Rygh's 250 gallon upgrade

[Coral reefer]

Yeah looking good.
As far as skunks, been there, done that. Had a roomate get hit hard while on a bike onetime. Lasted days

 

[Kmooresf]

Way bummer about the skunk. We have a ton of them here, and am waiting for my dog to get into it with one. Her weakness are the dead seals and things that wash up on the beach. She thinks she needs to roll around all over those. She is famous at the dogwash place! LOL!

 

[Lawrence Yang]

Why are fish better than dogs for pets???
Because fish do not get sprayed by skunks!!!!!
Augh!
The dog, the house, and a fair bit of the neighborhood reeks.

my eldest dog was skunked a few days ago as well... smelled like death

 

[monkeybiz]

great fts

 

[rygh]

Got a new toy : Underwater Camera : Olympus TG-2
Not a DSLR, but pretty close, and being able to get up really close for a picture, instead
of through front glass, makes a HUGE difference.


Some examples:

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Growing!
Nice toy

 

[neuro]

lush

 

[rygh]

A few more pictures

 

[Coral reefer]

Nice shots mark! What's the thurs pic in first set? Pavona?

 

[rygh]

Nice shots mark! What's the thurs pic in first set? Pavona?

Thanks.
No clue as to what it is.
Hard encrusting coral, no obvious polyps.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Neato, and yeah, when I made a little acrylic cover/box to go over the end of my camera I went absolutely apeshit taking top down pictures amazed at how awesome the corals looked considering I could then angle shots as opposed to having to take straight on.

 

[DeeAnnMG]

Wow! Gorgeous pictures.

 

[rygh]

Almost killed the tank!!

It was a super busy weekend for me, and I rushed cleaning the skimmer.
Well, I accidentally knocked a plug out of the relay box.
Put it back in without thinking much about it. It is labeled, but I did not check carefully.
I ended up putting the top-off pump into the currently unused fuge light plug.
Fuge light normally runs 12 hours, during the night.
OOPS.

Fortunately, the pump is rather loud, and I heard it late at night, thought that was strange, so checked.
It "only" pumped about 5 gallons of fresh water into the system.
But if left running overnight.....
Fish might have survived the low-salinity, but not the corals.

Those multiple float switches as backup did no good at all. The micro-controller though the pump was off.

 

[aqua-nut]

Lucky you caught it.

Always a good reminder to take a few seconds to do a reality check.

You need a audible warning like 'Help Me' in the voice of 'The Fly' (1958 version) from the float switch test results.

 

[rygh]

Lucky you caught it.

Always a good reminder to take a few seconds to do a reality check.

You need a audible warning like 'Help Me' in the voice of 'The Fly' (1958 version) from the float switch test results.

Yep.
I used to use Xively for data logging. Still sortof running. And they have triggers that can
do an http post. So in theory, I could do something with an iPhone.
But yes, I really need an audible alarm in the house.
Hmm, I could tie it into my main house alarm system. That would get my attention.

 

[rygh]

ARGH : Stupid Cheap Bags.
Due to recent Prazipro medicating, I put some extra carbon in the sump, in a small media bag.
Well ... a seam opened up. So I now have carbon everywhere.
All over sump and fuge. At least none in display tank.

Oh well - I was overdue on siphoning crud out of sump anyway.

 

[rygh]

Finished my new Refugium light.
Reminder that my fuge is not for macros, but for random future fun stuff.
It only lights the right hand side. Part of the plan.
Pretty quick and dirty. Really just used leftover parts from other LED experiments.

 

[Kmooresf]

Way cool. What colors did you end up with? What wattage bulbs did you go with? I'm always curious to see how people's home made projects stack up to the commercial products. I'm guessing you can get some high quality lights out of a DIY project.

Sometimes I let my mind wander a bit. The thought of making a giant canopy of LED's. All evenly spaced over the entire tank...........on and on.

 

[rygh]

Way cool. What colors did you end up with? What wattage bulbs did you go with? I'm always curious to see how people's home made projects stack up to the commercial products. I'm guessing you can get some high quality lights out of a DIY project.

Sometimes I let my mind wander a bit. The thought of making a giant canopy of LED's. All evenly spaced over the entire tank...........on and on.

It is a fuge, so honestly I really just used what I had lying around or partly built.

Cluster 1 = 2 x Cree XPE-Royal Blue + 2 x XPG Cool white
Cluster 2 = 2 x Cree XPE-Royal Blue + 1 x Luxeon Rebel Neutral White.
Everything running in series at 700 mA.
In pictures above, cluster 1 is on the left, cluster 2 on the right.

The difference between clusters is very obvious.
Cluster 1 is far "bluer" than Cluster 2, even though it has two whites.
In my opinion, the Neutral white cluster is a lot nicer to look at.

----

I still want to try adding a violet to Cluster 2.

I might add some lenses as well. I have a few in a box somewhere.

-----

The problem with even spacing is that you can get weird color banding effects.

 

[rygh]

Any advice on getting a Swallowtail Angelfish pair???
Genicanthus melanospilus

I have been thinking of getting a pair for a while now.
Interestingly, Brandie triggered this, with the SWF.com order idea, since they have them.

Anyone have experience with them?
Fun? Aggressive?
Hard to feed?

My only other Angel is a Coral Beauty (dwarf)
Other big fish are Foxface + Sailfin.

Not the best picture of the female, but shows the pair.