ARKSC...Whats Next?

[RTMA]

So over the past year we have done:

DIY Fish Food
Vortech Battery Backups
Fragging Demos
LEDS & More LEDS
C02 Scrubber
ATS

Some really cool stuff -so I put it to you - tell us what you want to do next!

See something cool you want to try and DIY? Tell Us!
Want to do something again? Tell Us!
Want to do a workshop? Tell Us!

I'll also apologize for our September meeting, which looks like we will have to skip. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the October meeting, which we should have the details on in the next few days.

And ... If you want to host a meeting - please PM Terahz.

 

[gdubs97]

Funny you should post that. I was speaking with Georgi about it yesterday. Maybe I missed it, but I would like to host a meeting and do my leds for my tank. I can buy everything ahead of time from rapidled, etc. If enough people come that know what they're doing and help out then it would work. Anyways...I'd love to do that if enough people would be interested....maybe that and the DIY food.

 

[scolley]

gdubs97 - that sounds like a fun meeting. I'll bring a soldering iron!

For myself, I'd enjoy a road trip. Say an 'LFS Crawl', moving from one shop to the next. Might be fun!

Or a day trip to "Atlantis" would be cool too, IMO.

 

[thefuz]

Those ideas sound great! Love to participate in an LED build as well as a pub - erm, I mean LFS crawl.

For the crawl, I'm sure everyone knows these joints intimately already but thought it'd be helpful to list them out (no particular order - north to south):

Exotic Fish and Coral in Milford
Exotic Aquatics in Norwalk
Life Aquatic in New Canaan
Greenwich Aquaria
House of Fins

Am I missing any? As an alternative, would a trip to NYC be more interesting? Manhattan Aquariums for example - aka Uniquecorals.com - though they say they're "restructuring inventory" at the moment... whatever that means.

 

[tyler91913]

These sound like great ideas! Even though I've got my LED needs solved, I'd totally be interested in seeing how the DIY angle works. It would be ambitious to "crawl" through all the LFS's in the area, but I'd come for two or three of the ones I haven't yet visited. It would be cool too if we could time it to chat with the owner(s) at the different stores. The NYC idea sounds great, also.

 

[gdubs97]

See below and please advise if I'm missing anything that I will need. I will be ordering the Neptune Apex controller this week as well. I will order all the leds, etc from rapidled.com. I plan on going with 36/24 (royal blue/cool whites) with 60 degree optics

1) 48 ultra premium kit
2) 12 ultra premium kit
3) 1 add'l 48D driver (the above kits come with 5 drivers total)
4) 2 - 5.9" x 16" heat sinks
5) Y-Shaped hanging kit - I noticed the lengths only come in 5'. This can't reach my ceiling as my ceiling is about 13' from the ground and the top of the tank is about 5'. Does this come with a kit to hang from? Some sort of bracket system? I couldn't find it on the site. rapidled.com should get these in next week but I still have to figure out how to connect it.

Is there anything missing from this order that I would need?

I plan on using 4 rows of 8 lights on each heat sink (that comes out to 64 lights though??) Not sure of the spacing, etc. It would be 18 blue and 12 white on each...have to figure out spacing and layout.

Of course I would like opinions, etc. Thanks

 

[scolley]

Exotic Fish and Coral in Milford
Exotic Aquatics in Norwalk
Life Aquatic in New Canaan
Greenwich Aquaria
House of Fins

Am I missing any? As an alternative, would a trip to NYC be more interesting? Manhattan Aquariums for example - aka Uniquecorals.com...

Frankly I LOVE the Manhattan Aquariums idea too, though it is a road trip. And since we are talking Road Trips, there's Beital's Exotic Aquariums in Pearl River NY. They claim to have a 5,000 sq. ft. showroom. THAT's a lot of livestock! Apparently no storefront - just a big warehouse. Could be interesting.

If we did arrange a multi-shop tour, we'd have gear up with coolers and such to keep the livestock. I'm sure there would be plenty of "I've got to have that NOW" moments.

I plan on going with 36/24 (royal blue/cool whites) with 60 degree optics

At the risk of getting off the topic of "What next", have you researched that decision well? If not, pls take a look at this thread... one I started after I completed my own royal blue/cool white fixture. Would be happy to PM opinions if it helps.


Great ideas for meeting venues. Any more good thoughts?

 

[Falcao]

I have not been to Beital's in a few years, but a very big place. Lots of fish and tons of live rock. I do not recall how much coral they had. It has been a while, but lots of tanks. Problem is going over the bridge, I am sure it is more expensive now.

 

[scolley]

Thanks for the feedback! Would it be worth including in a multi-shop visit?

 

[thefuz]

There's at least 1 other shop in that area (in Pomona I think) but it may be hit or miss. I did get my first ric there though.

 

[Falcao]

Steve, i haven't been there in years. I really don't know how their shop looks now.

 

[scolley]

Thanks. IMO still sounds like an interesting possibility.

I'm a guy that likes to save the best for last... dessert coming at the end of a meal works for me. So, for a road trip I'd suggest the following for consideration:

Start with Beital's - maybe pick up some fish, then spend 40 minutes swinging down to Manhattan Aquarium. I've been there an IMO the greatest benefit is the quantity if quality (if tiny) frags they sell. So we plan on picking up a bunch of small stuff for $10-25 bucks. Then it's back to Connecticut - Greenwich specifically. Once there it's a toss up between House of Fin and Greenwich Aquaria.

IMO there is a much better coral selection at Greenwich Aquarium. So my vote would be to go there before House if Fins, just to see a large coral selection before my money was gone.


Sounds like a big fun 4-5 hour trip! Thoughts anyone?


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[LISound]

i can get us a behind the scenes tour of atlantis on LI. Largest reef tank in the US, or at least it was.

 

[scolley]

That would be AWESOME! But even large turn outs for us are small. We had the same thing set up for the Norwalk aquarium, and even with some spouses in attendance, we only had 7-8 people.

How many people would be need so that your contacts would not feel like we were wasting their time?