I am sorry to see this tank come down.
I am not much of an equipment junkie but could you list what you used on the tank please?
Why are you switching? I thought I read that you liked MH better. Is it just to try for the heck of it?
the tank will still be the same looks wise,its just getting a slightly bigger cube so the new cube is 30 x 30 x 20h while the current one is 18 x 18 x 18 , i wont be doing the glass sand bed just because of the wrasses i have and want to switch over to this tank eventually......i have too many wrasses
im switching basically because now i dont have enough light to light both sides of the trees, while i do prefer halides i want to make the backside of the tree sps dominant.
when the current halide sits over the tree dead center i get no light to the bottom part of the tree on both sides, if i move it to the front then no light for the back(how it is now) and vice versa.
the plan is to add 2 x radions one in the back and one in the front....they will be adjustable so i can slide each light forward and backwards.the whole custom hanging arm will be adjusable from the stand to move up and down.
halides unfortunately make for bad top downs and they have bad spread(plus all the norm issues like heat,bulbs,color etc)
ill keep the halides on my grow tanks but the display is going to be leds....i like to think of the bonsai as my art project so i think the adjustable color programs will help with the overall look.
i run a radion on a red sea neo and love that i can program the lights with no timers and i love the different color schemes through out the day.
heres my tank info:
18 x 18 x 18 cube tank
corner overflow w/durso
plumbing is ran through the wall and into my fishroom, the tank shares a system with my growout tank.
return pump is a mag9.5
i run about 1-2 cups of high capacity gfo
i keep around 10-20lbs of liverock in the sump as i cant add any to the display
i no longer run a fuge but use to swear by them.
ats is currently off line untill the new cube is runing(no room)
the current light is a 250w mh at 20000k it is a sunpod fixture.no other supplemental lighting. lights are on at 9am and off around 9-10pm
the fixture is about 5-6" from the surface of the tank.
my tree sits at 18" tall and 17" long and 13" wide
my "sandbed is tempered glass pieces that is now growing a fair bit of coraline....i gotta say after all the "that wont works" and " thats dumb" i actually loved it and wouldnt hesitate to do it again in another fishless tank,just takes patience to grow purple and green
no bio load means lower amount of harmfull ditrius.
i run 2 skimmers one for 200g and the other for 450g both pull out about a 3/4 skimmer cup of food every couple of days.......its all extra food really
total water volume not incuding sump is 100g(25 for the cube and 75 for the growtank)
my water parameters(i dont test much these days TBH)
calcium: 440
alk:8-9
mg: 1260(long time since i tested this)
phos: nil
nitrates: 10ppm ( i try to target 10ppm of nitrates always in order to stay away from ulns)
amonia: always nil
ph: i dont test for ph anymore
i vit c dose about 1000mg a day
my livestock are:
copperband buttefly
pair of harlequin shrimps
green mandarin
4 x peppermint shrimp
the only cuc i have are natural like bristle worms, brittle stars, pods.
with the high nutrient system and low biolaod i have an abundance of amphipods,iso pods, copepods and mysid shrimp.....this is the reason for the mandarin and butterfly.
the tree is mostly zoanthid dominated but house an aray of sps,lps and nps corals as well.
most of if not all the corals in here are collector corals or sought after pieces. the latets count of corals was 130+ and im only half decorated(front only) the other side will be sps dominant and im not sure of the filler coral yet maybe rics
it seems like a lot to take in but its really a basic system, im not too big on dosing small tanks so i do large water chaanges of average maybe 40% a week and that keeps my at par
i use instant ocean for salt...have for ever
i saturate my water column with food all day long , it sees ALOT of food and alot of this food gets skimmed out so def wasted but untill i can set up a live food station this is how it is lol
thanks and cheers guys!