afboundguy's downsizing (or upgrading???) 25 gallon cube build

[afboundguy]

love that little dosing pump

It's pretty good. I did just noticed the other day that they're not getting the same amount in at the same time. Calcium is slacking. I looked for any obvious leaks and didn't see any. I'm going to try to relocate the calcium plumbing to see if that makes a difference.

 

[pallobi]

good luck bud...

 

[s_kelley]

The tanks looking good again Dave! Congrats!

 

[afboundguy]

good luck bud...

The tanks looking good again Dave! Congrats!

Thanks guys I'm going to do my best to avoid the presidential tank curse that has plagued past presidents... 25 gallons should be easy enough right?

 

[Alex]

Tank looks great man. Trying to bring mine back from the brink. Hey did Jeff drop the sps habit?

 

[s_kelley]

Havent seen Jeff on here in forever. He sold off his tanks and stuff, thought he said, he was just downgrading and i know he busy with that job

 

[afboundguy]

Decided to order a light before getting an Apex. Hopefully I'll have it by mid next week and it'll probably take me a few weeks to upload the pictures I'm sure

 

[afboundguy]

Just thought of something else. I'm still looking for an Apex but contemplating the Apex Jr to save some money and after the Feb meeting realized I don't have much to control so the Lite and full version might be waaaaay overkill.

But with the Apex Jr it only comes with 4 outlets. I'd have to get the VDM module to be able to interface with the AI but could I just plug the the lights into a normal outlet with a timer so I could use the 4 outlets for other tank items?

 

[Cjtabares]

Just thought of something else. I'm still looking for an Apex but contemplating the Apex Jr to save some money and after the Feb meeting realized I don't have much to control so the Lite and full version might be waaaaay overkill.

But with the Apex Jr it only comes with 4 outlets. I'd have to get the VDM module to be able to interface with the AI but could I just plug the the lights into a normal outlet with a timer so I could use the 4 outlets for other tank items?

When I turn my DIY led fixture to around 5% the LEDs go out. So I would think havinging it on a uncontrolled plug and turning the variable speed port to 0% should turn the lights off.

 

[afboundguy]

When I turn my DIY led fixture to around 5% the LEDs go out. So I would think havinging it on a uncontrolled plug and turning the variable speed port to 0% should turn the lights off.

Thanks Chris... I just found out that the touch sensor to control the intensity of the AI Nano is kind of junk. When the lights are turned off by the timer when they turn off the intensity is at 100% automatically so I think I'm just going to purchase the AI base controller and save a ton of money on a controller for now

 

[afboundguy]

Picked up the AI Sol Nano Thursday and got a free moment to mess around with it last night. Thing is bright and I can't wait to get it on the tank. It comes with a mounting arm but I think I'm going to try to mount it to the canopy so it's a little higher up and gets better spread into the tank. The AI controller won't get to me until Monday which is fine as that's the first opportunity I'd have to put the light on the tank... So hopefully by the end of next week the light will be on the tank and I can start bumping up the intensity of the light...

I plan on testing the PAR once the club's light meter gets sent back after it's repairs/recalibration and posting numbers... And I'll be sure to snap plenty of pictures of the install

 

[afboundguy]

Finally was able to pick up this bad boy this week...

 

[afboundguy]

Initially I tried mounting the light on the back of the tank which worked fine because it's a rimless tank but it was way to low. So I did a little thinking and decided to install a piece of wood to the rear of the canopy so I could get the light up as high as possible to get the best spread...

 

[afboundguy]

Once I got the height set up I trimmed the plastic screws for the mount as they were sticking out way too much. They were perfect length if I was going to keep it mounted to the rim of the tank but I picked up a piece of wood that was the perfect thickness...

 

[afboundguy]

The screws that were supposed to mount the light to the arm needed to be replaced. For starters they were about twice as long as they needed to be so the light stuck out about 1"-2" below the mounting arm and they weren't stainless steel. The stainless steel part wasn't a big issue but my father in law had some stainless steel screws that put the light a lot closer to the mount. I put a nut under the rear screw to keep the light more level and to keep a space for better air flow with the fan...

 

[afboundguy]

One thing I will have to tackle in the future is fixing up the inside of the canopy. The GU10 light set up was screwed in so now I have 32 screw holes that need to be filled in, sanded and then repainted but I don't have time to do this anytime soon So it'll have to be a project for another time...

 

[afboundguy]

So here's the final set up. Got the AI Nano pretty darn close to the top of the canopy. So far I'm loving it. I have it dialed down probably to roughly 33% for the white and a little higher for the blues if I had to guess. The AI base controller is coming today but UPS is slacking it so I don't have exact percentages of what I'm running everything at.

I plan on messing with the controller Wed when I have the day free. I'm also going to try to rearrange some of the corals (again ) as now I have more light in the center so I want to move some of the SPS in the middle. I also think I'm going to thin out some of the corals on the sandbed as I think I might want to go with a relatively free sandbed.

 

[mpsteve]

Dave how is this tank looking

 

[higorc]

WOW, great thread resurrection!!!


Higor

 

[mpsteve]

WOW, great thread resurrection!!!


Higor

Figured it's been long enough without updates.