134-Gallon Cube Build - Random Flow Generator® Powered Mixed Reef - Lots of Pics!

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

....I am wondering what a safe distance from the water surface or sandbed is to prevent sucking air or sand at your suggested flow rates for the 3/4 nozzle.

I have never tested distance for the sand bed, but I would assume it similar tp the the water surface - so if you keep it 3/4in to 1in from sand bead (or three surface') then you should be good.

Here's quickstart guide to your you started in terms of how best to position

 

[badIuck]

I have never tested distance for the sand bed, but I would assume it similar tp the the water surface - so if you keep it 3/4in to 1in from sand bead (or three surface') then you should be good.

Here's quickstart guide to your you started in terms of how best to position

Great, thanks. Then my idea should be worth a try.

 

[reef’r]

Any updates on this tank? Post up some pics!

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Your right - I have been neglecting this thread. Thanks for the nudge.

So much has actually happened in this tank. Starting back in mid December of last year we had a strange disease that swept across the tank and killed pretty much almost all of the PC rainbow and Red Planet acros.

The issues were very specifically targeted at just those two species. All other SPS coral, montis, LPS and softies we untouched – and thriving.


The trouble began with a single branch on one of the PC rainbow colonies. It STNed over a few days. From there, it worked it way across the entire tank one adjacent branch at a time – almost like some sort of. Once one branch was gone, the next branch right next to it would start, and so on.


Here are some pics from the beginning if this issue. it go MUCH worse, before it got better.

Long story short - we never determine exactly what it was, and could not pinpoint the exact cause - we check ed for parasites, bacterial infections and other diseases, ran ICP tests (from multiple vendors, DOC test, Aqubiomitcs test - pretty much every test we could try

If you're interested here are a few of those ICP test - starting with the one just as the issue started and the last one a few monhts ago

6/29/24

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

2/15/24

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

1/20/24
Ultru high Iodine appears

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

11/22/24
Before issues stated - normal Iodine levels, but potassium was starting to climb, and Fluoride is low

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

About the only thing that stood out which were strange issues was a serious overdose of iodine (we don’t dose iodine, other than what is in the trace elements we dose), zeroed out fluoride, an insanely high potassium level – like off the charts.

Research showed that zeroed out fluoride can play a role in the coral's ability to protect itself from disease. So we started dosing fluoride and stepped up water changes and eventually got everything back in line.

So – today, Tank actually looks really good. Although we lost pretty much all of the PC rainbow , few polyps survived and now they're going back into colonies again.. so here are more recent pics of the tank

Full Tank Shot (I need to clean up the space around the tank - LOL)

Top down shot - in the lower right, between the two PC rainbow mini colonies, you can bare rock - that used ot be fully covered in acros - now its a bit of bubble algae

Sama area of the tank - different light, different angle - but again, you can see where the coral is gone - just right of center between the yellow tip and the other acro

Front shot of the giant Yellow tip colony. During the PC Rainbow die-off event, this coral actual grew faster

here are a short but recent videos form your Instagram page that highlight the tank









We did have one major fragging section with the Chalice int eh back corner. this was actually the second time we had to give this coral a haircut.



This one is more a straight-up marketing video, but it really shows of the tank of you look past the messaging

 

[reef’r]

Tank is beautiful! I absolutely love the top downs. Crazy you’ve been able to get here with just a single light also… that’s a big testament to the sky, which seems to be pretty unpopular

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Tank is beautiful! I absolutely love the top downs. Crazy you’ve been able to get here with just a single light also… that’s a big testament to the sky, which seems to be pretty unpopular

Yeah - the SKY doesn't get a lot of love , but it certainly is a capable light. I personally love the more natural looking light as opposed to the overly blue hues most other lights put out. I also really like the broad and smooth nature of the light it puts out - the spread is really good, and the shadows are soft

My two main complaints on the light are,

1 - As much as i love the smooth nature of the light, I would prefer just a tad more shimmer. I like the blanket of light, but there is almost no shimmer at all

2 - The ramp up/ramp down are pretty harsh. there is very little if no difference between 1% and 15% brightness. which means in the morning (and evening) you really don't get that smooth ramp up/down

All things being equal, I would actual attribute the bulk of the success of this tank to the flow. One of the reasons this tank was build was as a proof of concept for the Random Flow Generator. And i believe that the quality of the flow has made the difference that allows us to overcome running a single light.

With that said, it is time to upgrade or at least add to the lighting over this tank. With the single light, all the coral has grown in such a way that its pointing at the light - top downs look amazing. But, from the front and side views, we are mostly looking at the underside of the coral.

I was going to expand with more SKY lights, but since those seem to be been discontinued, I'm looking at other options.

We should be making some sort of a change in the next few months - so stay tuned

 

[ScottD]

Yeah - the SKY doesn't get a lot of love , but it certainly is a capable light. I personally love the more natural looking light as opposed to the overly blue hues most other lights put out. I also really like the broad and smooth nature of the light it puts out - the spread is really good, and the shadows are soft

My two main complaints on the light are,

1 - As much as i love the smooth nature of the light, I would prefer just a tad more shimmer. I like the blanket of light, but there is almost no shimmer at all

2 - The ramp up/ramp down are pretty harsh. there is very little if no difference between 1% and 15% brightness. which means in the morning (and evening) you really don't get that smooth ramp up/down

All things being equal, I would actual attribute the bulk of the success of this tank to the flow. One of the reasons this tank was build was as a proof of concept for the Random Flow Generator. And i believe that the quality of the flow has made the difference that allows us to overcome running a single light.

With that said, it is time to upgrade or at least add to the lighting over this tank. With the single light, all the coral has grown in such a way that its pointing at the light - top downs look amazing. But, from the front and side views, we are mostly looking at the underside of the coral.

I was going to expand with more SKY lights, but since those seem to be been discontinued, I'm looking at other options.

We should be making some sort of a change in the next few months - so stay tuned

I’ll be interested to see what you settle with. For now I’ve got some older ai primes that I plan to use but will be upgrading down the road. The Orphek lights have piqued my interest.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Just a multi-point


Point 1 - lighting
update Still considering new lighting. whether that will be additional Neptune SKYs (assuming i can find good used ones) or something else. I hesitate to switch only because i have had such good success with the single SKY like . here's a side-pic from yesterday just before lights out.

Point 2 - Sad Day
Lost the Watchman goby that was paired with the large tiger pistol. I have had this particular goby for at least 4 years, and he is this shrimp's second goby. The Pistol Shrimp has been with me for longer than I can remember. its only the second one I have ever owned, and I have always had a tiger pistol shrimp in my tanks (been reefing since 2011)

Not sure what happed, but the goby had not been seen for about two weeks. then yesterday he emerged and was out of the burrow. he looked week and skinny. he later over night. :-(

Point 3 - Room mate wanted (for the Pistol shrimp)
Pistol shrimp are best with a buddy. but his time I want to look for something other than a yellow watchman. This shrimp, is as far as I can tell full grown. Last time I had him out of the tank (3 years ago when I moved him to this tank) he was at least 3 inches long.

What are some good choice that could get along with a shrimp of that size?

Point 4 - Hair Algae?
There seems to be some sort of change in the tank - coral is growing faster than ever, and I would say fully recover for the issue in late December last yet. But now I have actual air algae in the display tank.

Point 5 - Stunning corals growth and coloration
it just keep getting bigger, bigger and faster. I need to find a way to make some space to add more coral though. it doesn't seem to matter where in the tank an SPS coral is - it just grow. I have some at the sand bed growing, lots of coral at the top, some off to the side on frag racks. LPS and other softies are doing really well too.

 

[reef’r]

You have to go t5 on this tank. T5 hybrid that way you can keep the sky in the center would be sweet and probably hadn’t been done

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Two pics a little over on thousand days apart

I was looking at this and it i realized it looks like it has about 1/2 the sand in it than it did when it started.

where did it all go? should I add more to refresh the bed a bit?

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Point 3 - Room mate wanted (for the Pistol shrimp)
Pistol shrimp are best with a buddy. but his time I want to look for something other than a yellow watchman. This shrimp, is as far as I can tell full grown. Last time I had him out of the tank (3 years ago when I moved him to this tank) he was at least 3 inches long.

What are some good choice that could get along with a shrimp of that size?

I settled on a new room mate for the Pistol shrimp. Going to try something differ than the usual Yellow Watchmen goby

I have purchased an Orange Stripe Prawn Goby - its the closest i could find to my original idea which was a Volcano Goby (visually very similar)

This is not a picture of the actual fish, but rather the stock photo over at the TankStop website, where I purchased a Medium/large version of this fish

You can see the listing here for more info

Orange Stripe Prawn Goby

The Orange Stripe Prawn Goby is a very colorful and unique goby. Orange Stripe Prawn Gobies have a mostly white body with vertical orange stripes and a fan like dorsal fin.Orange Stripe Prawn Gobies reach a maximum adult size of around 4 inches and need to be kept in tanks that are at least 10...

www.tankstop.com

We are located in Phoenix, AZ and the fish is in LA California, so instead of having it shipped, I think we going to make it a road trip to go pic up the fish and visit a bunch of fish stores.

Should be fun, and I'll post pics of the adventure

 

[revhtree]

Such a gorgeous reef! Well done!

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Just a full tank shot

 

[shakacuz]

awesome progress! love the open concept of the sump area

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

awesome progress! love the open concept of the sump area

thanks - I've always been a big fan of the open sump area. I like seeing the equipment. I'm weird like that - LOL

 

[shakacuz]

thanks - I've always been a big fan of the open sump area. I like seeing the equipment. I'm weird like that - LOL

me too! just not the salt creep in my case, haha

 

[jfllafitte]

Just a full tank shot

I would be interested to know which settings you use on the sky what is your schedule and how high it is above the water. My tank is similar to yours and I also use a single sky. I have good growth but I guess that I could push it a bit more. Thanks for your feedback !

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

I would be interested to know which settings you use on the sky what is your schedule and how high it is above the water. My tank is similar to yours and I also use a single sky. I have good growth but I guess that I could push it a bit more. Thanks for your feedback !

Sure - not really sure how to show it, so I'll do some screen shots.

The program has pretty much remained the same since day one - i haven't tweaked it other than to increase intensity a bit at the 3rd and 5th set point. I think I used to run those at around 85%

This shows the full schedule.
The "Custom" spectrum at set point 1, 2, 5, and 6 are all the same as shown below

Spectrum for Set point 3 & 4, sues the built-in "Neptune Sky" setting.
its much more white and looks very natural - at least to my eye. I have never been a fan of the Windex look, which is probably why i like the SKY, as a reef light

 

[jfllafitte]

Great thanks a lot! You run it pretty high but I guess, looking at the photos that it is higher above the water than mine which is on an rms mount. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Great thanks a lot! You run it pretty high but I guess, looking at the photos that it is higher above the water than mine which is on an rms mount. Thanks for the feedback!

it is pretty high - its a good 14+ in off the water. I was trying to get the most spread possible, and its works out pretty good so far, but i do need to add some supplemental lights soon (I've been saying that for a while LOL)

Shadowing has become an issue as the coral all grow out to capture as much light as possible.

I haven't settled on what to go with yet, but i think I'll most lily keep add another SKY or add some light bars such as the AI blades to the front and sides.