Tomservo's UAS test

[tomservo]

So I pulled the screen up to have a look-see at the growth and decided to scrape early.. Here's some pics:




I also picked up a couple tiny frags, no pics yet. A less than dime piece of green monti cap, and a nickelish sized piece of neon green monti (encrusting type). The neon is wicked glowy, the guy I got it from started his colony from a similar sized frag and it's now covered a 6x6" rock.

[tomservo]

2 week cleaning update! Really scraping in the algae now.. This noodly stuff I keep growing, almost seems like chaeto to me, except it's really soft and kind of squishy. There's lots of it this time. Very happy with the tank is doing, I started dosing sodium carbonate about a week ago, as it was down to 6 dKH. It's back up to 8 or so now. Seems to be quite a bit of demand as it didn't rise nearly as fast or as high as I expected based on what I mixed up.

I really feel like the 4 on / 8 off / 4 on / 8 off is working for me.. I set my friend's waterfall scrubber to 6/6/6/6 and the growth really bumped up a notch.

edit: added a FTS and a shot of the gravel/sand. Still no significant algae in the tank, the inherited HA is still on the same rock to the right of the 'nem. The tiny nem has moved up a bit more and alternates between looking really tiny and looking pathetic. Not sure if it's going to make it.

I've been thinking about adding another koralia to the tank, I'm just not happy with the flow.. With the 425 pointed basically straight at the digi, the polyps get tousled just about right.. but everything else in the tank just gets a steady gentle flow, although the 'nem really likes it how it is / where it is.

[SantaMonica]

Do you still have the wrap-around?

[tomservo]

The plastic sheeting? Yes, I haven't changed that setup at all, although I am thinking I will need to pull it all out and clean it next go round.

[tomservo]

Nother 2 week update, got some new mushrooms. FTS in a bit, I cleaned out the scrubber box and there's some loose bits of algae flitting about.

1/2 cup of algae removed, I'd say about the same as last time.

[kerry]

looking good

[tomservo]

Thanks, Kerry. Seems like you and SM are the only ones following my thread but I'll keep on keepin on... It's pretty easy anyways since I've got a nearly identical thread on the local club's board.

Also the bubble algae is on a boom, I think my emerald crab is on strike or something. He was doin good but what a slacker now.

Sorry if these next shots are kind of off, we got a new P&S camera and I was playing with it.. That and the DSLR batteries were dead.

[SantaMonica]

Looks like your design worked

[kerry]

Many others fallow for sure, not having posts means there is not advice to give, so yes the design is working good. I also get bubble algae every now and then even though my scrubber in the 40G is doing good, I never really worry about it any more.

[tomservo]

Thanks SM, it's shocking really, the water flow through the scrubber section is slow to say the least. I guess if the numbers in the tank stay low it doesn't need much to keep them that way.

I forgot to mention, I diddled with the lights a couple days ago.. I used to have some 495nm LEDs on the fixture, originally 4, then changed to 2, and now none. At the same time I added 4 more 420nm for a total of 8 @ ~18w. Really brought up the 'pop' level, and they look crazy just by themselves.

I hope to have a spectral analysis available soon, I've found plans online to make a USB spectrometer from simple things. I saw an interesting one recently at RC Multichip build spectrum