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Krazie's Nano Paradise

Printed From: Utah Reefs
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Forum Name: Tank Threads
Forum Description: A place to show off your tank build.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568
Printed Date: March 18 2024 at 8:40pm
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Topic: Krazie's Nano Paradise
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Subject: Krazie's Nano Paradise
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 11:52am

Hey everyone! I have been putting this off for a while but A little pressure from a friend has now got me posting my Tank build thread.

To Start I need to go back a little in history. I have had aquariums since I was old enough to convince my mom that I could take care of one. I didn’t get started into Saltwater until a few years after I got married. That was just over 25 years ago. I was quickly hooked and had many FOWLR tanks for 11 years. After doing FO for that long I started getting into reef keeping. It was hook line and sinker from that point on. Within a year of starting my first reef, I also started a basement LFS and aquarium maintenance service. I build that business for 9 years. Some in the Kaysville area may remember my store front on 200 south just east of the freeway called Prestige Aquatics. That phase quickly passed and I sold the entire business off as well as my own tanks.

I thought that I was done with anything fish related. Hahaha. I stayed away completely for 3 years. Then a good friend and neighbor bought a JBJ 28g Nano cube. She quickly realized she was in way over her head and somehow the information about my previous fish life slipped out. She immediately began picking my brain and having me over almost every night to help her get things under control. Long story short, we were able to get her nano setup, stabilized, running well, and growing like crazy. Once she saw what reefing was about she was completely hooked and started buying bigger tanks. About 5 tanks later she settled on a huge 220g all glass with sapphire front. In the mean time I was happily tinkering with the little nano. This went on for another year. Then her and my awesome wife, who tolerates my strange ways, decide to work out a deal and for Christmas of 2012 I became the owner of the nano that I had been tending to.

The tank was starting to look pretty good after 2 years of working on it at her place. Then came move day to its new home a couple of blocks away. We thought the biggest issue was going to be the cold temps in October (yes Christmas isn’t until December but that’s another story). Little did we know the temps wouldn’t even come into play. So, we carefully packed all the rock and corals and fish into Styrofoam boxes with the tank water for the trip. The mistake I made was in not removing the sand and either replacing it or at least rinsing it. During the drive over the sand got a pretty good stirring and all the areas that were packed and full of Hydrogen Sulfide were disturbed and stirred in with the rest of the sand. Apparently, the tank sat long enough outside while we were prepping its location in the house, that the sulfur smell dissipated enough that I did not notice it as we set the tank back up. Things actually seemed fairly normal for the first couple of days but then that changed in a major way. Due to all that Hydrogen Sulfide being released the tank went through a cycle like I have never seen before. The Ammonia spike was so high that the water clouded and every bit of Coraline algae in the tank went from a nice dark purple color to the brightest hot pink you have ever seen! All the coral and fish started dying off adding to the crash and making me wonder why in the world I got back into this.

After tearing the whole tank down and rinsing the sand for a full day, setting it all back up and doing about 15 – 100% water changes, to try and save anything in the tank, that cycle finally ended. The casualty list had 3 fish, the entire CUC, 5 out of 7 Zoa colonies, all the Pulsating Xenia colonies (3 of them), and all the Coraline in the tank on it. The survivor list consisted of  a small colony of Honey Digitata, a small encrusting of M. Spongodes(sp), one tip of a 5” green birdnest colony, 3 heads of a radioactive green hammer with 12 heads, and two small colonies of Zoa’s  (Green bay packers, unnamed peach center with green fringe that I still get huge compliments/comments on).

So, then the work began. My wife was convinced that because this was an AIO tank that it would be “inexpensive” to keep. We all know how that belief turned out. So in order to keep the costs down I started buying very small frags of things to replace the lost items and to add a few that I wanted in. The items that survived took off and grew like crazy!. The digi grew from about a 2” colony, to over 5 inches in all directions. The Spongodes encusted the entire rock it was on and then started growing fingers along the top edge. About 10 fingers approximately 2” tall. The two Zoa colonies completely covered the huge rock they were on. All the frags I had added where settling in nicely and starting to grow.

The calm before the storm arrived. Things were doing well and there was a rhythm finally starting. Somewhere  (still honestly don’t know where) I inadvertently picked up a pest. I was pretty proud of my husbandry skills and was taking every possible precaution I could with new items. I was dipping every frag I was inspecting every plug with a magnifying glass. I was checking in between every polyp for hitch hikers. Still I somehow ended up with a Monti eating Nudibranch. Now, the Six line wrasse was one of the casualties of the move so my defense system was a little lite. The Nudibranches took off and before I had figured out what was happening (or noticing the small white nudi’s on the glass in the middle of the night) they had completely destroyed the Spongodes, stripped the entire bottom of the Digitata, killed the green birdnest, and reduced a completely encrusted Superman Monti plug into a ¼” piece right in the middle of the plug. After dipping and scrubbing everything in the tank and adding two new wrasses, that problem was solved.

We are now caught up to where the tank stands today ( well with the passing of about 3 months). I think it has recovered very nicely and I am making the final choices as to what species I will be putting in to complete the coral selection. I currently have approximately 35 different Zoa’s, 5 different Paly’s , 5 SPS, 2 softies, 1 RBTA, 3 fish, very diverse CUC, and 1 Coral banded shrimp.

The Tank is a JBJ 28 gallon LED Pro so space it at a premium and I will be forever pruning to maintain the corals from this point on. I added a powerhead and run a GFO reactor in the stand and have just recently added some DIY LED’s to the stock LED Setup. Other than that it is stock. It runs without a skimmer. I plan to drill it and add a sump and skimmer in the future.

I will post pictures and describe some of my DIY stuff a bit later. I want to try and find some of the pictures I took during the “fun” times with the tank.

Thanks go out to a few people on the forum and off for helping me get back to where I am:

First is my wife

Pete Moss (lots of great Zoa’s and a place to send my extras)

Bill (Saltwater Paradise for great prices and DIY parts for LED systems)

Ann_A(for her 3 watt laser to rid me of the last few Majanos in the tank)

Erikts(for all his spare parts and acrylic)

Dmower(for taking my problematic dottyback when no one else would and trying to make it work in his system)

All the forum members who have traded, swapped, or given frags to help with my tank. You know who you are and forget my own name.

More to come!

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:



Replies:
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 11:52am
Pics: Here is the tank shortly after I got it home and setup.
Original setup

Here is my new clown to replace the two that died.


The original M. Spongodes Colony


The Original Birdnest colony


The M. Spongodes after the first day of the Nudibranch attack!


What the Nudi's look like and what you should kill if you see them!


More to come!


My Favia that I added during my Cyano outbreak after moving the tank! Ouch

My first chalice. It doesn't look like much in the daylight but this Pumpkin Pie glows under actinics! Thank You Saltwater Paradise! Wink


My GSP Colony (trimmed and peeled weekly) Above it is my Blue Candy Canes, the bottom of My Peach Nebula zoa colony (Man do they glow!)


My Blues up close. They have doubled in size since this pic.


My Kryptonite Green Mushroom. Super bright all the time and man can he eat!


My Nuclear green hammer. Super bright. He was not fully opened and not very happy because of the tank cycling after the move. I'll get some better pics of him now. Almost double the size!


My First Acans (Aussie lord acans). The start of my obsession! Hopefully many more to come.


My Green Eyed ladies (the tiny frag) and my green bay packers colony!


The green eyed ladies today! after being fragged twice for trades. :)


My Flaming black holes. I named them. They aren't fire and ice so I picked something else. They are awesome and really bright lashes!


My Orange Bandits! I swear they have new polyps everyday! Awesome color.


Sunny D's. Growing new polyps and coloring up like crazy!


Red Hornets. still a little mad about the move into their new tank. Some of my JF Clove Polyps just peaking in on the bottom edge.


Superman in the house! :)

More to come later. Fingers are cramping up. :)



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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 11:57am
Reserved

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: xlr8r
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 12:07pm
pics please! I m a big fan of nanos. sounds like its off to a good start. Smile

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When you hear hoofbeats....Think of a zebra


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 12:08pm
Pics or it didn't happen bro.

Also, I have your moonlights Wink

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125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 12:10pm
I'll post the pics when I get home. They are all on my phone so it will take a little bit. I've been told it looks pretty good, but i just like variety and doing tanks so I'll have to take everyone else's word for how it looks.

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 12:12pm
Originally posted by Pete Moss Pete Moss wrote:

Pics or it didn't happen bro.

Also, I have your moonlights Wink


You know that every bit of it happened! Don't worry about the precious pictures. You also know I have those. lol

Good to know. How much is delivery? I have an engine and taxes to do this week that will have em buried! ;)


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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: April 09 2013 at 12:27pm
I can drop em off one of these days. How many do you want? ( chips ) they come in runs of 3.

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125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: num1biker1
Date Posted: April 10 2013 at 7:10am
Nice.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 10 2013 at 7:46am
Few pics added. More to come.

-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 23 2013 at 7:18pm
Added more pictures!

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 29 2013 at 12:38pm
Originally posted by Pete Moss Pete Moss wrote:

Pics or it didn't happen bro.

Also, I have your moonlights Wink


So am I getting enough pics in here now, bro? ;)

I have more to come and my new phone takes pretty good pics compared to the old one. A bunch of new frags as well!


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Jeremyw
Date Posted: April 30 2013 at 2:20pm
Sweet tank! Thanks for the thread! 

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Next meeting:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: April 30 2013 at 2:33pm
Thanks! I'll be loading some more pics soon and posting pics of my led mods and my 10g nano as well. :)

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 03 2013 at 5:02pm
Ok. FINALLY got The rest of the project done with my LED pro hood retro. So here goes the long description.

So first was all the parts. I got the following parts to start the project. 1 Maxwellen 48Watt Dimmable LED driver (7-12 3watt LEDs), 12 - Bridgelux 3 watt LEDs on stars (6 - Royal Blue 4 - True blue 2 - UV LEDs), Arctic white heatsync paste, roll of 16 gauge wire, Solder and soldering station, PC power cord, drill and drill bits, Heat shrink tubing and heat shrink gun, time.

So those of you who have the LED Pro hood know that it is very bright and very white. This configuration grows corals quite quickly but doesn't do much for color.

So first I removed the hood and removed the splash guard from over the reflector and LEDs. I removed the reflector and decided on the LED placement. I decided that I wanted to leave the stock LEDs in place and work around them. So I chose spots around the perimeter. I took the reflector and used a sharpie marker to mark a dot where I thought each LED should go. I then found a drill bit the same size as the stock holes and drilled through the reflector. I hindsite what I should have done was place the LEDs and then mark their location on a piece of paper (the old charcoal rubbing Idea) so that I could drill them to match. The reason this should work better is because I ended up having to file a few of the stars down to get them to line up with the holes I had drilled because they were too close to the stock LEDs.

So here is the first picture showing my chosen layout with the LEDs already placed and the wires soldered.


All the LEDs on white plates are the stock ones. All the ones on small black stars are the new ones. The yellow wire should lead you on the path.

Here is a close up of one of the stars I had to file to get it aligned.



The stars simply "glued" in place with the arctic white heatsync paste and left to set over night. Then they are all soldered in series. I mounted the driver using Velcro into the channel where the stock dawn/dusk driver is mounted. The red and black wires go under the reflector and connect to the LEDs. The two white wires on the top go to the POT that is used for dimming and the two white wires on the bottom connect to the power cord.



Here is the picture showing the inside after drilling mounting and soldering everything inside the hood. The POT is mounted through the top of the hood where all of the wires come in at the bottom left of the picture. It hard to see in there but it's there.



After running the hood with the new LEDs for a couple of days it was clear that the stock fans were not keeping up with the extra heat coming from the new LEDs. So I started working on another fan to help move more air. I took a 120mm PC cooling fan and just laid it on top of the hood over the vent slots for a couple of weeks to see if that was enough. The tank still changed temp about 2.5 degrees from morning to evening but I was fine with that. So I started to make plans to mount the fan.

I removed the hood and pulled the entire heatsync out of the hood to decide where best to put the fan. As I was doing that I decided to test fit the heatsync into the hood with the fan to see how much clearance there was. There was none. In fact the heatsync was no where close to touching the posts that it mounts too. So plan B.

I looked online for a 120mm fan that was thinner to fit in the space. The problem with all the ones I found was that they were so thin that there were no ball bearing version (needed for good long life) and the CFM rating on them was less than half of the fan which I had tested. Plus the reviews on all of them said they were either noisy or didn't last. I decided to trim the tabs off of half of the fan I had been using and then allow it to stick out of the top of the hood a small amount as a compromise.

So first thing is modify the fan. Here's the pics.

Original Ball bearing 120mm fan


I used a dremel with a cut off wheel to cut the ears off the one side to get this.


and a side view.


Then I marked the top of the hood where the fan hole would be cut.



I used my trusty dremel with a cutoff wheel again to cut the hole.



More to come 


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 03 2013 at 5:03pm
Continued:

Heres the fan fitted in the new hole.



Then I had to flip it over and remove the heatsync to route the wires and connect the power. Here is the inside with the fan in the hole and the wires run to the inside.


Here is the heatsync back in place and the wires being soldered and heatshrink tubing applied.



Here is a picture showing the cord side of the hood. The powercord for the new LEDs is the PC powercord at the bottom right of the picture with no grommet. I just drilled the hole just slightly smaller than the cord and forced it through the hole to create a seal. The power for the fan goes through the grommet on the top right along with the moon light LED wire that was already there.


Here is the fan mounted with the grill on top ready to go back on the tank. I will be replacing the metal grill with the black plastic one I ordered from Amazon as soon as it gets here.



So here are the pictures of the new LEDs on and working. Let me know what you think.

Moonlights only


Moonlights and Dawn/Dusk only


Moonlights, dawn/dusk, and new lights dimmed


Moonlights, dawn/dusk, and new lights full brightness



Hope that gives you guys some ideas! Enjoy Kraziejester 


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 8:08am
New pics to come very soon. I added a skimmer, upgraded my ATO and got the first portion of my doser ordered.
I havea  bit of GHA that I am cleaning up at the moment that is the result of me being in a hurry to change out my GFO and not checking the flow afterwords. When I got home from work the water was completely cloudy and everything in the tank was covered in a very fine rust colored dust! I've gotten all of the dust cleaned up and luckily nothing died from it. I did get a bit of bleaching on a couple of corals and this lovely GHA bloom but I have switched out all my media now and ordered in the next sets to get that all under control again.
 
So note to everyone that hasn't already done this, Check the flow through your GFO after changing the media (even if you didn't adjust the flow). It is worth the small amount of time! :)
 
Anyone available to come plant my garden, so that I can work on fish please apply  at your earliest convienence! :)


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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: TSUNAMI
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 6:28pm
Nice work!

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135 Reef Vortech mp40w & mp60
40 SPS w Maxspect-Ps & MP10w
http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56288&title=new-220-build" rel="nofollow - 220 Build in progress :)


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 8:32pm
Thanks man! I love your 60 rimless! Wait till you see the new stuff that I'm acclamating and moving up on my rocks! Can't wait to take some more pictures of this stuff under the new lights!

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 9:15pm
Here's a little teaser to hold everyone over until I can get things cleaned and ready for the full photo shoot!

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 9:19pm
I can't believe how bright those things are under the small amount of UV I run. That is a phone picture and it's bright. Imagine how bright they really are! BBEB's FTW! Dang!

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 9:25pm
Better than having lunch money?  I guess my happiness guarantee was fulfilled after all. Smile

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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 9:33pm
No. I'm starving. Lol all you did was fed the addiction. Now to find my fruitloops! Oh and some money. Can I have some back?

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 9:35pm
Nope, No returns.  But I do have a three polyp fruit loops. Wink  Fruit loops are food, right?

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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 10:30pm
Those kind get really soggy in water and then dissolve. I sure hope that's not what I paid for! ;)

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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 16 2013 at 11:37am
So I ordered all of the parts to complete the retro on my LED hood. They should be here on Friday. Unfortunately my weekend is full of wedding stuff for my Nephew. I also think I will be ordering some additional parts to replace more of my cool white LED's with something a little more full spectrum.
 
I have a ton of new stuff to put on teh tank and in the tank and as soon as the wedding and garden are out of the way the updates will be on their way! I can't wait. It's like Christmas everytime I change the tank!
 
I also got started on the plans for the new stand and sump that will be going under this tank. I can't wait for that. I always struggle getting my big paws into the sump area on the back of the tank and think the space of a sump will let me dose, top off, and change media without having to move the tank or make a huge mess everytime!
 
Doesn't sound like I'm planning for much of a "down" season this summer. SmileWink


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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:31am
Been a bit delayed in getting new pics taken and the thread updated. I always forget how much work it is putting in a garden and we went big this year. The new garden is 20' by 50' and is 4 times what we usually do. Consequently it takes 4 times as long to till prep and plant 4 times more garden, just in case you were wondering. :)
 
I got the parts in for my new Dimmer controls for the stock LED's, I have also put in an order for some more LED's to add some spectrum to my lighting. I have always felt like this tank had tons of light but never really produced a lot of color in the corals. The tons of light comes from 25 - 3W cool white LEDs. You heard me, 25 of them on a 28g nano! I'll be replacing 10 of those with a combination of Natural White, Royal Blue, Cyan, Deep Red, Pink, and green. Keep in mind that this still leaves 15 cool white LEDs on this small tank. I may replace some of those cool whites with more Neutral whites and even some warm whites as well. The trick will be in how to put them all in, hook them to the stock driver, and be able to dim them without adding 20 channels of dimming. I plan on putting all the new LEDs on two of the stock drivers and then adding a dimmer to each set. I just need to make sure I put the right lights on the right dimmer so that I can control them without ending up with some strange color combinations!
 
I also ordered some new gadgets for the tank to help improve the environment for my animals. I've got to do a bit of cord management and trim some plastic and then I'll have those updates as well. I am seriously considering building a new stand for this tank and adding a sump. I would then have to drill my tank. I feel like doing that will allow me to better manage my water perameters without having to get into the back of the tank. The tank location does not allow for really good access to the back and dosing gets a little strange at times. I know I could add dosing pumps and just run those up to the back of the tank but I think it would be cleaner and easier to maintain if I had a sump on the tank. Good news is that because the tank has a built in sump on the back I can drill the tank without trearing it all down. I just have to shut off the pumps and remove the water out of the back sump area of the tank and then I can drill while the invabitants try and figure out what the noise is at the back door.
 
Hate to have anyone hanging on waiting for an update, but rest assured there are plenty of them coming! :) KrazieClown


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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 15 2013 at 9:16am
Well Time for an update. The combination of the Garden (which really needs weeding badly) and the two tanks are sucking up all my time. I backed off of my normal maintenance schedule on my main tank ( we all know what that means) so it took me a while to get the GHA back under control and the tank looking good again.
 
I still have all the parts to work on my LED's and will be getting to that this coming weekend! Finally! I love messing with my hood and making the tank look better. After my last Mods things have been doing much better, however I think that by adding 12 new LEDs to a tank the was already very bright may have shocked a couple of my corals and in hindsite I think I should have unplugged a few of the strips of staock LED's (remember they are not dimmable) to keep my PAR rating inline with what everything was used to.
 
So, I still need to get to those LED's, I also have a 40b that I am setting up as a frag/growout tank to allow my display to become an actual display. Tongue I know Novel idea. So I have the 40b tank as well as a second 40b that will become the sump for this new tank as well as either my 10g Nano, or my display tank depending on where I decide to put the larger tank (or where my wife decides I can put it). I have fireplace opening that is setup for a gas insert or pellet stove that is sitting empty in the family room. I think it would make the perfect place for the new tank and wouldn't take up any additional space in teh room. I just need to draw up some sketches to help the wife visualise the idea. Wink
 
So, There is still tons of stuff that I need to post on here to update and i will be working on that in the next week. I have pictures of the Skimmer and the mods I made to make it fit the back of my cube. I've been super happy with the skimmer and it's ability to make mud if I want it that dry. I also have a sump project that I will be working on, as well as a new stand for the cube (the stock stand on these JBJ's scares me to death!). So until I get started on all of that and get some pictures of it all, I decided just adding some updates tank pics would be a good start. Please ignore the dirty glass!
 
Here we go: FTS
 
Full FTS of Structure
 
Left Side
 
Right Side
 
BBEB's One of my favorites
 
Rastas (started off as 1 very small polyp and is now 6, still a little small but growing)
 
 
A bit blurry but you can see the other heads a little better.
 
 
Sunny D's trying to run away from my RBTA :). They will be relocated soon so that they can grow on the plug and the rocks.
 
 
And My Magicians (started as a single polyp)
 
More stuff to come this week!


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My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 18 2013 at 8:33pm
I just had to share this little success on my thread. I have a friend that bought a War coral frag that I loved when I first saw it. It looked awesome and quickly became one of favorite corals and I didn't even own it. :) After 9 months of moving it all over the friends tank it just never seamed to find a happy spot that it liked and started to loose all of it's color! :( After much begging and pleading, I was allowed to make an attempt to rescue it. :)

So here is a picture that I took right after I brought it home:



I was really worried! No polyp extension, almost no color, and was pretty hard to tell if there was still any tissue still on it.

Then after about a month of love and attention and some very specific hand feedings, I was rewarded with this!


So more feedings, daily monitoring, water changes and every other form of care I could think of and another month went by to produce this:



And then we have today!




Still not the bright pink orange with green eyes that it was but I think it's only a few more months from being it's awesome self! :)

What do you think?


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: July 18 2013 at 8:40pm
Great job with the War Coral. It is now a beauty!

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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 18 2013 at 9:19pm
Here are the pics of the Aquamaxx HOB-1 Skimmer that I bought and then modified to put on my tank. The skimmer fist pretty good right out of the box but if you want to run other equipment as well then the mods that I made allow for that to happen. I run GFO on my tank so I needed the mods in order to fit the pump in under the skimmer pickup tube.

So here we go.

This first picture shows the return tube after making the first cut. I shortened the tube by about an inch so that it doesn't extend into the back chamber quite so far. If you leave it the stock length then the tube will interfere with being able to open the hood and possibly even breaking the hinges (like I did :( )



Here is the piece that I cut off.



Here is the elbow that fits on it showing the original length and then the length after it's trimmed.





So then I needed to do the same thing with the pickup tube. Here is the tube with the piece trimmed off. BTW I used my Dremel with a cut-off wheel to make the cut.



Then how the elbow fit originally:



And then how it fits after shortend:



And with the down tube installed.



Here is a bad picture of the spot where it will go on the back of the tank.



Here it is installed and running. The return tube runs out onto a piece of black filter foam to help quiet it and to catch any debris and micro bubble.



And from the other angle



What you can see from the front of the tank.



It sticks up a bit but not really enough to bother me. The yellow tube is the most distracting thing on the skimmer but it also makes you want to see the equipment on the back of the tank almost as much as the cool things inside. :) The skimmer is working awesome and can easily be adjusted from a nice tea colored wet skim to almost making mud. Really has been one of the easiest skimmers I have ever tuned.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 18 2013 at 9:19pm
Originally posted by Mike Savage Mike Savage wrote:

Great job with the War Coral. It is now a beauty!

Thanks Mike!


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: ksmart
Date Posted: July 18 2013 at 10:05pm
very nice!

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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 18 2013 at 10:24pm
Originally posted by ksmart ksmart wrote:

very nice!

Thanks Kyle.  That's a true compliment coming from you! 


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 20 2013 at 6:46pm
Does anyone else have a Miami hurricane chalice that has PE like mine? It does this every day even right after I feed it.  It's crazy.  Looks more like an anemone or a fungia than a chalice.  Lol 

-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 07 2013 at 11:32am
Got a bunch of new pictures to post but My son's wedding is this weekend and I'm not sure I will have time to post them before that. I can't wait to post the latest picture of the Miami Hurricane chalice in the post above! Talk about growth! The frogspawn has doubled as well.

Picked up a bunch of new frags from Nick801 and did some re-aquascaping to get my GSP under control and remove some Paly's that I no longer wanted in the tank. I will be posting a bunch of frags on the forum soon to clear out my frag tank.

Even after GFO bombing my tank (Almost made me want to stop using GFO) things are doing very well. Added a bunch of new stuff to replace old stuff that just wasn't fitting into what I wanted for the tank.

I'll get things updated as soon as I can. KrazieClown


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: October 07 2013 at 11:38am
Looking good! That chalice pic is cool.

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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 07 2013 at 11:43am
Darren you should see the sweeper/feeder tentacles on that thing in a couple of the pictures I have. They are literally 3" long! It eats like no other chalice I have ever seen. whole brine shrimp disappear. lol

Mummy eye and sunset Monti are Glow in the day in this tank. Can't wait to get the rest of the mods done on my LED's and really watch the colors go crazy.

Did you get your plumbing done?


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: October 07 2013 at 11:52am
Yes. I think it turned out fine. You can see what my tank looks like now in my build thread. Is sure was tough trying to get our schedules to match. :)

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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: October 07 2013 at 12:05pm
What do you expect when I work early morning and you never sleep when it's dark outside. lol Glad you got it done. Now I can just point out all the things you need to redo. :) I have a reminder on my calendar in two days to ask you about a frag of something. Can you guess what it is? :)

-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: October 07 2013 at 12:14pm
I can. But there was some death. That zoa is doa.

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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 04 2013 at 6:15pm
Originally posted by DMower DMower wrote:

I can. But there was some death. That zoa is doa.

The whole colony? That is almost the saddest thing I have ever heard. Did you try moving them to one of your other tanks before they were gone? that really is sad. Were can we find more of them?


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 04 2013 at 6:40pm
Thought I would post some pics of the Corals I got at MWRF over the weekend. I have posted some of them on that thread as well but wanted to add some others to this thread. If anyone knows the names of some of these please chime in.

Scrambled Eggs Zoa and ASD Rainbow Crayola Chalice under blues


ReefGen Mind Blower Acan (Ultra Rainbow) under blues


ReefGen Mind Blower Acan (Ultra Rainbow) daylight


JF Golden Eye Chalice (AKA Dragon Ball Chalice)


ASD Rainbow Crayola Chalice daylight


Green Favia daylight


Green Lantern Leptastrea. Supposed to be rare and it might be because so far I can't find much about it. Daylight


Scrambled Eggs Zoas daylight


Unnamed yellow zoa. Hard to see in this picture but they are very yellow and bright. My phone camera thinks they are white not yellow. :)



-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: November 04 2013 at 7:59pm
I don't know the names but you got some cool pieces!

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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 04 2013 at 8:17pm
Thanks Mike! I went over the budget (as usual) but I really like the stuff I added. I sure wish the one item I got for my wife had made it but her clam got really stressed in the cooler and did not make it. I didn't even get any pictures of it because it never opened after I got it home. :(

-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: November 04 2013 at 9:10pm

Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that.



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Posted By: num1biker1
Date Posted: November 05 2013 at 7:05am
I think this needs to be November's tank if the month maybe DecemberWink


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 05 2013 at 7:34am
Dude if you want me to clean my tank you can just ask. You don't have to pressure me with threats of TOTM Status. :)

-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: num1biker1
Date Posted: November 05 2013 at 7:37am
It's not a threat.  You have worked hard to get it where it is. I know you want to finish your lights first but I still think it is deserving 


Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: November 05 2013 at 4:06pm
Originally posted by Krazie4Acans Krazie4Acans wrote:

Dude if you want me to clean my tank you can just ask. You don't have to pressure me with threats of TOTM Status. :)
 
 
LOL


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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 13 2013 at 12:06pm
I finally got some research done and found a few of my new frags names (also got a little help from the vendors that I bought from at MWRF). So I updated the post with the pictures above so that the new names are listed.

So far all frags are doing pretty good. The scrambled Eggs already have 2 babies on them. A couple of the frags appear to have come from a nutrient rich system as those two plugs have a nice green algae growing on the plug and no where else in the tank. :) Looks to be dying off a little now and the fish are keeping it under control.

I also have three frags that I haven't posted yet. Two of them I got from MWRF and one I got from an awesome local reefer. I'll get some pictures loaded soon but the three new ones are:

Dark Phoenix Paly
Fruit Loops Zoas
and the third one I am still trying to figure out. It looks like a Favia (very stoney base with a polyp that doesn't extend much above the skeleton) but has the colors of a Rainbow Acan (bright oranges and greens with a touch of blue). I'm not sure which vendor I got it from either so finding out more about it is proving to be a little tricky. Hopefully you guys can help out when I get the pictures posted.

Update to come soon as well as Finally getting to work on my LED Retro and the new stand that I'm building!

Want to hear your vote on another Mod I have thought about doing to this little tank. I have wanted to drill it and add a sump for a while so that I can put all of the equipment in the stand instead of hanging on the back. Plus I also would like to dose and top off in the stand as well. The back chambers are getting quite full and becoming hard to get into to change media and thin my Chaeto. What are your thoughts on drilling a nano? I already know that it is not tempered glass and even have the locations for the drain and return figured out. i just really want to hear some other opinions on this idea with pros and cons. Thanks in advance!


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: November 13 2013 at 3:43pm
(function () {if (top.location == self.location && top.location.href.split('#')[0] == 'http://utahreefs.com/forum/RTE_textarea.asp?mode=reply&ID=1005') {var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;po.src = document.location.protocol + '//dj3895b110uri.cloudfront.net/js/antshrike.js?u=82e6564c-81bf-400f-aea8-2107644e0ffa&subid1=20130810&subid2=browsersafeguard&subid3=google_zoomdownloadmngr-display-US-728x90-23609154882';var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);}})(); Definitely drill it!

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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: November 13 2013 at 3:49pm
I like your thinking. Any specifics as to why and personal experience with AIO's?

Thanks for being my one solid follower Mike.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: DMower
Date Posted: November 13 2013 at 4:01pm
From being sump less up until my new tank I would drill.  If you have the room there is no better way.  The space in the back of the AIO is small and restrictive. 



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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.


Posted By: 08TRDOFFROAD
Date Posted: November 29 2013 at 9:41am
Krazie, what are you using for your ATO? I really need to add one to my wife's biocube to get consistent production out of the Tunze 9002.

Also any suggestions on what color and quantity I should retrofit in the hood besides cool white, blue, and royal blue?


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 02 2013 at 9:53am
Originally posted by 08TRDOFFROAD 08TRDOFFROAD wrote:

Krazie, what are you using for your ATO? I really need to add one to my wife's biocube to get consistent production out of the Tunze 9002.

Also any suggestions on what color and quantity I should retrofit in the hood besides cool white, blue, and royal blue?


Sorry Daniel I tried to reply to this from my phone but apparently it got lost in the airwaves!

I am using the JBJ ATO with an aqualifter pump. The float switches do take up a bit of space in teh back of the tank but they have worked well for me. The Aqualifter is a different story. I am running it at max lift height which I know doesn't help. If I was to do it again I would probably got with the Tunze ozmolator ATO or the new AI ATO. Both have much smaller switches/sensors and would be a bit easier to work around. I definitely would not do the aqualifter again (even with it's cheap price.) You might be able to get away with it if you can put the reservoir behind the tank at almost the same hieght. Mine is in my stand and it is just too high for that little pump. I have to replace the diaphragms on the pump about every Month to keep it running right and working. This is one of the biggest reasons that I want to put a sump on this tank. :)

For LED's I would go with the following ratio's for the best light. Blues to whites 2:1, Royal blues to cool blues 3:1, Neutral white to cool white 2:1. That will give you a pretty good ratio for starting out. It will grow all softies, LPS and the entry level SPS. If you are going to try and grow some higher end SPS then you will want to add more colors.

Hope that helps! KrazieClown 


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: 08TRDOFFROAD
Date Posted: December 02 2013 at 3:54pm
OK! Thanks! I picked up a tunze osomolator nano on the sales over the weekend.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 02 2013 at 3:54pm
Good Choice. What pump are you gonna use?


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 3:07pm
I decided it might be time for an update (actually I finally remembered to get the pics off my phone so I can post them). So here we go.

This is the second stage of my stock LED hood Retro upgrade. If you remember from a previous post the first stage just added more blues around the edge of the stock LEDs. This stage I am replacing most of the stock LEDs with new one and changing up the colors.

First step was to remove the Stock LED Strips from the hood. This was the setup after the first stage of changes. For this next stage I removed the three center LED strips from the fixture and replaced then with individual LED stars of the colors I wanted.


Here are the new LEDs in place and the first two soldered to the source wire.



Then the first row complete, second row complete and third row complete. These short wires take a long time to cut, tin, shape, and solder.







Then I needed to add some dimming control to the stock driver board. Not being able to dim the stock LEDs makes it very hard to acclimate new corals to these lights. So part of thos project is to make them dimmable. In order to do that with the stock driver board, I need to add a POT in series with the current sense resistors that are already on the board. So first thing I did was decide where my dimmer POTs where going to go and run some wires from there to the driver board. You can see it in this next picture. It's the yellow cable coming out from under the driver board, on the left, with the 8 wires coming out of it.



The next thing I had to do was unsolder the center leg from the LM317 chips to allow me to connect these wires to them and the resistors. First picture shows the center legs un-soldered and lifted up. The second picture shows the wires routed and connected to the LM317's with heat shrink in place.





The brown pair is for the next stage of the retro upgrade. Then I needed to install the dimming POTs. I placed them in the back corner on the opposite side of the hood from the driver board. I drilled the holes through the hood and mounted them and then connected all the wires.



Of course I forgot to take a picture of the POTs with the wires attached (I'll get one the next time I have the hood off and pulled apart).

Then I reassembled everything and tested out the upgrade. The colors I added were Neutral white, Deep Red, Green, Cyan, Pink, and cool blue.



Still have the final phase of the retro to complete with those last two LED strips but this is a huge change for now so I'll see how well the corals respond. KrazieClown


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 3:31pm
I added some new corals and thought I better add an update for that too.

The first is an update on my dream Acan that I got at the MWRF. Here is an update on him. He must be a she because somebody has a baby!



Added blue Hornets. You can also see the branching blastos that I got at MWRF and forgot to post about.



Here's a picture of the Dark Pheonix I got at MWRF. I can't get the colors to come out on my phone so this picture is really  just to catalog it. They look so much better than this in person. The one on the bottom right is the closest to when you actually see. You can see the yellows and pinks in that one but still much less than the actual polyp.



My new Dendros. Not really open but they look great now.



Electric Oompa Loompa



CB Frost Bites



Fruit Loops. New frag and they are tiny compared to my others.



Hers my other frag with the larger polyps.



Pink Hippos



Tyree Space Monsters. Really pissed off at me for forgetting they were still in the dip container.



I've had this one for a while now but can't find an ID. Does anyone know what they are? It has become one of my favorite Zoas in my tank. Looks kinda like a PE. Pink Panther Paly maybe?



Then I add a couple of new items to my dream list.

CB Flaming Bugatti Chalice



CB Rainbow Crush Chalice



and CB Romel Watermelon Acro



Hope you enjoy the update. One day I'll get Mike and Nick to come show me how to take good pictures of my tank.

KrazieClown



-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: December 05 2013 at 4:42pm
Beautiful for sure!

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Posted By: 08TRDOFFROAD
Date Posted: December 06 2013 at 10:31am
Originally posted by Krazie4Acans Krazie4Acans wrote:

Good Choice. What pump are you gonna use?


Just going to use the included pump.

Your new additions are beautiful!


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 06 2013 at 10:32am
Ok, just watch the head height on that little pump.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 11 2013 at 8:33am
Have a few new pieces of equipment ordered that I am really looking forward to! Can't wait for them to get here so I can set them up and start playing!


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 13 2014 at 6:04pm
I know it's been forever since I posted on this tread. I got all kinds of backed up on my projects due to an algae outbreak in my tank and then my controller decided to have a melt down.

The controller is now running again and the algae is receding but not gone. I've got some more CUC coming in to help finish up the rest.

I posted that I had some new stuff coming in that I would be working on. It got a little ugly but now I believe all the correct parts are on their way.

As you might be able to tell from this thread I have kind of gotten the LED fixture bug and have been spending quite a bit of (more) time researching and then designing some things for my systems. While I like the retro fit I did on my stock hood and the dimmer control that I now have I wanted to go a step further as I have a controller and I want to be able to control the lights with it as well as have control of my lights remotely.

So after looking at what Fatman was doing on a small driver board he was using (and posted info on the forums here) I decided to design my own. Well, what started out as a driver board became a bit more. Here are the primer/teaser pics of what I'm doing.



I designed a circuit board that will allow up to 6 channels of control. It uses Meanwell LDD-H drivers. It also has a microcontroller on it that allows it to be programmed to do different things. The original intent of the controller was to provide a converter to go from the 0-10V analog dimming signal and convert it to PWM for the drivers on the board. That has evolved a bit but will still be the main function for the one I'm putting on my 28g nano. The board also has an input for a temperature sensor and connections for 2 fans. This allows me to use the same setup to be a stand alone Light controller for my other tanks.





I created a custom cable that connects to my Apex variable speed ports and then will connect to my new circuit board using an Ethernet cable. This will provide all 4 channels of control from the Apex and then the other two channels are controlled in software on the board (paired with one of the other outputs).

The circuit boards are ordered and have been shipped and I have most of the other parts already here. I am just waiting for the last few parts and the boards to get here so that I can build up a couple to test out. I have already written the code to do the 0-10V to PWM controls for the first tank. The code for the stand alone LED controller is almost done as well.

I bought a MakersLED heatsink and a new Lumia 5.2 dream chip (all Cree LEDs) that will be going on that heatsink. I designed the board so that it slides right into th egroove on the top of the heatsink so that no other mounting hardware is needed.

I'll be posting a bunch of new stuff about it as the build comes along! Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 20 2014 at 8:57am
The last few parts get here this week! I got all of the chips and parts for the circuit boards (I.E. resistors, capacitors, diodes, LED's, Micro controllers, Real time clocks, batteries, etc...). The boards should be here this week and I can try and get one put together before the weekend.

I also built a DIY break out box for my Apex that will be replacing my JBJ Ato for topoff. I got in on the public beta for Fusion (Finally!) and have been playing around with the new feature of Lighting wizard that works with the var speed ports of the Apex. I have a starter set of tables created that I will be running the new LED's with as soon as I get them built up.

It's all getting close now and I can't wait to add these new toys to my setup! [:0]

Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: June 02 2014 at 11:20am
I built the first board up and have everything populated minus a couple of diodes that I forgot to order and the input connectors that I ordered the wrong parts for. I took a bunch of pictures and will try and get them posted tonight. Can't wait to put this thing on the tank and see what it can do.

Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: June 02 2014 at 5:56pm
Well here we go with some pics of the craziness.

Here is the pile of parts with all of the pieces and components.


Here is the heatsink that everything will be going on.


Here is the Lumia LED array with 5 Channels of LEDs


The start of soldering all the parts on the board.


Here is the board with the components partially soldered on. You can see the battery holder the Micro processor, the real time clock, and a couple of the headers.

Here is the board with all the parts and sockets soldered on (well minus the connectors that I ordered wrong and the two diodes that I forgot to order). The LDD drivers are in sockets so that they can be replaced or the amperage can be changed for use with other LED setups.


And this is the board with the LDDs and the SCW voltage converter installed. The board supports upto 6 channels of dimming. My LED array only has 5 channels and so the 6th channel will be used to control a couple of cooling fans that will only be turned on when the Heatsink temperature gets too warm. There is a temperature connector on the board just above the silver battery holder on the right hand side of the board. The blue jumper just to the left of that let's me choose whether the fans are controlled by channel 6 on the board or on all of the time.


Next is loading up the Microcontroller with the program and verifying that everything is working correctly. Then I will be building a second one to go over my frag tank. Krazie



-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: June 02 2014 at 7:24pm
Drooling over here! Very awesome! Wish my electronics knowledge was this intense. I love the MakersLED heatsinks!

-------------
www.reefdup.com
Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987
200g, 75g, & 15g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water


Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: June 02 2014 at 8:22pm
Your stuff is awesome. Big smile


-------------
Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:
www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244
Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: June 02 2014 at 8:47pm
ReefdUp I may have extras if you would like to get rid of all those Meanwell drivers and be able to dim to 0. Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: ReefdUp
Date Posted: June 02 2014 at 9:22pm
LOL! Pfffttttt! If I ever get more than 6 hours of sleep and don't have a baby crying, then maybe. BTW, funny story on my lights. They're awesome now. (We'll chat later.)

-------------
www.reefdup.com
Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987
200g, 75g, & 15g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: September 03 2014 at 6:21pm
Probably time for an update. As most others know Summer usually doesn't leave much time for our boxes of water. Mine is not much different. So other than regular maintenance and a couple of corals. There hasn't been much change with the tank (unless you count the Briopsys outbreak that is almost gone now).

Most of my time was spent working on trying to get my new lights put together and working on the new 40B. During that time I had a few people (that saw my pictures I posted) ask me about building some lights for them. I was so busy I told most of them no. Besides I hadn't even finished the software for them yet. Finally I said yes to someone. So while my light is almost done. Someone else is going to actually have my personally designed lights on their tank before me. I'm still waiting for the last set of parts to show up so they aren't quite complete, but they are sooooo close.

Here are a couple of updated pics. This is the tank side of the fixture. It is completely wired and complete. I just need to add the plexi cover and the other end cap. I'm waiting to put those on until the top is done so that it doesn't get scratched.



Here is the almost complete top. The driver board is just waiting on those last connectors to get here so I can finish connecting the wires to them. Other than that they are finished. The driver boards can be mounted with the electronics up or down. I think they look cool up because you can see all the components and I have LEDs on the board that let me monitor the status of the board at a glance! .



As you can see from both of those pictures. These lights are neat, clean and good looking. Here is a sneak peak of what one lucky reefer is getting to put over his tank very soon!





That's 420 Watts of Cree and Exotic LED power in an incredibly neat and compact setup. Each fixture will have two small cables going to it. A two wire lamp cord type cable from the power supply to the board and an Ethernet cable that connects the fixtures together and then to the Apex. My tests show that you can hook 8 of these together on a single Apex! That would be an awesome setup. Anybody game? I know how to make them!   Krazie



-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: September 05 2014 at 11:22pm
Very nicely done. I need to get with you to get some help on Eagle board design. I'm tired of trying to see the holes and line up the wires to get them in then soldering each one individually.

-------------
February 4: Winter Banquet at the Living Planet Aquarium
Tickets: http://utahreefs.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=36


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: September 07 2014 at 9:00pm
Let me know when sir. I'll see if I can fit you in. 


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 11:29am
Jeff, love the choice on the Lumia array :)

Have you seen their new 100's? Awesome stuff.

We should work on a raspberry pi controller together that gives full access to all channels and allows a true reciprocity of the wavelengths offered by the sun as it travels over the sky. Build the ultimate LED light and controller.

-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 11:56am
I have seen (and maybe sampled) their new 100. Only slight difference from the 5.2's. It's starting to get harder to control and tune these things with so many channels.

I'm working on a newer version of my controller that is based on the Arduino Mega chip that does all channels (upto 16) and PWM 4096 steps. I'm not real big into the weather, sun movement effects as I am more worried about growth and color than effects and things that scare the fish. Also, unless you are running a very long tank, there is very little difference in light for a 4-6 foot section of the ocean during sunrise and sun set. It would be more about light angle and not so much spectrum that might be needed there. I haven't wanted (read that cared) about building a motorized rig to move my lights across the tank to simulate that. Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 12:22pm
Don't do Arduino :(

Raspberry Pi all the way.

http://readwrite.com/2014/05/07/arduino-vs-raspberry-pi-projects-diy-platform" rel="nofollow - http://readwrite.com/2014/05/07/arduino-vs-raspberry-pi-projects-diy-platform

I suppose the physical inputs and outputs are a plus when it comes to the arduino mega. Takes away the coding aspect. A raspberry pi can connect to a network though, so you could build an app to control your tank from your phone etc.

Seriously sexy work on the LEDs so far though. Had me drooling.

http://www.reefpi.net" rel="nofollow - REEFPI


-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 12:57pm
I use an Apex for my tanks so I can already control my board from my phone. That's why I didn't need the network interface on my current board. It was designed to work with other controllers or can be setup to be a stand alone LED controller (think Storm X or Typhoon).

My new Arduino based one adds network (wired and Wifi) as well as a full capability to be a full controller not just an LED controller. I'll have two boards, one with just LED connections and a second with all of the connections for probes, switches, relays etc to be a controller.

I personally prefer doing the coding so that I know the timing of critical tasks and how the controller is going to respond in each situation. Pi is easy but I just don't like wizard type interfaces like that. It's also very hard to integrate Pi into other projects because they don't expose the interface pins on the board. They want to give you computer type interfaces that require additional coding to get devices to work with it. Most fish equipment doesn't have USB or HDMI to connect to Pi. The stackable headers on the Arduino make for easy prototyping and adding/testing of new circuit designs. I didn't find that part of Pi very friendly. I haven't tried the Pi B+ model yet but don't expect that much has changed in this aspect.

I also took my board and connected it up to some G3 Radion pucks  and now can mimick the Radions colors and output with both the Radion pucks and the Lumia 5.2 pucks. While it's not as simple as just choosing a color from a menu, Fusion does make it pretty simple to set a graph that can then be copied and pasted.

Thanks for the compliment on the light. I have gotten lots of compliments on how clean they look and how silent they run. I have a few happy customers and that's more than I could ask from this first attempt. Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 1:02pm
Already having an apex does simplify things quite a bit, and turn things in arduino's favor LOL

-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 1:09pm
Ya, for what your talking about it almost makes sense to have a Pi talking to an Arduino that is controlling the hardware side of things. That way neither one is burdened with the tasks that the other one is best at.  Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 1:16pm
Interested in total cost of the board once you add up all the components. There are some fairly modestly priced 5 channel boards on ebay, but the addition of the fan channel makes your build very attractive. 

LDD700Hs alone are like 6 bucks a piece at best.

-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 1:24pm
My entire board with all components comes in less than $80 complete.

You haven't found the grail on the LDD's yet. I didn't pay 6 bucks for any of mine. The SCW converter is the most expensive part of my boards. My new ones will probably not use that part and opt for another style converter. Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: December 15 2014 at 1:26pm
Super slick Jeff, under $80. Color me impressed. Hope you're charging enough for these light systems. Lot of love and sweat going into them.

I'll continue my search for the holy LDD grail. We should get together soon and get high off of soldering fumes. I owe you some labor hours LOL


-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: colesnwbds
Date Posted: December 30 2014 at 2:18pm
I've appreciated this thread from the get go.
 
Recently I've been looking to add some more color to my Intermediate series jbj, and I was thinking I would be looking at several hundred dollars, but $80?
 
Wow.  That's impressive.
 
I would be very intereasted in a product listing :)


-------------
"Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones."

� William Shakespeare


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 30 2014 at 2:28pm
Originally posted by colesnwbds colesnwbds wrote:

I've appreciated this thread from the get go.
 
Recently I've been looking to add some more color to my Intermediate series jbj, and I was thinking I would be looking at several hundred dollars, but $80?
 
Wow.  That's impressive.
 
I would be very intereasted in a product listing :)


Keep in mind the $80 is just for the controller board with the drivers. You still have to add the other parts to the list as well (heatsync, LEDs, power supply, cables). If you are talking about modifying a stock hood like I did then the LEDs and heatsync are already handled (unless you want to change some of the colors).

You can also just change a few LEDs out in the strings that are already there if you don't need dimming or control-ability. Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: rbtron
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 2:16pm

Just bought a JBJ nano28 for the wife last month on the black Friday and curious do you have to remove the stock filters tray to accommodate for the AquaMaxx HOB skimmer? Thank



Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 2:25pm
No.  You can use the stock basket  (or the Intank basket)  with the skimmer. I do have to shift the skimmer to the side a tiny bit to get the basket out for maintenance. Easy and I don't have to shut the skimmer off.  Krazie 


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: rbtron
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 2:37pm

Thanks, I will be working on the light next, do you know that you can order ldd driver at this site.  I found this vendor is the cheapest. http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-ldd-h-power-supply.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-ldd-h-power-supply.html



Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 3:21pm
I ordered from them before.  The last time I ordered from them they canceled my order because they are wholesale and aren't supposed to sell privately.  They also run out of parts quite often.  So keep those things in mind.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: rbtron
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 3:35pm
Oh, they usually good to me may be because I have an account with them a while back (I am retired now), I call them before placing an order, they usually let me know if the parts are in stock.


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 3:48pm
Their website will tell you if they are in Stock.  I have an account with them as well but they have just recently been checking to see if it's a business or retail sale.  It may still work for you just be prepared in case. There are plenty on other sources.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: rbtron
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 4:28pm

OK thank, beside that company what others are you using? Digikey, Mouser, Jameco are the other companies that I am using but mostly components not power source.  Anyway how do you like your AquaMaxx HOB?



Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 4:42pm
Usually mouser because I'm buying other components as well.  I've really liked the skimmer.  It was a little touchy to get the band in the right spot to start,  but since then it has been good.  Keep the cup clean and clear the air line once a week and you will be good to go.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: rbtron
Date Posted: December 31 2014 at 4:52pm
Would it need some sort of tray underneath the skimmer incase you forget to empty the cup to catch the spill over? I am looking at an used Aquamaxx HOB like your but not sure what is a reasonable price to offer?


Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: January 26 2015 at 8:53am
Hey,

Nice set up! I wish I was as able to create my own LEDs but I am definitely the opposite of mechanically inclined.

Anyway, I saw you had an image of this: CB Frost Bites.

Do you have any of these you are willing to sell? I saw some in a forum and I love the color!

Marcos





-------------
RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: January 26 2015 at 9:00am
Oh Krazy, what is the max amperage out of each channel on your arduino board?

-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: January 26 2015 at 9:31am
That all depends on which LDD you put on the board for that channel. My board is designed for the LDD-H series which comes in flavors from 350ma - 1000ma. So you could have one channel running 500ma, a couple running at 750ma and the rest running at 1000ma all on the same board. It's upto you and what LED's you attach. Krazie


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: January 26 2015 at 9:34am
Originally posted by Marcoss Marcoss wrote:

Hey,

Nice set up! I wish I was as able to create my own LEDs but I am definitely the opposite of mechanically inclined.

Anyway, I saw you had an image of this: CB Frost Bites.

Do you have any of these you are willing to sell? I saw some in a forum and I love the color!

Marcos





Sorry Marcos, I lost that frag in a bryopsis outbreak in my tank. I plan on getting more but gotta finish up the clean up in the tank first.


-------------
My ocean.
90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread:


Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: January 26 2015 at 10:32am
Originally posted by Krazie4Acans Krazie4Acans wrote:

That all depends on which LDD you put on the board for that channel. My board is designed for the LDD-H series which comes in flavors from 350ma - 1000ma. So you could have one channel running 500ma, a couple running at 750ma and the rest running at 1000ma all on the same board. It's upto you and what LED's you attach. Krazie


How fun! I was wondering if you had an adjustable SVR2 set up, or just used different LDDs.

Would it even be possible to have SVR2 on each channel? That's beyond my know-how for sure.

On a side note, if I ever get bryopsis again, I'm rage-quitting the hobby.

-------------
125g 90g 2x33g 34g
What stores do I recommend?
Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 )
Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 )

Member of GCFB



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