My week old pico reef

[Brian60077]

A few photos of my week old pico reef tank after the Reefing USA show yesterday. Now I want the used 50 gallon set up my local store has…. But don’t think it will fit in the available space. Ugh. Need to figure out how to make my iPhone take better photos with the blue light spectrum on.

 

[griss]

Looks great.

For the pics, check Amazon for phone picture filters. They filter out the blue. Here’s what I have but didn’t work so well since I’m using metal halide.

Phone Camera Lens Kits

Never used a lens kit before but thought I’d try one since I’ve not been happy with the color of my pics. I bought a cheap lens kit (Zerodis) off Amazon. It has Macro, 15000k and 20000k lenses. Here’s how the pics look: First pic - no lens Second pic - 15000k lens Third pic - 20000k lens...

forums.reefcentral.com

 

[Brian60077]

Thanks. I’ll have to check that out

 

[Brian60077]

Did the first partial water change this morning, since it has been a week my pico reef tank has been running. of course all the corals closed up while doing it and then almost instantly reopened once the "grow light" I am using was put back where it belongs. Was thinking about waiting 2 weeks, but maybe with the new additions from saturdays show, it was a good idea to be proactive since it is only barely a 2 gallon tank.

 

[Brian60077]

I went and did a thing earlier this afternoon. I was talking to a friend of mine who has a huge reef tank like 250 gallons, and he came and looked at my little 1.5 gallon converted beta bowl and said…. “Well….. yeah it can work….. however you’re going to be spending more time and money maintaining it than actually being able to enjoy it because it’s so small. How about I give you a deal you cannot refuse, I have a Fluval evo 13.5 kit that I was using up until 2 weeks ago and kept running in the event I needed an isolation tank, however I just got another idea for that on a customer trade in of a 50 gallon tank, so… I’ll sell you a basically fool proof set up as long as you listen to me and not rush things, you will have a nice enjoyable mini reef that isn’t going to require constant maintenance. For $175.00 I’ll sell you the tank, hood with the proper spectrum lighting, a power head, heater, 2 skimmers, enough salt, a complete test kit, a refractameter, quick start additive, a programmable timer for the lights and the live sand that is in it. You’ll just have to give me a couple hours to drain it, clean it and put the sand in a bucket for transport, and I’ll bring it over in a couple hours.” Well…… since today is my birthday, and I always wanted a nice setup…. I bought it. Here it is after being filled, and waiting for water to clear. Maybe tomorrow I will transfer my little coral frags into it. Looking forward to having a “legit” reef tank.

 

[griss]

Happy Birthday and congrats.

 

[Brian60077]

Thanks

 

[Brian60077]

Guess I cannot call it a pico tank anymore, have to figure out what it's "official" name is.

 

[Reefing102]

Looks great! Now it’s a nano

 

[Brian60077]

Thanks. Now time to start planning other corals and fish

 

[Brian60077]

Wondering when I should have just the blue lights on, kinda thinking before the timer shuts the lights off for the night like 30 to 60 minutes before they go off, and maybe first thing in morning but not sure. First tank with live corals

 

[griss]

I have an actinic LED light bar supplementing my 11K metal halide. I have the actinic come on one hour before the metal halide and turn off one hour after the metal halide. It gives the tank the illusion (somewhat) of sunrise/sunset. It also gives the first a slow acclimation to the lights turning on/off.

 

[Reefing102]

I’m similar to @griss with blue LED supplements for my halides. That said, I also have an Evo 13.5 and I don’t think there’s a way to set up the blue lighting separately from the white without manually changing it each time.

 

[Brian60077]

I’m similar to @griss with blue LED supplements for my halides. That said, I also have an Evo 13.5 and I don’t think there’s a way to set up the blue lighting separately from the white without manually changing it each time.

It appears that it has to be manually changed, which can be a pain, I typically work from home, and can switch to blue in the evenings, hopefully when they come on in the morning, it will come back on with the previous mode, otherwise I can also switch it then. I will say the corals I have have awesome looking colours in blue lights

 

[Reefing102]

It appears that it has to be manually changed, which can be a pain, I typically work from home, and can switch to blue in the evenings, hopefully when they come on in the morning, it will come back on with the previous mode, otherwise I can also switch it then. I will say the corals I have have awesome looking colours in blue lights

I have mine on a smart outlet and it comes on with the last mode it was set to.