Monthly Archives: October 2010

Phew she loves it!

Christina and I have been looking around for a tall scratcher/tree for Mia for ages now. The ones in the shops are way overpriced ($400 what the?!) but we finally found a tall and cheap one on eBay. It’s ugly, but hey, she uses it so it’s all good!

I’m really happy with the way I’ve set up my LED lights and industrial timers. I’ve got control over 9 rows of lights in total and I can set any combination I like so I’ve got something like this:

Morning
– 1 white light in the middle
– 3 white lights left middle and right
– 3 white and 3 blue lights left middle and right
– 6 whites and 3 blue lights left middle and right
– 3 white and 3 blue lights left middle and right
– 3 blue lights left middle and right and one middle white light
– 1 blue light in the middle

Hard to describe! But basically I’m trying to emulate a sunrise and sunset throughout 10 hours. See photos below for 2 shots, one at 4pm, the one after at 9pm.

4pm.

9pm.

I got a lot of goodies in the mail yesterday and had so much fun putting it all together (in the zone!).

Bubble Magus BM-T01 Dosing pump + accessories. The dosing pump has a micro-computer in it and it’ll allow me to automatically dose the correct amount of Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium to the tank in order to keep my levels correct for keeping acropora corals (the pinnacle of reef keeping!).

My weenie bike parts scale is actually being used for it’s intended use! Instead of using brand name aquarium products, for Calcium I’m using Damprid. For Alkalinity I’m using Bi-Carb Soda and for Magnesium I’m using Epsom Salts, all of which I sourced for 1/5th the price of branded goods from the local Coles.

Containers for Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium.

Computer all dialled in and ready to go.

Hoses in position on the sump.

The engine room (I’ve also installed a carbon reactor which is a lot more efficient than putting a bag of carbon in the sump).