Michika's 28g long nano-esque tank!

[Delphinus]

Any FTS? I want to see this toe-kick thing.

Pods will come back... hang in there. They always do. And snails, well, you can always get more snails (as if you really needed a reason to keep visiting the LFS's and ordering stuff MO, right? )

As for your lighting .. I'm guessing this won't be for a 28g. I'm not sure what size you were thinking for the tank? That may influence your choice of reflector (or the "1 vs 2" argument). 1 may be less energy+heat than 2, but the flip side is you can probably get away with smaller wattages if you went with 2. Ie., instead of a single 400, you could go 2x250. Or even 2x175 if the tank was not very deep. Technially 2x250 > 400 but only by 100W, that's not that's terrible.

I dunno. There are so many choices when it comes to lighting it gets overwhelming to sift through it all sometimes.

One thought though: I'd probably consider T5's over PC's. The lamp replacement cost alone trumps that one. I've been wanting to switch to T5's for my FW tank for ages (my last PC holdout) because it's a question of $20 lamps versus $40 lamps. Seems the cost to get into T5 initially is more but the long-term costs, I think, are less. Anyhow just a thought. Plus I'm not real sure about the PC actinics, a lot of them just seem like blue lights to me. I'm sure there are "real actinics" out there but .. definitely some that aren't.

[michika]

Yeah your right, I probably don't need more excuses to visit more stores!

The lighting actually is for the 28g. I found I have more space then I thought and now I have the choice. I have 175w MH now with two actinics, but I find that the 175w is too far from the water surface to get all the areas I need with just the batwing reflector.

If I could do t5s I would, but I already have the PCs, and I don't really want to put out any $ for T5s at this very moment. I also have a PC size that is just perfect for my system 13", so I want to stick with them for as long as I can get bulbs!

What would you do? Go 2x 175w MH in batwing reflectors, one on each side of the tank, or o 1x 175w MH in a luminarc? With the luminarc the light hits the tank in all the right places, but I worry that it isn't bright enough on the sides.

[Delphinus]

LOL - what you need is two mini Lumenarcs over that tank.

I dunno, maybe two batwing reflectors? Seems to me two big lumenarcs would be overkill..

Maybe try the single lumenarc. Unless it looks horrid having the sides dimmer, it could just be a zone for things that like less light (brain corals, maybe some monti's, etc. - that sort of thing).

[michika]

Here is the FTS, and some other photos.

I'll start with the lighting photos because I really want to sort this out before boxing day.

With the single batwing I have lots of shadows from the lockline, and if you put your hand in, its a PITA to see anything below your hand.


Before today's clean up


After


Post Cleaning left side


Post Cleaning middle


Post cleaning right side


View from the left side:


View from the right side:


The good thing is that the microbubbles will be solved on Thursday, so I hope to have a nice clear tank by Friday.

Some final shots:

The detritus that I found under all the remaining skeletons. I siphoned some out, and I hope to take care of the rest later today or tomorrow.


Shrimp!


The last bucket of skeletons to be pulled out. A lot of them had GHA on them so everything just came out, and I am deciding how to deal with it.

[michika]

Caught in the act!

[michika]

A week worth of skimmate;



The tank is chugging along. Things seemed to have plateaued at this point. No improvements in anything, water parameters included. Its a bit disheartening not to see any changes in what was supposed to be my dream nano system.

I'm still plagued by microbubbles, and while I was hoping to have the problem solved last week, plans changed. I now need to make another trip to the hardware store as I'm going to replumb my skimmer as well as using filter socks in the future.

[Skimmerking]

good to hear Catherine, I will make ya a deal once i'm back from Afghanistan if you are looking for a bigger tank you come down to manitoba and I will give you my 120 gal with tank and stand if you want too.

If ya want too. since I will have my cube going I hope by then .....next summer once I get back but your going to have to give me ahand to load the other tank...