Enigma's 2012 Nano Contest Entry

[Enigma]

There's a surprise on my desk this morning. It must have arrived yesterday, when I was off work taking care of my little guy (who was ill).



Aquarium supply retailers are trying to make me fat:




I was going to build the media basket out of egg crate for this build . . . but these media baskets are so pretty and nicely made. I just couldn't bring myself to do use egg crate.

So I guess this is one thing that wasn't an absolute necessity that I bought anyway.

[nanoreefnewbie]

That is pretty nice

[Enigma]

Woohoo!



I've been fighting with these for a while. Hubby and I just completed a marathon troubleshooting session.

In the royal blue string, there was one bad connector and one bent connection pin. In the white series there was a bad dimming splice.

It looks like I'll be dimming the whites a lot more than the royal blues. My white ratio is higher than it really should be. But, I've got the Apex all programmed and figured out for this, so that'll be easy.

There are four blue LEDs that are being run off of a little moonlight driver.

Now I just need to get them mounted.

(The concise details of this build, and the materials list, will be posted at a later date)

[Acipenser]

Thats freakin awesome. - I am very tempted to build a set of lights !

[fishoholic]

Glad you got the lights working that must be a relief.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by Acipenser

Thats freakin awesome. - I am very tempted to build a set of lights !

Now that they're working I can say that I would certainly do it again. The learning curve was pretty big for me, and by Thursday evening I was ready to file them under "G" and reassemble the original lighting. Thankfully, hubby intervened.

Originally Posted by fishoholic

Glad you got the lights working that must be a relief.

There is still some tweaking to be done (supplemental LEDs, heatsink installation in the hood, etc.), but you're right. Having them turn on when power is supplied is a huge relief. It is such a make it or break it part of the build. My entire purpose for this build (an SPS appropriate system) was hanging on this.

I almost made a hysterical phone call to sphelps from an electronic supply place yesterday (but reason intervened ). Neither hubby or the gent behind the counter could figure out what potentiometer was required, and I didn't know enough to give them the info they required. In the end, the one we purchased worked.

[Enigma]

I'm mulling over fish. Does anyone know of nano suitable fish that aren't overly messy? Being that this system needs to be low nutrient, I don't want to add a really messy fish.

In looking at my display tank, my green chromis are probably the least messy. I could put them in here (my 40 is overstocked . . . But it will become a ~100g in Feb-March). I'm not fond of them, however. They hide most of the time, and aren't particularly interesting.

I just don't know. I've posted three threads, on three different forums, and I'm just not gettting answers. Maybe there is no answer?