Passive-aggressive flattery will definitely get you a response.
I'll have to get a new full tank shot for you but here's some activity of late...
I still continue to run a low calcium level in the tank but as mentioned not long ago, I am content with this as the corals are continuing to grow well and are seemingly very healthy. Their size doesn't make boosting calcium levels a necessity or priority unless I was to upgrade my tank, and that isn't going to happen anytime in the near future.
For the winter months, the water temperature is slowly lowered to my set 76-degree temperature dictated by the ACIII Pro. It's been running at this temp for a couple of months now and I can say that I feel this has accounted for the obvious coral coloration increase. They are simply more vivid than before. Now... I did change out my MH bulbs last September but the color increase didn't happen until months after and did so closer related to the temp change timing. Speaking of MH bulbs...
I have three DE 250's and two DE 400's over the tank. I switched these all the first week of September. The 250's are Hamilton 14K and the 400's are IceCap 20K's. These two different bulbs match almost exactly in color so they work well together. Anyway... about a month after replacing these bulbs, one of the 250's died. A call to the retailer ended with a replacement shortly after. But then, about a month later, a second Hamilton 250 died. This time, I contacted Hamilton directly to find if there was a bad batch of these bulbs. I was told that no others were reported. Hmm. So this second bulb was replaced by Hamilton. Fingers were crossed but sure enough, the third and final 250 died but this time I was present to witness the actual burn-out. I noticed a flicker so I immediately went to look at the bulb. After my eyes adjusted, I could see arcing from the inner bulb-end and then poof, it was dead. Another call to Hamilton still didn't get any evidence of any batch issues but the final bulb was also replaced. So far since then, the saga is over and I hope it remains so. We'll see but the replacements have exceeded the one month timing that seemed to plague the "bad" bulbs. Fingers crossed again. My hope is that it was in fact a bad batch because I really like these bulbs and their light. Speaking of light bulbs...
About a week ago now, with my light box heated exhaust air being blown into my main living area for supplemental house heating, I noticed a slight burning wire/electronics smell. Not good. My initial thought was that one of the two exhaust fans was giving up in a bad way. So I unplugged them and as they slowed, I could see tiny puffs of smoke being pulled from one of the IceCap double-end caps of the VHO systems. I immediately unplugged one of the two ballasts with a 50/50 chance this one was feeding this issue. Turns out, it was the other ballast.
Go figure. So, seeing there's still smoke, I quickly reached for the other ballast's plug but just before my hand reached it, I hear a loud pop that surely couldn't be equated with anything good. After unplugging the second ballast and calming my heart down, I could see the end cap had gone up in flames in a big way and there was now a huge stench of electrical burn. Here's a shot of the resulting melt-down with the fried unit on the left and a replacement for reference on the right...
It wasn't the wiring but rather the internal copper band that appears to have caused the issue. Perhaps corrosion played a part but I'm not sure of this. When I looked to purchase a replacement, I found that these are no longer available. The single units are but just not the doubles. Luckily, a local fellow reefer had some to sell and all is well again. In addition, I can say that the all aluminum light box makes me feel better about a situation where I wouldn't have been present of possible future issues... knock on aluminum.
Oh... did I mention this took out one of the ballasts?
Yep, I had to quickly purchase a new ballast and this one will be headed back to IceCap to see if it's worth saving or not. Notice anything awry here?
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No? Take a closer look.
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So that's basically it and again, I'll get a new full tank shot up as soon as possible.
Joseph.
