![[friends only post]](http://www.myreefgarden.com/templates/tmpl_dol/images/icons/flock.gif) Reefer's Anonymous Needed??? | 2007-05-20 19:46:12 |
Updated 2007-05-20 20:30:05
So Friday night I got home around 2am after going out. Lying in bed and having a bout of insomnia I was thinking about the plan for Saturday. Tank cycled, my plan was to get a pistol shrimp / yellow watchman goby pair. For some reason I kept wondering if the watchman was a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore. Why this is important at 2am I'm not sure. Well actually, it would be my 1st fish and I would needed to buy food for it.
Figuring I wasn't sleeping I got up and logged into the internet. Ahhh the good old internet. Somehow instead of finding out what the watchman eats I ended up on a forum with a thread telling the life story (well actually it spanned a year and a half) of one Reefer's experiences setting up a Nano 24g system. Hey thats what I have. Went a few pages into the thread and he started talking about modifying the 2nd chamber of the Nano cube into a refugium. Oh damn thats so cool.
This refugium mod discovery led me to a thread on using L.E.D. lights mounted above the 2nd chamber. Which by threads end wasn't such a good idea. Seems the LED lights tended to failed after a while. Which led me to find a thread about using a submersible halogen spotlight. Which didn't turn out to be so great either because of the limited light and halogen spectrum not producing enough growth in the refugium. Somewhere in those threads, however, some great reefer found that if you remove the vinyl Nano backing the glass is clear and you can shine a light from the side into the 2nd chamber. Which led me to looking for an appropriate light. Which led me to an instructional thread (complete with step by step) on how to use a Light on America spotlight found at Home Depot, an old computer fan, an old transformer (I thik duct tape was also involved) to provide the illumination. Which led to a very important (but boring) discussion on luminocity, spectrum, kalvin something or other... at one point I had scribbled a formula to convert mcd to ta... which now I have no idea what it means. Which led me, not sure how, to someone using a pre-built aqaurium light with full spectrum compact floursent tubes. The problem was it was sizeable and I wouldn't have enough room behind my cube (how do you move an aqaurium once it's filled - another thread another sleepless night). Which led me to someone who used a Coralife Mini-Aqualight to do the mod. The Mini-Aqualight measures 9"x5"x2" which would fit perfectly. [I would like to give credit to all those brave souls that figured it all out but I'll have to go back and retrace my steps - and I'm too afraid where that might lead me.]
Still with me?
Of course by now the sun was rising. As with any really good addiction, sleep, eating, relationships and other such mundate details of life get thrown out the window. So off I went to the LFS to get the needed supplies for the Nano Refuguim Modification! Had to hit about 5 LFS before I found the Coralife Mini-Aqualite (get the freshwater not the Marine version by the way - the Marine has one daylight and one actinic... you remeber that 5(ta x 25c/Pi)... well anyways plants need full spectrum which is what the freshwater version has). I was able to find a yellow watchman goby and a pistol shrimp that I liked. So now mod complete and shrimp and goby hiding, I have pics with step by step instructions for the refugium, but can't figure out how to load them in the blog. I'll post them once that is figured out.
Oh damn! Forgot to get fish food. What do watchman goby's eat??? |
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