RFBF's 90 Gallon Déjà vu All Over Again

[Reefdiculous22]

Power Failure II

We very rarely have power failures and if we do they typically last seconds....to the point that you stand up to go find a flashlight and the lights come back on. Well we just came out of our second power failure within three days. The good thing is that this one only lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. Now we are in a pretty good storm with high winds, so my guess is a tree downing power lines. Still got the generator out and running, and just finished putting it away. I'm drenched!

Having a rough time of it I see. Glad to see you have power to the tank. I’ve come to believe that our tanks kind of become or resemble a part of our self’s and really want to keep them safe and healthy. So it kinda hurts a little when things go wrong. It’s always good to have a back up plan.

 

[redfishbluefish]

WHAT? New Lights!

It’s now been about a month and a half since I purchased the ViparSpectra, and I’m really liking this fixture. It is noticeably brighter than the older SBReef fixtures (I know, our eyes are not a good measure), even though the SB’s are at 80/30, while the Vipar is at 50/10 percent blue/white channels. When I have a chance, I’ll measure LUX (what I term the poorman’s PAR meter….thank you @saltyfilmfolks .)

Sitting around contemplating the lint in my belly button and seeing the one old Mars Aqua/SBReef fixture had burnt out fans and a couple LED beads and, the fan areas of the two remaining SBReef fixtures showing their age with considerable rust:

And, as of this April, will be six years old….just wait, I’m getting there…..I bit the bullet and ordered two more ViparSpectra 165W fixtures. Should be here in a couple days, and in the meantime I’ll make hanging brackets. Can't wait.

 

[redfishbluefish]

WooHoo! New Lights.

Having pre-made the mounting hardware, this install went pretty fast. Pulled out the light rack, removed the old, and installed the new. Here's the rack ready to be lifted in place.

And with the canopy door open, here they are:

And what a difference in brightness. I'm going to guess the blues on the old fixtures have blackened primary lenses. I've seen it with my older Apollo lights that lasted about five years. So I'm guessing it happened with these older SBReef lights. When I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I'll open them up and check it out. Otherwise, I'll mount up the old fixtures as a backup rack.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

WooHoo! New Lights.

Having pre-made the mounting hardware, this install went pretty fast. Pulled out the light rack, removed the old, and installed the new. Here's the rack ready to be lifted in place.

And with the canopy door open, here they are:

And what a difference in brightness. I'm going to guess the blues on the old fixtures have blackened primary lenses. I've seen it with my older Apollo lights that lasted about five years. So I'm guessing it happened with these older SBReef lights. When I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I'll open them up and check it out. Otherwise, I'll mount up the old fixtures as a backup rack.

Those lights look great!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Setting Up QT - Getting Ready for more Fish

It’s been years since I’ve purchased fish from an LFS….terrible with time, but I’d guess at least 10-12 years ago. My fish live a long life but I’m now down to five fish, and I’m ready for more. I first set up a 30 cube (sump ready, but no sump) only to find that the overflow was leaking, now allowing the bulkhead to leak and eventually the open plumbing that would otherwise go to the sump. The easiest fix was to pull the 30 cube and set up a 20 long I had. The only issue was that I had no canopy or top for this tank. With the snowy weekend, what I did was to quickly build a similar canopy that I have over my DT, but now a mini version. Same paneled design, but just smaller, all with scrap wood laying around the shop.

Here it is with the canopy door open.

And here is a top view of the old Fathom light I’m using

 

[redfishbluefish]

HOW TO COOK A CORAL WITH NEW LIGHTS.

Yet another DOH! moment for me....and I should know better. As noted above, new lights installed and I also upped the whites being on from 4 1/2 hours to 8 hours a day. I wasn't there to see this, but supposedly very quickly....maybe within a day or so....totally whited the coral. Between being new lights and raising the whites quickly, it's my best guess at what killed this one coral.

No other corals appear to be having a problem....in fact, some are noticeably growing quicker.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Aquatec 8800 Died

Looks like my original Aquatec pump died. It's making a horrible noise and now leaking water.




Just ordered a new pump for $99 (tax included) that should be here in four days. It's the pump only since I have the transformer, etc.

 

[redfishbluefish]

New pump arrived. The new pump has a different mounting bracket. Old on the left, new on the right.

The holes line up perfectly, but the bolts I have on the mounting board are too short. I don't feel like pulling down the board and putting in new bolts, so I simply switched brackets to the old one. It's up and running and very quiet.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Too Hot...Too Soon!!!

Outside temperature is 90F while inside temp is 80F. It's April 29th in central New Jersey. This shouldn't be.

Tank is at 78.8...and I keep it at 78.0 to 78.3.

Time to put the window air conditioner in the window of the fish room....it's way too early.