schg's Ultum Nature Systems 45u

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Decided to try to grab some photos of the new puck from Lux, just to give an idea of the spectrum and presets they recommend. Just as a reminder, this is the Luxdium Gold puck shown on an AI Prime HD. These photos are mostly unedited, although I tried to get the Ultra Pop preset a bit closer to how it looks in real life (unsuccessfully):

Optimized III:
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Ultra Pop:
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Ultra Blue:
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Reef Daylight:
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Had a delivery show up from Reef Cleaners this morning! I'll try to finally grab some decent livestock shots once everyone settles a bit, but most seem happy and healthy so far (minus the Porcelain Anemone Crab losing a leg).

UNS45u-0047.jpg
 
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I decided to switch my inflow pipe for the closed loop to a smaller (13mm) pipe, and it doesn't appear to have cut off the flow much at all. It DID make a massive difference visually though, as the left piping nearly disappears inside the tank. You can see the float switch I am using as a safety for the return pump, but I have plans to make that disappear a bit more over the next week or so.

UNS45u-0051.jpg

Current status on the tank:

The good:
  • Got a few more frags, including more neon GSP to fill out that rock on the left (I didn't want the non neon GSP to take over), a small acan, duncan, and a few more zoas including Utter Chaos.
  • Things are definitely on the upswing from the tank transition, with most things that were unhappy looking substantially better.
  • Flatworms are almost eradicated it seems.
  • All of the new inverts seem happy any health, aside from a few small losses. The Fuzzy Chiton is probably my new favorite thing in the tank.
The bad:
  • The coral that lost its color after the tank transition is still kind of dull looking, mostly a few less exciting zoas and all the SPS. I plan on starting Red Sea AB+ and Reef Roids this weekend to see if that helps perk them up a bit more quickly.
  • The Jedi Mind Tricks Monti and the Red Monti I have are both looking pretty bad, not sure if they will recover.
  • I have a leak somewhere that I am having a really hard time tracking down, every time I open up the stand I see standing water at the bottom of the stand. Really not good, so I might take everything out of the stand this morning and try to track this down.
 
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We ended up getting rid of our Canon T7i today, and picked up a Sony A7ii on a pretty amazing sale.I still need to get the hang of the new setup, but I feel like this is so much better than I was able to get out of the Canon, even with just the 28-70mm lens it came with.

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I will need to wait for this, but I'll be grabbing a Sigma 70mm macro lens in the nearish future.
 
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Just ordered the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro lens, should be here Thursday! Also having someone come over tomorrow to run some PAR readings, and they are bringing a few zoa frags with them.

Just another shot from messing around with the new camera, pretty nice to be able to get decent color and even a fairly solid shot handheld at night with low light. I am definitely impressed with it!

UNS45u-0054.jpg
 
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Four pickups today (only two pictured):
  • Rastas
  • Crown Royals
  • Red Hornets
  • Mohawks


I had to re-glue my Radioactive Dragon Eyes onto a plug as the RFA decided to re-home itself right on top of them. I'll find a new spot for them once I glue these down.

UNS45u-0057.jpg

Also had my PAR readings done, and found that my light diffuser was REALLY too effective, and cutting the PAR down by about half. That kind of explains why I was having a few things brown out on me. I removed it for now and am going to acclimate everything to the light a bit over the next week or so, but should be able to increase to 100% power on the new puck. I'll post up my readings later.
 
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In the two minutes I was able to spend with the lens testing it out (I am technically working right now :p), I am VERY happy with this purchase so far. I'll have to spend a bit more time with it after work, as I am honestly still learning the new camera as well.

First test photo of my new favorite invert, the Fuzzy Chiton:

UNS45u-0058.jpg
 
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Grabbed a few shots tonight as I figured I should start trying to document growth and color and whatnot. I am still getting a feel for things with this camera and lens, but I am SO impressed when I do get it right:


Forest Fire Digi, looking a bit more fire than forest
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Money Cowrie
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My hi-fin goby decided to make a BRIEF appearance for the first time ever tonight, so I wasn't able to get a solid shot of him
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GSP
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Mummy Eye Chalice isn't looking too hot still, but is starting to look better
UNS45u-0063.jpg

Nano conch
UNS45u-0064.jpg
 
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This weekend I picked up a head of Dragon Soul torch, two heads of a super bright green torch, a reddish-orange and green blasto, and Vamps in Drag zoas from some local reefers.

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And a FTS to show where things are for now:
UNS45u-0069.jpg
 
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Rigged up a little T5 hybrid setup this weekend, going for a bit of an industrial look since it will fit the eventual surrounding aesthetic. I will probably change up the fixture a bit more to make it cleaner, but it works great and I am super stoked to have a hybrid fixture again! Ignore the dirty pipes and glue I forgot I left out. :D

UNS45u-0070.jpg
 

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Looks good. What color and brand T5 bulbs did you decide to go with? Did you lose shimmer from the LED's by adding the T5's?
 
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Looks good. What color and brand T5 bulbs did you decide to go with? Did you lose shimmer from the LED's by adding the T5's?

Thank you! I bought a used Aquatic Life fixture which I cannibalized to make this setup (it may still be a bit cumbersome looking, but it looks way less obvious than a huge black box!), which came with used ATI bulbs: 2x Blue+, 1x Coral+, and 1x Actinic. I'm likely going to replace with new ATI bulbs: 2x Blue+ and 2x Coral+, and turn the whites down on the LED to allow the white to come more from the T5 and the blue to come more from the LED.

I lost a bit of shimmer, but it was honestly too much with the LEDs alone, so this works perfectly for what I want.
 
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Back to a closed loop:
I know I talked about dropping the sump, and after weighing back and forth on things a bit, I decided it was for the best. I wasn't able to get things where I wanted them with flow and cleaning the overflow, but I also had a hard time with the small glass lily pipes (I broke one). I decided to pick up some 17mm Aquario Neo Flows and went back to a closed loop, this time on the wavemaker pump instead of the canister filter. I have to say I am much happier with this setup, and things are easier to clean overall (although I didn't do the best job today for this FTS.

I have a Ice Probe chiller I'll be picking up next week that I need to plumb into this setup, which I do have a plan for. Once I have that figured out, I'll grab a decent shot of inside the cabinet.

A few photos from today, I snapped about 50 of the hi-fin goby since he was out for quite a while, but couldn't really get the shrimp in the same shot!

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Great photos and love the clean look of your build. Excited to see where you take this.
 
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