Lighting

While was in Des Moines during September for MACNA 23, my tank sitter contacted me to let me know the anemone was up to no good and that one of my corals had turned white. I thought it was just a little frag that was too close to the BTA, but when he sent me a picture via MMS, I nearly lost my mind. The coral was actually three in one spot, and the little frag that I thought was the victim was completely fine. Here's some of the damage.

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Too much light spilling in from my refugium required me to do something. Since I'm totally out of black acrylic, I thought I'd get some coroplast at Hobby Lobby. However, they had none and stopped selling it. Wandering around the store, I found sheets of black foam 3mm thick, about the size of a placemat. Each sheet was $0.99, so I bought four.



I affixed it to the back of the refugium light with some velcro, ...

I pulled out the test kits tonight to see where things are. I'm happy to report great numbers across the board.

Salinity 1.026sg
pH 8.22
ORP 313
Temperature 79.3F
Alkalinity 10dKH
Calcium 480ppm
Magnesium 1450ppm
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0

Even with these excellent numbers, I'm going to do a 50g water change tomorrow.

The LED refugium lighting was installed two nights ago, and they look fantastic. Totally ...

In a previous blog, I showed how I assembled and secured a light rack (using EzTube) to the ceiling. Here's the link: http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php...t-rack-project

With the livestock in the 400g, it was time to get the lights placed overhead, and everything that entails. I use Lumenbright reflectors, and have had them for a few years. Every couple of months I take them down, remove the glass to clean both sides, and reinstall them. This keeps them nice looking ...

Mark another stage off my list of things to do. The light rack has been assembled and suspended over the tank. I'm going to do a little touch up here and there to make sure no exposed metal will corrode from the salty environment, but I'll have to buy some model paint to do so. Here's how it went...

The first thing I had to do was warm up the garage. It's been pretty cold recently, and I didn't want to work in 35F if I could avoid it. So I fired up this heater and let it warm up ...