SDguy's Ecoxotic Clown Cube

[SDguy]

I thought I'd finally start a thread about the final home for these two. Here's the original thread from when I bought them, and everything they've been through up until now:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13398740#post13398740

Well, I had them in the solana for a while with no lighting, because I could decide on what I wanted. I ended up going with the Ecoxotic Panorama (which I'm not sure they even make anymore). It was a stock fixture (4 modules, each with 9 whites and 3 blues). I also added used black sand. Big mistake. The tank was a swamp for almost a year, so I really didn't take any pics. This might be the only one I have...

Fast forward to recent times... I removed the sand, and I replaced the stock skimmer with one from Nano Reef Systems. Huge improvements!!

Then I tried a BTA, on two separate occasions. They promptly died I'm not sure what the problem was, but I suspect the lights. I'm a noob when it comes to LEDs. So I threw in a small maxi-mini carpet nem, and experimented with height and duration of the lights. Finally, things were looking better, and the nem was doing well. Unfortunately I think I introduced ich into the tank with that nem, so the clowns had to be removed to QT. They are doing fine now, and will go back into the cube soon

 

[SDguy]

The tank has been looking really good lately, the LR has stopped shedding, so I decided to try another nem. I bought one of those cheap green/kinda brown ones with the speckles from AquaSD. I lowered the lights, and shortened the duration. The nem as been doing great for a couple months now. Really colored up a beautiful green, and opens up BIG! I wasn't really happy with the colors overall, though. The mostly white LED fixture looked very natural, but did nothing for the fish/coral colors. So, I went to AW yesterday and picked up two of the blue/magenta Panorama Pro modules. Wow, what a difference. The colors are just amazing. I can't wait to see what the yellow of the clarkii's looks like under that magenta LED!! Anyway, also picked up a couple more nems from AquaSD. I still haven't been able to get very good color rendition in pics under these lights. I'm going to have to practice some more...

 

[SDguy]

Here's the tank itself, nothing special just yet

 

[BlueFyre]

Nice! I have that same cube but I did my own mixing and matching of panorama pro modules instead of buying the fixture. Tank looks really nice and I love the nems.

 

[SDguy]

What modules are you using? I'm a little surprised that my current combo doesn't really do much for the RBTA...

I'm thinking of adding the 403nm UV stunner for a little extra pop.

 

[BlueFyre]

I have 2 12k/blue modules, 1 magenta/blue, a blue stunner strip and a UV stunner strip. It's been working really well for my coral and anemones. I'm going to be adding a second magenta/blue within the next month.

 

[Dragon moray ki]

Love the tank. They still make that fixture just half an inch slimmer though.

 

[SDguy]

Love the tank. They still make that fixture just half an inch slimmer though.

Yeah, I saw that on their site. For a while they didn't have any on their site...probably in between models at the time. The Panorama Pro modules actuallydon't line up with the screws on the original fixture, so I had to improvise.

BlueFyre - what does th UV stunner do? Does it make all colors pop, or only some?

 

[crobattt]

so what exactly makes an aussie clarkii exotic?

 

[BlueFyre]

I'm not sure what the UV does. I've heard it can be good for corals. When the pros are on you can't tell at all, they are just too powerful. When just the stunners are on it does make the corals pop a bit but the blue stunner does a better job.

 

[lil_man72]

looks great, have you thought about adding just enough black sand to cover the bottom of the tank.
i'm trying that on my illuminata. i know the bb tanks are eisier to keep clean, but any gunk and the tank looks dirty.
i've usually went with a white deep sandbed and left it untouched.
i tried bb with the illuminata and withing a couple of weeks i decided it wasn't for me.
i had light spilling from my sump and the gunk/fish poo looked bad.
i just added about a half inch of black sand and plan on cleaning it with a gravel vac. just like you would gravel on a fw tank. just siphon the gravel while removing unwanted water for water change.

 

[velvetelvis]

Looks great! I really like the shape of your LR. I think that will be a fitting home for your beautiful Aussies.

 

[SDguy]

so what exactly makes an aussie clarkii exotic?

"Ecoxotic" is the brand of the tank/stand/lighting fixture.

I'm not sure what the UV does. I've heard it can be good for corals. When the pros are on you can't tell at all, they are just too powerful. When just the stunners are on it does make the corals pop a bit but the blue stunner does a better job.

Thanks for the into. Guess I'll just leae things as they are.

looks great, have you thought about adding just enough black sand to cover the bottom of the tank.

Yes, definitely in the future.

Looks great! I really like the shape of your LR. I think that will be a fitting home for your beautiful Aussies.

Thanks, I'm sure they'll appreciate having a permanent home, finally!

 

[Whip316]

nice tank. i am using the Ecotech radion on my Solana and i love it. RBTA and all my corals are exploding. when i got my rbta it was 4" and now its over 10" with no feeding.

 

[SDguy]

The one thing I do really like about the Panorama is the design with no fans.