Equipment

People often ask how do you plumb the Vectra pump to your tank.  While I know it is easier to use flexible tubing, that's never my preference. Plus, the Vectra doesn't come with a hose barb connection. Whether you use this pump internally or externally, it's still important to get the PVC glued into the blue part correctly.

The Vectra M1 uses 3/4" PVC pipe. That's what you see in the picture above, it's the return pump for the 60g frag system.

I don't remember when the Easy Blade came to market, but it's a piece of plastic that you glue to a Magfloat magnet.  Affix a nice clean new razor blade (it's a specific one for this device), and you can work your way around the tank, carving off stubborn algae, coralline, and get into those corners that normal magnets can't quite reach. I like to use it near the sandbed too, so that area is crystal clear to see invertebrates doing their thing. And around the top rim, carving off whatever clings there.  It also takes off calcification on rimless tanks.

Just a heads up to everyone, there's a lot going on. I had expected to get the newer version of the website done by now, but this project below took up all my time for the past couple of weeks. Melev's Reef may be down briefly over the next week as some technical stuff is being handled behind the scenes.  

This is Minion, my new CNC router setup. The installation has been quite a process but it is nearing completion and should be running soon.

In March 2016, I filled up my biopellet reactor with Biospheres. I used 1000ml worth, or one large pouch. At the time my nitrate was quite high, but within about eight weeks it had dropped them to less than 5ppm. I talked about this entire process in a video I released four months ago: http://youtu.be/aRHf8b1H5u4

Some time in early 2016, maybe March or April, the Swabbie motor stopped rotating. I ordered a new motor from Avast Marine, and it arrived within a few days. I never tackled that repair primarily because there's no space in the ABS section and I thought my tank sitter Bobby could do it more easily than I could. He loves this stuff, fixing broken things.  

During a recent trip to Home Depot, I looked through the LED bulbs seeking a new refugium bulb to use on the frag system's fuge. I found this one rated 5000 Kelvin, and the shape of the bulb looks promising. The bulb cost $14 and uses 8 watts. 

Today's club meeting was at Oceans Avenue, and they did a fragging demo workshop for the club members and customers. As we watched, they cut various corals and then used glue to mount them to frag plugs. A grill was out back, providing burgers, hot dogs or chicken to everyone. I had to grab a Corona and then filmed and photographed some stuff which will be shared later.