My 300g to 120g Upgrade

[DaveMorris]

I had one Reef Radiance 165 and decided to get a second to see if I liked the look. I don't care about seeing a bigger fixture, just thinking about not dealing with a full blown hood.

[Tapio]

Dave, we need some FTS

[DaveMorris]

Did a major clean up today. Water change, vacuumed out the dirt it the sump, cleaned up the skimmer and bio pellet reactor, etc. Its looking nice and clean now. I'm still waiting to get the doors on the stand, but things are coming along. I am going to switch over the RKE head unit to the new Archon this week. Even though I am still beta testing the system, it seems to be pretty stable so I will put the whole tank on it and see how it goes. I'll get some pics posted in the next few days.

[DaveMorris]

My health has prevented me from getting much done so this isn't much of an update. I still need to get a few more coats of primer and paint on the skin and doors for my stand. Once that is done I will take the doors over to Alpine Glass and have them put the frosted glass in them. Hopefully this week I will be able to get my refugium light finished and mounted. Once I get that done I will place an order for some macro algae from IPSF. They have a great refugium startup kit. I am thinking that once that is in place my display tank algae will be a little more under control. We'll see how that goes.

[jkennedy1007]

Ill come help you anytime Dave
Ill make time
just cleaning your glass walls to checking levels & stuff for you buddy
if you busy with doctors or whatnot

no charge of course
hope all is good with ya brotha

[jkennedy1007]

I got a macro algae starter kit no charge as well

[DaveMorris]

Ill come help you anytime Dave
Ill make time
just cleaning your glass walls to checking levels & stuff for you buddy
if you busy with doctors or whatnot

no charge of course
hope all is good with ya brotha

Better be careful. I'm not sure that the last guy that volunteered to help me has recovered yet.

Thanks for the offer. I may in fact take you up on it as I change out some things with my set up. I am doing fine physically, just have to keep from getting my heart rate or respirations up too high. Currently am not supposed to lift more than 10lbs either. It sucks. Can't even get my big bucket of RSCP salt yet.

[jada1]

Glad you doing ok bud

[DaveMorris]

Made a little more progress today. I finished 99% of my refugium light which is a StevesLEDs.com LED kit housed in a MakersLED heatsink. I say 99% because my heat gun died on me and I have two wiring connections that need heat shrink. I'll pick up a new heat gun tomorrow and get it finished and mounted over the fuge. Then I will have a refugium package from IPSF.com and get the huge going strong. That will hopefully help get rid of the algae in the display tank. I'll post some pics once I get it finished up.

[DaveMorris]

Got my refugium light finished and hung over the refugium portion of my sump. I need to get some black acrylic to shade the light so it doesn't cause a bunch of algae to grow in my bio pellet reactor. Ill probably run over to Ridout Plastics to pick up some scrap. My IPSF order of macros and critters for my huge will be here on Saturday. I put some Fiji mud in the huge today so I would imagine that the water will be clear by then. That Fiji stuff is very fine. I am still battling with the bryopsis and hopefully I can get that under control soon as well. It is such a PITA to get rid of! I'll get some pics of the light and get them posted as well.

[DaveMorris]

Here is the result of my work on my refugium light. It is a StevesLEDs kit house in a MakersLED heatsink kit.

The water is cloudy because I had just put the Fiji mud in there.


I ordered a refugium start up kit from IPSF.com and here is how it came packaged up. Very well bagged and marked.


Everything was triple bagged and clearly labeled. I received several different macros, worms, stars, pods, and plankton. The macros are growing well already. I still may need to get some black acrylic to shield the rest of the sump, but we'll see how that goes.

[DaveMorris]

I also got the skin for my stand painted, the doors mounted and the top attached.


I still need to get the glass for the doors. It will be a frosted glass that we still haven't chosen. The local stained glass company, Alpine Glass, will cut and mount the glass pieces into the doors for me. They do great work.

I love these hinges. Soft close and very low profile.


And the finished product, minus the glasswork. Credit for the woodwork goes to Dave Mitchell (DaveOcean). He built it for me months ago and it has taken me this long to get it finished.

[kayakNCSD]

Awesome that light is pretty sweet

[davocean]

Wow looks nice w/ that great paint job Dave!
Those soft close hinges are the ticket.
Glad to see you feeling well enough to make some progress, now we need the full tank shot!

[unbereefable]

^^fts!