Reminder: Do not start tank swaps at 6pm

[weaglereefer]

Some pics of my eBay special moonlights mounted to corner molding and glued into the canopy. They're bright enough that palys and LPS stay open, so I have to make sure they cut all the way off at night. I think there is $15 invested in these, total, and there's 2 strips on each side, definitely the way to go, IMO, if you have a canopy.

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And then my dumb clowns sleeping inside the toadstool leather...they are not gonna be happy when I go to frag it next week...

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[mapleredta]

Do you have a link to the led's on ebay?

 

[weaglereefer]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120571713057&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT">http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120571713057&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT</a>

[IMG]http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120571705693&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120571705693&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT</a>

 

[weaglereefer]

Foxface "hiding" in plain sight, clowns still doing their thing, harley shrimp in the background

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[weaglereefer]

So after reading through the crazy LED actinics thread on RC, I decided I had to have some. They were cheap enough. On eBay I ordered 4 18" strips and 4 12" strips, with the plan to make 2 rectangles of PVC. Well the strips came in today and I hooked one up just to mess around with it.


Let me just say, there is no way to photograph this setup and have it look right. The tank looks like a poster lit up with black light, it's just incredible. I did my best to get some pics of some stuff as I waved a strip overhead. The LEDs had no problem penetrating to the bottom of the tank and turning the sand blue. The look is unreal and I can't wait to get the whole thing set up.

Now in the pics, my lights have been off for about 3 hours, so most of the stuff is already closed up, but there were a few stragglers...Probably the coolest thing with these is their ability to make "ordinary" corals look amazing. The pink palys next to the lunar eclipse palys are really nothing spectacular in normal lighting, but they almost look better than the LE palys here.

ORA Green Polyped Toadstool

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Lunar Eclipse Palys

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Couple frogspawns and hammers. That mushroom is just a regular redish orange mushroom from Andy.

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[smallblock]

whoa that does look good, looking forward to see this done

 

[weaglereefer]

Well unfortunately when you buy from China, the quality control is...lacking...

Out of 9 strips ordered, 3 were the wrong color, and 2 didn't work at all...the vendor is sending more, but I'm not hopeful.

The one thing I notice is the spread is not great, so I will probably double up when I do it again. Also, I'll go ahead and order 48" strips, instead of trying to make them look all nice and neat with short strips for each section (I did 4x18" and 4x12" strips this time around).

Honestly though, I have a good feeling you could light a FO tank with these strips if you mixed some whites in there and ran 10-12 or so front to back on an 18" wide tank. Then you're looking at about $60 plus however you decide to mount them, with no replacement costs and low power.

 

[weaglereefer]

Well, TDS of my Pure Water Club 6 Stage 150gpd RO/DI was creeping up around 2-3 with recent water changes, so I ordered a set of filters from BRS and replaced those this evening. After 5min of flushing, back at 00ppm TDS again, so that's good. At this point most corals have been removed from the tank until my job situation gets settled. Looking for something up in ATL and have plenty of leads and am going for about one interview per week (gas money is killing me...) but soon I'll be a "local". Picking up my 120 on Tuesday in preparation for what I hope to be the final upgrade for a long while. Been doing some shopping for equipment for that while I maintain the 90 in "good enough" condition. I spend about 2 hours a day filling out applications and sending out resumes, so lots of my fish maintenance time is gone there.

Got pH probes also, one for the CA reactor, one for my general tank reading, and picked up some more food; that's about it for now.

 

[jet_pilot]

Very Nice!

 

[gmpolan]

nice update jeff and good luck with the interviews...

 

[iam392]

Great looking tank. You need to find work around here. If you leave I'll have no close by help at all. Good luck on the job hunt.

 

[weaglereefer]

And the reinvigorated 90, which, while I no longer own, still sits in the original location...

Lighting in the form of 4x54w T5 and 2x110w VHO, keeping it cool with a Current Prime 1/4 HP Tower chiller. Appx 140lbs of rock (approximately 100lbs of it dead bleached rock...)

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[drew9393]

Ok quick question where are you getting the strips with all the red switches on it. I have too many surge protecters plugged in everywhere under my tank and I want that cleaner look.

 

[weaglereefer]

Search "DJ Powerstrip" on eBay and you should find quite a few different styles.

Little video update with some fat happy tangs!

 

[mapleredta]

At around the :46 second mark, is that an aiptasia? That thing is huge. Beautiful tank!!! I love P.B. tangs.

 

[sharkbait]

Nice looking tangs. I need to get another Powder blue tang..

 

[weaglereefer]

mapleredta;615203 wrote: At around the :46 second mark, is that an aiptasia? That thing is huge. Beautiful tank!!! I love P.B. tangs.

Yes :doh:

I was supposed to be picking up some peppermint shrimp and/or an aiptasia eating filefish at the meeting, but someone forgot to bring them...I misplaced my insulin needles for injecting kalk paste. Picking some up tonight but won't get to use them until Monday. (edit: well I was planning to pick up some needles at the store I'm at, but the pharmacist won't sell them to me unless I'm buying insulin with a prescription, despite AL law stating that he can sell me needles no problem).

I also have a few clumps of bubble algae and was supposed to be getting some emerald crabs at the meeting, but again, they were forgotten.

I also have cyano in one little area, and it's probably from lack of maintenance on my part since I've been busy with work lately and will be out of town this weekend.

Overall though, fish are fat and healthy, corals are growing well, and the tank has literally been running on cruise control since November (water change once a month, fish fed at 10am, skipping every 4th day), and skimmer cup emptied every two weeks. It's been really nice to wake up and enjoy the tank with the lights on for a few hours before I leave for work, and then come home and not find water across the kitchen floor.

The PBT is everyone's favorite. I like the pink tail trigger, but after 4 months, it's still very skiddish and will really only come out of hiding for me (it will realize when unfamiliar people are in front of the tank and stay in the rocks).

 

[cr500_af]

weaglereefer;615367 wrote: Picking some up tonight but won't get to use them until Monday. (edit: well I was planning to pick up some needles at the store I'm at, but the pharmacist won't sell them to me unless I'm buying insulin with a prescription, despite AL law stating that he can sell me needles no problem).

You mean needles are for sale? I thought that MD's just left them out.

And yes, I'm kidding.

Isn't it funny how there are programs to give free syringes to drug users, but you get friction trying to buy one for a legitimate purpose?

 

[weaglereefer]

Yup. He even told me that he knows he's allowed to sell me a syringe without a prescription, but he has a personal rule that he won't (I'd imagine the same way some pharmacists won't sell morning after pills...they're allowed to use their personal convictions in their discretion).

It's ok, I know the pharmacist in the store back home will sell them to me, $.25 each or 5/$1 plus tax. I recently had a roommate move out and lots of stuff got rearranged so it's anyone's guess where the needles at home are...

I did pick up 2 peppermint shrimp from Petco because I NEEDED to start somewhere, but they're roughly the size of the large aiptasia polyps so I doubt they'll eat the large ones. They were also $9 each at *gasp* Petco, so I only felt like getting two, since they may well end up as snacks for the pink tail trigger.