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Open Cockpit kit plane in Alaska = Balllllls. Looks like a blast! 503 or the 582?

Jaxom: I was originally building it for someone else, but he lost interest and I ended up buying the project from him. He chose the color. the black nose is the supplied color of the fiberglass fairing. I am planning to finish painting the fairings White after I'm done test flying, then add some trim colors. I'm thinking it'd look good as a clown fish. On the other hand my Mom was quick to point out it looks like a Snow Goose.

Marc, I'm not sure if it's patience or stubbornness. But I really enjoy building things, and am already looking for something else to work on. New reef tank at home maybe? hmmm.....

Now that looks like fun!

5 years until you had your maiden voyage? That's some patience!

Nice looking aircraft, was wondering on your choice of color though, do you plan on flying much with snow on the ground? I would think it would be hard to spot from the air if you had any problems.

Hat it was a balmy 30 degrees that day. In fact the temps have been in the 30's all week, with freezing rain. Town is a terrible mess and the roads are frightning.

Glad to see ya got the plane finished! It certainly looks real cold up in Alaska. I have my air conditioner on in my home. ;-p

Was awesome! Flies nice, visibility is spectacular and the windshield does a great job of keeping the breeze off. So not too chilly, at least I certainly didn't notice it on the first flight.

How was it? It looks fun, if not a bit chilly.

Dread, Are you sure you want to pay shipping from Alaska for a shroom? They've hardly spread in the past 4 years since I got them.

Marc, I think you're right, that's a Pocillopora. The monti still has polyps showing, even though it's completely bleached, so I'm holding out hope. After I tossed my last 'arctic' monti I found a little tiny patch with about 2 polpys stuck to the base rock that has continued growing. It's about 3/8" now.

Congratulations. Corals in the arctic circle at last. I see you have an arctic coral already.

That last one is very likely a pocillopora.

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Quite quite nice. I'm really looking forward to doing some more sps in this new tank setup. I have way better lighting this time around then what I did on my 29g, so I'm hoping I can keep it solid.

I really like those bright red shrooms too You should mail me some when they start splitting and I'll toss you some green rhodactis

Not without building a new hood, or doing something temporary and hokey looking, which wouldn't fly in the office lobby. I can trim back the full on period some more and see if that does the trick.

A new taller hood is possible, but not till I get a couple other projects out of the way first.

It still sounds like too much light. Could you raise them up off the water 2" more?

Originally Posted by T5FL

Did you pick up any hitchhikers? I had a decorator crab that came in on some live rock that i had no idea was there, my polyps were slowly but Shirley disappearing until one day i saw some xiena moving around that it put on its back and found my problem.

None that I've caught, and I've made night time hunts with the red flashlight several times too.

I'm running the lights for 11 hrs a day, but only running all 4 for 7 hours now. The lights are about 4" abaove the water and the temp stays constant at 80F day and night, the slots in the back and top of my hood seem to provide good convection cooling, and of course the turf scrubber provides additional evaporative cooling. I was running all 4 lights for 9 hours and since I cut back the toadstool seems to extend it's polyps in the norning, then slowly retract them untill it's completely closed up by half way through the photo period.

How long are you running the lights? What temperature is the tank peaking at? What distance are the lights from the water?

Did you pick up any hitchhikers? I had a decorator crab that came in on some live rock that i had no idea was there, my polyps were slowly but Shirley disappearing until one day i saw some xiena moving around that it put on its back and found my problem.

2 blue Plus
1 Special Blue (12,000K)
1 Figi purple

What T5 bulbs are you using? For four bulbs i would have two actinic, one aquablue special and either a figi purple or a 6500 K. Im running 8x54 Watt T5's and have no problems with leathers, zoos, lps, or sps.