film algae.

No I haven't. I did look at it but thought it was kind of expensive.

I really want to make sure I draw the line somewhere and don't just buy a new additive every time I have an algae outbreak or cyano. Having said that, I may have bought it if the coral snow had not helped with my cyano.

The cyano did come back though after a few days of no coral snow dosing.

I actually missed dosing the full ZEO line for almost 3 days :(

Heres one of the reflectors. Pictures don't pick up how reflective they are but you get the idea.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ith/AAA043.jpg

Ooo, shiney, so I guess you scrapped the idea of DIY reflectors eh?

Ya...I guess. I really wanted to do that but in the end I guess this was just easier.

I bought two XM 20K bulbs today and even with my old reflectors and crappy light set up, they are great. Really like the color and you certainly don't need any actinics. They seem WAY brighter than I thought 20K would be.

I would have loved to have been able to get PAR readings before and after changing the bulbs. Would have been interesting to see the difference between year old 14K and brand new 20K. The new ones of course look 10 times brighter even though they are so much bluer.


Hahaha...I also just realized I forgot to dose ZEO again today. I am on quite the roll here. I did it all yesterday but have missed 3 of the past 4 days :neutral: I really hate messing with the tank on a daily basis. I prefer just to watch it. Thats the funny thing...I must have spent like 2-3 hours today just sitting and watching the fish but it never occurred to me to dose the ZEO.

Going to be hard to explain but looking for light hanging help.

I need to hang my two reflectors. I was thinking to build a rectangle out of aluminum to bolt them both to and then hang it. So very basic. What I am wondering about though, is how to hang the whole unit. I was hoping to hang it how pool table light racks are often hung...(heres where I can't really explain things) so that there are four cables bolted in each corner that then meet a few feet up and in the middle...make sense? So that only one cable is bolted to the ceiling.

But this seems like it would move around maybe? Will it stay steady? A heavy fixture would have an easier time staying steady but this would be so light. Am I better doing this a different way?

Or any other ideas for hanging the lights? Even thought of doing something like rods from the back of the stand that extend out over the tank and the reflectors hang off of them but I think this would be ugly.

Looking for ideas because my ceilings are 14' high and concrete. I don't really want to be drilling them too much. I also think its going to look silly having the lights hang down so far...

Check out Untamed's build thread he has very detailed light hanging ideas

J

I am going to his place today actually so I will see if his lights inspire me at all :D

The coral snow is no longer working for the cyano. It came back 10 times worse after about 4 days of being gone completely. Nothing had changed in that time except I was feeding much less to the fish.

I still dont want to use any chemicals, so I am going to do the lights out for a few days. I have added a few new corals though two days ago and was worried that maybe going lights out on them already may just add more stress than normal since they are new to the tank? They did come from a members tank and have acclimated great.

I hate to say it, but it's starting to sound like Zeo can be more trouble than it's worth. i've read some zeo threads where people have no cyano outbreak, and others were peoples tanks are over run with it. I wonder what makes the difference between the two....odd

I think it has to do with your nutrient levels at the beginning of zeo, during zeo and how lucky you are. Luck because you are feeding bacteria with the carbon source but not just a specific strain of bacteria. In this case, cyano is being fed and is apparently dominant. This is obviously the reason to dose more ZEObak (bacteria) but I think you still have to get lucky.

And yes, I feel now that ZEO is more of a pain than its worth and still don't know about starting again with the new tank...leaning towards no.

well I'm starting to vodka dose the 90 today (as soon as I get a syringe...) so I'll keep you posted. I recently discovered that an old friend of mine from way back in the day vodka doses their tank and think it's the greatest thing ever. I was a little worried about trying it because of the DSB, but have read how some people deal with it. IF they have problems. I guess what it breaks down to for me is: Zeovit - hundreds of dollars. Vodka - 40 bucks.

So after all the searching for ideas on how to hang the lights...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ankresize2.jpg



Doesn't get much simpler ant it looks EXACTLY how I want mine. These are the exact same reflectors hung by one cable each. I PM'd the guy and he said they never move around unless you move them physically.

Any idea what that unit is he's got on his return hose?

hard to tell, but it looks like a sea swirl?

That would be my guess but no idea.

Can't wait to see it Justin!

"Do I have something stuck in my teeth?"

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...0000000001.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...0000000004.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...0000000005.jpg

Nice colours.

Yeah this was under the 14K MH and T5's I was running that were kind of whitish with almost a yellow tinge. Now under the 20K XM's, he is kind of dull. Well the blue is brighter but the orange is not as vibrant.

Same with some coral. My hot pink birdsnest doesn't look nearly as nice under the 20k's but man the greens, blues and purples really pop.

Now theres a loaded question! :wink:

sorry couldnt' resist :razz:

I vote seaswirl as well. Looks like he's just put some green tape on it or something.

So my brother and I both kind of decided the lights looked terrible hanging. Not sure why but in my place it just didn't work. Weird because its a very raw, industrial loft, yet the aircraft cable just wasn't looking to great. Sorry no pics cause the camera was dead.

So.....We decided to use 1" electrical conduit pipe attached to the back of the stand to create two light hanging arms. Still need to paint them and actually hang the reflectors from them but I think they will look really slick. I am able to run the lights wiring through the conduit and down behind the tank stand which is great. So no wiring will show :D

The reflectors are still very easily adjustable for height as well. Just feel this is an all around great solution and only cost about $50 in materials.

I have also found the hardware I will use to hang the doors. Actually its the exact same tract system that "lastlight" used for his doors. After seeing his stand and speaking to him, I decided I also would prefer the doors to slide rather than be on hinges.

I will take some pics of everything soon.

this is on your current setup right? Not the new, bigger tank?

I really like what some people on RC are doing...when they get a metal stand built, the build a light unit to attatch to it as well. Then they skin it with whatever material they like..