240 Inwall Construction (Image Intense)

[NanoGurl]

Wow that's scary! I am glad that your house and fish room are safe from that fire! Thank god you were there for that!

 

[matt & pam]

water changes

water changes

Joseph,

When you change water, are your corals exposed to air? If so, how long? Does it stress the corals any? Thanks.

Matt

 

[Bax]

Yikes!

That really could have been a bad situation! That's great luck that you were there to defuse the problem.

... Good reef karma I suppose

 

[jnarowe]

I have a couple of components in my grave yard just like that! :lol: Good save Joseph. The last major one I had there was water on the floor and smoke coming out from under my stand.

 

[chrismunn]

have you talked to the manufacturer of thoes double end caps to see why they dont make them anymore? maybe thier defective?

 

[RGibson]

Joseph have you started to build a new skimmer?

 

[miwoodar]

Good save. That could have been bad.

 

[weatherson]

In fact what happened was that as soon as it popped, the ballast burnt and it stopped feeding power to the faulty end cap. So... I don't believe it would have progressed even if I hadn't been there to pull the plugs. But even so, I sure wouldn't want this to happen while away. Makes a person want to solder the wires right onto the bulb pins, heat shrink the exposed wire/solder and call it a day. Hmm.

Matt: Yes, the upper corals are exposed by about 4" or so. But they are for no more than 5 to 10-minutes before I pump in the fresh saltwater. They slime a bit but don't seem to be bothered beyond this. I do know there are full wild reefs where the tide goes out and living corals are exposed for hours so this brief water change exposure is minimal in comparison.

chrismunn: The manufacturer was IceCap and no, I haven't talked with them yet about this. Although, I have used these particular endcaps for more than 12-years without a single incident. Maybe that's the issue... their more than twelve years old.

RGibson: No, unfortunately not. Partly because my current skimmer still works like a champ and partly because I've been fairly busy lately with other projects/work (hence my lack of updates here as well). But if and when I do decide to get started, keep in mind that it will basically be a retro-fit of my current skimmer with a needle wheel pump and recirculating design. The skimmer's body is plenty large enough to utilize and the existing plumbing bulkheads will work fine for that design.

Joseph.

 

[jrpdriver]

This system is absolutely amazing, your craftsmanship and attitude are inspiratoinal! Thank you so much for taking the time to document everything so well!!!

 

[weatherson]

jrpdriver: Thank you for the kind words and you are very welcome.

OK... I just took a full tank shot that came out somewhat decent. A couple things to point out from the last FTS is that I pulled the Frogspawn from my nano back to the tank and placed it at the lower left. I pruned the green Birdsnest at the far right fairly severely as it was getting in the way of the magnet when cleaning the front glass. Last of all, I moved the large tear drop clam from the rock just behind the anemone at the bottom-left as the Sebae has decided to move slightly to the right and was bothering the clam. It's now in the sand next to the blue Squamosa.

Here's a repost of the FTS taken 11-29-07 followed by today's shot.

Joseph.

 

[jnarowe]

Sweet. On the caps that are poking out all the time, do you have die-off or are you pruning them back to the water level? I lost a colony recently when I drained my tank and a couple got too much light without the cover of water.

 

[weatherson]

After looking at those photos next to each other, it reminded me that I shortened the plumbing pieces that connect the Penductors to the closed loops. I did this to get more flow "clearance" around the now larger corals.

Joseph.

 

[weatherson]

Jonathan: Thanks. They grow about a .25" out of the water and then a thin film of algae grows on the exposed area. This still gets some periodic water as small waves crest over them. I haven't had any issues during the monthly water changes where they are exposed down about 4" for about 10-minutes. But... they are at the rear of the tank and under the support brace so they don't get super intense light in this position.

Joseph.

 

[jnarowe]

Interesting. Yeah I am familiar with the algae issue but just wondered about the prolonged exposure. Do they continue to grow up, or fan out instead?

 

[weatherson]

Basically just stop.

Joseph.

 

[jnarowe]

Cool. Great to know. I think mine are getting too much light up that high in my system but I do want a striation of them running up the side of the reef wall. I am going to experiment with different colors and see what grows best up higher. Thanks for the info!

 

[matt & pam]

Are you ready for frag orders yet?

 

[weatherson]

matt & pam: No plans to do any frag packs out of my local area. I have loaded a few local reefers up but it's always with the no guarantee stipulation considering my known pest history (AEFW's). At this point, I can tell which SPS they are partial to but this still doesn't guarantee 100% that they are totally free of them. Although, last I have seen of them, and it's been a while, they were limited to a single colony. Anyway... no, I still have no plans to sell and/or ship any frags.

Joseph.

 

[weatherson]

One of the most asked questions I get is how much of the upper corals are exposed to air during water changes. I do 50-gallon water changes monthly so you can imagine that of a system of a little over 300-gallons, the tank water level is affected during this transfer. I did my water change today and had the back off the tank for some cleaning. This allowed viewing of this water level change so I decided to get the camera out. Keep in mind that the corals are never exposed for more than ten minutes at the very most. Also, there's some heavy sliming after the water level returns to normal. Nothing more than when the air induction system runs though. Here's a couple shots to visually convey just how much coral gets exposed. Note the green (yellow) slimer tips that have reached the water surface, which is about .75" from the glass braces... which need cleaning.

Joseph.

 

[jnarowe]

sweet pics Joseph and thank you. It's always nice to see a reef that looks better from the back than mine does from the front! :lol:

It is an interesting design element though. When I do water changes, I just empty my sumps and refill them so the water level doesn't change in my display.