My 28g Nanocube with Radion LED

[taphil]

Tank started August 2011.

- 28g Nanocube

- Ecotech Radion Pro. I don't really like the hoodless look for the Nanocube, so I decided the mount the Radion inside the hood. I took out MH fixture, chopped off its plastic support structure, and screwed the Radion in. I've run the Radion first generation for about a year and upgraded to Radion Pro last month.

- Maxijet 900 x2 return pumps

- Vortech MP10

- No skimmer

- Rear sump media basket contains blue filter pad, 1/2 cup GFO in mesh bag, and a bag of Purigen. Left sided chamber has 1 cup ROX carbon in mesh bag. Right sided chamber has 150w heater.

- Bubble Magnus triple dosing pump:
- 56ml soda ash per day
- 85ml calcium per day
- 1200ml water top off per day

- 5g weekly water changes.

- After tank stabilized, I don't check levels regularly, maybe just once a week. Alk ranges 9-11 and Ca 450-600. I make 10% changes to dosing pump as required and check levels again in a week. I don't monitor Mg more than once per month, usually it's around 1500. I don't monitor pH.

- Temperature is 78-82.5 year round with up to 4 degree swings between day and night during the summer.

- No chiller. My apartment is stable 76-78 during winter, and 78-80 during summer with AC on.

- SPS (partial list):
ORA Red Planet
ORA Blue Voodoo
ORA Joe the Coral
ORA Borealis
ORA Plum Crazy
Aqua Delight
Red Tabling Acro
Blue Turaki
Red Dragon
Cali Tort
Oregon Tort
Miyagi Tort
Pink Lemonade
Strawberry Shortcake
Upscales Microclados
Purple Monster
$500 Efflo
Palmer's Blue Millie
Neon Blue Millie
Pink Millie
Green Millie
Jesus Stag
GARF Bonsai
Sunset Monti
Rainbow Monti
Green Cap with baby blue polyps
Green Slimer
Setosa

- Inverts
Rainbow BTA x2
Blue Maxima Clam (grew 1.5" in past year)
Fire Shrimp
Cleaner Shrimp
Tuxedo Urchin x3
Hermit Crabs x6
Snails

 

[NL146]

Really nice work. Somehow I thought you had a bigger tank.

 

[taphil]

I wish I did. But I live on the 5th floor of a brownstone. I'm moving In a year, so I intended for this tank to be both a display tank and a fully stuffed a grow out tank until I upgrade.

 

[Koolaidreef]

Great looking! Its not about the size, its about beauty! From the previous zoa pics I too thought you had like a 75 g at least!

 

[prattreef]

Really nice. What percentage intensity do you run the Radion on? That is a lot of light for 28g!

 

[ruha456]

Official kid keep the pics coming u definately doing it for tv looks awesome.

 

[jcs11236]

Looking awesome. How so often do you change out gfo/carbon?

 

[empire]

beautiful! very curious to know your light schedule. what are you running the pro at?

 

[taphil]

I do what works, and what works tends to often go against what's been otherwise said out there....

The Radion is mounted at the highest point I could get it inside the hood, so it's only about 4" above the water. Light turns on at 9AM (mostly blue and UV, with a little bit of white) and gradually ramps up to 60% at noon to 10K preset. Then from noon (10K preset) to 11PM, total intensity stays at 60% but the amount of white goes down so the spectrum gets bluer from 10K to 20K preset, and overall intensity decreases slightly. At 11:30AM to 12:30AM it goes to mostly blue and UV to UV only, just so I can enjoy the unnatural fluorescence of the SPS and zoas for a bit before the lights go off.

That said, I've never had any SPS bleach due to supposed high LED intensity. I've also never turned the Radion past 60%. When I switched from MH Radium 20K 150w bulb to Radion, I started at 35-40% which was a lot higher than what other people recommended, but didn't have any problems either. Also, the light cycle is supposedly too long and may cause photoinhibition, but I haven't read anything convincing about this effect related to Acropora.

GFO is changed every month, and carbon every 2 weeks.

Nitrate I measure a few times a year, last was 5-10. Phosphate has always read zero with Hanna meter.

I used to try harder to keep Alk and Ca very stable, but even with daily testing and dosing pump adjustment was practically impossible for a small tank. So I just went to weekly testing, and SPS growth has never been better.

I feed only fish, and corals/anemone eat whatever they get. I use Rod's food rarely (maybe once every 2 weeks), but otherwise use PE mysis, Hikari mysis, Hikari brine shrimp, Rod's fish eggs, and Rod's pacific plankton.

 

[taphil]

Here's the graph. The timing is unusual because it's fit for my work schedule.

 

[taphil]

More pics. Pics are a little more purple and less blue than in real life.

 

[jackson6745]

Really great job with this nano!

 

[noelskii]

Very nice! Great example of "doing what works for your tank"!

 

[E.intheC]

Very nice tank! Are you worried about the heat build up within the Radion fixture at all?

 

[taphil]

The LEDs do put out a bit of heat. But without any extra fans or cooling, as long as my apt is kept to 78-79 during the summer with AC, the water temp maxes out at about 82.

 

[taphil]

More pics

 

[jcs11236]

Can we see pic of your hood. Like to see how u modded it

 

[taphil]

First I took out all the stock components (reflector, sockets, fans, moonlight LEDs, control board, power cords). I used wire cutters and a welding iron to cut/melt away most of the left and right sides of the housing for the MH. Once the sides are removed, the Radion fits perfectly in between the fan cutouts (ie I didn't have to cut away the round plastic circle cutouts for the cooling fans in order for the Radion to fit). Of note, this leaves intact the possibility of screwing back in the stock cooling fans and using them for additional airflow across the tank for cooling (of course you would need to rewire the fans and provide a power supply).

Then I aligned the Radion in the center of the hood, and looking from the top of the hood marked the location of the mounting screws. I used a drill and make holes for the screws, and screwed the Radion to the hood using the included screws.

I routed the power cord through the hood's stock holes for the power cables. To hold the cables in place, I used the original screw sockets and screws to tie string between the screws and the power cable. I used to also keep the USB cable plugged into the Radion, and run the USB cable from the left side of the Radion along the backside of the hood to the right and out the stock holes with the power cable. The other end of the USB cable that plugs into computer was always dangling down and easily accessible to plug into a laptop.

 

[TRUKINGNY]

Wow amazing tank for anyone that thinks you have to go big this is proof right here that it what you put into it... Great job i hope my 57 gal comes out this nice

 

[noelskii]

Great job! Looks very clean! I'd add some sort of extra (just in case) support for the light so it doesn't fall in the water if the screws fail for some reason.