thought bubble ..oO( I wonder if anyone has ever tried using their dry skimmate to fertilize their garden )

Too salty I would imagine

..

"Like"

I've had a few people suggest this but unless you're growing your own kelp bed or nori farm, yeah, it's too salty.

I pour it on my compost , seems ok , salt eventually leaches out.

Guess what fertilizer is?

Salty. :)

Don't put it on your grass I no longer have grass in the area I
Dump mine out

Guess what fertilizer does when you dump a bunch in one spot?

Killz da grass. :)

One radion down due to humidity in tank. Thank god for back up lights

Makes me wonder why the manufacturers do not make IP65 rated fixtures that goes over the tank. It's just few gaskets/silicon seals.

Then ppl wouldn't have anxiety attacks and buy new high priced lights. But it has me thinking on how to improve the situation so I don't have it happen again. It's not like the light is close to water or has no ventilation. But before I put the light back on it I will attempt a fix of some sort

Good point :lol:

You can always put some silicon around the seem of the lens covering the light engine. Apart from sealing, there is no real way of keeping moisture out of these fixtures. They do not note their ingress protection but I am assuming these are IP54.

When I ran with halides it was a constant battle against humidity in the house. Ended up with an HRV and wow, does that ever eat up the humidity (basically because it's always so dang dry outside around here). Now with LEDs and T5's I find it's actually a battle for the opposite, it's TOO DRY in the house. I have to water my plants daily otherwise they start to wilt. (#firstworldproblems ?). I've shut off the HRV for the season some time ago but it's still a mystery to me where all the water is going.

It's nice not having to worry about humidity and heat but the truth is I miss my halides. I know I can up the intensity of my LEDs (and I really need to get on with that, I suppose). The few corals I have do not retain their colour, and when I had Radiums over the tank everything just popped with colour.

The nice thing about the LEDs is the shifting colours over the day, although on the flip side I really need to get on with fixing it up a little because it's just weird when you look at a orange fish that should be yellow normally, or a crimsom red fish that should be orange. Or a purple fish that, thanks to the strength of astigmatism correction of my eyeglasses, appears as two separate fishes swimming side by side, one that is pure blue and one is that pure red. :lol:

When time/budget allows I'm going to fit two halides back over my tank. I'll keep the LEDs for the dusk/dawn effect. I'm pretty sure the T5's I have for dusk/dawn now aren't really doing much for me given that for the size of the tank they probably should be doubled (but this isn't a possibility because there's no space anyhow). So maybe I'll pull them off, use them for overwintering my more light hungry plants. That's the dream anyhow. Time and money don't seem to fall into my lap though, despite that I keep hoping they will. But I digress.

Getting back to the topic of humidity though (which is what started my random thought ... sorry .. hey this IS the "random thought thread" so .. meh.. :lol:). Wouldn't the Radions need to have vent holes for heat dissipation and ventilation? I assume that you can't achieve any kind of IPxx-whatever ingress protection because of that?

Yes ventilation has to be there but that's where the designer's experience come in. For example, the radion has a fan to dissipate the heat and the fan should not have have any issue with humidity as long as the fan is sealed to say IP65 or is outdoor rated. For IP65 sealing, the exposed wires (wires from the fan to the circuit and the termination points) need to be sealed by a compound that won't dissolve/react with water, silicon for example. The head sink connected to the light engines need to be sealed with proper gaskets to keep moisture from getting in through the vent into the engines via heat sink. Similarly, all seem will need some sort of seal (gaskets/silicon) to keep moisture from getting in. So basically, the seals have to be such that only the light engine and the circuits are protected.

The company I work for has a IP65 fixture that has two fans and ventilation holes on the sides but has seals in such a way that moisture/water cannot get into the light engine or circuits. Many drivers are already sealed to IP65 now-a-days so drivers do not need to be sealed.

In the end, it all depends on how crafty the light enclosure designer is.

So after several months of deliberation I finally broke down and bought a spare bed but instead of buying a basic bed I bought a full on storage bed from JYSK. The display bed looks awesome and sturdy and big selling point for me was the storage it offered.

Get all three boxes home and immediately look for the instruction manual and of course it's in the last box I opened. I looked through the manual and discovered that according to the manufacturer it should take no more than 180 minutes to build this bed. Haha jokes on me

The instruction book has no writing or description in it just very basic pictures with corresponding numbers and letters for the wood and screws/fasteners. What made it challenging is that the diagrams did not show any of the corresponding holes in the wood for proper alignment and assembly it was basically a guessing game. Finally stopped for the night and waited for JYSK to open next morning as soon as the store opened I went right to the display bed and started snapping pictures with my IPhone headboards, drawers, bed frame and so on.

Went home and everything I had built the night before which was a grand total of 4 pieces of wood and reassembled in the correct order and after 3 hrs of steady work had the headboard built. Yesterday was all the drawers and sliders on the drawers which took about 2 and a half hours to build and then had to disassemble because 2 pages over in the manual was the final step in finishing the drawers which in reality was the first step.

Today I finished the bed frame connected it all together and now I am the proud owner of a storage bed. Manufacturer suggested 180 minutes for two people to build well it took one person just under 8 hrs total to build the bed with incomplete and confusing instruction manual to boot.

Love the bed but be damned if I will take on another bed from the same manufacturer don't need the stress :lol:

The water didn't enter at the lens it actually entered around the fan area. And corroded the wire harness for the pucks.

That's just bad design!

Aiptasia are like herpes;

-Once you have herpes you always have it, even it it never shows

-Nobody wants to go near you

This is so tough not to touch.....

My younger daughter Isabella started Kindergarten this month. Wow, where has all those years flown off to? Seems like just a little while ago we were bringing her home from the delivery room/hospital and now she's started school already.

tempus fugit

Don't have herpes - found some aiptasia in my old LR. Never had any for years in the old display. I epoxied over some years ago, so only thing I can think of is the little buggers survived all this time and sprouted when I broke the rock apart

I find it funny that when I tell people I am a shift worker that works 12 hr shifts (4 shifts on 2 days 2 nights and 4 off) they usually look at me like I'm a basket case and then will almost invariably ask the same question every time "why would I ever work shift?"

I've never had a "standard" Monday to Friday job in my 30 years in the work force and I've never had a job with weekends off and I've been doing this current shift for 20 years and I love it.

I also like the fact I don't have to be a sheep and be herded every Friday, Saturday and Sunday with all the other regular people. It's fun and refreshing to have week days off and do things leisurally without having to force my way through the throngs of weekend warriors to do something "relaxing".

It isn't for everybody and I work with my share of shift workers who hate it but won't leave it because the pay cut would be huge so they stay and whine every chance they get but I've always liked it and you could say I've thrived on it

Anyone remember the name of that thread where everyone was posting pics of their sump/under tank area?

Let's see your sump?

It's not for everyone but finding an unconventional job situation like shift work or being self-employed (like I am) has it's perks. For me, I get to work at home, raise my own kids, and see/play/teach/cook for my little girls while they're young. I never saw much of my dad growing up cause he worked 1 pm to 11 pm M-F. So we'd see him on the weekends mainly. I want to be more available for my kids while they are small cause next thing I know, Felicia and Isabella will be asking to borrow my car keys and off they'll go, doing their own thing. If I was working at a "job", I'd choose shift work cause 12 hour days is no problem for me and I'm a night owl anyways so working nights is fine too. Better to work 48 hours in 4 days and then have the next four days off. Glad you found something that makes you happy and suits your lifestyle/personality.

Anthony

This one? http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89683

No, it was much newer...maybe 2015?

I give ... can't find anything else, except the July 2015 'Thinking outside the box' pic contest with Warren's sump.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...d.php?t=115466

I was thinking of a thread, but then I remembered it's over at R2R.

Do you mean R2-D2 ??

It was a thread that was started around that time...I think shortly after. I've searched and searched - can't find it.

It still amazes me that most lower mainlanders have no clue what a block heater is or what it does a fellow from Delta had his vehicle freeze up on him here in town and could not for the life of him figure out why we were asking if he had plugged in until we explained it to him.

Block heater?... Isn't that a cap, haha. I grew up in Manitoba, and I bet most don't know what frost shields are either.

And for all those former Winterpegers (and maybe some still live there), here is an old Manitoba winter anthem song... And so true, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_I1v9P3kZY

What was funniest about this fellow is he googled cold weather and he found what clothes he should be wearing but he had zero clue about vehicle winterization .....ah well at least like the Americans lower mainlanders provide the rest of us with endless entertainment :mrgreen:

Are you trying to start something here?...:smile:

Got to remember that 1/3 of us came here to escape the cold of other parts of BC and Canada. Another 1/3 (could be even higher now) came from a warm country far across the big sea, and have never seen snow before. The rest are native lower mainlanders that have never heard of 20 below, and are a diminishing population as they cash up and move to the Okanagan to live with the Albertans (who will teach them about block heaters)...

Block heater,!!!
Some people haven't heard of winter tires!

Lol, I moved to the Island about 9 years ago from Alberta. One of the mechanics at Canadian tire asked if my 2002 F350 was actually an electric truck when he saw the plug poking out the grill!
Not that I ever took my vehicles there often, but I certainly have never since :)

I am just more than slightly annoyed today found a seller in the lower Mainland who was selling equipment and parts for SW the seller had several power heads for a 150 gallon+ and 3 radion lights plus replacement parts and apex busses to run the lights and power heads. Great score I thought the seller was willing to ship at buyers cost anywhere in BC another score.

I made a pitch for all the equipment for $800 which was $25 less than seller was asking for as if they were shipping I'd swallow the cost. Seller made a deal with me and I made arrangements to make 2 payments one upon shipping one upon receipt of goodies all was good.

Two hours ago everything fell apart the seller wasn't talking to me and I couldn't contact them even though we had talked over the phone for well over an hour earlier today. Went back to the website where seller had equipment listed and the sale post was down. Just over Twenty minutes ago finally was contacted by the seller to say seller had sold everything to a local person who went right to their door and took everything at a discounted price.

Needless to say I was ****sed seller didn't honour our agreement and then said it was easier for them to sell local.

Still ****sed not much I can do about it but bitch, whine and moan about it which I have excelled at for the last half hour.

One of the problems living so far away is you have to rely on shipping and often especially in major centres sellers will not ship for various reasons which makes it that more difficult for us that live far away to even have a hope in hell competing with locals and even more so when sellers don't honour the agreement.

Ahh well I'm done whining just had to get it off my chest