45g custom cube journal (latest pics: Jun 4)

[kwirky]

I picked up the majority of my lights today. 250W galexy ballast and a lumenmax 3 reflector. No bulb yet. I'm thinking of running it with a geisseman 13k bulb. I actually like that "shallow water" look. I'm thinking of painting the back white and running a very shallow sand bed *gasp sand!* lol.

I've grown into really liking the look of white glass from working at the store. It makes it much easier to clean because you see everything right away and it'll help keep the temperature down (vs black glass getting hot under the lights).

I think my current 150W aquaconnect is a little too blue for my tastes. I had a 150W geisseman before and man was it bright!

If I need to I can add t5 actinics down the road but I'd have plenty of par from a 250W 10k even if it's an electronic ballast.

so yeah, 250W halide for an 18" tall tank woot!

[kwirky]

I have the stand finally. Now I just need some 3/4" plywood (for under the tank and sump) and the plumbing then it's a tank! I'm starting to lean towards and xm 10k bulb because of the PAR. If I want more colour I can add actinic T5's down the road. I'm going for growth initially.

oh yah and I gotta paint the back and bottom. so many things to do before it's done.

[geobee]

i like your dimensions,,,and starfire glass too, nice tank sean

[kwirky]

so my temporary 33g tank has had some pretty serious neglect because I didn't plan on the new system taking this long to get together and I didn't plan on school getting so busy.

I wasn't running the DIY zeovit reactor and I wasn't dosing calcium, only doing 5% water changes weekly. I decided to put the new 1.5L reactor directly in the 33g tank and when I rearranged the rock to do so TONS of sediment was stirred up. The 20 fairy crabs have been doing an awesome job keeping hair algae off the rock but man I've never seen that much sediment in such a small tank.

My calcium fell all the way down to 340ppm. Also I was only running a koralia 1 and a single MJ1200 for the tank (again because I thought it was only going to be like 2 weeks). I hooked up the other 3 maxijets along with the wavemaker. Dosed 250 mL of randy's 2 part. Got out a new calendar and marked my zeovit schedule for the next month.

Word from experience now: don't put a tank on the floor in a corner you don't frequent often. I ended up neglecting it because it wasn't really a part of my daily ritual any more.

[kwirky]

painted the tank today. and I'm posting a picture of the "temp" tank. i took the light off the temp tank for the picture. plumbing parts are on the way. speares gate valve for the herbie and the skimmer level control along with speares unions and speares everything else. my mom works at a plumbing wholesaler

[Marlin65]

Looks really good love your dimensions and overflow first class all the way but I have to ask it might just be me but are you sure you got Starphire glass it just does not look like that in the pictures. Starphire glass has a real blue tint to it as opposed to the green tint. I don't mean to cause anything or offend you it might be your pictures. I just want to make sure you got what you paid for. Either way it looks great.

[kwirky]

I got the light hung on a stud. I'm using a pair of sunlight supply light hangers that let you adjust the light quite easily. I like them actually. And the sunlight supply lumenmax 3 gives REAL nice light distribution. it's absolutely perfect for the 2'x2' area and you still get some real nice glitter lines. Very stunning reflector; it's a satisfying product.

It's an xm 10k bulb. I just filled it part way as a leak test. I get the plumbing tomorrow or saturday (including the speares gate valves woot!)


that overflow is going to be a ***** to clean I just know it. I'm not looking forward to it

[Boomboy]

wow looks beautiful, is that a maxi??? dont use a maxi use a kor, better water flow. and nicer looking.

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by Boomboy

wow looks beautiful, is that a maxi??? dont use a maxi use a kor, better water flow. and nicer looking.

i know

it was just to get some glitter lines for the picture. I'm leaning towards a vortech actually. Or a tunze turbelle with a controller. I'm seriously contemplating some sort of a wavemaker that's scalable as the SPS grow in volume.

[mseepman]

What makes you think the overflow will be so hard to clean?