Ibn
Guest
Wet testing, I noticed that there was water in the drybox. I thought I had made a mistake and filled it up by accident (was rather late when I did the testing). Made no note of it until the tank was moved indoors and the move was complete. By then, I noticed that the drybox was wet again, but it wasn't at the same water height as the overflow water level. There's actually a notch in the drybox that was for a cord to sneak through, but after looking at it, it wasn't the source of the issue.
As it turns out, the drybox wasn't water tight. I drained the overflow compartment this last week and smeared some weld-on #16 on all the seams to the drybox and that sealed the leak.
Anyways, onto other equipment...
Stand light:
Stand looked great on the outside, but terribly dark inside; the entire stand is painted a semi-gloss black, including the inside. Off to the hardware store to find some sort of light to go inside the stand. Things have definitely changed since the last time I went to look for a stand light. I couldn't find a 12" or so T5 light that I had used when I still had my 90G freshwater setup.
LEDs are definitely more in than I thought. While perusing through the lighting aisle at OSH, I stumbled across a three pack of these:
No wires, runs off 3 AAA batteries, and secured via double sided tape. I have plenty of AAA eneloops, so I figured I'd give them a shot. I tested them at home and the light didn't really have the spread that I really wanted, but 3 of them ought to do the job. One was doubled sided taped in the stand and actually provided sufficient lighting to see underneath. The other two were to go in the next day when I could look for them (another late night session working on the tank).
As it turns out, the double sided tape didn't work as well as advertised. Found it the following day in the sump shorted out. Back to OSH I went looking for another alternative. Didn't take long and I came upon some under-the-cabinet pucks. These also came in a set of 3, but instead were using 20W halogen bulbs, wired, and secured via 3 screws. As it turns out, I should have gone with these initially. I fired one up and other than the extremely yellow coloration, these suckers were bright! One of the three pucks is set on the timer (DC8) to go on one hour after the T5s shut down to light the chaeto that I have down in the refugium. The other two are hooked into a switch that allows me to turn them on any time that I need to work underneath the stand.
As it turns out, the drybox wasn't water tight. I drained the overflow compartment this last week and smeared some weld-on #16 on all the seams to the drybox and that sealed the leak.
Anyways, onto other equipment...
Stand light:
Stand looked great on the outside, but terribly dark inside; the entire stand is painted a semi-gloss black, including the inside. Off to the hardware store to find some sort of light to go inside the stand. Things have definitely changed since the last time I went to look for a stand light. I couldn't find a 12" or so T5 light that I had used when I still had my 90G freshwater setup.
LEDs are definitely more in than I thought. While perusing through the lighting aisle at OSH, I stumbled across a three pack of these:
No wires, runs off 3 AAA batteries, and secured via double sided tape. I have plenty of AAA eneloops, so I figured I'd give them a shot. I tested them at home and the light didn't really have the spread that I really wanted, but 3 of them ought to do the job. One was doubled sided taped in the stand and actually provided sufficient lighting to see underneath. The other two were to go in the next day when I could look for them (another late night session working on the tank).
As it turns out, the double sided tape didn't work as well as advertised. Found it the following day in the sump shorted out. Back to OSH I went looking for another alternative. Didn't take long and I came upon some under-the-cabinet pucks. These also came in a set of 3, but instead were using 20W halogen bulbs, wired, and secured via 3 screws. As it turns out, I should have gone with these initially. I fired one up and other than the extremely yellow coloration, these suckers were bright! One of the three pucks is set on the timer (DC8) to go on one hour after the T5s shut down to light the chaeto that I have down in the refugium. The other two are hooked into a switch that allows me to turn them on any time that I need to work underneath the stand.
