Hello everyone. I bought a used 14 gallon biocube and for the first few month everyone was happy and all the frags I bought grew and grew (mostly zoas (rastas, red hornets,eagle eye and some fancy ones I forget the name of) 2 acan frags and a beautiful neon green torch and some duncans). My fish were happy, I have a pair of gladiator clowns and a yellow watchman goby and his candy cane pistol shrimp buddy that lives with him. Aside from that I have 1 peppermint shrimp who is awesome and swims along the top of the water to grab mysis when we feed and about 10 blue leg hermits. That and about 13 lbs of LR are the contents of my tank. Also we found 2 gorilla crabs and lots of worms (not bristle, probably some kind of eunicid) bc we got all of the LR from a store I worked for in Atlanta. I also put in a larval? mantis shrimp that came in a bag with a frag. He was so small I thought he was a copepod at frist. was figuring he d either grow and I could move him to a species tank or hed get eaten but it was either that or trash him and I love mantis shrimp and have kept many.
Now along to the problem, When I got the tank I got it super cheap bc there were problems with the fan thats associated with the 10k compact flo which I was able to fix for a while. After about 3 months it started making a rattling noise again that I couldnt fix and my fiance would bang on the top of the tank like she was fonzie from happy days and the top of the tank was a juke box. I only caught her doing it once but she admitted to doing it more than that and the banging on it has caused my actinic light to completely stop working. If I open it up with a screwdriver and push down on a certain connecter the light starts working again but if I shut it then it goes off again. Extremely finicky.
Which brings me to my question: Could I remove the top and sit a L.E.D. light across the top of the tank as tho it were a normal tank? I do not want to get the L.E.D. retrofit kit and im low on funds right now but we are very attached to our little tank and want the best for the corals and fish.
Any suggestions would be a huge help. I am trying to find a way to get enough light to keep low to moderate light softies and lps alive. Id love to put a halide on there but its out of my price range I think. I can only spend 100 to maybe 150 to get this tank lit up. Less is best because I am also trying to start up a 75 reef (have a 75w overflows but it leaks at front so i need to reseal it and thats all I have so far so im saving for everything else.)
Any help is greatly appreciated. I know time is money so I thank you for any donations(of valuable time) and the goal is to light the tank as cheaply as possible. I also put some of those waterproof strip L.E.D. lights on there that made the color pop and were very cheap ($5) but im sure it doesnt help the coral.
TY again
Now along to the problem, When I got the tank I got it super cheap bc there were problems with the fan thats associated with the 10k compact flo which I was able to fix for a while. After about 3 months it started making a rattling noise again that I couldnt fix and my fiance would bang on the top of the tank like she was fonzie from happy days and the top of the tank was a juke box. I only caught her doing it once but she admitted to doing it more than that and the banging on it has caused my actinic light to completely stop working. If I open it up with a screwdriver and push down on a certain connecter the light starts working again but if I shut it then it goes off again. Extremely finicky.
Which brings me to my question: Could I remove the top and sit a L.E.D. light across the top of the tank as tho it were a normal tank? I do not want to get the L.E.D. retrofit kit and im low on funds right now but we are very attached to our little tank and want the best for the corals and fish.
Any suggestions would be a huge help. I am trying to find a way to get enough light to keep low to moderate light softies and lps alive. Id love to put a halide on there but its out of my price range I think. I can only spend 100 to maybe 150 to get this tank lit up. Less is best because I am also trying to start up a 75 reef (have a 75w overflows but it leaks at front so i need to reseal it and thats all I have so far so im saving for everything else.)
Any help is greatly appreciated. I know time is money so I thank you for any donations(of valuable time) and the goal is to light the tank as cheaply as possible. I also put some of those waterproof strip L.E.D. lights on there that made the color pop and were very cheap ($5) but im sure it doesnt help the coral.
TY again
