Got my lights installed, still waiting on the controller.  Need to get my nitrates down from…well, lets just say they are higher than they should be.  Once that happens, let the corals begin.

These are Aqua Illumination led’s.  Sol Blue is the model.  Bulk Reef Supply is where I got them.  They just started stocking AI stuff, luckily I found them in stock about 3 days after I decided to pull the trigger on them.  Others are still waiting, sometimes up to 2 months.

I modified how they hang, normaly they are perpendicular to the hanging rail.  I wanted them the opposite way to get more from the lights.

materials used: aluminum stock, nylon lock nuts and bolts.

8 pucks per led, each puck has 1 white, 1 blue, 1 royal blue (3w each).

each module uses 72W

Sol Blue led

Sol Blue Side

sol blue aquarium front

sol blue aquarium bottom

Now I wait for the controller to show up.

(17Oct10)

banggai

(Sept 30, 2010)

eggs…19 days after putting 2 adult cleaner shrimp in my tank. One of the shrimp molted (drop old shell, creates new shell). A few hours later it looks like there are some eggs. I am only guessing though, I have never seen a cleaner with eggs up close. We shall see how it goes, they might not be eggs, this is all new to me. The only reason I’m guessing eggs is because when they molt is the only time it can happen with these shrimp. The eggs have to happen after releasing current shell and before the new shell comes in, its a very small time frame. At least that is what I have read from forums, havnt placed an order yet for the shrimp book I want to read. If i find this is wrong, I’ll update. The shrimp is also swaying back and forth, first time I have seen this behavior.

shrimp with eggs

(Sept 18, 2010)

2 new entries into my tank. It now has 2 clowns (Nemo’s), and 2 skunk cleaner shrimp (Jacques)

cleaner shrimp acclimation

They were drop acclimated for about 4 hours. If you look close at the upper right hand side, you can see the effects of a drop of water falling into the container (exciting stuff)

I really hope shrimp dont have built in knowledge about how we (humans) sometimes cook our food. For a while they were in a large pot used for making stew just in case the container overflowed. If they thought they were going to be boiled, they could be scared for life.

Those pellets are formula 1 and formula 2, wanted to see if they would eat either one. It seemed that they liked both.

Once they were put in the tank, it wasnt as smooth as i had hoped. One made it onto the rocks, he was fine. The other went to the bottom of the tank. He kept doing laps around the bottom of the tank. My rocks are about 4 inches off the bottom of the tank, add that to the vortech mp40 with minimalist aquascaping and he was working hard just to move around. It didnt look like he could make it to the rocks. Luckily I had forget my vortech wasnt running at the lowest speed, it was at 3/10, moved it back to 1/10 and it was better, but not good enough. Placed another rock in the tank on the bottom so it could be used to get to the other rock and that did the trick, w/in 10 minutes the shrimp made his way to the rock.

I ened up relocating the vortech higher in the tank and that rock can be removed now. The flow is low enough where they can get around at the bottom of the tank w/o having to struggle.

For the record, the vortech kicks butt. Compared to other powerheads, it is not a contest. That one pump moves massive amounts of water in throughout the tank, not just a small part of tank. It does it not by small stream that pumps alot, but a large diameter stream thats slow, but massive (motorcycle versus bulldozer). The undertow is enough where i can see flake food go from bottom on the far end from the powerhead, to the top on the same end after traveling the length of tank.

The clowns didnt know what was going on when they first saw the shrimp. It was funny to me, probalby not to the clowns. The clowns, tank bred/raised probably had never saw a shrimp. These shrimp are friendly. They both moved to the clowns area of the tank and the clowns where pretty stressed for a bit. Its a different story 24 hours later. The (soon to be male) clown seems to enjoy the shrimps touching him, the (soon to be) female isnt quite at that stage. The clowns act different now, both come out of their pvc home alot more often and swim by the shrimp. They even hang out under the rock somtimes, which they never did before.

The happy family

happy family

I’m debating on trying to raise peppermint shrimp, or at least trying, will need something to keep me occupied in the winter months. I’m not used to alot of failure, but it sounds like if I do try, I better be ready for that. Not sure peppermint shrimp would make it in my tank, those skunk cleaner shrimp had issues moving around, doubt peppermint shrimp would do well at all with the flow i have. So I have to decide if I even want to put the time in to it, and what I would use to house peppermint shrimp

(august 7, 2010)

2 clowns are going good…i guess…seems i can only tell if they doing bad, so i’m assuming they are doing good

Saturday project…copepod condo, shamelessly stolen from The Reef Tank. Not sure when i will get my own ideas, sometimes i want to design a new wheel

copepod condo

chemicals…you can never have enough

chemicals

kent pro buffer dkh…used once, works, but moved onto baked baking soda, much more affordable

vinegar used to lower ph (and liquid carbon dosing), i dont plan on using it

pickling lime, again, thanks to randy (read the articles, they are well worth the time), not currently using, will be using in a few months. Tried it for a bit, and works well, just dont have the need w/o much life in the tank.

nite-out II. Bought from the local fish store (LFS), support your LFS when you can, i try to. Have it for emergency use to reduce ammonia and nitrite. Should never need, but did put some in. Why would i put some in when i dont need? simple…read next paragraph

My tank started sterile, its a hobby and experiment to me. I didnt buy live rock, cycled dead/base rock with bacteria from 2 different commercial sources (biospira, turbo start 900). Did i need more then 1 source? very doubtful, but figured it wouldnt hurt. I used ammonia from ace hardware to start the process. in the future, i probalby wont do it that way again, but only because i will have my own live rock i can transfer over. What did i gain by doing it this way? Well, not sure. I have no algae, no hitchhikers, if thats good or bad i cant answer. The biggest thing gained was an understanding of how the process can work starting with nothing.

One last item for those that read this far. reefcentral.com has great forums for information, and that is what i use it for. Make an account there so you can search, look at images. Their vocal users and moderaters are pretty set in their ways, its not a place i would ever comfortable posting and responding, just gathering. If you dont feel the same way about certain subjects, it can be bruttle

The Reef Tank is my next stop for checking out salt water forums. Seems like it will be the place for me.