World's slowest custom 85g system. ...and there was coral. (p.18)

[FlowerMama]

Yeah, I'm looking from the back side. It appears to be the same as yours then.

[Rollermonkey]

I attached my little swingset to the hood tonight and fired up the lights to see how they looked.

 

Room lights on, Kessils at 25%, even blue/white mix:

 

 

Room lights off, kessil whites only at 25%:

 

 

Room lights off, Kessil blue only at 25%:

 

 

As seen from my eye level, the lights are barely visible on top of the hood:

 

 

Looking down into the hood shows the holes I cut and how the lights are mounted.

 

 

Looks good, if you ask me.

[Sunar357]

Looking good there! You can always paint the top that is visible also to try and blend them in.

[Mr. Mustache]

Very clever with the hood. Looks great!

[Rollermonkey]

I figured the alternative was hanging them from the ceiling or wall and having to swing them out of the way any time I wanted to open the hood.

[FlowerMama]

_{Great to have lights up!! . W/ so many permutations of light combinations I'll never get my camera right. I'm either too purple in my pic, or blue.}

[Rollermonkey]

You can always turn the knob to white while you're taking pictures and turn it back when you're done.

[FlowerMama]

You can always turn the knob to white while you're taking pictures and turn it back when you're done.

 

Maybe I'll have to try that. These white lights themselves are so bright and you've got 2. Mine's 30 across, your tank again? And did you get the narrow or wide? I can't remember.

[Rollermonkey]

I got two 360Ws, and my tank is 36" x 24". They are dimmable, so I can dial them down to >12% to avoid washed out pictures.

[Rollermonkey]

I just noticed that you can see my daughter's el-cheapo keyboard downstairs and through the hole in the hood.

[specore]

Those lights are sexy!

 

Why did you decide on the wide vs the regular? I am going to be setting up a 36 inch tank and I was thinking the wide wouldn't be necessary for each to cover an 18x18 area.

[Rollermonkey]

Those lights are sexy!

 

Why did you decide on the wide vs the regular? I am going to be setting up a 36 inch tank and I was thinking the wide wouldn't be necessary for each to cover an 18x18 area.

 

I got the wide because the narrows are for water a lot deeper than my 20 inches. I'd have fried pretty much any corals I got.

[Rollermonkey]

This is getting ridiculous.

 

The filter media I ordered from BRS a month after my skimmer and reactors are here, and I still have no reactors and no skimmer.

[Rollermonkey]

Despite reassurances from Premium Aquatics that the RLSS skimmers were shipped from China last month, and that the shipment arrived in L.A. on the 6th, it now seems that there were no skimmers in that shipment after all.

 

I have to say that it's bull$#!+ to have a product on your website and take orders for that item when you don't actually know when or even if you can actually provide that product. If it's a backorder or out of stock, it should be listed that way. If it's a preorder, that should be how it's listed.

 

Salty Supply and Aquarium Specialty are the only other vendors who carry the RLSS skimmers in the US. Both had them listed as out of stock when I placed this order. Aquarium Specialty still doesn't have them, and Salty Supply has the new ones at a higher price point.

 

Supposedly, they may air ship them at some point, but at this point, I'm not really believing anything they say right now.

[Rollermonkey]

...and my reactors are still not ready.

 

Maybe Monday or Tuesday for those.

 

In semi-related news, I finally got the Apex on my BioCube fully functional, so it will be more useful when I move it to this tank.

[Rollermonkey]

I'm so frustrated by my lack of progress, I just changed my RO/DI filters to have something to do.

 

Now I'm bored again.

[Rollermonkey]

Solution:

 

Start working on my cable runs: Picked up 5 feet of 3" ABS pipe and some hole saws.

 

I guess I ought to rinse my dry sand, too.

[Rollermonkey]

...And voila:

 

 

I guess there's not much contrast... even with the flash on.

 

I might make a hole on the back of the two side pieces for wires to leave the stand. Not sure yet about that idea.

[Rollermonkey]

OK, I finally got fed up with Premium Aquatics telling me that my skimmer would probably be there next week... For 5 weeks. Salty Supply has the same exact skimmer, in stock, and has a sitewide 11%-off sale going on.

 

I cancelled the PA order and re-ordered from SS. Hopefully that's one step back, two steps forward, and not the other way around.

 

The lady at PA who took my call was pretty nice about it. They must be getting PO'd about the RLSS skimmers too, as when I started to ask about my order, she jumped ahead to ask if it was an RLSS skimmer.

 

My other bag of LS arrived at the LFS, so I picked that up on the way home.

 

Baby steps.

 

Tomorrow, I'll call the other store and see if my reactors are finally ready.

 

It seems like I'm buying a lot of stuff this month, but actually this is all stuff that I bought LAST month and haven't gotten yet...

[Rollermonkey]

...and Salty's order tracking says the skimmer is shipping today.

 

/ :roll

[Rollermonkey]

Finally got the call to come pick up my reactors. Now, here's to hoping I can actually afford to pay for them right now. (It's going to be close.)

 

Skimmer should be here day-before Turkey Day, so I'll have stuff to do that weekend now.

 

Just one MP10 away from putting water in this thing at that point! Maybe I can fill it during Winter break?

[specore]

Finally got the call to come pick up my reactors. Now, here's to hoping I can actually afford to pay for them right now. (It's going to be close.)

 

Skimmer should be here day-before Turkey Day, so I'll have stuff to do that weekend now.

 

Just one MP10 away from putting water in this thing at that point! Maybe I can fill it during Winter break?

 

Screw that. Fill her up... MP 10 can wait, we cannot

[Rollermonkey]

Screw that. Fill her up... MP 10 can wait, we cannot

 

I wish I could. The tank isn't in it's final position, so pretty much everything has to be completely finished before I can fill it. Once I move it, I won't be able to open the left door of the stand for at least a month while the tank cycles and I mini-QT the detainees making the move from the cube before breaking it down.

[Rollermonkey]

Now that I've finally got some movement on the skimmer and reactors, I've grown incredibly impatient with the shipping. I've checked the status at UPS.com at least a half-dozen times today, knowing full well I won't see anything after Jacksonville until Monday at the earliest.

 

I forgot to mention: I ordered two of those 80lb/20gallon airtight storage bins so I can start planning out my mixing station and so I can make more than 20 gallons at a time. (I only have four 5-gallon jugs.)

[Rollermonkey]

Finally had a little progress today: I picked up my reactor set from OBD.

 

Left to right, Biopellet, GFO, Carbon:

 

 

They fit snug as a bug in a rug into the notches in the eurobracing:

 

 

I'll have to modify the biopellet outlet after I get the skimmer in there, but this will do until that gets here next week. Oh, I was able to cut the tie-off for the flex-PVC tonight and it stayed right where I want it, no heat-gun required.

 

...and I was able to wedge this part of my wire management system approximately into place to better show how it works. I've actually drilled small holes into the back of the pipe and will be using plath screws to hold it into place. I think I will mount my EB-8's right above this pipe.

 

 

Lastly, I got the two jumbo-sized (20-gallon) Vittle Vaults for my mixing station from Petco. $15 coupon, $5 in Petco rewards and free shipping brought the total down to about $80 which is about MSRP for just one!