3 Foot Nano Tank (1 Viewer)

[jlanger]

The new light and the tank look great!

As far as trying to get better photos, here's a trick I use.
I like my LEDs to run at about 1800-1850K during the day, but when I take pictures I drop to 1400K.
The photos have much less blue in them and look a lot better.
When I'm done taking pictures, I just go back to my programmed schedule.

So if your new lights can change with the touch of a couple buttons, you can give that a try.

 

[eschulist]

Nice new fishy

Long overdue FTS
(Right Click View Image for Full Screen)
​

Shows off my coco worm as well that was absent from all previous FTS shots. Thanks to James for the Oregon tort seen front and center. Two newer montis are also on the middle rock, an undata and nauti spiral montipora. The purple stylo below has seen better days and probably needs to be replaced with something else unfortunately.

 

[ChristopherKriens]

That's a cute angelfish. Thanks for the high resolution on the full tank shot. Pretty soon your green monitora will be as big as Jlanger's (relatively speaking of course)

 

[eschulist]

That's a cute angelfish. Thanks for the high resolution on the full tank shot. Pretty soon your green monitora will be as big as Jlanger's (relatively speaking of course)

I've already sliced a portion off the right side to keep it from shading my green acro. Its hard to make a curve cut so it looks more natural. I'm thinking of breaking it off and moving it about an inch lower but still behind the rock so I can place a bonsai or other colorful acro on that corner. An orange sunburst cap with yellow polyps would look really great plating out on the back side of the left most rock.

I was super tempted to buy this angelfish but they grow a little larger and aren't as hardy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-3-Venustu...321526343669?pt=Live_Fish&hash=item4adc76a7f5

 

[eschulist]

Almost every day I'm sticking my hand in the tank for some reason or another. In the last few months the water temperature has seemed to fluctuate greatly. Just by touch alone I can feel that the water is warm or cool. With winter coming up and wanting to get things more stable I ordered myself a new Neo-Therm 75 watt heater. And to make the deal super sweet I got it for 21.49!!

On the coral front things are still recovering slowly from the move and the light change, for the better but its slow. Once the leptoseris corals recover from bleaching I will start to ramp up the intensity and try to get the coral a little more vibrant. Other than that no other new things will probably be happening up the Expo in Nov.

 

[asifiqbal2]

Your latest FTS is beautiful!
What a great thread... makes me want to add one to my office

 

[jlanger]

How are you liking your new LED fixture?

I always thought that a reef tank wasn't complete without an angelfish. Great choice!

Tank is looking great. Still looking great.

 

[eschulist]

Loving the new fixture. The automatic ramping up and down is a nice upgrade over my old on/off blue/white model. I know there are a ton of LED fixtures that are full spectrum and have controllablility but this one seemed to fit the dimensions of the tank the best. And at a nice price point. The ONLY thing I really hate about it is the power cord coming out of the top. In the last few weeks the company upgraded the light to have it coming out the side and it looks much sleeker.

New design. This person asked for my contact to order the light and he ended up getting the newer model.

 

[Adam G]

Tank is looking better than ever. The variety and arrangement of coral color and interesting but not too crowded aquascape really make this tank. Very nice.

 

[patent]

Do you have a choice over the LEDs, or is only one set spectrum?

Loving the new fixture. The automatic ramping up and down is a nice upgrade over my old on/off blue/white model. I know there are a ton of LED fixtures that are full spectrum and have controllablility but this one seemed to fit the dimensions of the tank the best. And at a nice price point. The ONLY thing I really hate about it is the power cord coming out of the top. In the last few weeks the company upgraded the light to have it coming out the side and it looks much sleeker.

 

[eschulist]

Do you have a choice over the LEDs, or is only one set spectrum?

The manufacturer let me customize them if I wanted. I only changed a few of the LEDs to UVs (which at the time they didn't have), however the original configuration was pretty good and had a nice even mix. The new design has the UVs standard.

There are 4 controllable channels: Blue, White, Color (Red Green Violet UV), and Cyan. They are each adjustable from 0-99 to get the look I want throughout the day. The only thing I cant control is turning down red, green, or violet individually like the Radions.

 

[patent]

I was thinking it would be nice to put the red and green on the fourth channel (I think they'd consider it the moonlight channel). Do you know which LEDs they use?

 

[eschulist]

They use Crees according to their site.

That was one of the options I thought about: Blues, Whites, Cyan/Purple/UV, and Red/Green. The only limitation they impose is the wiring is preset. So if you want to swap colors on channels they have to go in the same locations and you can't add/subtract more.

Their new design has changed around the locations and amount. My version has 3 cyan (moonlights) the new one has 6, so it would be easier to have 3 green, 3 red. You would then run the 4th channel really low in the 10-20% range, but allow the UVs and Cyans to be turned much higher 50+. Right now having all the colors together is really hard to look at higher than 20%

If you are looking to purchase one of these lights you may be too late. They emailed me and said they have an American distributor and no longer sell to individuals (sort of a noncompete) A lot of the nano-reef members I referred to them got emails back saying they couldn't order the light anymore as well.

 

[patent]

They use Crees according to their site.

Great, not that it matters if they aren't selling them, but I'd have wanted to know which ones.

The only limitation they impose is the wiring is preset.

Figured as much, but I could work with that.

If you are looking to purchase one of these lights you may be too late. They emailed me and said they have an American distributor and no longer sell to individuals (sort of a noncompete) A lot of the nano-reef members I referred to them got emails back saying they couldn't order the light anymore as well.

Bummer, I think I'd have bought one.

 

[eschulist]

Wooohooo. I didn't realize this but I have the most viewed tank on TCMAS!!

But it looks like I'll be overtaken before I get to 20,000. Can't be too upset to be overtaken by Chris' tank.

 

[jlanger]

It's his pictures!
People just cannot stay away from Chris' pictures!

So… just have Chris come over and take more pictures of your tank.
Post them sporadically so we have to come back every other day or so and you may just keep ahead of him!

 

[ChristopherKriens]

But it looks like I'll be overtaken before I get to 20,000..

Not if we keep bumping this thing to the top!

 

[eschulist]

It's his pictures!
People just cannot stay away from Chris' pictures!

So… just have Chris come over and take more pictures of your tank.
Post them sporadically so we have to come back every other day or so and you may just keep ahead of him!

I did buy myself a new high quality lens, just waiting on some additional funds to buy a true full frame dslr to go with it.

Not if we keep bumping this thing to the top!

Bumps

 

[eschulist]

Must stay ahead of Kriens.

Pictures it is!! New clam I picked up (Edit: Had delivered, lol ) about 2 weeks ago. It started to show a little pinching on the mantle last Friday so I freshwater dipped it for 30 minutes and added a new batch of Rox carbon to the reactor. This photo is pre-pinched mantle and the clam was even more open Monday and today. I was a little worried about doing it on Friday. I feared I'd come to work Monday with a ball of mush on the sand but it recovered amazingly well.

Clam is from UniqueCorals. I believe it was $48 + their $19 shipping deal. My only regret is that is was a random pick. It has a little blue but not as much as I hoped. In hindsight I should have just bit the bullet on a WYSIWYG $100+ clam that was all baby blue and had a more vibrant pattern. If I can keep this guy going for 6+ months maybe I'll splurge on a premo one.

 

[jlanger]

Must stay ahead of Kriens.

You're falling behind…

Nice score on the clam.
At that price, even just a little bit of blue is worth it. I just wished the colors were as bold when viewing from the front as from the top.

One of the positives from tearing my systems down is the chance to keep clams again.
I love the colors and patterns; especially the T. squamosa sp.