The VZ Reef

[crvz]

Hmm, this may have been any easy problem. Someone at RC mentioned a possible blown fuse, so I pulled the cover off and checked. While the fuse looked clean, the board didnt have continuity between the contacts, and when I got the fuse out (it wasnt in the easiest location) it tested bad as well. Hopefully it's as easy as that. There was a bit of an electrical storm last night, so that may have set it off. We'll see, hopefully radioshack will have the fuse I need in stock tonight, and I'll snap some pictures of the assembly. What I'm not looking forward to is rewiring everything under the stand again!

[YLChik]

Good luck to you!

[crvz]

Well my exploratory surgery proved fruitful, and I hope it's not the only successful one of the day.

Unfortunately, RadioShack doesnt carry these fuses (gma) in the amperage I need, but I did buy a 5A just to test it out and make sure that was the problem. A 15A version blew, so I'll probably order some online (the electronics place around here is a ways away, I needed a few other things, and I'm not in a huge rush I suppose). I did pop a 5A in place, though, and it's running my heater right now. So it seems to be working.

If you're curious, here's my little workstation and the hardware exposed.



You can see the empty fuse clip here in the middle of the picture. It holds 5mm x 20mm fuses.



And another last thing, I noticed that my little tiny rainbow monti was bleached. I think my slimer got a bit too close to it. oh well! I've still got the bigger one.

[crvz]

Well I got the fuses the other day, and that seems to have fixed up the problem. Now I have some on hand, so if the problem occurs again, I should be able to fix it pretty quick. Problem is, it's a pain to get the DC-8 out of the stand. Oh well, that's a price I get to pay for not having a fish room!

[crvz]

In other news, I got a new light fixture for the sump today. I've never had MH, so this is an experiment for me. I wanted something pretty small, so I opted for a reefoptix 3 pendant, coupled with an icecap 150W ballast and XM 10K DE bulb. I wasnt sure exactly how to wire it up, but I was directed in the right way. Mostly I didnt know if it mattered which wire from the ballast went to which side of the bulb, but was told it was irrelevant. The bulb finishes a circuit, and you could put it on either side.

So, I got to wiring. I figured I needed 3-4 ft of wire between the ballast and pendant, and I went to home depot and picked up a couple extension cords to cut up. I also wanted a quick disconnect for the pendant, as it will be in the way during water changes, so I wired that up. Here it is right after I soldered everything.



And then I taped it all up.



The ballast has two cords coming off of it, the first goes to the wall for power and the second goes to the pendant.



And the pendant plugs right into it.



Next I put on some vinyl gloves (to keep oils off the bulb), and installed the bulb.



My wife will be pleased to hear that I found some sunglasses, and then test fired the setup. It seems to work great, and the ballast has a tiny buzz to it which I don't think I'll be able to hear when the doors of the stand are closed.



I bought stuff for hanging it, decided on plastic chains since it's in the stand, but I've got a little maintenance to do before getting it all squared away. Tomorrow I'll probably set it up in the garage and fire it up for a couple hours to see how hot it gets and measure the energy draw, and tonight I'll move stuff around in the stand to fit this stuff. It should work out well.

[know-it-all]

what, no video?

good to hear you got it figured out

[Hop]

There was a recall some time ago concerning some of the dc8s... May want to check with Kurt and see if yours was one of the recalled units.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by know-it-all

what, no video?

good to hear you got it figured out

No one was home to hold down the continuous shot feature on my camera.

[know-it-all]

Originally Posted by crvz

No one was home to hold down the continuous shot feature on my camera.

see, this is where a dog comes in handy

[crvz]

Originally Posted by know-it-all

see, this is where a dog comes in handy

I'd get a dog, but I'm quite allergic... hence the fish.

So I got everything set up, and it seems to work. I'm a bit terrified of the heat either melting something or catching something on fire, so you're welcome to comfort me about that.

Anyways, everything is isolated from the pendant, and the ballast is mounted on the wall (it says it can be mounted in enclosed locations). An image.



And I pulled a few of the frags out of the display, as well as a couple corals that werent my favorite or otherwise not in a great location. I was also able to nab three of the chromis this morning while they slept. That was great. I put them down in the sump as well, as I wanted to maybe try new things. I may have bought a new fish today as well, but that's a secret.

[crvz]

Here's the fish I picked up. I'm still waiting on a chevron, but they had this guy at the store and I couldnt resist. I tried one in the past, but hopefully this one fares a little better. If you note, the starboard in the background is 1/2" thick, so you can get an idea of how tiny this dude is. The specs are on the glass and not on the fish, as I find it's hard to clean the glass that low.

[YLChik]

yeah chris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how about I pray it won't melt

[crvz]

Originally Posted by YLChik

yeah chris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how about I pray it won't melt

Thanks, I'll take it!

So the fish have already jumped into other areas of the sump, and one of the snails was in the skimmer pump, so I'm going to have to rig it up to keep them in the right section. Hopefully they don't all kill themselves tonight before I get to it!

[Hop]

You should have some warning on the melting by watching the edges of the acrylic top closest to the light. If it starts to sag, craze, melt or smoke... It's too hot

[crvz]

Originally Posted by Hop

You should have some warning on the melting by watching the edges of the acrylic top closest to the light. If it starts to sag, craze, melt or smoke... It's too hot

No doubt. What I'm more concerned about is the vinyl tubing on the return, but I've got that a good 5-6" away and physically restrained, so it should be alright.