c_k_kuehne Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 At the good ole home depot they have a masonary hack saw blade that cut the rock very nice and staight and flat I ve been useing the same one for years Kewl will have to keep that in mind, never thought about a masonry hack saw blade. Currently I have a hand grinder with a masonry bit ready to go at a moments notice. Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted March 10, 2010 Author Share Posted March 10, 2010 built my permanent LED lights today. Going with low watage for a softies tank. 16 x 5mm 8,000 mcd White and 11 x 5mm 2,500 mcd Blue. All bulbs have 45 degree optics. Using a conversion calculator I should have approximately 75 Lumen of light. Here is a few build pictures. LED parts. Soldered to PC board. Hood belly pan w/ LED's, moon lights, and evaporative cooling fan. Inside business end of the belly pan. Lamp base back plate w/ power jacks and dimmer knob, Now that the system is basically done might try and go to the LFS in a few weeks and see what I can come up with. Link to comment
C-BuZz Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Very nice tank indeed & Gratz on such an awesome outcome. I can see so much attention to detail there, must have taken you ages. It's going to look so much more awesome when it's stocked, keep up the good work. C-BuZz Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted March 15, 2010 Author Share Posted March 15, 2010 Very nice tank indeed & Gratz on such an awesome outcome. I can see so much attention to detail there, must have taken you ages. It's going to look so much more awesome when it's stocked, keep up the good work. C-BuZz Thank You C-BuZz. The main part of the build took 5 weeks of working a little on it every day. Just taking it slow. Not even in a big hurry to stock it. Will wait for the exact right pieces. In the mean time my son and I was at Wal-Mart in the fish section buying some airline and he really wanted a small marine looking thing to put in his tank. I gave him a few choices and this is what he got. Link to comment
Reefused Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 Awesome idea, and a great looking tank. The outcome will be epic, in tinier proportions. Seriously, keep up the good work. Link to comment
Deleted User 6 Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 psh, my grandma could make this tank. out of duct tape. nah, lol, this thing is incredible. Link to comment
rickjg Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 Tanks in a stable mode right now. Was trying to get one LED distributor to pick from a specific color bin --- but no such luck. That set me back about 1 week on the final lights. Will order from a different web site tonight or tomorrow. The detailing on your build is amazing. I've never been much good at wood working and I'm impressed with the results on the Hawke's pico lamp. So are you still going with 5MM LEDs? Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted March 15, 2010 Author Share Posted March 15, 2010 Thanks everyone. For me building is at least 1/2 the fun. Glad my 9 gallon isn't finished yet -- completeing that build will give me something to work on after vacation. Yup on the 5mm LED's. Back a few posts #102 I have the LED build with pics. Basically 16 x w and 11 x b plus 2 x b constant on moonlight. Using a conversion calculator that takes into account optics I should have about 75 Lumen of light for this little tank. Hopefully will be enough for a softy tank. At the beginning of April am going on vacation for a week. The tank will be left unattended for 7 or 8 days. In order to prepare for this I hooked up the ATO system and have been running a test on it for the last few days. Rock stable water height and with the RKL rock stable temperature. 7 days unattended should be a walk in the park Will also hold off on putting anything else in the tank till I come back from vacation. Link to comment
Amphitrite Posted March 17, 2010 Share Posted March 17, 2010 At the beginning of April am going on vacation for a week. The tank will be left unattended for 7 or 8 days. In order to prepare for this I hooked up the ATO system and have been running a test on it for the last few days. Rock stable water height and with the RKL rock stable temperature. 7 days unattended should be a walk in the park Will also hold off on putting anything else in the tank till I come back from vacation. Could you plug it in on the RV? Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted March 17, 2010 Author Share Posted March 17, 2010 Could you plug it in on the RV? Yes it would plug in but the water level is close to the top so keeping it from sloshing around would be an issue. I could remove it from the lamp base but still would have the sloshing problem. I am really not worried about leaving it alone. If it can't do 8 days unattended then I need to go back to the drawing board and make some serious changes. Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted March 24, 2010 Author Share Posted March 24, 2010 Nothing really to report --- Tank is doing good and just pluggin along. The ATO is working perfectly. I give it a WC every couple of days and a filter cleaning once a week. The Kenya tree has doubled in size and the coralline algae is starting to spread. Going on vacation April 3 - 10 so I don't want to make any major changes/additions until I get back. During the vacation the tank will be left totally unattended. Will post a before vacation pic and a after vacation pic so everyone can see what happened while unattended during that time. Cross your fingers for me Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted April 5, 2010 Author Share Posted April 5, 2010 Currently on vacation at my brothers house. He did some Easter fraggin so I should have some decent frags to add once I get home. He fragged then yesterday so they would have 5 days of healing time before they get bagged for the 8 hour drive back home. Will post some pics once I get back home next weekend. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted April 5, 2010 Share Posted April 5, 2010 Tell Deep Thief and the kiddies Hi for me! Hope all is still well with this Pico when you get back. Link to comment
Amphitrite Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 Ahem......pics????? How did it fare the vacation..and we want to see the new additions! Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted April 11, 2010 Author Share Posted April 11, 2010 Well got back from vacation last night and the pico was just going along like I never left It went 8 days unattended without a hitch. I did manage to bring back 14 small frags. They are all in the tank at the moment and acclimating to their new home. Not sure if they all will survive or weather I have enough light for some of them. Basically here is the list: red mushroom (1) watermelon mushroom (1) nuclear zoas (4 polyp) Waynes World Sour Apple pally (1 polyp) another bright green pally (1 polyp) fraggin gone awry frag (unknown) mico dot of Turbinaria super small hammer (1 head) green tree leather toad stool leather w/ bright green polyps (small frag still healing from the fraggin) Stylophora pistillata (small frag -- dark brown w/ bright green polyps) another variety of Stylophora pistillata (small frag -- light brown w/ bright green polyps) Deeps Alien Lava (small frag -- brain ??) Yellow polyps (3 or 4) Here is a couple pictures of the fraggin session. The 1st picture is a piece of the Alien Lava. Deep used a dremel and a chisel for this one. The second picture is the toadstool rim after it was cut off. That rimm was then cut into about 8 small pieces and each mounted on a plug or rubble In a few days after things start to get use to the new tank will take some pictures and see what survives. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 wow you can fit all that into that tiny space? and what is that creature in the second pic lol? Link to comment
brandon429 Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 had to comment again such a professional build, tops among pico threads Link to comment
Deep Thief Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 wow you can fit all that into that tiny space?and what is that creature in the second pic lol? The second pic is a "donut" ring I cut off the top of my green leather. I then took it and cut it into pieces. I just cut them into "squares" kinda and glued them to frag plugs and rocks to frag the leather. I left the mother colony with the entire stalk and some of the top. Its just now missing the top "ring" around it. CK and I had some fun fragging up a bunch of stuff in my tank this last week.Woo Hoo. Ck should have some more pics soon as it opens up in his tank more and more. One of the frags from that cutting just got added to his tank. Come on CK, lets see some more pics of those sexy new frags! I know you have them. I will post up some of my pics soon, I am just in N Fl for the week and will get to it when I get home. Link to comment
rickjg Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 Did that toad stool leather stink up the place when you fragged it. I fragged one once and it was bad enough to make my eyes water ... Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted April 12, 2010 Author Share Posted April 12, 2010 wow you can fit all that into that tiny space?and what is that creature in the second pic lol? It all fit with some room to spare -- just bear in mind these are SM - XSM frags -- once they grow out for a while that might be a different story had to comment again such a professional build, tops among pico threads Thank you brandon -- that means a lot coming from the master of the micro pico tanks You are an inspiration to us all. Did that toad stool leather stink up the place when you fragged it. I fragged one once and it was bad enough to make my eyes water ... Didn't notice a smell but then again my whiskey breath at the time might have had something to do with that Glad Deep was as brave with fraggin his corals as I was defiantly brave with the fraggin suggestions. Everything is starting to come out and looking decent. The slowest one being the Alien Lava Brain frag which unfortunately happens to also be the nicest coral of the bunch. Will try and take some pictures tomorrow night and post them up. Link to comment
c_k_kuehne Posted April 14, 2010 Author Share Posted April 14, 2010 Everything is looking better each day. Started playing with a camera my Dad gave me a while back that has a macro lenses. Here are a few test shots trying to figure out the settings. Will do post a full set in a few days. These came straight off the camera with NO photoshop tweaking. Link to comment
Amphitrite Posted April 17, 2010 Share Posted April 17, 2010 Everything is looking better each day. Started playing with a camera my Dad gave me a while back that has a macro lenses. Here are a few test shots trying to figure out the settings. Will do post a full set in a few days. These came straight off the camera with NO photoshop tweaking. Looking good...would love a macro lens....hmmmmm.....Mother's Day maybe Link to comment
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