Daniel's Reef Savvy 50g Cube - A Recovering Build...

[Daniel@R2R]

how long were your lights on before?

I had mimicked the photoperiod over an actual reef. They were on from 7 AM to 10:30 PM. Here's the post where I described the change:

I'm playing with my light schedule a little...we'll call it an experiment...

Here's the schedule I've been running:

However, I got to wondering what a typical day schedule is on the reef, so after looking at several charts like this one:

I decided to extend my daylight period as well as my ramping times. My schedule isn't intended to be an EXACT replica of this one (particularly since my viewing time is not on the same schedule as the reef), but I think the time allotments are fairly close... Here's what I'll be running and watching to see how it impacts (or doesn't impact) my reef.

In the above, the light period is 7 AM to 10:30 PM (same timeframe as 4:30 AM to 8 PM in the above natural reef chart). It's blues only to the first point (8:30 AM) and from the last point (9:00 PM) with ramp up from blues only to about 18.5k (the spectrum of the SPS AB+ formula by EcoTech) which runs from 9:30 AM to 8 PM as my peak lighting.

Feel free to poke holes or throw darts or tomatoes (I prefer tomatoes...they're softer).

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I am so envious! When you won this, was it thru Reef To Reef online or attending a conference? Great idea on converting the crate.

 

[count krunk]

Daniel won this tank?!?

I feel bad for the tank ;Hurting

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I am so envious! When you won this, was it thru Reef To Reef online or attending a conference? Great idea on converting the crate.

Thanks! I won it in a raffle at MACNA 2016.

Daniel won this tank?!?

I feel bad for the tank ;Hurting

I agree!! ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

 

[Brew12]

Daniel won this tank?!?

I feel bad for the tank ;Hurting

I agree!! ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

You shouldn't feel bad for the tank. He has won plenty of other stuff he can use to not take care of the tank. The tank is far from lonely that way! ;Troll

 

[wilsonline]

Any updates?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Another new toy!

Still need to get it set up...

 

[hybridazn]

Another new toy!

Still need to get it set up...

Look at you mr. Baller

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Look at you mr. Baller

I just want a big boy reef tank one day...

 

[Tahoe61]

Jezzz Daniel even I throw up an image of my humble little tank every once in awhile.

What ever happened in the battle of Apitasia?

What is Alkatronic?

 

[cromag27]

does anybody really believe he still has a tank!?!?!?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Jezzz Daniel even I throw up an image of my humble little tank every once in awhile.

What ever happened in the battle of Apitasia?

What is Alkatronic?

Hi Cheryl! I won the battle against aiptasia...finally!! I actually think the berghias finally wiped it out. Just about the time I was sure they must've died off, I noticed the aiptasia starting to disappear. I never saw any of the berghias again...but I now have 0 aiptasia (at least none that I can see), so I think they must've done it.

The Alkatronic is an automated alk tester...because I am too lazy to actually do my tests like I need to... Got an automatic water change system for the same reason...I'm lazy. ;Drowning

 

[Tahoe61]

Hi Cheryl! I won the battle against aiptasia...finally!! I actually think the berghias finally wiped it out. Just about the time I was sure they must've died off, I noticed the aiptasia starting to disappear. I never saw any of the berghias again...but I now have 0 aiptasia (at least none that I can see), so I think they must've done it.

The Alkatronic is an automated alk tester...because I am too lazy to actually do my tests like I need to... Got an automatic water change system for the same reason...I'm lazy. ;Drowning

That is so awesome!!!! Nice to hear a success story.

Nice toys.

Do you have to run a chiller?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Do you have to run a chiller?

Thankfully no. Living in a downstairs apartment insulates us enough that temps can stay at around 74 inside.

 

[count krunk]

I didn't know a FOWLR calls for an ALK monitor..

 

[fabutahoun]

Hi Daniel, glad to hear about wining the aptasia battle, and congrats on your new toy.

Automated testing is the best thing that a lazy reef should get, I am running a trident for a while and I love it.

 

[count krunk]

Automated testing is definitely the bee's knees

 

[wilsonline]

Well, the tank was mostly SPS, and unfortunately it's about a 99.56% loss. I think I have a couple of montis and one acro that are barely hanging on. LPS is mostly ok. Fish are thriving like nothing's happened at all. LOL

I know the basic issue was neglect from some major traveling I did towards the end of last year. Basically, I ended up with an alk swing that took out some acros and set off a domino effect that practically leveled all of my SPS. I'm not gonna lie...for a while, I didn't even really wanna look at the tank, but at this point I think it's time to put some major effort into the rebuild now that the dust has pretty well settled.

Thanks for sharing what happened. I'm a beginner and struggling with my acros. Most things are ok. Actually I had a lot of issues with parasites on fish on the 3rd-month bc I added too many fish and most came with parasites and I did not qt.
Anyway, now the issue is that acros are just not growing, I mean they never did lol. 5 months old tank and acros show almost no growth, a bit of encrusting on the rocks, one did something, but most did nothing. Not sure what I'm doing here, so that nice growth you showed like around page 25 is what i"m looking for. I may switch from IO to HW reefer salt. Is there anything you did and could see significant improvement in accros? What salt are you using?

 

[ScottR]

Another new toy!

Still need to get it set up...

Do you plan on getting the dosetronic as well? I’m considering getting the alkatronic. Not enough reviews yet

 

[dwair]

Hi Cheryl! I won the battle against aiptasia...finally!! I actually think the berghias finally wiped it out. Just about the time I was sure they must've died off, I noticed the aiptasia starting to disappear. I never saw any of the berghias again...but I now have 0 aiptasia (at least none that I can see), so I think they must've done it.

The Alkatronic is an automated alk tester...because I am too lazy to actually do my tests like I need to... Got an automatic water change system for the same reason...I'm lazy. ;Drowning

Update!