Tank Journal Archive

[MTG]

looking great mate! no fans for the heatsink??

 

[marineclass]

Those leds are blinding me from here,lol nice diy job too.
PS that coral from Darren looks like a micromussa.

Thanks mate - it is going to be neatly tucked away in a case to make it look nicer - once i get around to it. And yes - that is the coral - i remember now that you mention that :) Thanks

Looks good mate - nice variety of drivers you had to work with by the look of it ;)

Yes - that was the most confusing part of the build. I basically combined a diy kit with a whole lot of random leds and drivers from 2 different companies. It was a mission to get my head around it for my first build, but am very happy with the final result.

 

[MagicJ]

You can now become the resident expert and I can take a holiday :D

 

[marineclass]

Not likely Magic! Im still confused and its almost done. Im happy to direct people to where to buy stuff and thats about all i can do to help. haha.

I hung it over the tank today just to see what it looks like.

Here is the old t5 light

And here is the leds. This pic has 2 strings of blue and 4 strings of white. My other 2 blue strings arnt connected just yet and so it will be a much nicer blue tone once these are connected.

 

[marineclass]

As you can see it is pretty bright. I will hang them higher over the tank and turn the white down and the blue up when its all completed.

 

[MTG]

Will look great wen the extra blues are on mate. Maybe you should get a sparky to confirm its safe and tag it (it is in a work environment imagine if it burnt the place down) don't think the insurence would cover that !! Haha good luck mate, how's it heat up I thought you would need a fan

 

[marineclass]

Yea i will def get it tagged. I dont trust my wiring haha. There will be fans, i am going to mount them to the case that will enclose the lights. Really looking forward to the blues being on

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk

 

[MTG]

Good thinking , kids still loving the tank ?

 

[marineclass]

Good thinking , kids still loving the tank ?

Ywa man they love it. I have quite a few students who have started their own FW tank at home - some just goldfish and some tropical, but its a great start for 8 year olds. I have a line outside my class most lunch times because kids want to come in and see the tank, and this isnt just kids from my class, its high school and teachers too . haha. Just found out that i will most likely be moving class next year (same school but different room) which means another move is most likely. Makes me wonder - since i will be at home for 7 weeks, should i move it home and then back or just move it once into the new class. I know its a big job moving a 250L tank but it would be nice to have it at home for the holidays....we will see.

 

[marineclass]

i found this coral that broke off a piece of liverock i had and so i reattached it hoping it might survive. I have no idea what it is, but it looks like an SPS type shape. Let me know what you think it is.

...and no, i dont mean the apptasia right next to it! It came with the liverock and is the only one i can find in the tank so i will try to get rid of it at some point.

 

[marineclass]

side note on the apptasia- since it is a small easy to move rock, could i just remove the rock and scrape off the apptaisia, then wash it in RO water? Would this get rid of it?

 

[Agent M]

Looks like a sponge to me, when you move the tank be careful not to expose it to the air as it often kills them.

 

[marineclass]

thanks megan :)

 

[marineclass]

Look what arrived for me today!

I still can not believe the generosity of both individuals and companies in the reefing world. Seachem has just very generously donated all of this product to help our little project here in class. I am extremely grateful to them and can not believe how much they sent me, I was only expecting 1 or 2 little bottles of product! I dont know what the productsw do yet however i have started reading up and am excited to see thier effect on the reef :)

 

[marineclass]

as a side note - the amonia test they sent me is unreal! Just put it in the water and leave it and it lasts for a year. I ran a test to check its aquracy and it was right on. So much easier than drops and strips and its a good way for the kids to check daily and report any changes to me. I just wish there was easy tests like this for everything!

 

[Agent M]

side note on the apptasia- since it is a small easy to move rock, could i just remove the rock and scrape off the apptaisia, then wash it in RO water? Would this get rid of it?

If you want to do it that way, I would chip it off the rock rather than scrape - the aiptasia will grow back otherwise. Other common methods are injecting with vinegar or putting some kalkwasser paste (builders lime and water) in a syringe, turning off your pumps and squirting it on the aiptasia, leave for 5-10 minutes.

 

[Agent M]

Sorry should mention too the most common biological method is purchasing peppermint shrimp as they eat them

 

[MTG]

copper band butterflys are the best for eating aptasia :D

 

[marineclass]

Not a very good update unfortunatly - i have been a bit slack latley and there has been some algea breakout - does anybody know what this algea is - it is spreading really quickly

also something has attacked my angel and he is missing his tail - still moves around well though but looks scared! Would it be a crab or mantis of some kind?

Hard to see in this pic but the white bit is where his tail used to be - i cant get a good pic of him

 

[brendore]

First pic looks like cyano to me..
As for the second, what other fish have you got in there? I've not heard of a crab attacking such a large fish, though I would guess it could happen.. My guess is if there's nothing in the tank that is capable of attacking the angel I would be inclined to say it maybe a bacterial infection... A dose of melafix would fix it up pretty quick if you have any (it would also help in it's recovery as well ;))