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Dichloromethane, I need to check that out!
Brent's Cube
- Thread starter brentch
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Make Absolute sense! Been super busy between work and my wedding, i dont think i have posted a thread on my new tank yet, i upgraded in December 2018. Thats a great way to do things it brings the costs of upgrading down alot as i have personally done this many times in my reefing career. if you need help with the Director for the Hydra let me know you going to need WIFI or mobile hotspot its alittle difficult if you just using your phone a laptop makes things alot easier when connecting. on another very important note, the way you did the doser really brilliant
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I loved your nano that you had, it was sad to see you shut it down. I was following that thread! Please start a new thread on your new tank, that would be great!
Thanks, yes I hear it can be a bit of a hack getting it running, but I am sure I can make it work. I'll get hold of your when I am battling. I still need to get the thing though, just waiting on a bit of money to come in and I'll take the plunge! Thanks, the doser is running nicely now. And after my water change yesterday my parameters are now solid. No more changing needed.
Just be carefull with the Pratley Putty. I know people use it but Pratley now a days have a disclaimer on the box that says its NOT save for aquatic use.Just as a side note, if you are ever needing glues that are reef safe and work well, here are my go to choices...
Tangit for pvc joins, or pvc to some types of plastic.
Locktite gel superglue. This is the best value for money superglue for most of the major brands. You get 20g for around 80 bucks. It is perfect consistency for work on wet rocks. I use it to glue rocks together and coral frags to rock or plugs.
Pratleys quickset putty. This stuff sets in ten minutes and cures in about an hour or so. Perfect for joining large rocks or frags. Works well with wet items. It is what I use when gel suoerflue is to weak. It will dry and cure under water no problems. The purple putty from...... Can't remember the name.... I think it's two little fishes? Is better, don't get me wrong, but cost four times the price at least.
2C.. My new best friend. It's like a superglue that you get to decide when it dries. Apply the glue to the surface, join what you need, and then once alll ready and lined up, give a brief spray of the glued area with the 2C spray hardener. It hardens in about 2 seconds. It will glue any plastic, pvc, fabric, mesh, acrylic, steel, wood, etc. It is extremely strong. If I use it on wood, it is at least as strong as wood glue. If I use it on acrylic it is as strong as magma bond. This stuff is amazing. The only issue is that I wouldn't use it on gluing corals, as the spray of catalyst will go on the corals, and I'm not so sure it'll be so great for them.
I have tried other brands of superglue, putty etc, but generally these are the cheapest and do the job well or the best. I hope you guys can use this info.
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Thanks Dexter, I haven't paid attention to the packaging insert, or the writing on the back of the box. I have been using the Putty for years with no Ill effect on my livestock though. Maybe in larger quantities it becomes more poisonous?
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Nearly, I use 380 grams (10l water change).wow...
Is that the salt you use for a water change. I wish I were you. I'm using 7kg each time. No wonder I'm so far behind on my water change schedule...
I can't imagine using seven kilos each time jeez that's an expensive water change!
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I just got another ow10 for the tank. Can you see it?
It's at the bottom right at the back.
I didn't realize you could link two jebao pumps together via wifi and set them to alturnate. I've now got much better flow in the tank. Both pumps are set to 30%, but I now have more even flow, especially behind the rock work. I'm glad I bought it. I can recommend these little pumps. They aren't the world's greatest, but they do their job well and worth the money.
On the carbon and gfo reactor note. By Thursday my water has usually lost its polished look. So I'll see how things look tomorrow after work. I'm using 60% of the amount I usually use and it's still looking great, so I think I am getting far more efficient use out of my media. I'll do a one week update on the weekend.
It's at the bottom right at the back.
I didn't realize you could link two jebao pumps together via wifi and set them to alturnate. I've now got much better flow in the tank. Both pumps are set to 30%, but I now have more even flow, especially behind the rock work. I'm glad I bought it. I can recommend these little pumps. They aren't the world's greatest, but they do their job well and worth the money.
On the carbon and gfo reactor note. By Thursday my water has usually lost its polished look. So I'll see how things look tomorrow after work. I'm using 60% of the amount I usually use and it's still looking great, so I think I am getting far more efficient use out of my media. I'll do a one week update on the weekend.
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So I was asked to adopt this sorry looking piece of Cualastrea on the weekend, so I've taken it in and given it a new home. It was basically dead when I got it, and I thought there was no tissue left, just bare skeleton. After getting home, I stuck the coral under my led unit and realized there was tissue, as it fluoresced green. The remaining tissue had retracted into the septa and weren't really visible.
In the week since it was put in the tank, the tissue has started to plump up and grow slightly. I'm hoping it'll pull through, because this variety is quite pretty. I'll update progress weekly and see if I can nurse it back to health
The one polyp looks like it'll just die off, but the other has responded nicely to my tank.
In the week since it was put in the tank, the tissue has started to plump up and grow slightly. I'm hoping it'll pull through, because this variety is quite pretty. I'll update progress weekly and see if I can nurse it back to health
The one polyp looks like it'll just die off, but the other has responded nicely to my tank.
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I've just done my weekly tests before the water change. My parameters are quite close to where I want them to be, so my dosing is basically dialed in. I've added 1ml per day extra of each element. I don't seem to have the problem of some elements being used up faster than the others, and the standard dosing ratio of 1 : 1 : 1 is suitable. I was worried about this initially when starting with AF, but it seems to be working well. My corals are happy and my best indicator is the Coraline algae, which is really growing well now. The coral colors have improved too. I am going to stick with this method, I am very happy.
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So my dosing schedule is split up into the smallest doses possible to keep the parameters constant. I do 16ml of each component, split over 24 doses (hourly dose). I can see an obvious change in my corals, they are happy and growing nicely. I suspect I may have to up dosing when I get my hydra26 next week. I just can't wait to put it up. I am just scared of burning the corals now. I'll have to go slow and acclimate them properly.
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So check at the progress here. One week transformation.So I was asked to adopt this sorry looking piece of Cualastrea on the weekend, so I've taken it in and given it a new home. It was basically dead when I got it, and I thought there was no tissue left, just bare skeleton. After getting home, I stuck the coral under my led unit and realized there was tissue, as it fluoresced green. The remaining tissue had retracted into the septa and weren't really visible.
In the week since it was put in the tank, the tissue has started to plump up and grow slightly. I'm hoping it'll pull through, because this variety is quite pretty. I'll update progress weekly and see if I can nurse it back to health
The one polyp looks like it'll just die off, but the other has responded nicely to my tank.
Papitto
PatrickF
Your tank is officially what I would like mine to be
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Thanks so much buddy, your system will be awesome, exciting times starting up!
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I GOT MY HYDRA26HD
I owe a certain someone a huge thank you for hooking me up with this awesome light. I don't think they want to be mentioned, but you know who you are! Thanks so much, I owe you, buddy.
So... I got started setting up the light last night.
Packaged neatly, the whole set up just comes really well presented, similar to how cellphones are packed.
The unit is smaller than I imagined it to be and rather heavy. The unit looks robust. Even the plastic parts (fan and fan cover) are made of quality grade plastic.
One thing I have read across the board is difficulty in running the app. I personally had no difficulty getting the app to run, and I had a program set up in no time at all. I played with a few options first to get the hang of making a custom light schedule, but ultimately I knew that I was going to be using the David Saxby settings. Once I downloaded David's setting I went about tweaking the intensities and making the light colour pleasing to my eye. I turned down the blues by around five percent and added more white to David's preset. I was amazed at the colour of the cool white channel. It almost perfectly matches a 12k halide. The shimmer that the light adds is amazing. I also turned up the UV and violet slightly at sunrise and sunset.
I have also reduced overall intensity by around 50% from the default preset schedule. I have a small tank and I know I will end burning corals if I turn the light up to the maximum.
The light output of the hydra compared to my beloved 1201wifi is completely different. To give you an idea of the strength of these lights, I mistakenly put the Hydra face down on the armrest of my wife's couch. I began to edit my morning schedule, trying to reduce the blues, I think the intensity was around 60% and then... Eish, I'm in trouble
Ten seconds... Literally ten seconds!!! The lights burnt the couch fabric! These things are potent. This morning I put my 1201wifi on a piece of paper to see if it would do the same, even on 100% on all channels it couldn't even make a mark. It's interesting, I know the wattages are different and after all, we're comparing a 2k unit VS a 7k priced unit, it's clear that the Hydra should be better. When I went on reef central, Amazon, AI and a few other websites, I saw that even comparable wattage units, namely the UFO 8300, were being swapped out for the smaller 55watt AI primes because the primes had better PAR outputs. I spoke with the inappropriate reefer and he recommended the Prime over the UFO (follow him on youtube and IG, that oke is a machine) (he was asked to test the UFO by Zetlight
). That's why I chose to go with a hydra over Zetlight. I love the transparency that they have about performance. There are no surprises. Anyway, I'm not here to bash Zetlight, my unit worked well for its intended use, and I am certainly happy with what it gave me for what I paid. I would certainly have not changed a thing. I was on a budget, and that light did the job!
So I have set up the light, which didn't take long. The flex arm is ridiculously strong, and very well made. The unit looks appealing to me, and I'm happy I went with the flex arm. I have mounted the light quite high above the surface. I have plenty of power to play with, so I wanted to get the best even spread across the tank, thus I had it placed at 38cm above the water surface. I am getting good colour mixing and (visually) the spread seems to be fairly even.
Colour blending, shimmer, coral-pop, intensity, and colour choice are substantially better (but that should be obvious). I no longer have to run every channel at-or-near it's maximum, hoping blindly that I would get enough PUR to keep my corals. Now I am able to play around with the settings a bit. The app is great because as you change your colour channels, it superimposes a watermark of the light spectrum behind the channel sliders, so you get an indication of how playing with each channel affects PAR. Pretty fricken cool. I have had an opportunity to see and play with an XR 15 gen 2 before, and this seems to be better on all fronts. Of course, the Radion gen 3 and now the gen 4 are a significant step above the hydra26; but for its price, I think I've hit the sweet spot with my new Hydra. There was a reason Echotech bought out AI, these lights belong in their range.
Of course, the lights aren't perfect though. One issue I had was the base mounting plate is rather bulky. It's plastic too. Everything else is aluminium and stainless, so having a plastic (albeit a sturdy piece) just seems like a cost-cutting measure. The whole unit, arm, bracket, and light are really solid, but the plastic base reduces the sturdiness of the complete unit. Other than that, the hydra is an amazing unit, the GUI is user-friendly and the Apps functionality is limited by how much time you have to play. If you have the time, you could program absolutely anything into the unit.
Epic way to start the weekend!
I owe a certain someone a huge thank you for hooking me up with this awesome light. I don't think they want to be mentioned, but you know who you are! Thanks so much, I owe you, buddy.
So... I got started setting up the light last night.
Packaged neatly, the whole set up just comes really well presented, similar to how cellphones are packed.
The unit is smaller than I imagined it to be and rather heavy. The unit looks robust. Even the plastic parts (fan and fan cover) are made of quality grade plastic.
One thing I have read across the board is difficulty in running the app. I personally had no difficulty getting the app to run, and I had a program set up in no time at all. I played with a few options first to get the hang of making a custom light schedule, but ultimately I knew that I was going to be using the David Saxby settings. Once I downloaded David's setting I went about tweaking the intensities and making the light colour pleasing to my eye. I turned down the blues by around five percent and added more white to David's preset. I was amazed at the colour of the cool white channel. It almost perfectly matches a 12k halide. The shimmer that the light adds is amazing. I also turned up the UV and violet slightly at sunrise and sunset.
I have also reduced overall intensity by around 50% from the default preset schedule. I have a small tank and I know I will end burning corals if I turn the light up to the maximum.
The light output of the hydra compared to my beloved 1201wifi is completely different. To give you an idea of the strength of these lights, I mistakenly put the Hydra face down on the armrest of my wife's couch. I began to edit my morning schedule, trying to reduce the blues, I think the intensity was around 60% and then... Eish, I'm in trouble
Ten seconds... Literally ten seconds!!! The lights burnt the couch fabric! These things are potent. This morning I put my 1201wifi on a piece of paper to see if it would do the same, even on 100% on all channels it couldn't even make a mark. It's interesting, I know the wattages are different and after all, we're comparing a 2k unit VS a 7k priced unit, it's clear that the Hydra should be better. When I went on reef central, Amazon, AI and a few other websites, I saw that even comparable wattage units, namely the UFO 8300, were being swapped out for the smaller 55watt AI primes because the primes had better PAR outputs. I spoke with the inappropriate reefer and he recommended the Prime over the UFO (follow him on youtube and IG, that oke is a machine) (he was asked to test the UFO by Zetlight
So I have set up the light, which didn't take long. The flex arm is ridiculously strong, and very well made. The unit looks appealing to me, and I'm happy I went with the flex arm. I have mounted the light quite high above the surface. I have plenty of power to play with, so I wanted to get the best even spread across the tank, thus I had it placed at 38cm above the water surface. I am getting good colour mixing and (visually) the spread seems to be fairly even.
Colour blending, shimmer, coral-pop, intensity, and colour choice are substantially better (but that should be obvious). I no longer have to run every channel at-or-near it's maximum, hoping blindly that I would get enough PUR to keep my corals. Now I am able to play around with the settings a bit. The app is great because as you change your colour channels, it superimposes a watermark of the light spectrum behind the channel sliders, so you get an indication of how playing with each channel affects PAR. Pretty fricken cool. I have had an opportunity to see and play with an XR 15 gen 2 before, and this seems to be better on all fronts. Of course, the Radion gen 3 and now the gen 4 are a significant step above the hydra26; but for its price, I think I've hit the sweet spot with my new Hydra. There was a reason Echotech bought out AI, these lights belong in their range.
Of course, the lights aren't perfect though. One issue I had was the base mounting plate is rather bulky. It's plastic too. Everything else is aluminium and stainless, so having a plastic (albeit a sturdy piece) just seems like a cost-cutting measure. The whole unit, arm, bracket, and light are really solid, but the plastic base reduces the sturdiness of the complete unit. Other than that, the hydra is an amazing unit, the GUI is user-friendly and the Apps functionality is limited by how much time you have to play. If you have the time, you could program absolutely anything into the unit.
Epic way to start the weekend!
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And this is what I woke up to... A far more natural looking tank, with amazing shimmer and colour.
I have set my light acclimation for one month. I will ramp the overall intensity from 33 to 100 percent over that time... So for example, if my blue channel has been set for 50% during midday, my acclimation mode will start on day one at 16.5 percent, and increase it to 50% in 30 days time. I can change the time of acclimation, and the intensity change I'd like it to ramp up by... Total functionality!
I have set my light acclimation for one month. I will ramp the overall intensity from 33 to 100 percent over that time... So for example, if my blue channel has been set for 50% during midday, my acclimation mode will start on day one at 16.5 percent, and increase it to 50% in 30 days time. I can change the time of acclimation, and the intensity change I'd like it to ramp up by... Total functionality!