20g Metal Halide nano cube.

[Troylee]

5 weeks since startup and first 2g water change done today.

I removed the jedi mind trick. The halide was to much light where I had it placed.

Purple and blue stags are brown. The fresh cut one is much browner than the other.
They should adjust over time back to their original color.

Added a slimeball anacropora.
Total count today is 25 corals, 3 peppermint shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, 2 hermit crabs, and a few snails.

This is max for coral so we will watch it develop.
Broke alot of tips off the stags but now I have no need, except for an emergency, to stick my coral destroying hands into the nano.

Corals:
3 Oregon torts
3 Green slimers
2 Green hard corals
1 Purple stag
1 Blue stag
1 Green stag
1 Surf and turf
1 Army stag
1 Potatochip
1 Orange Setosa
1 ASD Rainbow milli
1 Rainbow mill, not asd
1 Meller Yeller
1 Tubbs stelata
1 Slimeball ancropora
1 Palleta yellowtip
1 Acroberry
1 Green unknown low
1 Branching noname
1 green pavona

Loving it man! DIY and halides! I’ve always been about the diy! And now back to halides myself…

 

[X-37B]

Loving it man! DIY and halides! I’ve always been about the diy! And now back to halides myself…

Color is improving week by week. The 16hds are nice and come on 3 hrs before and after the halides.
They appear to help the colors.
Only running blue and uv, v.
I am new to leds, just passed 1 year.
I love halides but I am very happy with my Radions and 16hds.

The skimmer is better than any nano skimmer I have tried, and that includes my favorite skimmer Tunze. Super simple, cost effective, and anyone can build one.

 

[Troylee]

Color is improving week by week. The 16hds are nice and come on 3 hrs before and after the halides.
They appear to help the colors.
Only running blue and uv, v.
I am new to leds, just passed 1 year.
I love halides but I am very happy with my Radions and 16hds.

The skimmer is better than any nano skimmer I have tried, and that includes my favorite skimmer Tunze. Super simple, cost effective, and anyone can build one.

I’ve always had halides myself.. I took a 12 year break and just got my feet wet again about 6 months ago.. I bought a radion for my 60 gal cube and loved it and could see all the hype about them.. then!! I just upgraded to a huge tank and can’t afford 6k in radions so I went back to halides as I got them for free and they light this huge foot print up much better.. I do have 3 xr15’s and a couple reef brite Xho bars that run for 3 hours before and 3 hours after the halides come on from noon till 4pm… my new tank has only been up for a week and half and I already see growth on my Sps under the halides! I’ll be sticking with them!

 

[X-37B]

I’ve always had halides myself.. I took a 12 year break and just got my feet wet again about 6 months ago.. I bought a radion for my 60 gal cube and loved it and could see all the hype about them.. then!! I just upgraded to a huge tank and can’t afford 6k in radions so I went back to halides as I got them for free and they light this huge foot print up much better.. I do have 3 xr15’s and a couple reef brite Xho bars that run for 3 hours before and 3 hours after the halides come on from noon till 4pm… my new tank has only been up for a week and half and I already see growth on my Sps under the halides! I’ll be sticking with them!

Yea I get the $ issue as I contemplated leds for years.
After getting my radions blues dialed in, which was going back to full ab+ with lunar setting, I am seeing growth thats very similar to halides.
The cost! I run 4 gen5 16hds on my 80g 48x24x16. If my tank was 24" deep, like my old 120, I would need 4 30's. I did purchase all used and saved a considerable amount.
I have 6 halide systems on the shelves in the garage. Great for a rainy day project now that I am finally retired, lol.

Contemplating a 96x36x20 full sps system. Will most likely go with Radions or Orpheks. The cost will be $$$$ but I have grown into the adjustability of the leds and I love the lunar schedule.

Anyway I am now just buying bulbs every couple months so I will always have them to use. Looking for 250 hqi ballasts too.

 

[Smite]

That king is wild looking, incredible head markings/pattern.

The nano is looking great

 

[X-37B]

Two pics today:
First halide only.
Second halide with 16hd

 

[Troylee]

Yea I get the $ issue as I contemplated leds for years.
After getting my radions blues dialed in, which was going back to full ab+ with lunar setting, I am seeing growth thats very similar to halides.
The cost! I run 4 gen5 16hds on my 80g 48x24x16. If my tank was 24" deep, like my old 120, I would need 4 30's. I did purchase all used and saved a considerable amount.
I have 6 halide systems on the shelves in the garage. Great for a rainy day project now that I am finally retired, lol.

Contemplating a 96x36x20 full sps system. Will most likely go with Radions or Orpheks. The cost will be $$$$ but I have grown into the adjustability of the leds and I love the lunar schedule.

Anyway I am now just buying bulbs every couple months so I will always have them to use. Looking for 250 hqi ballasts too.

Agreed.. I have a 36x72 foot print to light at 24” deep.. I need 6 I believe to accomplish what I want with all Sps… for now I have 3 and two 250 hqi running..

 

[piranhaman00]

You're doing this purely for a test on if it beats LEDs? I ask because I have a MH I was thinking of using...but I'd want the addition of some blue in there somewhere...your tank looks great but the light makes everything look so...bland?

You so bland, I saw realistic, blue is bad

 

[X-37B]

I added a small 1" chalk bass yesterday. Was not going to add any fish but I will run with just one fish. I will get a pic when it settles in.

 

[X-37B]

2 weeks until the 2 month mark.
Halides are at 5hrs and I will increase to 6 hrs when we hit 2 months. I will leave it their and run the 16 for pre and post halide blue effect.
A side view blue.

 

[X-37B]

Pic of my chalk Bass.

 

[X-37B]

Side pic

 

[Subliminal]

Are you testing and dosing or just changing water? Im curious. I like the cut of your jib, sir.

 

[X-37B]

Are you testing and dosing or just changing water? Im curious. I like the cut of your jib, sir.

I test alk once a week
Ca mag once a month
I currently dose 8ml of esv 1&2 daily by hand to maintain an alk of 7.
Dose DSR ez trace at 3ml a day
Dose esv strontium at 1ml a week
Rox carbon in a bag
Po4 reducer is phosgaurd if needed
10%- 2g's a month WC
I run it the same way I run my other systems
I did dose po4 when I started but I dont need to now.

 

[StubbyAcro]

Before the reboot, you ran your 20-gallon nano tank with 2 snails per gallon, right? How often do you need to clean the glass? I want to follow this rule but I’m afraid that there won’t be enough algae for the trochus snails.

 

[Subliminal]

Did you use a par meter to determine light height?
I’m just in the stand building stage of setting up a 8 inch deep tank that will use a odyssea 150w 14k my w/ 2 cf blue bulbs.

 

[X-37B]

Before the reboot, you ran your 20-gallon nano tank with 2 snails per gallon, right? How often do you need to clean the glass? I want to follow this rule but I’m afraid that there won’t be enough algae for the trochus snails.

How big is your system? Cleaning the glass is done when needed. Its gets a green film on the glass daily now. It will only need to be cleaned every few days once the system settles in.
Sytem will be 2 months in 2 days.

Yea I currently have about 5 - 6 snails in this system. On the other 20g system I found 20+ empty shells when I broke it down.
Anyway at around 30+ in my 80, 10+ in my 30, 20+ in my 45.
Snails do a good job but they create a huge amount if waste. How do I know? My 80 is BB and at my once a month 10% WC I suck out all detrius and its 95% snail poop. The brute tub smells like a sewer after pumping it out.

I still have to dose po4 at 3ml a day to keep it within my desired range.

Start with a few and add as needed.

 

[X-37B]

Did you use a par meter to determine light height?
I’m just in the stand building stage of setting up a 8 inch deep tank that will use a odyssea 150w 14k my w/ 2 cf blue bulbs.

14" off the surface in my 120 with the same light. Never ran par.
I set this up with a 150 hamilton then pulled it as I like the 14k phoenix better than the 150 14k bulbs.
8" frag tank. I would start at 14" and check the coverage and go from their.

Keep in mind your corals will be much close to the surface in an 8" tank.

My 48x24x16 growout tank for example.
16" tall
1.5" frag rack
This leaves 12.5" to the surface from the rack.

 

[X-37B]

Been awhile.
2 weeks shy of 3 months.
Removed 1 green slimer to frag
And aďded 2 frags from a wild acro I fragged out.
Removed the asd rainbow milli
as it just stayed brown. Put it in my 45.
Replaced it with a small pink floyd.
Purple stag color is commimg back slowly.
Chalk bass dissapeared. Going to run no fish unless I want to catch my saphire damsel in the 45s sump.

I finished off a round of Algaefix for 26 days at 2ml every 3 days.
I did this in my 45 too and it has killed off the red turf algae. Im just going with my standard 10% a month wc.
Tank today.

 

[X-37B]

Ok I have decided to run 100% leds from here on out.
Going to 2 16hds now as its what I have.
So the halide is down.

I have a thread with all halides im selling if anyones interested.