kgoldy's frankensystem
- Thread starter kgoldy
- Start date
- Location
- Forked River, New Jersey
looks good, id like a better look at your fuge if you could.. also what is the bright white branh in the top right corner, the piece you have the fishing line hooked to? it stands out like crazy, seems to not fit with the rest of the tank which looks awsome, looks like a big thick dead piece of coral..
The big white thing is just a piece I'm coloring up for metrokat. She's getting it back at the swap. Hopefully by then it's a little purple.
As for the fuge, go to nano-reef (dot com) and do a search for my threads there for more pics of it. I'm on my phone right now so I can't post pics
As for the fuge, go to nano-reef (dot com) and do a search for my threads there for more pics of it. I'm on my phone right now so I can't post pics
- Location
- Forked River, New Jersey
sounds good
Been neglecting this thread... Hope you enjoy the updates.
Pics were taken immediately after feeding time... Vortechs were off, but return pump on. Cyclopeeze was EVERYWHERE, and water looks cloudy from all the frozen food debris.
...as I was taking pics, suddenly it became harder and harder to get good shots... I didn't realize the lights were slowly dimming and turning more blue for nighttime. Haha. Maybe this weekend I'll get around to taking some shots under the 14,000k setting. I think that'll look good.
Pics were taken immediately after feeding time... Vortechs were off, but return pump on. Cyclopeeze was EVERYWHERE, and water looks cloudy from all the frozen food debris.
...as I was taking pics, suddenly it became harder and harder to get good shots... I didn't realize the lights were slowly dimming and turning more blue for nighttime. Haha. Maybe this weekend I'll get around to taking some shots under the 14,000k setting. I think that'll look good.
Mantis land. Where I get to see little eyes poking out of a rock once in a while. Yay. -_-
HOB fuge slash "chaeto scrubber". Chaeto is so dense that it's water going through a sponge. Uber nutrient absorption.
I've never cleaned the acrylic on this thing... I'm leaving it up to John Maloney's snails. His new virgin nerites do a better job than anything I've put in this chamber so far... Going to stick a limpet in there when I can pry one off a rock.
FSS (full system shot)
BTW- Took my BoostLED Mu fixture hanging legs design and improved it for the Radions.
3/4" Square aluminum tubes, plastic joints, and sprayed with semi-gloss black Krylon. Looks waaaaay nicer.
All done with pics tonight. Whew.
My thoughts on Radions, after three weeks of having them on my tank...
1- Leaving them on 50% for too long (2 weeks) to avoid burning anything was a mistake. It cost me one frag of gorgeous ORA Pearlberry, 70-80% of an acro I got from East Pacific, and 30% of my biggest acro colony (the light yellow one in the pics).
2- 14k looks much nicer, and a lot more natural to me than 20k. While 20k is supposed to mimic the noon sun, it's actually the least powerful preset in terms of PAR since it's so blue heavy, and it eliminates all red and green. Not really a design flaw... But, if you want noon to be the most intense PAR of the day, you would have to neuter the lower kelvin settings if you wanted to mimic the kelvin rating (or appearance) with 20000k being high noon.
3- At 13" above the water, with a lot of surface agitation, the ripple effect looks extremely similar to that provided by MH lighting. At 9", it's a slight discoball, and highly erratic ripple effect. Going to try hazing my lenses to see if that helps. Ecotech sells pairs of lenses for $11, so it's a cheap experiment if I mess things up.
4- The appearance of my Acans has improved dramatically. Not sure if the new color is just what my eye can no perceive with the new LEDs, or if they're "coloring up" and actually changing. Either way, it's a remarkable difference... Not sure if it's apparent in photos yet.
5- SPS colors have improved, mildly, at least. Better polyp extension on most, especially after increasing the intensity of the lighting program the other day.
6- Vortech pumps seem to get confused every once in a while. I haven't messed with them too much, but it seems like when I reprogram the Radions, the pumps need to be reset to follow commands like... TURN THE #### OFF.
7- EcoTech online "community" is pretty sweet. Quick responses from tech support, and end-user suggestions on software/firmware/hardware are being considered and implemented by EcoTech. This makes me good about jumping onto a new product so early, as I'll get to watch it improve towards it's true potential over the next few months.
And it's past midnight, time for bed. More thoughts on Radion later.
P.S. This is still a NO WATER-CHANGE system. :thrash:
3/4" Square aluminum tubes, plastic joints, and sprayed with semi-gloss black Krylon. Looks waaaaay nicer.
All done with pics tonight. Whew.
My thoughts on Radions, after three weeks of having them on my tank...
1- Leaving them on 50% for too long (2 weeks) to avoid burning anything was a mistake. It cost me one frag of gorgeous ORA Pearlberry, 70-80% of an acro I got from East Pacific, and 30% of my biggest acro colony (the light yellow one in the pics).
2- 14k looks much nicer, and a lot more natural to me than 20k. While 20k is supposed to mimic the noon sun, it's actually the least powerful preset in terms of PAR since it's so blue heavy, and it eliminates all red and green. Not really a design flaw... But, if you want noon to be the most intense PAR of the day, you would have to neuter the lower kelvin settings if you wanted to mimic the kelvin rating (or appearance) with 20000k being high noon.
3- At 13" above the water, with a lot of surface agitation, the ripple effect looks extremely similar to that provided by MH lighting. At 9", it's a slight discoball, and highly erratic ripple effect. Going to try hazing my lenses to see if that helps. Ecotech sells pairs of lenses for $11, so it's a cheap experiment if I mess things up.
4- The appearance of my Acans has improved dramatically. Not sure if the new color is just what my eye can no perceive with the new LEDs, or if they're "coloring up" and actually changing. Either way, it's a remarkable difference... Not sure if it's apparent in photos yet.
5- SPS colors have improved, mildly, at least. Better polyp extension on most, especially after increasing the intensity of the lighting program the other day.
6- Vortech pumps seem to get confused every once in a while. I haven't messed with them too much, but it seems like when I reprogram the Radions, the pumps need to be reset to follow commands like... TURN THE #### OFF.
7- EcoTech online "community" is pretty sweet. Quick responses from tech support, and end-user suggestions on software/firmware/hardware are being considered and implemented by EcoTech. This makes me good about jumping onto a new product so early, as I'll get to watch it improve towards it's true potential over the next few months.
And it's past midnight, time for bed. More thoughts on Radion later.
P.S. This is still a NO WATER-CHANGE system. :thrash:
- Location
- Kings Park, NY
Had the pleasure of seeing this tank in person this weekend and it is BEAUTIFUL!! The scrubber is a work of engineering art. One of the most unique systems I have seen. And the dogs are even sweeter and more beautiful in person. Thanks for the rock bud!
- Location
- Kings Park, NY
Absolutely. We'll set a day up...
Sounds good. I'm going to make sure I finally get to a LIRA meeting next time one comes around. Don't be afraid to text me a reminder, since I always forget. Haha.
- Location
- New York Metro Area
partay
Hey, sorry I've been offline, look forward to seeing you at the dinner tomorrow.:beer::hb2::Up_to_som
Hey, sorry I've been offline, look forward to seeing you at the dinner tomorrow.:beer::hb2::Up_to_som
- Location
- Elizabeth, NJ
Impressive algae scrubbing method. You're not dosing for Cal+ALK, except Kalkwasser in your top-off ?
Where're your levels at ?
Where're your levels at ?
Just kalkwasser. Don't know my levels, cuz I don't test.
UPDATE:
Aquastyles order-
For me, there's no better way to learn than doing DIY projects. I've been reading and reading about LEDs, and toyed with the idea of making my own big LED array for my main lighting... before I settled on my Radions.
An upgrade in fuge lighting seemed like a good excuse to get a better grasp on this part of the hobby, so I ordered two basic 12 LED non-dimming kits, plus a few extra LEDs and different optics to swap out and toy with. Aquastyles is good about customizing orders, so I got 4,500k, 6,000k, and 10,000k whites- plus Royal Blue, Red, and True Violet.
Because I ordered more LEDs than my drivers could handle, I have a few I left off- plus a few that are glued on that aren't wired up. I'm pretty sure I want to order another driver and a few more LEDs so I can boost the output a bit more.
Here's the unboxing- Took 1.5 weeks to fill order, then 4 days to ship. AquaStyles is not very quick to respond to emails... But it seems they will implement requests on the order and post changes to your account on their website (i.e. changes in LED colors, changes in shipping address).
Free hanging kits... Didn't use em, not really sure how they're supposed to be used.
2xAA Battery LED tester.
LEDs. Nicely packed, neatly labeled.
Optics-
Instructions... Not very detailed.
Meanwell drivers-
Black anodized aluminum heatsinks
Box was reinforced to prevent things from shifting around or getting banged up in shipping. I give packing job an A+.
Quick connect wire thinggies. Why include this in a kit that requires soldering? Doesn't make sense to me. Would be more useful to add some heatshrink or electrical tape.
This is almost 4x as much thermal epoxy that is necessary for the entire project.
R=Red
B=Blue
10=10,000k ... etc. You get it.
It took the newest additions to the tank, the chromis- about four days to learn that it was feeding time when I picked up the white jar that is Reef Cleaner's Filter Feeder Formula.
Derasa- up for trade.
Apparently gorgonians get along pretty well.
Briopsis vs hydrogen peroxide... totally saved this acan. Frag looks clear a few days after treatment.
Now that I have the Radions, I can view from above. Weee!! omgomgomg
Random torch die off. No idea what triggered it, so I fragged it and put it in lower current.
New fuge lighting allows me to squeeze my head into the cabinet and look into the back chambers. First time I've seen em in almost a year... amazingly, they're completely clear. No algae or anything, despite all the light splash.
Color banding is obvious in some spots.
Derasa- up for trade.
Apparently gorgonians get along pretty well.
Briopsis vs hydrogen peroxide... totally saved this acan. Frag looks clear a few days after treatment.
Now that I have the Radions, I can view from above. Weee!! omgomgomg
Random torch die off. No idea what triggered it, so I fragged it and put it in lower current.
New fuge lighting allows me to squeeze my head into the cabinet and look into the back chambers. First time I've seen em in almost a year... amazingly, they're completely clear. No algae or anything, despite all the light splash.
Color banding is obvious in some spots.
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