5.5G AGA AC200 Fuge Pico Journal

[Naked Wookie]

well params are near perfect already which is wicked, already noticed some new coraline growth on a few of the rocks as well.
moved the rocks a tiny bit so stirred the sand a tiny bit.
right now I am just waiting on another reefer to get my information for payment of a 70w MH ballast and I will be rolling with that shortly.

likely going to look at getting the start of my CUC saturday if all goes well.



still undecided on if I should get more rock or not just yet if I do thinking a larger piece to complete the right corner of the tank.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Cool little project.

I may have missed it but how are you going to deal with heat and evaporation with a 70W halide over it? That is going to be quite the challenge if keeping sps since they tend to not tolerate temp. and salinity fluctuations. Just curious

[Naked Wookie]

I am going to see how well the fans I am planning on using work for keeping the MH from boiling my tank.
but my plan is to start softies and see how bad evap/temp is actually sps won't be till summer/next fall unless someone has really cheap frags and I somehow grow money magicall. I havn't had temp issues with 3 23w CFLs sitting not even half an inch from the surface it stays at 79F through the duration so wondering how much worse a MH suspended at 6ish inches off the surface.

and already looking making a ATO unit for the tank being how I figure do it right the first time now, cause I plan on moving this tank back home for the summer and then back here for the following years semesters.

although I am wondering what do other reefers do for christmas break at college? I only ever get 12-14 days off due to my sports and tournaments for break but do people bring it home or just rely on ATOs and timers?

[Naked Wookie]

CORALS WOOP.
went to get a small clean up crew and ended up walking out with corals funny how that works huh.
so for CUC so far I got 5 blue legged hermits and these are tiny tiny little ones not the larger blue legged, and 1 nassarius snail, and 3 brittle stars he tossed in.
so now for some pics.

brittle star hiding already.

GSP thats supposed to grow up the back well yet.

gorilla nips not opened yet, they are peaking out now although.

yay snail.

my small kenya tree and zoa polyp frag.

baby ric

and tiny little guy.

[Naked Wookie]

well not much change yet, getting some algae likely due to the 6500k bulbs but my ballast should be here sometime this week yet, shipped out this morning express post so hopefully gets here quick, just waiting to find out about bulbs and I am all set for 70watss of sun.
that and I held a moment of silence as a brave little blue legged hermit discovered today why one never leaves his shell and wander upto the AC200 intake, apparently AC200 impellers don't leave much to clean up he will be missed.
did a quick water change after I cleaned the parts I could find out of the tank so hopefully that doesn't affect water.

oh also picked up some blue eyes zoas from the reefshoppe last night as well.
so till the blue eyes settle in and pose for the camera these will have to do

[Naked Wookie]

well got 2 14k 70w bulbs today in the mail thanks to themikey both fired up perfectly, still waiting on a 20k ushio through the reefshoppe but till that comes in using these.

tank looks sooooooo much better under 14k vs 6500k CFLs instantly noticed a change in the zoas colours.






and now 2 comparison shots from the day before with old lighting.


can't wait to get some LPS and SPS going :O

[Naked Wookie]

well yet again went to the reefshoppe and kelly never ceases to amaze me with his stock, also he hooked me up with an ushio 20000k 70w DE MH bulb so now I have to decide between liking 20k or 14k more.

anyways here is pics, the hair algae bloomed due to the crappy lights I was using I figure as its already receding rapidly since I got the 14k MH its browned up and easier to remove so good sign I figure.
got an orange monti cap frag, and a small pinkish acro frag, the gsp frag is starting to attack to the glass also so eventually I hope to get that to spread and cover the back corner as a living wall.



will get some tomorrow with the 20k bulb for comparison

[Boomboy]

this is turning into a wicked little tank, the light is way better than what you had, you'll notice it in the growth and colour of your corals. just remember if you have the 20K instead of the 14K your corals will grow slower.