I’m sad to report that the reefrancher sun tunnel project is officially over. For now. Maybe another day I will attempt to harness the sun and ditch the halides. Thanks for being a part of this and viewing my site. The project ran for a short 160 days.
Here are some lessons learned:
Hire a competent sun tunnel installer and be present during the entire process.
Don’t finalize the dome unit until you have the rest of the tube in place so you can tweak the angle to catch the most sun.
Take into consideration how hot or cold the tubes are going to get inside of your crawlspace. We had zero degree temps for a couple days and my 400w heater could not keep the tank’s temperature stable.
I’ll be back with more pictures of another tank or two once I’m settled in Los Angeles.
Two weeks ago I added some new stuff from my friend Eric at Seadwelling Creatures in Los Angeles. I’ve been neglect in posting the additions and photos so here’s a list of what I brought back with me from LA: (2) fire shrimp, green/red open brain, derasa clam, (3) baby maxima clams, (2) electric flame scallops, red macroalgae, green macroalgae, (12) nassarius snails, torch coral, frogspawn coral, and a purple linkia starfish.
Since adding all the loot I lost one of the electric scallops and the fire shrimp – or at least I thought so until yesterday! The fire shrimp are alive and well – yay! I was bummed when they were missing cuz I took great care in spending an hour drip acclimating them.
Thanks again Eric!
More pics are here: clams – corals
I went to Skipton’s to get mysis and phytoplankton and found these beautiful red dragonets! My tank is crawling with bugs so I believe they’ll be fine. My plan is to somehow remove the two terrors damsels and find them a new home so I can keep my population down.
Wally popped yesterday. I was mostly ready for it – the fry tank was waiting and I was able to fish out all the fry, about 250 or so, and acclimate them to their new home. I’m having rotifers overnighted today. More pics in the seahorse gallery.
Not the best picture. I’m too late in the day for the best sun. Tomorrow I’ll try and take a new slew of photos. I’m so far so happy with the tank. The only minor set backs have been a chromis I cannot get out of the overflow – grrr – and I think I need to repoint one of my sun tubes to it’s a few degrees toward the horizon to capture more sun like the other tube. There is a noticeable difference and it’s probably only three or four dregrees.
My only losses so far have been the Palowensis frag that had the bad luck of a big encrusting montipora falling on it and killing half of it off and the the other half being killed when the superglue gave way and it tumbled into the rose anemone. The other is a frag of tubbs blue zoos that were kicked to the back of the tank somewhere by a crab that I moved banished to the seahorse side of the tank.
Frags are encrusting and there is noticeable growth here and there. So far – so good! 
Nancy’s sister gave birth yesterday to a new baby girl. Her first. Get this: NO DRUGS!?! I shudder to think what THAT felt like!
We’re leaving for the wilds of Vermont and our next door neighbor is feeding the reef and horses. All the destructions are written down and he got a demo this morning on how it all goes down. Everything should be fine.
Happy Halloween to everyone. This is my shorg’o'lantern I need to get around and get ready to terrorize kids, er- give out candy…
I thought I was missing a chromis! I dunno how I’m going to get him out yet. He keeps swimming to the bottom of the overflow every time I get near him with a net.
Not only is it done but it is beeyooteeful! I can’t thank Mark Dias of Ceasars Palaces enough for making my design a reality. There are a bunch of photos in the gallery in the tank and installation sections. Go nuts and check them all out.
But while we’re all here and reading. Let me give you a quick tour:
The top and bottom panels above and below the tank, as well as the sides, are held by strong magnets and are easily removed and replaced for access to the sun tunnels, tank, and sump area. Four mounted halogen lights illuminate the work areas.
Plenty of light! I have a light meter on the way and will post the readings soon.
Thanks for looking!
Steve
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