Mhucasey's SPS obsession
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mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
There are a lot of DIY rock types out there, mostly made from Calcerous materials and cement. Those can work and I've seen all kinds of reefs using them.
There are very few plastic rock reefs...its one of the reasons I wanted to try it, I wanted to push the boundaries a bit. There is a lot more to the success of a tank than the rock though. I've seen successful reefs that shouldn't be successful based on what are accepted reefing practices. Things are always changing.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I agree,
Last set of pics really showing off those colors, beautifully arranged!
Well done
Thanks! I love it when I can get a good(in focus) picture!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Update:
So today was a whole lot of fun:headwally:
I was adjusting one of the 6 bulb sun powers, while it was running, and the opposite side mount pulled out of the ceiling:eek2:
I wasn't using their good drywall mounts, my fault. Running lamp into the tank, big splash over the side
Luckily I had the presence of mind to grab my phone and turn the lights off on that fixture before pulling it out of the tank. Not that it was lit, the water took care of turning the bulbs off for me:uhoh3:. I propped it on the edge of the tank, grabbed something to put under it and reinstalled the mount with the heavy duty drywall anchor. While doing so I couldn't find the flat washer from the original mount
Once hung back up, I opened it up, removed the bulbs, dried it out with paper towels, and turned the fan on to blow air through it. I then re-glued corals that were broken by the fall, luckily not too much damage there. I blew out all the fittings with compressed air until I couldn't extract any more moisture and grabbed some working bulbs from the garage, With a little drying, believe it or not all the bulb pairs eventually lit up!:celeb2:
I then re-intalled all the previous bulbs, and found that the two Fiji purple and one blue plus bulbs were toast. That required me to do a little rearranging since I don't have spares for the Fiji purples. I took one from the other fixture so each fixture has one Fiji Purple and I replaced the other with an ABS. Now Each fixture has 3 blue, 1 actinic, 1 ABS, and 1 Fiji purple.
I started worrying about what happened to the washer, since I couldn't find it anywhere. I ended up lifting up each of the mega rock structures up and siphoning every last bit of gunk underneath them as well as sifting the Sandbox to try to find the washer. No luck.:headwalls:
I put a fresh Poly-filter and bag of carbon in to counteract any crud that got into the tank from the incident and I will keep a close eye on the system. I couldn't find the washer around the tank either, but it could have bounced and rolled, who knows.
So today was a whole lot of fun:headwally:
I was adjusting one of the 6 bulb sun powers, while it was running, and the opposite side mount pulled out of the ceiling:eek2:
I wasn't using their good drywall mounts, my fault. Running lamp into the tank, big splash over the side
Luckily I had the presence of mind to grab my phone and turn the lights off on that fixture before pulling it out of the tank. Not that it was lit, the water took care of turning the bulbs off for me:uhoh3:. I propped it on the edge of the tank, grabbed something to put under it and reinstalled the mount with the heavy duty drywall anchor. While doing so I couldn't find the flat washer from the original mount
Once hung back up, I opened it up, removed the bulbs, dried it out with paper towels, and turned the fan on to blow air through it. I then re-glued corals that were broken by the fall, luckily not too much damage there. I blew out all the fittings with compressed air until I couldn't extract any more moisture and grabbed some working bulbs from the garage, With a little drying, believe it or not all the bulb pairs eventually lit up!:celeb2:
I then re-intalled all the previous bulbs, and found that the two Fiji purple and one blue plus bulbs were toast. That required me to do a little rearranging since I don't have spares for the Fiji purples. I took one from the other fixture so each fixture has one Fiji Purple and I replaced the other with an ABS. Now Each fixture has 3 blue, 1 actinic, 1 ABS, and 1 Fiji purple.
I started worrying about what happened to the washer, since I couldn't find it anywhere. I ended up lifting up each of the mega rock structures up and siphoning every last bit of gunk underneath them as well as sifting the Sandbox to try to find the washer. No luck.:headwalls:
I put a fresh Poly-filter and bag of carbon in to counteract any crud that got into the tank from the incident and I will keep a close eye on the system. I couldn't find the washer around the tank either, but it could have bounced and rolled, who knows.
biggles
Premium Member
Looking awesome Matt, love the wonderful color contrasts you have going on buddy :thumbsup:
That SSC piece is looking crazy pretty and the red dragon is popping
- just read about your light fall, sorry to hear but really glad you got out of it without a major calamity Matt.
That SSC piece is looking crazy pretty and the red dragon is popping
- just read about your light fall, sorry to hear but really glad you got out of it without a major calamity Matt.
slavetonet
New member
Far out.. Lucky you didnt get toasted.
You will find the washer, look out for mysterious STN or RTN if it has fallen into the tank.
That made me think I should put extra anchor before mounting the retrofit T5s lighting.
You will find the washer, look out for mysterious STN or RTN if it has fallen into the tank.
That made me think I should put extra anchor before mounting the retrofit T5s lighting.
markalot
...
The BRS T5 video is fantastic and raises some questions.
I've always run the ATI fans one notch down from max (9V I think) which does a great job heating the basement. I'm wondering if I should lower the fan speed since I might be over-cooling the bulbs. What fan speed do you have your ATI's set at?
I've always run the ATI fans one notch down from max (9V I think) which does a great job heating the basement. I'm wondering if I should lower the fan speed since I might be over-cooling the bulbs. What fan speed do you have your ATI's set at?
Maxxingout
New member
Darn you people and your T5 results! I was wishing that led would have come up with a solution by now. Your corals are just awesome and this was the last post I visited that has made my decision on getting T5's next, thanks a lot !
Just awesome work and thanks for sharing such beautiful pieces that you've grown out.
! Just awesome work and thanks for sharing such beautiful pieces that you've grown out.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
That's a pretty good idea, I'll mount one on a stick and give that a shot. Thanks!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I was very impressed by the video as well, the fan speed tests really made me think as well. I have been running mine at 6v, since a professional Fluke temperature RTD placed on the cold spot showed 96F. I did have lower par on the side where the vent was, so I've been thinking that going up a notch to 7.5v might increase par on that end a bit.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Looking awesome Matt, love the wonderful color contrasts you have going on buddy :thumbsup:
That SSC piece is looking crazy pretty and the red dragon is popping
- just read about your light fall, sorry to hear but really glad you got out of it without a major calamity Matt.
Thanks very much Andrew, you set a high standard for color that I'm trying to match
. Yep the light falling in the tank could have been much worse. One thing that about T5 or MH that is nice though, is any messed up component is easily replaced and if it gets wet, drying it out will fix it- no fussy electronic circuit boards to mess with.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
The corals have gotten a full cavity search, and it's a roughly 1" diameter flat washer so it should be able to be seen. The magnet idea is a good one that I will be trying.
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