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Snorkeler's Cube

Hammer splitting + Some progress on LED DIY fixture

Rating: 4 votes, 5.00 average.
5 Comments
by
snorkeler
, 04-03-2011 at 08:41 PM (2342 Views)
Two weeks ago I had the impression my hammer coral (one ployp) was getting fatter.... well, today I am pretty sure it is splitting into two polyps! That might seem "so what?" to you, but feels very rewarding to me. It is the first stony coral in the tank that not only survived in my water and lighting but is also growing (had one Acan polpy that died, three Trumpet polyps that also died and another hammer polyp that got eaten by a rogue peppermint shrimp).

Must be a sign I'm improving my water stability after I reduced feeding and added a refugium, given that my Palithoa and Zoas are growing new polyps too after that. Here is a picture of the hammer, does it look like it is turning into two heads or not, what do you think?


Also, I made progress on my LED fixture that will be Arduino controlled and MOSFET DIY driven. This weekend I soldered a little on Saturday and a little on Sunday, finishing the first eight LED "lamps" (each lamp is composed of 3 x 3W super LEDs, four of the lamps are Blue and four are Cool White). Some pictures:






Last but not least I spotted a few days ago some Coral Worms I didn't know i had. They apparently came as hitchhikers under the rock of one of my first corals, a Green Star Polyp colony which was recently devoured by my Mithrax crab gang. Only the rock was left.... Here is a picture of the Coral Worm colony:


Snorkeler (Fabio_Paoli)

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Tags: hammer, led
Categories
‎ New Additions , ‎ Lighting , ‎ Propagation - fish & corals , ‎ DIY projects

Comments

  1. dkbann's Avatar
    Snorkeler, the DIY LED fixtures are looking good. I can't see myself making one, although I did get myself an Arduino UNO ;-) Trying to think what I should use it for....
  2. snorkeler's Avatar
    If you buy the standard shields you can do many fun things with an Arduino! Aquarium LED lighting unfortunately isn't one of them, for that you've got to build yourself and it does consume a significant amount of time.
  3. mermark's Avatar
    i hate to ask a stupid question but i got something in my tank and its like 6 inches long and i'd like to post it, how
  4. mermark's Avatar
    and your looks good electric wise as well as gene splitting lol
  5. melev's Avatar
    snorkeler - when a LPS splits into two or more heads, usually you will see a giant bubble form over the area where they will split into two heads. The bubble will be there for two or three days. Watch your coral closely, as you may even see babies sprout out on the branches, especially where the tissue wraps the skeletal structure.

    mermark - if your image isn't too big, you can post it as an attachment with a browser like Firefox. Look for the image of a picture frame right above the editor window, and click on that. If you use Chrome, that option is different and you'd have to post the URL to the image that you've uploaded elsewhere to the web, like Photobucket.