Smite's UNS 75g Peninsula

Smite

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The moonshine method is appealing. I have a ICP test sitting that I should use.
I remember Mr. V had that nice baby blue on his Doomsday to but as I recall it didn't last. One friend thought it was Manganese. Nice job!
Thanks. This piece is from Mr.V haha. I’m thinking the same. I dose manganese daily and it was still undetectable at the recommended dose so I’ve upped it about 25%. Just sent a test out yesterday so I’ll see where it’s at in a week or two
 

CoralNerd

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I was told Manganese is hard to overdose so I had it on my doser at 1ml a day. (older product called Reef Grow) It killed my Carolina. Oh do you have the Carolina Mr. V had? 😵 Such a nice bright smooth skin loved it.
 
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I got both the Doomsday and RP UV from you around a month ago. The doomsday has held color but the UV has taken on a greenish brown color...nothing like the crisp white yours shows.

I'm currently running Red Sea trace elements and want to switch over to Moonshine soon. What are you running nitrate/phosphate at?
 

Smite

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I got both the Doomsday and RP UV from you around a month ago. The doomsday has held color but the UV has taken on a greenish brown color...nothing like the crisp white yours shows.

I'm currently running Red Sea trace elements and want to switch over to Moonshine soon. What are you running nitrate/phosphate at?
I'm starting to think the RP UV browns out with nutrient swings pretty easy. It completely browned and slimmed like crazy after my first dose of AB+ aminos. Either the sudden increase in food or something in there it just really didn't care for.

When I got it from RP it was super browned out and took a long time to start to color up in my 100g a few years back. I think it's just one of those pieces you need to be patient with.

Currently my nitrates have been in the 3-5ppm range and phosphates around .06-08. When I was selling those frags I was feeding like crazy and my nutrients were 0-0 so it's possible yours browned more if you have detectable nutrients.

I highly recommend the Moonshiner's program. It's somewhat expensive upfront to get all the elements and then there's the cost of the ICP tests but it really takes all the guess work out of everything. I test ALK/CAL/MAG/No3/p04/salinity the day I send off my ICP to verify my test kits. The ATI kit tests RODI water too, which is great. It helped me find silicates when my RODI was showing 0 TDS.
 
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Totally OT sorry. Was reading back through your build and I was curious to know what exactly you modified from the original AA top and do you like it now? How are they priced in comparison to some of the others you looked at if you don’t mind me asking? I liked working with them on my sump and looking at tops now.

On another note, 15” tall!! Forgot how shallow your setup is bet the full top down vie is epic.
 
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Smite

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Totally OT sorry. Was reading back through your hike and I was curious to know what exactly you modified from the original AA top and do you like it now? How are they priced in comparison to some of the others you looked at if you don’t mind me asking? I liked working with them on my sump and looking at tops now.

On another note, 15” tall!! Forgot how shallow your setup is bet the full top down vie is epic.

So when I was ordering, Octolids and the other similar competitor (blanking their name right now) weren’t taking orders until the beginning of this year. I hit up AA and misread a text where I thought they said they could mimic the Octo lid but they said the lid would need to be perforated. So basically a bunch of holes cut in 1/4" acrylic. It was blocking way too much par for a reef.

No I’m still not happy with it. My next batch of frags will be paying for the cost of an octo lid. I added a feed door so it did end up costing about the same, around $300 if I remember right.

Cons
-I gave exact dimensions for a tight fit. Inside of pane dimensions, thickness of glass and outside dimensions. They went larger all around, and on the recessed portion way smaller. So the lid can slide into the tank before the recessed portion hits. The top being large causes overhang which leads to salt creep and drip issues for me but I do run really high flow.
- it’s not recessed in tank like the others. It’s sits on top and is made out of 1/4” (maybe slightly thicker) acrylic so it is very noticeable.
- With it not being a net and the outer bracing being wide it constantly traps humidity effecting par and contributing to more drips.
- It contacts the top glass all the way around not a handfull of points. I think this also contributes to drips.
- It acts as a giant diffuser, shining all that wasted par back up in your face and ceiling to the point where I was tempted to kill the lights in the room and tell my kids some ghost stories

No real pros in my opinion. They are great at making sumps and tanks but hard pass on their lids. The communication error was 100% on my end but there sizing was very poor and the feed door was expensive. I didn't contact them because I now it probalby would have just come out the same with better dimensions and I felt the major oversight was on my end, so no bashing their CS I never tried.

I heard great things about Octo-lids customer service. Even if there is a wait go that route. If you're in a pinch IM makes a pretty cool DIY option on BRS. You can check out OGFrenchorn's current build. Feed door, recessed and clean looking for 1/3 of the cost.

15" tall with a decently tall stand and I can still topdown view no problem. It's really a very enjoyable tank. Things get knocked of the rocks and I actually pick them up most the time now lol
 
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Ahhh I see. I thought maybe you were just changing out the mesh or something. But you full cut out all the acrylic.

Definitely want a mesh or screen. Thanks for the insights I had never heard of octo lids they look really nice. My needs are pretty simple with an external overflow and hanging lights. I’ll hit them up for a quote. Hope too get to a point where the hobby pays for itself a little, your tank is amazing. Effort and time spent really shines through.

I agree I really like the shallow tank look. I went from a 24” tall tank to 13” and I feel the same way. I’ll save that poor snails life, now.
 

Smite

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clearview i think is the other one you're thinking of
That's it! Thanks Matt

@Jimbo327 Thank you, its' really starting to get it's stride going as far as growth and color. It does look bigger, its basically 120g footprint with a 9" shorter height. I think the external overflow helps too.
 

Smite

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Well I spotted some hair algae here and there but didn't act quickly. It exploded in a huge bloom. It stripped my nutrients and is now covered dinos.
So far it looks like the only piece I'm losing is a small frag of TSA rainbow fusion. I had added a seahare to the tank but it avoided the hair algae altogether, my guess is thats probably right around when the dinos started popping up. I have no sand so it's clinging to the gha.

Plan of attack:
- Stopping Brightwell's Razor, seemed to be working but I think at this point it's just eliminating some of the dino's competition.
- Starting to raise nutrients with neonitro/neophos until they are detectable. I'm going this route to avoid upping my feeding and letting GHA/dino trap more food/detritus
- I'm going to be dosing biodigest weekly and will be adding a few other bacteria strains in as well. Probably MB7
- I replaced all filters in my RODI unit but still need to finish troubleshooting my TDS/Membrane issue.
- Going back to weekly water changes to remove all detritus and hopefully die off.
-I removed my miracle mud section in my sump just to be safe and reduce possible silicates/un controllable elements.
- I've added a polyfilter for now (Last icp showed some copper in the water but all my pumps check out)
- Manual removal daily. I've already collapsed my front structure trying to remove the GHA, it's roots are very strong. I found if I take my tweezers and spin it like spaghetti noodles it wraps up more at once, but also once it rolls up to the rock it pulls against itself and tears off without tugging but that's tedious as all hell.

Hopefully I can get this tank back on track but it's a real bitch so far.

I bought a very small sailfin tang at Tong's, its body is about the size of my thumb. Once the dinos are taken care of I'm hoping the upped cuc, tomini, sailfin and lawnmower will keep the rest of the tank in check.
 
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sorry to hear man, the algae just goes nuts sometimes, then toss in some dinos for good measure

idk if i can offer anything as most of the stuff i did wouldn't be possible in your tank with corals

if you get real desperate, i did remove a few rocks and just dipped a toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide and just scrubbed the shit out of the rocks. it was kinda pleasing as the algae kind of starts sizzling, but i'm sure that also kills off bacteria and who knows what else. plus it getting on your acro colonies would be a huge bummer
 

Smite

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sorry to hear man, the algae just goes nuts sometimes, then toss in some dinos for good measure

idk if i can offer anything as most of the stuff i did wouldn't be possible in your tank with corals

if you get real desperate, i did remove a few rocks and just dipped a toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide and just scrubbed the shit out of the rocks. it was kinda pleasing as the algae kind of starts sizzling, but i'm sure that also kills off bacteria and who knows what else. plus it getting on your acro colonies would be a huge bummer
I hear ya. I've been reading threads on dosing hydrogen peroxide to the tank for treating dinos but not gonna risk that unless things get super ugly.

It seems like the dinos are winning, I feel like there is slightly less GHA then there was before. So far I haven't seen a whole lot of dead CUC, minus the sea hare, so hopefully it's not and extremely toxic type. I'm going to elevate nutrients for a while, then if that doesn't work I'll knock it back with a 3 day total blackout.
 

Smite

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Green hair algae is still going mad but the dinos are gone from raising nutrients. A second seahare was added and while working I'm seeing his back split so he's a goner soon.

On the bright side: Rainbow blossom - a side shot form a different angle shows how much its starting to grow out reaching towards the main stream of flow
DSC_0082.jpg
 

deaclauderdale

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My Tank Build
Darn it Smite I’m sorry you’re having to face these issue, but I know you’ll pull through it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Smite

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Thanks, it is what it is. I've got a solid CUC now even without the seahare. I just need to get it back to a manageable amount and I know they'll pick up the slack. I got my hopes up for a minute there when I saw that guy go to town on it I thought I'd be golden in a week or two.

I did have a small amount of copper on my last ICP, I wonder if the algae soaked some up and nuked the guy.
 

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