JCole's box of rocks

I like them. Best color blend I have seen with black boxes. They are cheap, and easy to install. I also like that the diodes are going to be easy to replace if one goes out.

With Blues at 100% and whites at 60% the color is similar to the 400w Radiums. They complement each other nicely and I cannot even tell they are on with the halides.

I also removed all lenses so I do not have any disco effect.

I'm running the Sbox boards in my Mars Aqua's now for over a year. Best color and growth i've had in years.
 
I'm running the Sbox boards in my Mars Aqua's now for over a year. Best color and growth i've had in years.

You're at 100% on both channels, correct?

I am on 5 months I believe, with no isssues as well. I have 6 MarsAqua and 2 Viparspectras. If they continue to perform then I see no reason to change.
 
You're at 100% on both channels, correct?

I am on 5 months I believe, with no isssues as well. I have 6 MarsAqua and 2 Viparspectras. If they continue to perform then I see no reason to change.

I've had mine for 8 years and they are still going.

No, around 60% white, 35% blues.
 
This was a busy week for new corals.

I received a shipment from Steve Garrett on Wednesday. I received 12 old school classic pieces. When I say old school, I mean old school like 20 years ago, direct from Tryee old school. This one hurts because I lost all of them except four within 12 hours. I don't know what happened. The pieces were large frags(what some would say mini colonies), so maybe that had something to do with it. I did have a gas leak in my garage from a bad regulator on my water heater during the dipping process. Maybe that had something to do with it as well. Oh well, this is how things go I guess. Still hurts because they were classics.

These are the ones currently holding on

Acropora nasuta (Hugo frag2)
Acropora nana (light house aquatics Purple nana)
Acropora insignis
Acropora sp (original Fragfarmer strawberry lemonade)

These are the ones that bailed on me

Acropora cytherea (blue tip table)
Acropora sp ATL Joleen
Acropora hyacinthus (Greg C hyacinthus)
Acropora valida sp (Garf purple bonsai)
Acropora granulosa (Greg C)
Acropora sp. ORA miami orchid
Acropora turaki (ORA Hawkings echinata)

The good news is that I received over 30 new pieces on Thursday.
BC Awarewolf
BC Battlejuice
BC Battlestag
BC Bliss
BC Blood Bank
BC Blue Angel
BC Blueberry Nasuta
BC Brain Candy
BC Catapult Fireball
BC HellTroll
BC Houdini
BC Lemon Peel
BC Mr Neutron
BC Orange Blast
BC Port Rhombus
BC Reefers Cove Poison Envy
BC Sky Parade
BC Snipers Blue
BC Soft Core
BC Tubbs mystic blue
BC Ultimate table
CITR RR Red Dragon
DFS Joker
JF Home Wrecker
JF Solar Flare
JKR Rainbow
Nicks purple passion
RRC Pink Caddy
Sexy Corals Orange Passion
TGC Orange Creamsicle
TGC Redinator

And so they wait upon their racks...
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This was a busy week for new corals.

I received a shipment from Steve Garrett on Wednesday. I received 12 old school classic pieces. When I say old school, I mean old school like 20 years ago, direct from Tryee old school. This one hurts because I lost all of them except four within 12 hours. I don't know what happened. The pieces were large frags(what some would say mini colonies), so maybe that had something to do with it. I did have a gas leak in my garage from a bad regulator on my water heater during the dipping process. Maybe that had something to do with it as well. Oh well, this is how things go I guess. Still hurts because they were classics.

These are the ones currently holding on

Acropora nasuta (Hugo frag2)
Acropora nana (light house aquatics Purple nana)
Acropora insignis
Acropora sp (original Fragfarmer strawberry lemonade)

These are the ones that bailed on me

Acropora cytherea (blue tip table)
Acropora sp ATL Joleen
Acropora hyacinthus (Greg C hyacinthus)
Acropora valida sp (Garf purple bonsai)
Acropora granulosa (Greg C)
Acropora sp. ORA miami orchid
Acropora turaki (ORA Hawkings echinata)

The good news is that I received over 30 new pieces on Thursday.
BC Awarewolf
BC Battlejuice
BC Battlestag
BC Bliss
BC Blood Bank
BC Blue Angel
BC Blueberry Nasuta
BC Brain Candy
BC Catapult Fireball
BC HellTroll
BC Houdini
BC Lemon Peel
BC Mr Neutron
BC Orange Blast
BC Port Rhombus
BC Reefers Cove Poison Envy
BC Sky Parade
BC Snipers Blue
BC Soft Core
BC Tubbs mystic blue
BC Ultimate table
CITR RR Red Dragon
DFS Joker
JF Home Wrecker
JF Solar Flare
JKR Rainbow
Nicks purple passion
RRC Pink Caddy
Sexy Corals Orange Passion
TGC Orange Creamsicle
TGC Redinator

And so they wait upon their racks...
View attachment 32382983
Hope it works out better. You have the eggcrate just balanced on the PVC tube or is some crazy glue in use?
 
They are just 1" PVC couplings siliconed to eggcrate. Works great.
Good idea. I used to do them like this but I inevitably would get annoyed because I would want to use one of the holes blocked by the legs.
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Now I 3d print these legs, no glue needed. I originally did it like the one on the left for 15mm holes but I realized some of the egg crate has 1/2" holes so I put the cross cut on it to be universal.

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Good idea. I used to do them like this but I inevitably would get annoyed because I would want to use one of the holes blocked by the legs.
View attachment 32383025

Now I 3d print these legs, no glue needed. I originally did it like the one on the left for 15mm holes but I realized some of the egg crate has 1/2" holes so I put the cross cut on it to be universal.

View attachment 32383026

Those are perfect! Do they snap into the eggcrate or rest on top of them? I really like how you can stack them. How much does it cost to print those and can you make them longer? I have been throwing around an idea of a cryptic zone in a 45 gallon trash can with stacked egg crate for all the sponges, filter feeders, etc to congregate. I think this might work for that.
 
Those are perfect! Do they snap into the eggcrate or rest on top of them? I really like how you can stack them. How much does it cost to print those and can you make them longer? I have been throwing around an idea of a cryptic zone in a 45 gallon trash can with stacked egg crate for all the sponges, filter feeders, etc to congregate. I think this might work for that.
These ones have flat bottoms and raise the egg crate 75mm. They could be designed to lock in at the bottom but that would complicate printing a bit (I hate using supports) or another idea is to extend the upper square and have square receptacle on the bottom so they stack vertically. They can be as tall as the printer permits (250mm in my case). I can design whatever you want if you have anyone local who can print them for you, especially if you need a lot. I'm in Canada and I have printed and shipped a part for Vinny in New York which wasn't too ridiculous, so it's not out of the question to do it depending how many you would need. Either way I can do the design part for free (because I enjoy it), just need your particulars.
 
These ones have flat bottoms and raise the egg crate 75mm. They could be designed to lock in at the bottom but that would complicate printing a bit (I hate using supports) or another idea is to extend the upper square and have square receptacle on the bottom so they stack vertically. They can be as tall as the printer permits (250mm in my case). I can design whatever you want if you have anyone local who can print them for you, especially if you need a lot. I'm in Canada and I have printed and shipped a part for Vinny in New York which wasn't too ridiculous, so it's not out of the question to do it depending how many you would need. Either way I can do the design part for free (because I enjoy it), just need your particulars.

Awesome! I will reach out and see if there is anything you could do when the time comes. I don't foresee any new frags for a while, as I will be running out of room shortly. However, I am still contemplating a DIY cryptic zone with eggcrate stacks. It's good to know you could do these for me if I needed them. I appreciate it!!
 
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A little update on the system.

I decided to give ozone a go. I have always been interested in ozone and its benefits, but my previous systems never had a true need for it. With a larger system, I can benefit from the clarity and oxidation it provides. I am looking forward to trying it out. Looking to make an Ozone reactor out of some spare media reactors or put it into the skimmer. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Also, I am retiring the bucket skimmer. It is still running well, but I want to get it out of my sump and have it external. The whole plan with the 300 gallon sump was to put a stingray and a shark in there for the kids. The bucket skimmer just takes up way too much room in the sump for that. I don't trust it installed outside of the sump, and to be honest, it does look a little ghetto. I ended up pulling the trigger on this bad boy today...

Reef Octopus SRO 8000 EXT Recirculating Skimmer
reef-octopus-sro-xp-8000-e-recirculating-protein-skimmer-by-reef-octopus.jpg
 
This looks like a great skimmer. I'm sure you're going to like it,

There are not a lot of videos or reviews on it, but the ones I could find seemed promising. Reef Octopus makes great equipment, so it should work out great.
 
Snapped a couple phone pictures tonight. I need to pull out the real camera soon.

Mounted more frags a couple weeks ago and removed bubble algae. Tank is looking good these days.


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Also the new skimmer is up and running. Pulling out some nice skimmate from the start.

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