Lily's first reef! - updated

[IridescentLily]

For those who have asked "why is your rock and sand so white"
Diatoms. Me thinks I need to get out the magnetic algae cleaner thingie and swipe the glass.

 

[cherubfish pair]

How is the scooter blenny? Is he eating?

 

[BlueCorn]

How is the scooter blenny? Is he eating?

He eats like a pig actually; both frozen as well as flake.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

He eats like a pig actually; both frozen as well as flake.

:thumbsup: Being that it's from the dragonet family, it'll need to be fed frequently. 3x daily.

 

[IridescentLily]

Our scooter dragonet died this morning
He was just frozen not moving, not breathing, standing where he always like to hang out. Very odd. I'm very sad.
Were going to the lfs today because our moonlight came in that we ordered.

 

[BlueCorn]

It was very strange. He went from eating and active to dead in less than 24 hours. He never looked shrunken or distressed. He just stopped moving. Poor little guy.

He's been buried in the garden near the roots of a chile pepper plant.

 

[BlueCorn]

Not that it's possible to "replace" Scooter. There are a few new inhabitants in the tank. Here are a couple of them. The clown goby spends about 1/4 of his time hanging out in the welso. The welso doesn't seem to mind:

The latest, on the engineering side, is a new power panel. Previously, all of our electrical was plugged into a Corallife timer power strip. It worked but it had a couple of issues. First off, it was a real hassle to have to unplug things like pumps, when feeding. The second problem was that it was just laying on the floor waiting for water to be dripped into it. I whipped this panel together on Friday and mounted it to the wall behind the tank. I'm probably going to add a piece of plexi-glass on top to help catch stray drips.

Construction process:

Finished panel:

Installed:

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

That panel lools fantastic!

Cute little clown goby. Keep an eye on him, they have potential to nip at coral. Usually sps.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

very clean looking electrical pannel. Can those supplies be found at any major hardware store?

 

[Lynnmw1208]

That is one awesome looking electrical box! the clown goby is adorable!!! I was thinking of getting one but I don't want too many bottom dwellers. I have a soft spot for them for some reason The one at my LFS also likes one of their wellso's. I almost want to ask if they'll sell them as a pair hehe.

 

[BlueCorn]

very clean looking electrical pannel. Can those supplies be found at any major hardware store?

Yeah, everything there was from one trip to Home Depot.

 

[BlueCorn]

We've been playing with our actinic supplementation and I think we've finally got it. We mounted a pair TruLumen 3 LED strips on each end of the HQI light fixture. That worked okay but we wanted something brighter. Yesterday we bought one of their 10" 4 LED strips. After trying to figure out an unobtrusive way to mount the strip I had a bit of an "Ah ha!" moment when I realized that I could mount the strip, to the underside of the aquarium top trim. The light sits about 1" above the water line so there's almost no light loss. It's very bright. Here's a couple of pure actinic shots from last night.

As amazing as these colors are, they're even brighter in person. Getting a decent white balance with that much 435nm light is a bit of a challenge.

Cheers

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

*drool*

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

that is awesome!!!!

 

[thebanker]

Doug and April, that power panel is so cool. I really want that for my tank. Can you guys point me to a thread inside or outside of RC that will teach me how to do that?

I have some really BASIC home electrical knowledge, and I'd rather have that setup than the janky power strips I use now.

Oh and those zoanthids look HOT they're so bright! Looks like they came out the core from Fukushima #3.

 

[BlueCorn]

Doug and April, that power panel is so cool. I really want that for my tank. Can you guys point me to a thread inside or outside of RC that will teach me how to do that?

I have some really BASIC home electrical knowledge, and I'd rather have that setup than the janky power strips I use now.

Honestly, it's just basic home wiring. It only took me just about an hour to wire it up once the boxes were mounted and the paint was dry. Most of the panel just plugs into my GFCI outlet. There's also one set of outlets that plug into another outlet so we options if there's a fault on the GFCI.

Oh and those zoanthids look HOT they're so bright! Looks like they came out the core from Fukushima #3.

The ricordia, over on the side of the tank, is even brighter. Last night we just set up chairs in front of it when the lights went out.

 

[BlueCorn]

 

[Lynnmw1208]

We've been playing with our actinic supplementation and I think we've finally got it. We mounted a pair TruLumen 3 LED strips on each end of the HQI light fixture. That worked okay but we wanted something brighter. Yesterday we bought one of their 10" 4 LED strips. After trying to figure out an unobtrusive way to mount the strip I had a bit of an "Ah ha!" moment when I realized that I could mount the strip, to the underside of the aquarium top trim. The light sits about 1" above the water line so there's almost no light loss. It's very bright. Here's a couple of pure actinic shots from last night.

As amazing as these colors are, they're even brighter in person. Getting a decent white balance with that much 435nm light is a bit of a challenge.

Cheers

OMG that looks amazing! don't ya love the moonlights? Glad you got them to work with your set up! what is the bigger colony of zoanthids in the first pic? I LOVE the color on those at night!

 

[SIR PATRICK]

Looks like you already found some pink panther polyps! Tank is lookin great lily! Nice lookin welso.

 

[BlueCorn]

OMG that looks amazing! don't ya love the moonlights? Glad you got them to work with your set up! what is the bigger colony of zoanthids in the first pic? I LOVE the color on those at night!

The pics don't even do it justice.