crvz's hole in the wall
- Thread starter crvz
- Start date
crvz
Team RC
About 8" or so, maybe a bit more. Not terribly conducive for a side viewing, but they will do custom work with the overflows.
And I neglected to update yesterday, so two corals today. This was sold to me as an acropora gemmifera, though I have my doubts.
And this is a usual crowd pleaser, the ora german blue polyp acro.
crvz
Team RC
drummereef
Team RC
Nice work with the German Blue. I'm guessing getting rid of all that funky purple algae helped a little. 
Thanks, Brian!
Had a little more progress last night. I got everything for the LED rack wired up. I first taped off the locations for the LEDs (I didnt want to mark them), then drilled 1/4" holes next to each LED for wire routing. I also drilled 1/8" holes in the plastic end pieces to route wiring entirely inside the rack. Here's how it ended up inside the plastic ends. I ended up using 16 AWG wire, which is certainly more than necessary, but I wanted to use something with thick insulation and this fit the bill. I may still fill all the holes with something, but we'll get there down the road.
And then here it is all prewired before soldering. I used a couple of handy tools to get the wires where I needed them, particularly the picks and precision pliers. I used one red wire to make the polarity obvious coming out of the light rack.
I wired everything up with my 20W/40W soldering station, and it worked well. I don't have a ton of experience soldering onto circuit boards, but I managed. I much prefer using my butane iron (if anyone's shopping, I love this one in particular, which I've used for 5 years or more), but those type would have gotten way too hot for this application. Once done, and after leaving myself 6' of line for future expansion, I was ready to test it out.
And it actually worked! I've got a variable wall wart to give me an dimming input voltage, but it only gives me an option of between 4-9V for dimming. It's pretty crappy (it actually puts out 9.4V when switched on the 6V setting, so I've got to be careful when I use it). I'll get some more images of it once I hang it over the current tank.
I love the LED's around the hallides. You should mass produce those babies, I'd buy some! Great idea
crvz
Team RC
Nice work with the German Blue. I'm guessing getting rid of all that funky purple algae helped a little.
It didnt hurt.
That's a very specific application, not sure there's a market for mass production. It is working out pretty well, though. Two more acros for this morning, the first I picked up as an oregon tort. I'm happy it survived the last 9 months, and you can see ever since putting it under the new lights it's really starting to color up (the green polyps, in particular).
And this one i was told is insane millepora. We'll see how it colors up.
drummereef
Team RC
I think it's time for a FTS, what say you? 
crvz
Team RC
This one I'm not sure of. It was a piece that mostly died off during the transition, but it's been coming back recently. I THINK it's a part of a beautiful red/green milli that I had in abundance at one point (thumbnailed below), but I may be surprised to find it's something else once it grows out a little more.
crvz
Team RC
And to interlude from the daily acro spotlights, here's a full tank shot from about 4 minutes ago. I angled it simply to eliminate some reflections coming from the setting sun. This is with all halides on.
You can see some of the filamentous brown algae, a presumed artifact of the base rock being lit for the first time, at its worst on the middle rock. That is the one most directly under a metal halide, but it is spread out throughout the tank (it does not come through well in this image... trust me, it's throughout the tank). Brett was right, though, the mexican turbos will make short work of it when given the opportunity. I only have about 8 of those snails in the tank, so hopefully they'll keep it in check until this algae phase passes. You can see the snail on the far left of the rock in this image, as well as his path of destruction.
You can see some of the filamentous brown algae, a presumed artifact of the base rock being lit for the first time, at its worst on the middle rock. That is the one most directly under a metal halide, but it is spread out throughout the tank (it does not come through well in this image... trust me, it's throughout the tank). Brett was right, though, the mexican turbos will make short work of it when given the opportunity. I only have about 8 of those snails in the tank, so hopefully they'll keep it in check until this algae phase passes. You can see the snail on the far left of the rock in this image, as well as his path of destruction.
drummereef
Team RC
FTS looks great Chris! Hopefully that algae cycle will be short and sweet. :thumbsup:
psteeleb
Team RC
This one I'm not sure of. It was a piece that mostly died off during the transition, but it's been coming back recently. I THINK it's a part of a beautiful red/green milli that I had in abundance at one point (thumbnailed below), but I may be surprised to find it's something else once it grows out a little more.
lots of great additions and love that red/green mille, hope that your found frag is one from it
crvz
Team RC
I've seen them regularly at liveaquaria of late... you'll have to place an order.
You and I both. I didnt add a large number of snails to the tank, maybe 8 total, so it may take some time for them to clear all the rock but I'm patient.
I do too. That mille was great. I don't see a lot of millepora available, but I'll be on the hunt from now on. I had a wonderful super hairy green one that I would love to find again, but thus far no luck.
And here are the last of the acros in the tank. Nothing too exciting, and I have room to expand for sure.
Tyree tricolor (or so I'm told)
tiny piece of turaki
steve elias stag
and a browned out steel acro
that will hopefully look like this in the near future (I've had this for a while).
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