70g DIY Peninsula 40x20x20"

[NY_Caveman]

Here is how I've made my DIY T5 fixure.

It cost me less than $230 w/o bulbs, while original ATI Sun Power would be $550 shipped from Germany. With no guarantee, spare parts nor service (no ATI partners in Ukraine) and near-zero chances for reselling (no one needs T5 here, too pricey for Ukraine anyway).

So, frame is made of the cheapest pine plank I've found. Dimensions are 20x80mm (approx. 3/4 x 3"). Six coats of hardwood floor varnish applied. This fixture will be incorporated into canopy some day, so it doesn't have to be fancy.

Aluminium rails for acrylic splash guard installed.

Same rails are used to hold waterproof G5 sockets in place.

Six ATI 39W bulbs installed along with aluminium Dennerle Power Reflectors.

Three Vossloh Schwabe ELXc 240.863 ballasts are used.

Finally, the wiring is done.

120mm fan and a lid will be added later, if needed. But for now, I'm considering it done

Wow! Nicely done!

 

[sikorskys]

Wow! Nicely done!

Thank you

 

[sikorskys]

My tank looks MUCH better now. Current FTS.

 

[sikorskys]

More light means more algae, so it's time to strengthen my CUC

Three more trochus and a turbo (or something that had been sold to me as turbo snail ).

 

[sikorskys]

Well, I've been to vacation for a week, first time for last five years I wasn't ready to leave my tank unchecked for such a long time, so I was expecting some... complications. DIY ATO with cheap glitchy switch that ALWAYS stucks ON, new skimmer, new lights, no tank sitter, no controller, no auto-feeder.. Things happens, you know

My nitrates were still at ~20ppm, so I did 25% water change, cleaned everyting and leave the house hoping for the best. By the way, I'm still running just two of six 39W bulbs I have.

So, here is how tank is looking now:

With this new, much powerful lighting, lots of nutrients and no herbivores, I was actually expecting some GHA growth. What I didn't expect is my new nitrate readings According to Salifert testkit I do trust, my nitrates are at absolute zero now Sure, all my nutrients aren't gone forever, it just were assimilated by algae. Still, it's good news for me

My fish and inverts look fine after a week without food, no loses fortunately. Corals are ok too. In fact, my kH has dropped to 8 from 11 (API), so I must have something growing besides GHA and cyano

I have nothing against GHA in display and won't treat it with peroxide or something like that. My only concern is that GHA is going to outgrow and kill chaeto ASAP. The fuge is actually looking quite poor at the moment

Will see.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Great progress on your build. Definitely I like your rock work, simple and well placed. About the ATO, I really like the gravity ATO I made because I don't need to deal with any power problem. You are doing a great job on your tank.

 

[sikorskys]

Thank you very much, spyder813

 

[sikorskys]

Have cleaned sump glass today. Well, my chaeto isn't that bad I thought before

So, it's GHA vs chaeto battle. Place your bets, people

 

[NY_Caveman]

Have cleaned sump glass today. Well, my chaeto isn't that bad I thought before

So, it's GHA vs chaeto battle. Place your bets, people

Go Chaeto!

 

[sikorskys]

Here is my DIY ATO. Cheap unreliable stuff, don't trust that thing one bit, so I have to back it up with a timer.

Still, don't want to invest into Tunze Osmolator since I will inevitable buy GHL Profilux that will go with it's own ATO unit. Looks like a waste of money to me.

BTW, here is a vacation-horror-story related to my ATO that didn't happen Just before I left home going abroad two weeks ago, I decided to check everything one more time. And guess what? ATO pump was unplugged! Have no idea how and when I unplug it that morning, pretty sure it was working last night!

Weird stuff happens in this hobby when least expected

unreliable

 

[sikorskys]

So I've started to add corals, finally. Easy ones for now.

Green and purple s. caliendrum, pink hystrix (looks white but it's alive), red digitata, frogspawn, hammer (behind duncan), green caulastrea and elegance.

Not sure why, but my tank was extremely cloudy at the time and stank really, really bad. Had to clean it well with 50% WC, scraping GHA and cleaning chaeto from debris.

Everything is so much better now. Here are before and after photos.

 

[sikorskys]

Current FTS.

Still experiencing GHA outbreak, but everything else is fine. Corals are settled down and started to grow. Fish looks happy. Me too

 

[NY_Caveman]

For what it is worth, I just added a bunch of Turbo snails and added more Trochus snails and my hair algae (and others) were much diminished within a week. I went from 6 snails to 14 in a 45 gallon and it did wonders.

EDIT: some of those are Cerith snails as well.

 

[sergebmw2]

Hey looking great and your learning a lot. Hope you are enjoying learning and getting your tank to the point where you like it. Классно.

 

[Todvod]

Doing plumbing like a PRO ;Facepalm

Did the exact same thing! Haha

 

[sikorskys]

Hey looking great and your learning a lot. Hope you are enjoying learning and getting your tank to the point where you like it. Классно.

Sure, I'm enjoying everything about this tank, thank you

 

[sikorskys]

For what it is worth, I just added a bunch of Turbo snails and added more Trochus snails and my hair algae (and others) were much diminished within a week. I went from 6 snails to 14 in a 45 gallon and it did wonders.

Yeah, I definitely should add some snails too. I have some, and they really do wonders as fast as they can

 

[sikorskys]

Since I'm finally growing some stony corals, my calcium and alkalinity have to be renewed somehow.

I'd be happy to buy a GHL Doser and dose two-part, but it's too pricey for me. Anyway, I'm going to invest into a Profilux 4 first. And then, someday, will buy Doser 2.0.

Meanwhile, I will dose manually. That's why I decided to try all-in-one powder from Red Sea. It's waaaay easier to dose a spoon of powder daily than to do the same with FIVE different liquids.

So, I'm using this powder for last two weeks and it seems to work as expected. Aprox. 2ml of this stuff daily keeps my kH at 9.3-9.5 and calcium in 450-460 range. Good enough, I'd say

 

[sikorskys]

Feeding time and current FTS.

 

[sikorskys]

Setting up a QT for new Kole Tang I've ordered. That's a used 8g tank I've bought for $10 for whole setup (tank, filter, heater etc).

I probably have ich in my DT since first fish added. It's not that fun, so I don't want to add velvet or something else.