Chris' Reef

Definitely little explorers for sure at that age. My little one has a huge fascination with water right now. Just glad the sump is in the corner behind the tank and not accessible from the doors, otherwise I'm sure she'd be swimming in there.
We have Italian mastiffs which are basically the same as cane corsos, my male (130 lbs) is just a big kid but isn't to fascinated by water. Female (85 lbs) is in her own world and has a 10 second delay on life, half blind so I don't know if she even knows where the fish tank is.

I couldn't imagine loosing what you lost. I commend you for sticking with it and continuing. I think I would be in such remorse where I couldn't continue on. And the butterfly eating everything, wow. Mine years ago withered away and became a carpet anemone meal because I just could not get it to eat. I tried everything. Good job on that one.

When one of the first words your little one says is "fishies" it makes you happy and knowing that its not just for yourself. Also when you catch your wife in a trans staring at the tank is awesome as well. Makes it all worth it.

 

yes, i know i'll need those child locks too. my daughter keeps asking for the "big fish tank" and i know she will be more than eager to feed when everything is all setup.

 

Sorry, double posted. Don't know what happened.
Yeah, child locks are great, until they figure out how to open them. The 180 looked great. Heartbreaking. The new one will get there. I just upgraded lighting and I can't believe the improvement the corals have made in just the past week and a half. I haven't even finished acclimating the lights yet. I'm still at 4 hrs with the mh.
I'm sorry if I missed it but what type of lighting are you running right now?

 

Yes I missed it. DIY led. Sorry. What kind of timer do you have for the mj. I need to get something to get a more random flow. I was thinking of the koralia smart wave but am not sure yet. What would you suggest.

 

Yeah the lock has been great so far, I am sure I will need to figure out something more to do to protect it down the road but I haven't quite figured out what I will do that won't look completely horrible (not that the current lock is a pleasure to look at by any means lol). When I feed while my son is still up, I usually set him on the couch and tell him Daddy is going to feed the fish, you can sit here and watch and he has been cool with that. With 10 fish jetting around the tank it kind of distracts him from the urge to want to feed them himself so far..... it doesn't hurt that I made the stand 40" tall either.

Yeah the lights are a DIY (modularleds.ca, using 3w Cree's)

As for the flow, everything is controlled through my Reef Angel controller. I have the powerheads set to alternate every 37-57 seconds randomly in an anti-sync type setting. At one point I had them set to 7-27 but the clicking got annoying and I started having issues with them not wanting to function properly. Right now I am searching for an mp10 or 40 to help with some more flow and provide an even more randomness to things.

 

Thanks for the info. I really want to get some random flow going. I need to get something like that an some new power heads. All I have now are the older style koralias that chatter when on a timer and a mj 1200. I have the mj on. A timer to come on and off every 5 minutes. Does some but not enough.
The DIY lighting looks real good. I would like to see a pic of the way you have I set up. (If you don't mind).
Thanks again.

 

No problem.....



Each panel is built identically, and they are both centered over each section of the tank.

I finally found a mp40 for a decent price so I am hopefully going to go pick it up saturday... hope they are all they are cracked up to be lol

 

I like the way you set up the LEDs. They look real good. Good job on that.

That's great. Glad you found an mp40. I'm sure it will be great. I have heard nothing but great things about them.
I would love to get on but that's just not in the cards right now.

 

Thanks, the setup was pretty much their stock idea for these model leds so I didn't have to think about it much lol.

I actually decided to just go with a new mp40.... figured the 2yr warranty and customer service was worth it. Ordering it through my LFS so help them out a little bit too, althought it definitely cut into the $ I was going to use on frags instead :-/ lol

 

You still have to have some skill and ingenuity to set up a DIY led even if it is boiler plate.

I hear you. It seems like anything we have to spend money on cuts into the frag fund. Diapers, milk, food. You know.

I would rather buy from my lfs over shopping online. Not only to help out a local store but because I am so impatient that when I want it I want it now. Find it very hard to wait for the shipping.