schg's Ultum Nature Systems 45u

[schg]

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:

Ultra Pop:

Ultra Blue:

Reef Daylight:

 

[schg]

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).

 

[schg]

 

[schg]

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.

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.

 

[schg]

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.

I will need to wait for this, but I'll be grabbing a Sigma 70mm macro lens in the nearish future.

 

[schg]

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!

 

[schg]

Sorry, two more. Been playing with the camera a bit more. I am really going to enjoy this!

 

[schg]

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.

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.

 

[schg]

In the two minutes I was able to spend with the lens testing it out (I am technically working right now ), 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:

 

[schg]

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

Money Cowrie

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

GSP

Mummy Eye Chalice isn't looking too hot still, but is starting to look better

Nano conch

 

[schg]

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:

 

[schg]

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.

 

[tmc13]

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?

 

[schg]

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.

 

[schg]

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!

 

[ahud]

Can you explain the closed loop setup?

 

[V A R I A N T]

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