Hart's Nano SPS Reef - Deep blue shallow tank, oxymoron?!?

[hart24601]

The spread of the h80 is a bit wasted in my small area so I made "optics" for it.

Took a 1" section of 1" PVC which is the stock optics opening and tested using the PVC to limit the spread. 1/2" and 1" and like the tighter 1" patten. I then put shiny side aluminum foil on the inside of the PVC tube to possibly act as a reflector and then used strong automotive double sided tape to stick the PVC to the light. I didn't want to use super glue for that since it's hard to remove.

Looks like does a great job limiting light spill in the small sump and I wouldn't be surprised if there is more PAR from my "reflector" straight under the light although that wasn't my goal, just limit overspill.

 

[hart24601]

Not fancy but works pretty well!

 

[hart24601]

Battlebox arrived today. Came in great shape with PE in the bag!

Dipped in Bayer before placing in tank.

Noticed a dang aptasia... Super glued over it and hope I don't see another. This was on older coral, not BC.

Was surprised BC were mostly encrusted, I was thinking most were fresh clips. I would say this sps pack is top notch and equal to unique corals but was all acro. Very impressive. Both better than divers den pack.

I would easily order from BC again.

 

[hart24601]

 

[hart24601]

Last week I picked up another RN-1 powerhead from reefbreeders since I am so impressed with the other one. They are on the larger side for this nano, but are small for the amazing flow they put out.

I run everything on pulse mode, which is kinda noisy, partially the vortech, but the flow pattern is just so nice on pulse. I dislike how the vortech doesn’t do a real pulse to a stop, just slows down but it’s ok here.

So right now I am running that tunze, 2 RN-1 and mp10 all pulse mode in a 34 gallon tank and if it was all sps I would want even more flow!

Things seem to be going well. I did a round of vibrant and flux as bryopsis said hi. DIdn’t notice anything for a while, then boom, tank is totally clean. Put the chaeto and ulva in a bucket during treatment and recently returned it.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Not fancy but works pretty well!

Have you noticed any more heat around the light fixture ?

 

[hart24601]

Have you noticed any more heat around the light fixture ?

Nope. These guys are not that many watts, 15 I think? So the light isn't all that intense to add heat on the PVC.

 

[hart24601]

Rearranged the hot mess of cords in the sump and put labels on the cords. Still a mess but waaay better. Tie up the extra legnth of cord and put the return, ato, skimmer, and 3 of the 4 powerheads (excluding the 1 because it's on the bottom of tank) on a strip so for waterchange I can just flip the switch to turn them all off then back on. Ato doesn't need to be on it but need space haha. It's amazing how many cords tanks have...

 

[hart24601]

Latest FTS. Things seem to be doing well. Hopefully near the stage where can get some serious growth. New ato is pretty slow so got another 10g tank and siliconed in a return baffle. Same amount of water is lost a day of course but this will give the ato pump less continuous on time. It's amazing how dirty the sump was! Nice thing it's easy to totally pull the sump out. Did about a 30% water change while was at it too - only takes 3 buckets!

 

[hart24601]

Pic of my fancy new baffle and fuge. Swapped the h80 for h380 I already had and we will see how that goes as my nutrients are higher than I want.

I just made an ato cover, cut bottom off a pill container lid and made a notch for the cord. Fits just perfect over the smart micro and should keep algae from growing on the sensor. Bit surprised they don't come with something like this.

 

[hart24601]

Just for funsies I picked up a sps pack on eBay. 20 coral, $265 shipped.

They were packaged great, and are small, but the selection was better than I expected. Figured would get some dup's of stuff I have, but one one or two! Plus variety of BN which I love.

 

[hart24601]

Thought i would caluclate the approx turnover. This does not include the return.

MP10 1500 +
Tunze 1000 +
RM-M 2,600 each

Now I run the tunze at 100%, but the others around 70%.
That is 1k for vortech (ish) and 1800 per RP-M although the reduction isn't linear, but close enough.

That is 5,600 GPH, but I run them on pulse. Full on/off except the vortech which can't fully stop.

5600/2 is 2,800 GPH. Or for 34g is a real 80x turnover, however it's quite a bit higher than that real world as the stop on pulse take a little bit to really stop.

 

[hart24601]

Been tracking phosphate level since putting the h380 over the sump. I have it running 3hr on 2 hr off (roughly- just pushes the tabs on timer so not exact) but I am doing that so the heat doesn’t cook the algae and make it turn white.

Seems to be working great. The ulva seems to appreciate the high light even more than chaeto. But I have been seeing a drop of 2-3ppb phosphate daily. Around 16ppb now, I will start feeding the corals more soon and adjust the h380 time as needed so nutrient don’t get too low since that causes Dino’s in the system.

 

[hart24601]

Raised the orphek intensity from 50% blue 2 channels, 30% w to 70% and 40% respectively.

Took out seneye and looks like 300-400 par on most sps, pretty even across rocks and the bottom glass at top of corals. Edges are 200 where I have Monties and birdsnests. I am very pleased with those levels and will monitor for bleaching but with the flow I have would be surprised to see any.

 

[Stickboy15]

how about you tell us about your GTR

 

[hart24601]

Haha. Ok had Cobb tuner, downpipes and rear pipes. Worked with Ben linney out of England for some tunes. Neat how you can do full throttle runs and it records enough that someone overseas can tune it, look at air fuel ratios among other thing, send new tune, test and repeat. We have e85 here which is awesome for turbos so tunes for that too. I don’t remember the overall numbers but cranked out over 600hp on all wheel drive dyno a while back.

 

[Stickboy15]

nice! 2015 camaro here full bolt ons tuned by overkill motorsports on E85 also!!

 

[hart24601]

Oh nice! Sounds like some drifting fun there!

 

[hart24601]

The one acro is starting to take off with lots of growth tips! And the one behind it looks good and fuzzy with PE. My favorite coral the Ora red is doing well too.

 

[hart24601]

So had this clam over a month now. The center bleached and got transparent so assumed going the route of many others before it...

However I noticed from the side it appears to have a lot of growth. I am almost 100% it didn’t have this much when got it and I don’t think would be so white after 5 weeks. Could it have gotten sick and is recovering where all the others couldn’t? Seems hard to believe. Did change to orphek light but had kept clams under kessil before ok. Almost looks like the center is getting spots and might be recovering, but that could be my imagination but the white margin sure isn’t.