A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[troubadour11]

So here's a bit of an update on where I've been. . .

We had some family come into visit for a few days last week. So I took the opportunity to spend time with them and show them around LA some. So I didn't get much work done on the tank, other then watching it develop.

Here's a FTS and some close ups to follow. It looks like I'm finally ahead of the cyano for now! As you can see, the DT is back to mostly clear white sand with just a bit along the glass and a few random spots left. I think the 0tds top off water and the gfo has done the trick!
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- I finally caught one of the Rics stuffing it's face! -

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- I think we're seeing some good signs from the new Candy Cane Trumpet Coral. It seems like they've gotten slightly more puffy since adding them to the tank. Plus, now I am seeing some tentacles extended from 1 or 2 of the heads more often. -

- Hopefully that is a good sign of them settling in and the rest of the heads will follow along and start opening up more soon. -

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And thanks for the thumbs up on the canopy work. I will eventually be closing off the 2 sides and the front. But for now... it's progressing some. And I'm especially thrilled that the legs are attached and the light mounts are up!

We ended up finding our escaped rocket cerith snail. It had crawled it's way into the dish drying rack into a small puddle of fresh water. lol. It didn't make it very far...

The YWG in the QT appears to be doing well Biggles. It's not very active... just kind of sits and stares A LOT. I assume it's doing ok since it's always sitting and staring from a different spot of the tank every time I check. LOL. And if we feed and close the door, it swims around and pecks food off the bottom. We have experienced a spike No2 levels (but still continually register 0-NH3), so that could account for why it's not as active. We did a 2 gallon change yesterday, and then I'm dripping another 3 gallons in today. So that's a 50% change over 48 hours. That should lower the levels down. As soon as I get that dropped a bit, I'll be doing a 5 day Prazi-Pro treatment since we're about 1/2 way through the QT process and it appears to be settled in.

I haven't observed any typical signs of stress or disease. The fish has looked healthy from the beginning to the naked eye. Possibly a little small and hungry was my only concern on purchase. So I'm hoping to just run the QT schedule and work on fattening this little dude up.

I've got some errands to run and a little demo-reel/website work to do still today. But once those updates are done, I'm throwing myself back at this light/canopy/reef angel challenge.

So thanks to all for tagging along... and I'll be updating again soon with some new Reefy Toys Pics and the continuing saga of LED light building! I am so excited to have the lights, reef angel, and canopy all up and running! It's still a lot of work left to get there, but I can see the lights at the end of the tunnel!

 

[McGarnicle]

Tanks looking really great, it also looks like the rock is starting to show some color with the new lights. Good job on the cyano the sand is really whitening up nicely!

 

[Bello]

You're on the right track Troub, good stuff with the cyano gone :thumbsup:...BTW, Now I've got cyano lol........because of constant tweaking :lol:

 

[troubadour11]

Tanks looking really great, it also looks like the rock is starting to show some color with the new lights. Good job on the cyano the sand is really whitening up nicely!

- The rock really is starting to get some color to it. It's definitely encouraging to see! But these still aren't the good lights... yet. Just the 2 bulb, standard output t-5 and a cheap-o 36 inch blue led strip. It was starting to get some color, but I think the cyano covered it all up for a month or so. Now that the cyano is mostly gone, the colors are really starting to show up more. But I can't wait to get the LEDs going. That's going to be cause for 1 big barbeque! :beer:

I just recently got that shipment of reefy goodies. Included in that was the 2 dimmable moonlight drivers and a few more LEDs to set up on those drivers. I also got a set of quick disconnects and pins so I can easily remove the lights with the canopy if needed. All of it is getting installed at once... lights, canopy extension, reef angel, etc. So lots of things to come together at once. But I'm ready to make another big push now! :thumbsup:

You're on the right track Troub, good stuff with the cyano gone :thumbsup:...BTW, Now I've got cyano lol........because of constant tweaking :lol:

- Sorry to hear it moved camps over to you. What surprises are you working on over there? If you're tweaking stuff... I bet your up to something :bum:

I'll have some LED build shots coming up soon that might interest you... Plus maybe I'll reveal that little reefy toy I found on sale. I won't be able to use it for a bit... BUT... it's gonna be some pointless fun when I get to use it! :dance:

 

[McGarnicle]

Did your tank have holes drilled for dual 1in bulkheads? I have the Aqueon 90g as well and I just glanced because I'm about to start plumbing and I think they're both the same size on mine.

 

[biggles]

Good thinking Troubster - let's all give our cyano to Bello.............. :beer:

Looking much better now mate, it's a game of patience but you usually only go through these cycles once unless you're like Bello and i in which case such things are par for the course.........:worried:

I wanna know what the toy is Troub, pointless fun sounds right up my alley lol :beer:

 

[Bello]

Good thinking Troubster - let's all give our cyano to Bello.............. :beer:

Looking much better now mate, it's a game of patience but you usually only go through these cycles once unless you're like Bello and i in which case such things are par for the course.........:worried:

I wanna know what the toy is Troub, pointless fun sounds right up my alley lol :beer:

I'd argue profusely with you, and send you an abusive PM, biggles, but you're right :headwalls:.

So what gizmo did ya pick up, Troub?

 

[slowjazz]

Looks like so far. Rock scape is always fun. I ended up changing mine a few times during cycle because of flow and over all looks when the water is in the tank. (I think it looks smaller in the tank because your eyes look at the glass walls. Harder to picture with just tape outside the tank)
Only thing I would keep an eye on is your return pump. Rio #12HF - lots of issues with noise and quality.
15w UV Sterilizer - seems a little small for the amount of water in your system.

 

[PanicBuyer]

Great build and a lot of tips here that are helping me with my new 65 build. Thanks for sharing.

 

[troubadour11]

Did your tank have holes drilled for dual 1in bulkheads? I have the Aqueon 90g as well and I just glanced because I'm about to start plumbing and I think they're both the same size on mine.

- My 90 DT came pre-drilled with the overflow box installed and with holes for a 3/4 inch return and larger drain line. I just had to buy/build and install the drain/return lines through the pre-drilled holes.

- Since it was my 1st set up... I opted to buy the All Glass Aquarium overflow kit so I would avoid any issues. It came with everything I needed: barbed bulkheads that fit the 3/4 inch return and a 1-1/4 barbed drain bulkhead; an adjustable druso style drain pipe (very nice... really, this was what was worth the money in the kit); a 3/4 inch return pipe w/ 90 degree elbow and "Y" Loc-line style return spout. (AN IMPORTANT NOTE... All Glass Aquarium brand "loc-line" that comes with the kit IS NOT compatible with ACTUAL LOC-LINE. They don't fit together. I have a 6 inch LOC-LINE extension I bought only to discover they won't work together)

- Next time I will probably opt to just DIY. Really it would come out to about the same cost probably... and having set it all up, I could easily build and assemble it. But I think I would prefer to use almost all PVC runs next time for my pipe runs with just a short section of tubing to connect to the ends of the pipes/pumps to absorb vibration (or an earthquake here in SoCal). Absolutely nothing against flexible hoses, I haven't had any issues with it so far. Other then starting to see some green hair algae in the tubing. I can fix that by wrapping the pipe. But now I'm confident enough that I could have done the pvc runs easily.

Looks like so far. Rock scape is always fun. I ended up changing mine a few times during cycle because of flow and over all looks when the water is in the tank. (I think it looks smaller in the tank because your eyes look at the glass walls. Harder to picture with just tape outside the tank)
Only thing I would keep an eye on is your return pump. Rio #12HF - lots of issues with noise and quality.
15w UV Sterilizer - seems a little small for the amount of water in your system.

- Hey slowjazz, thanks for checking it out and the tips. :thumbsup: The rockscaping was fun, but seemed to take forever since I just wanted to get it wet already! LOL. But I think it was worth the time to sculpt something stable and interesting (at least to me). I agree that it looks small sometimes...

Like you mentioned, on the table there is no "box" to enclose it which will always throw the scale off a little when you box it in. Plus, there is/was no sand on the table. Which changes the look a bit once you add that and the glass box in. Unfortunately I don't really have the ability to move much around anymore since it's all sculpted into towers and such. But I'm hoping I left enough negative space in there for coral growth and flow. I may have to experiment with PH's in different places as the system fills in. But I didn't know as much about flow when I designed it. I just did my best. We will see how it plays out...

- And the tank definitely looks empty right now, but I always tell people when they look at the tank to imagine flipping the rocks upside down on themselves and that is what the coral will eventually fill in. So it's not as "empty" as it looks... I just haven't got it filled in yet.

- I'll be sure to keep my eye on the return pump. Already had a dwarf cerith jam it up. I'll have to make a cover for the intake to keep the snails out maybe.

- And I agree... the UV unit might be a little undersized for the system. We originally were not planning on the 75 gallon Refugium from my old FW tank. So I was planning for a about 1/2 of the of the water volume originally. Then I discovered/ran into some flaws. One of which being the CRAPPY ability to get any sort of money for a 75 gallon FW set up with 2 decoration styles, filtration, lighting, and a flawless honey oak stand and canopy. Not that I was looking for $1000 bucks or anything... but defintely more then the crappy $75-130 offers I was getting. So since I couldn't get an offer of enough $ to buy a new piece of SW equipment, I modified the designs to use the 75 FW and go bigger I'm glad I did, but as you point out, I might be a little undersized on the UV unit now :-/

- Speaking of the UV... a couple things... 1.) it really hasn't been running yet. I plumbed it in, but have been short of plugs to get it up and running until the RA unit is up. 2.) I'm actually planning to modify my plumbing for it soon as well. Right now it is plumbed between the return and DT. After I get the lights/Reef Angel set up in the closet with the power cords run and organized I'll make the plumbing changes. Instead, I'll be T-ing off the return line with a ball valve on each side. About 3/4's of the return flow will run up to the DT, and the rest with run through the UV and dump back into the sump before the skimmer.

Great build and a lot of tips here that are helping me with my new 65 build. Thanks for sharing.

- Hey there PanicBuyer! Thanks for the complements and following along! I appreciate it. It's always nice to hear I'm not insane and am on "the right track" to getting my 1st big system built. It may not be BIG to everyone, but stepping up from a 75 FW system to an almost 200 gallon system with 2 tanks and a sump is a big step to try and "get right" on the first go!

- And really cool my dabbling has helped you out with some tips and ideas! As I think I've mentioned before... It thrills me to be able to give back after all the help Biggles, Bello, and the rest of RC has given me over the last few years designing the system! :thumbsup:! Are you going to run a thread for your 65 that's in progress? Anything unique you're looking to design into your system? I'm always open to ideas, thoughts, or questions... so feel free to shout 'em out here if you've got 'em :wave:

Good thinking Troubster - let's all give our cyano to Bello.............. :beer:

Looking much better now mate, it's a game of patience but you usually only go through these cycles once unless you're like Bello and i in which case such things are par for the course.........:worried:

I wanna know what the toy is Troub, pointless fun sounds right up my alley lol :beer:

I'd argue profusely with you, and send you an abusive PM, biggles, but you're right :headwalls:.

So what gizmo did ya pick up, Troub?

- I am hoping it will be the last time I deal with it (cyano)... and the last time I pass it to Bello (sorry buddy... I must have mixed up my Biggles/Bello Reef-voodoo tanks when setting the curse) LOL :angryfire:

Just kidding, I don't wish this crap on anyway. IT'S SO UGLY! LOL

Now, I'll break for station identification and be back after these short commercials with some photo updates and a pointless toy (to be used later in the build)....

 

[troubadour11]

All right... on to some pics of the latest and greatest!

- 1st off. I received my updated parts for the Reef Angel unit! The dimming expansion! -

- This gives me 6 more additional dimming channels then the 2 that I already have. The right 3 terminals are the shared GND or (-) connections... and the left 6 are the individual (+) connections for the dimmer. It came with the power supply and the USB connector to tie it into the RA system.

- I needed to pop off the cover to set up the dimmer. This unit can run my choice of signal (0-10v PWM, 0-5v PWM, 0-10v Analog, 0-5v Analog).

- You can see here I popped off the cover and used the included jumpers to set my signal types (over on the left side). Here I have ports 0,1,4, and 5 set up to PWM (0-10v) and the jumpers added to channels 2 and 3 to make it 0-10v Analog for my new moonlight drivers.

I'll be running one of my fixtures off the 2 (0-10v PWM) channels that were included on the RA power unit. Then the other fixture will run off channels 0 and 1 on the dimming expansion. The new moonlight circuits I'm adding to each fixture will run off the new analog channels 2 and 3. Then ports 4 and 5 will be open for now. Any thoughts or ideas for 2 unused dimming channels?

- Just another angle or closeup on the screw terminal ports for the RA dimming expansion -

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- One of the 2 new moonlight drivers. These run 0-10v Analog and range 30-700mA as you can see on the cover of the driver in this photo. -

- I had to unscrew and remove a cover on the right end to open up and expose the screw terminals for testing and wiring. Ignore the red/black/blue/white wires... these are just in the shot from another driver sitting on the table.

- Setting up everything for a test of the new dimming expansion and moonlight circuits! -

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- Adding the new moonlights... - (2) Cree 3w Blue LEDs and (2) Violet/UV on each fixture. Expected to be only moonlights, but can be used as an actinic supplementation if needed. I don't think we'll need to supplement the other strings. But we will see. -

- I decided to kind of cluster these moonlight circuits to the center of each fixture rather then spreading 4 lights out over the heat sink. So I clustered them towards the tank front/center of each fixture. -

- Here the front of this fixture is towards the top where the new moonlights are added but not wired in.

- LET THERE BE MOONLIGHT! -

- WOOO!!!!!

This is where I ran into a glitch! I wanted to test the moonlights with the multi-meter just to make sure it's all working correctly. BAD idea :-(

I got it all hooked up and tested, but was getting WEIRD mA readings. I was reading like 1-2amps... which totally through me off since the driver is only supposed to go up to 700 milli-amps. So while trouble shooting, testing, testing, testing, and re-testing the moonlight circuits, the plug on the multimeter wiggled when I bumped the table... consequently the 2 blue leds on the circuit went out. :mad2: GRRrrrRRRRRrrrrr ARRRRGGGGGGG!!!!! That's what I get for trying to test and verify everything!

I am guessing that this inexpensive $10 multimeter is just cheap. I was getting weird readings at first on the other dimmable set up. Then it was working right and I got readings that made sense and let me get them set up. Now I'm back to getting jacked up info from it. So I'm guessing its a P.O.S. meter. I probably didn't need to test the driver since they're only supposed to go up to 700mA to begin with. I just wanted to verify the dimming expansion was set up and working correctly. But I suppose it wouldn't be possible to go above 700mA with them, so the lights should be fine.

DELAYED ON THE LIGHT BUILD.... YET AGAIN!!!!! :angryfire:

But... I've already placed the order for 2 new blue LEDs along with LOTS of #22 gauge electrical wire. I forgot to figure enough wire to run 6 circuits, (12 leads, + and - per light circuit) from the back of the light through the wall into the closet. I estimated it at almost 108 feet total!!!! SHEEESH!!! Basically, about an estimated 7-9 feet per line needed to run to the drivers in the closet. So all that wiring and the 2 replacement blue LEDs should be on there way to try and get this back moving in the right direction.

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- Photo limit break -
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[troubadour11]

And the last few pictures of this photo bomb :blown: and the "BIG" reveal of my pointless toy. lol :deadhorse1: Is the suspense killing you!?!? Mwa-haha!

- Along with the RA dimming expansion I picked up cable extensions for my temp probe and ph probe that came with the RA head unit. Now these 2 will be able to reach the sump from the mounting board. -

- Temp sensor and extension on left... ph extension on right -

- Here is a couple pics of the the quick disconnect I picked up. There will be (1) - 6 pin connector for each light fixture inside the canopy. -

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AND NOW... THE BIG REVEAL OF MY (not really necessary) "WASTE OF MONEY" REEFY FUN TOY. LOL :dance:

- I picked this up when I ordered the quick disconnect. It was on-sale marked down from $50 down to like $24!!! How could I pass up this coolness for my future plan -

It's a controllable low powered little LED strip where I can tweak the colors! I have future plans (once the lighting and canopy are up) to "expand" the stained cabinet back to the wall with some stained/removable panels.

When I do this, I want to use the 10 or so inches of space I left behind the tank, and the cabinet panel extensions to create a shadow box backdrop for the display tank. I will be able to mount this strip LED to the top of the shadow box and have a "mood light" LED shadow box behind the reef. :idea:

Yes... a little unnecessary... and yes... it might be a little artificial looking at times. I assume most of the time I'll have it set to a natural sea blue color.

But I mean REALLY...COME ON! Tell me if your tank was in your living room area w/ the TV, Fireplace, couches, etc... you wouldn't get a pointless kick out of watching a horror movie and having a blood red shadowbox behind your reef during the movie! LOL.

I mean think of the possibilities of a pointless color changing feature! LOL :clown:

I may have to get this thing out of the packaging and give it a little play time. LOL :jester:

Maybe one day you all will get to see how awesome my reef looks in my head right now!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[McGarnicle]

I work in IT and I still don't think I could figure those lights out :eek2: Looks awesome though and will look even better when they're on that tank.


So I think I'm just going to go the same route as you and buy the Aqueon drain kit. I'll probably use PVC though for the plumbing, luckily my good buddy is a plumber and will install it for me

Unfortunately I had to push back my goal to get water in the tank. When I bought my tank I picked up the Marineland Newport stand for it to sit on. I brought everything home to find out that my tank is a half inch longer for the stand and doesn't fit. Called up my LFS and his recommendation was to chisel the half inch out, so I did. Now few weeks go by and my sump is ready to be picked up that my LFS built, a 29g w/ three chambers. I get there and find out it only has two chambers and he said to put the refuge in the first and the skimmer and return in the second. Didn't question even though I was a little disappointed and paid the $70 bucks and went home. I get home and let a couple days pass till I tell myself if I'm going to do this I need to do it the way I want and ordered a new Trigger sump.

New sump comes in last week and I absolutely love it, the quality is really good and solid. At that point I was getting excited to finally have everything in place to get this build going. I unscrew the center brace to get the sump in my stand and get it all put back together. Put the tank back on the stand and realized I absolutely hate the idea of having to drain my tank if i want to get my sump out. Just didn't want to take the chance, so now I'm going to build a new stand myself.

So $350 down the drain on a stand and sump I'm not using and probably another month delay till I get water in the tank but at least I'll know it's exactly the way I want it. Sorry for the long ramble needed to vent, its been frustrating start to this build lol

 

[troubadour11]

It took me LOTS of reading and research, research, research before I got up the courage to think about building my own set up. In the end it came down to cost savings. I could build all this stuff for estimated about 1/4 of the cost almost. To me, with the cost of modern LED units that can do what my rigs will do (once I finish them), it was definitely worth it to figure it out. But don't get me wrong, if I had the cash, I wouldn't waste my time building it :bum: I can get some really top end stuff though if I'm just willing to put in some effort and still have money left for food (or frags :spin3

And I'll be honest... I don't work in IT or anything. I'm an animator and visual effects artist. So I work on lots of technical stuff and software. But I'm no where near a programmer or electronics wizard. The light build really hasn't been all that difficult. Just REALLY slow and time consuming. Now that I've almost done it once... I could do it in WAY less time (maybe a weekend). Mainly because I would know exactly what I needed and how to do it, and have it all ready. Double, triple, and quadruple checks of every step and task has slowed me down a bit this first time. LOL

And I'm with you. I can't wait to see this stuff up over the tank and everything running through the reef angel! :beer: I get closer and closer every day. At this rate, I can say officially that they will be up before next year! :smokin:

I think the overflow kit was a good deal for me. When I priced out what it would have cost to get the 2 bulkheads and all the other bits and pieces. I think I estimated maybe $8 cheaper. That made it easy to just order and save the time gathering all the individual pieces. $8 for some plumbing supplies isn't as important of savings as what I saved going dry rock and what I'm saving on the lighting! Those two DIY projects saved me $100's.

Oh, and definitely don't worry. That wasn't that long of a ramble. And it helps to vent. That's what I was doing when I went off on that P.O.S. $10 multimeter that had the loose connection and blew my leds. :uzi: But I won't get started back up on that right now. lol

Sorry to hear about your set backs. I had a similar event at the beginning of my build. Really, that's how I ended up with everything run into the closet through the wall. My plan was to buy a tank and filtration, then start building a custom stand/cabinet. We were at the LFS and they had this tank marked WAY down and gave me a steal of an offer if I bought a stand through them with the tank. They had this one that would look great in our living room, so we decided:

"I work really hard. And I'm going to be doing a BUNCH more of DIY stuff on this set up probably. Work is going well right now, so why not reward myself and buy the package deal they're giving me and save a little time on the stand. Maybe I'll get the tank up faster!?"​

Flash forward a month or so later when I get around to starting to assemble the sump and everything. The sump won't fit into the stand... So I take the tank platform off, and there's a center brace that is not removable!!!! They used a nail gun to nail the brace in rather then pocket screws. So I had to pry out the 2x4 and grind down the nails and add some pocket holes for screws once I was finished. I get the sump in the stand with everything in it and screw it all back together. Only to then discover that I don't have enough clearance between the top of my sump and the DT platform of the stand! So if my skimmer ever fails, I can't remove it from the sump. And I'd have to drain the entire system to get the tank off to mess with the sump. "I should have just built the stand myself" :deadhorse: I'm slightly regretting that.

After discovering this, it was easy to convince/decide to utilize that closet under the stairs for the sump. That way we could still use everything we had purchased along with more space and now it's a lot quieter in the living room without all the pumps. And once we made the choice to use the closet, it wasn't more then a hop-skip-jump to expanding the filtration with my old tank since we had the space in the closet.

And now at the "end" of it all. I'm glad it worked out this way! It really is the way I wanted it. So I know exactly what your saying there. I'm setting it up now, so I'm doing it right, the way I want now so I don't have the headaches of trying to change it to this later.

Oh, and I know it's a kick in the junk for the $350 and extra stand and sump. But it doesn't have to be down the drain! Just get your new system up the way you want, and then start planning to turn that stand/sump into something. :thumbsup:

If I had the space, first I'd have a longer DT so I could do some bigger reef safe fish. AND I would love to turn this 75 into a display refugium. I think it would be so awesome to have a corner cabinet system with a 150ish mixed reef on one side and a 75 or 90 gallon "display" refugium on the other side! :beer: If/when we ever move from this house... I think tank expansion space plans are at the shop of our home buyers list. LOL For now though, I should just stay focused on building what I've got :crazy1: Hang in there though, you're tank stuff will be wet before you know it!

 

[McGarnicle]

Any updates with the new lights Troub?

Just picked up all my lumber and plywood, gonna start the stand build next week. I'm going to take my time with it, this will be my first time working with wood so hopefully it won't take more then a week or two.

 

[biggles]

AND NOW... THE BIG REVEAL OF MY (not really necessary) "WASTE OF MONEY" REEFY FUN TOY. LOL :dance:

- I picked this up when I ordered the quick disconnect. It was on-sale marked down from $50 down to like $24!!! How could I pass up this coolness for my future plan -

It's a controllable low powered little LED strip where I can tweak the colors! I have future plans (once the lighting and canopy are up) to "expand" the stained cabinet back to the wall with some stained/removable panels.

When I do this, I want to use the 10 or so inches of space I left behind the tank, and the cabinet panel extensions to create a shadow box backdrop for the display tank. I will be able to mount this strip LED to the top of the shadow box and have a "mood light" LED shadow box behind the reef. :idea:

Yes... a little unnecessary... and yes... it might be a little artificial looking at times. I assume most of the time I'll have it set to a natural sea blue color.

But I mean REALLY...COME ON! Tell me if your tank was in your living room area w/ the TV, Fireplace, couches, etc... you wouldn't get a pointless kick out of watching a horror movie and having a blood red shadowbox behind your reef during the movie! LOL.

I mean think of the possibilities of a pointless color changing feature! LOL :clown:

I may have to get this thing out of the packaging and give it a little play time. LOL :jester:

Maybe one day you all will get to see how awesome my reef looks in my head right now!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You've lost the bloody plot Troubster :crazy1: but............ anything this weird appeals to me :beer::smokin:

Disco Troub :dance: ......... has a ring to it mate

 

[troubadour11]

Any updates with the new lights Troub?

Just picked up all my lumber and plywood, gonna start the stand build next week. I'm going to take my time with it, this will be my first time working with wood so hopefully it won't take more then a week or two.

- No BIG updates on my lights as of today. I do have a different surprise. I did get to do a shopping run and picked up some of the last few things I'll need. I got a bunch of oak to finish this canopy extension at the same time as the lights. I'm expecting to get the day off tomorrow to put in some good work on the lights! I'm ready to install the quick disconnects and start hanging the electronics boards.

- It sounds like I'll be jumping into some cabinetry work right along with you this week. I picked up a Mini Kreg Jig back when I started wood stuff to clamp down on my projects. It works great for getting square joints. Especially when it's inside a cabinet where you don't have to fill the holes if you don't want. I've used it on chairs, cabinets, pergolas and more. I was out running errands today. But the plan, according to the Mrs., is that I work on the lights tomorrow!

You've lost the bloody plot Troubster :crazy1: but............ anything this weird appeals to me :beer:

Disco Troub :dance: ......... has a ring to it mate

LOL :dance:

Oh it will be cool much more then weird :hmm6: It's the "next project" for the tank after I get the canopy, lights, and reef angel up and running. I've been planning for a shadow box as the background of the tank since we filled it with water. That's part of the reason why we left the 10 inches or so amount of space between the wall and tank.

Now onto some pictures I took today and recently. I'll start it off with the big BANG surprise!

- Tiger Pistol Shrimp :celeb3:

-A new friend for our YWG!!! We're raising the SG up on the QT currently. We're at 1.014 right now. So we were in the area of our choice LFS and decided to stop in now. That way we don't have to make the trip back in 4 or 5 days.
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- Just a couple shots while it was acclimating. I was guessing I may not see it again for awhile, so I better get a few shots while I can!

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I took some video when we released it. I can put that up later if it interests anyone. Right now it seems to have settled into a hole at sand level, in the bottom of the big tower with the arch on the right end. Other then being tucked back in the hole where we can't see, it's in a spot right next to a big chair.

So there's the big surprise... A few more pictures to come in a moment.

 

[troubadour11]

Here's my couple weak pictures now to start the rest.

- I'm trying to get a little valve installed on a 5 gallon bucket. This will make dripping water to raise the SG for the QT lots easier if I can get it to work.

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Now onto some better stuff...

- Ever since we got that first zoanthid (the one on the left in this picture) there was a loose piece that I had tried to glue down. It recently broke off. I grabbed the piece that broke off and glued it onto a leftover piece of dry rock rubble. Then glued the rock to the opposite side of the zoa raft.

- It's amazing to see how much color the rock has taken on since setting up the system. It's hard to believe all the rock in the DT was the same color as that little piece there.

- I was finally able to capture a good shot of the brittle starfish we seeded such a long time ago! Hopefully one day they're a little more plentiful then now. But we're definitely seeing big and small versions of starfish now.

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Well, that's all I've got time for now. Those are all the good photos and stuff to share. I've done bunches of testing (including testing the fresh mixed water for CA, Mg, and Alk :deadhorse so I can share those if anyone wants to see any of those numbers. I've got those vids of the shrimp I can do later. But I will hopefully be back in with new updates tomorrow to share :beer:

 

[Bello]

That's a gorgeous looking shrimp Troub!!! :thumbsup:

The zoas look a bit light starved, when you gonna get the unit up and running?

 

[troubadour11]

That's a gorgeous looking shrimp Troub!!! :thumbsup:

The zoas look a bit light starved, when you gonna get the unit up and running?

Yeah, I'm liking the shrimp so far :thumbsup: It has somewhat disappeared for now though. We saw it take up a hole in the rock on the first night. Then last night it had moved to the middle of the tank underneath the center tower. It's not under the constructed "pistol shrimp condo" in front of the overflow yet. But under the tower adjacent to it. And the Orange Firefish is living under the condo right now... so it may get a rude surprise if the pistol shrimp decides to move into that spot. So far we've been able to spot the new little shrimp every so often peaking out of the hole. I'm excited to get this YWG up into the tank now!!!

Yeah. I feel really bad about the Zoas. They've been a little long and stretchy ever since bringing them home. That's why we haven't really added any new corals for the most part. I'm actually a little concerned about the newest zoas (now the middle of the 3 pieces) because it really hasn't opened up in a long time now. The others open up... but this frag opened up for the first few weeks and now stays closed most of the time.

And I'm ready to make a big push forward on the lights today. I've was taking care of my wife... and now I came down with the sickness she was fighting. So yesterday I mostly slept and watched movies. But she'll be at work today, so I'll roll off the couch and work on the lights some more. I'm basically ready to replace those 2 Blue LEDs on the moonlight circuit that I burnt out. Did I tell that story, I can't remember. But anyway, I'm going to tin those up and solder them in. Test that circuit. If it works... then I'm ready to install the quick disconnect plugs on each fixture. Then I can finish planning out and screwing down the drivers and RA unit to my electrical mounting board. I would love to get that board hung in the closet today maybe. Then it's just measure and run the official lead wires from the fixture through the wall to the drivers. I bought some cable wraps to run the 6 leads for each fixture in from the back of the canopy through the wall.

So that's "where I'm at." Now to just get some work done on it again! I really want them up and running! I've been worried about those zoas since the beginning. So no more dilly-dallying... time to get it done! :bum:

And once I have them up and running. What's the best way to ease the corals into the new lights. Just run a low out put for a short photo period for a week or two? Like 8 hours from dawn/dusk running from 10%-25% on each circuit? (The drivers don't turn on until 10% dimming signal.) Obviously I won't be running all the LEDS up to 100% for long while. Or run blue/UV only from 10%-40% for a week. Then add in white/color and slowly ramp up? I was thinking I'd set it up as a normal sunrise/sunset cycle, but only let it ramp up to a weak 25 or so % to start. Do you think that would be to much for them?

Any ideas on photo period and level when I go to switch over to the LEDS? I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts :beer: