Tank Entry

In case some of you are intrested in how I made the outer frames I posted some photos of the devices used. These were made from scrap wood and MDF. I made 2 templates out of MDF. I also made a frame out of wood to help in placing the templates down onto the part that needs the 1/4" pattern cut into it. The top part in the first photo is a section of wood that needs the pattern cut into it. The two parts at the bottom are the actual templates. In the second photo the section has been placed ...

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I recently had an alkalinity swing creep up on my reef. Normally I like to keep the tank around 8 dKH, and yesterday I noticed the duncans in my frag tank (part of the same system) were closed up. One bad habit I've developed over the years is to watch the corals for indication of problems instead of water tests each Saturday like I used to perform. I need to get better about that. I did a quick check with my Elos Alkalinity test kit and was shocked when it hit 21 dKH. So I tested again, and ...

When I had the back cabinet off I decided to change up a few things including mounting the outlet boxes in the cabinet assembly instead of on the bottom outer frame assembly (first two photos). I also set them at a 15 degree angle to make it a little easier to plug things in and out. I kept tripping the GFI breaker with my fingers when it was mounted on the outer frame. The wires in the second photo going in the hole were placed there just to get them out of the way for the photo. These photos were ...

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The reef continues to do well. I mentioned on the first what I'd done for the reef. I treated the tank with Phosphate Rx to knock down PO4, and have pretty much only kept up with wiping the glass down every couple of days. The CO2 tank ran dry so last Friday I refilled it at the liquor store, which maintains the lower pH in the calcium reactor around the clock. I'm keeping that level at 7.0 to dissolve the media gradually.

Here are a few pictures. Note the clarity of the water ...

The first photo is of the top outer frame assembly complete(top view). Around the white area is trim with the top at a 15 degree down angle to keep any splashed water in the white area. The back cover also has matching trim that ovelaps this trim so any water that is dripping down the side of the back cover will remain in the white area. The second photo of the top frame assembly complete(bottom view) shows the router pattern to allow the frame to cover the top of the side panels and back cabinet ...

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