AI in Action

And here is the AI in action.

Right now its set to 75% blue and 25% white. The picture makes it look far more blue and dark than it really is, but that's just the limitations of the camera.

Initial impressions, this thing is built really well. Love the adjust-ability and the look. Can't really say enough.

There are some things I don't like, but after talking to Chris from AI, they're working on fixing them. The support legs leave alot to be desired. The length of the cord from the fixture to the power supply isn't long enough, the power supply is suspended in the air. And the power supply makes a high pitched buzzing. None of those issues is a deal breaker, but they should be addressed.

I'll have more to say tomorrow after I observe it going through a sunset and sunrise cycle.

On the tank

A quick shot of the fixture on the tank. The flash sure does make the tank look bad.

Accessories

And all the accessories.

My first look

When I opened the second box, I got my first look at the fixture...

AquaIllumination has arrived!

The AI light fixture finally arrived today. After four long months of waiting, it was delivered just after noon and I immediately tore it open.

It was packaged very well in double think cardboard boxes with plenty of padding.

Aquarium Water Testing results

I received the results from my AWT tests this morning. Here's the results summary

Ammonia 0.003
Nitrite 0.005
Nitrate 1.10
Phosphate 0.020
Silica 2.60
Potassium 441
Calcium 307
Boron 4.40
Molybdenum 0.10
Strontium 11.10
Magnesium 1241
Iodine 0.030
Copper 0.030
Alkalinity 3.670

I tested

pH 8.16 ( they don't test this )
SG 1.026 ( they don't test this either )
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 1
Phosphate 0.10
Alkalinity 3.2 ( 9 from a kH test )
Calcium 385
Magnesium 1440

So my tests match for the most part except for Calcium. I thought there would be a discrepancy but I thought it would be in the other direction.

Here's the detailed analysis they sent:

Ammonia (NH3-4)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.010 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.000 to 0.050 mg/L
Tested: 0.003 mg/L
(GOOD) Your ammonia level is within the recommended range. We
recommend staying with the current feeding and stocking levels. Be sure to
maintain a good schedule of water changes and additives. Ammonia levels
can rise after the addition of new animals, after a water change, or after the
changing of food diet. Any ammonia level above 0.05 mg/L is a cause for
concern, and the source should be found and corrected.


Nitrite (NO2)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.010 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.000 to 0.100 mg/L
Tested: 0.005 mg/L
(GOOD) Your nitrite level is within the recommended range. We recommend
continuing with your current maintenance and feeding schedules. Residual
levels of nitrite are common in marine aquariums. Levels of 0.05 or less are
of little concern. If the levels are higher than this, the source should be found
and corrected.


Nitrate (NO3)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.050 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.000 to 25 mg/L
Tested: 1.10 mg/L
(GOOD) Your nitrate level is within the recommended range. Be sure to
maintain reasonable stocking and feeding levels, as well as a regular water
change schedule. Nitrate is not toxic in and of itself, but a rising level is
indicative of deteriorating water conditions, and any level above 5.0 mg/L in
reef aquariums is a reason for concern.


Phosphate (PO4)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.030 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.000 to 0.250 mg/L
Tested: 0.020 mg/L
(GOOD) Your phosphate level is within the recommended range. We
recommend continuing the current maintenance and water change schedule.
The use of a phosphate absorbing resin is recommended to keep phosphate
levels below 0.05 mg/L.


Silica (Sio2-3)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.040 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.000 to 0.500 mg/L
Tested: 2.60 mg/L
(HIGH) Your silica level is too high. We recommend that you use a silica
specific R/O membrane in addition to deionization resin for your makeup/
top-off water. You may also use a commercially available phosphate
absorber, as these will also remove some silicate. Silicate is required by many
types of sponges for growth/reproduction, but will also encourage brown
diatom algae growth. Any level above 0.3 mg/L may cause a diatom bloom in
the aquarium.


Potassium (K)
Natural Seawater Value: 390 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 350 to 450 mg/L
Tested: 441 mg/L
(GOOD) Your potassium level is within the recommended range. We
recommend continuing with your current water change and chemical additive
schedule. Potassium is an important constituent of seawater, being found in
almost the same concentration as calcium. Potassium is important for
neurological functions in fishes, as well as being a critical plant nutrient
required by zooxanthellae and macro algae.


Calcium (Ca)
Natural Seawater Value: 400 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 350 to 450 mg/L
Tested: 307 mg/L
(LOW) Your calcium level is too low. We recommend using a commercial
calcium additive to raise this level. There are several methods for doing this.
Calcium is a critical parameter for coral growth in reef aquariums, and
chronically low levels will cause coral mortality and loss of coralline algae and
other invertebrate species.


Boron (B)
Natural Seawater Value: 4.6 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 3.0 – 6.0 mg/L
Tested: 4.40 mg/L
(GOOD) Your boron level is within the recommended range. We recommend
maintaining your current buffering and water change schedule. Boron is a
significant portion of your aquarium pH and water buffering capacity, and is
crucial to maintaining appropriate calcium levels, as well as being essential to
several biological processes, including macro algae growth.


Molybdenum (Mo)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.01 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.0 to 0.12 mg/L
Tested: 0.10 mg/L
(GOOD) Your molybdenum level is within the recommended range.
Molybdenum is found in many common additives and at highly elevated levels
in most salt mixes and so a vast majority of reef tanks demonstrate a level
10 to 50 times higher than natural levels. 0.12 mg/L is the upper toxicity
limit for Molybdenum, the point at which negative effects can begin to
manifest themselves. Your level is below this limit and is in proximity to
natural sea water values. Molybdenum is important to microbial activity in
the aquarium filter, and may also be important to stony coral health and
reproduction.


Strontium (Sr)
Natural Seawater Value: 8.1 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 5.0 to 12.0 mg/L
Tested: 11.10 mg/L
(GOOD) Your strontium level is within the recommended range. We
recommend continuing with your current additive schedules. Strontium is
important to coral growth, as they incorporate strontium ions into their
skeletal mass, particularly SPS corals. It is also important to coralline algae
growth.


Magnesium (Mg)
Natural Seawater Value: 1280 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 1100 to 1400 mg/L
Tested: 1241 mg/L
(GOOD) Your magnesium level is within the recommended range. We
recommend staying with your current water change and additive schedule.
Magnesium is a very important part of the water buffering system, and is
incorporated into coral skeletons. It is also critical to any photosynthetic
processes.


Iodine (I¯)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.060 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.030 to 0.090 mg/L
Tested: 0.030 mg/L
(GOOD) Your iodine level is within the recommended range. We would
recommend continuing with the current water change and additive schedule.
Please be advised that many iodine supplements are difficult to dose
accurately, and “above normal” readings are easy to achieve with common
iodine additives.


Copper (Cu++)
Natural Seawater Value: 0.030 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 0.000 to 0.030 mg/L
Tested: 0.030 mg/L
(GOOD) Your copper level is within the recommended range. We recommend
continuing with your current water change schedule, being careful to use only
RO/DI water for make-up/top-off water. Use of activated carbon can also help
keep this level in check. Copper is fatal to marine invertebrates at levels as
low as 0.05 mg/L for many species.


Alkalinity (meq/L)
Natural Seawater Value: 2.5 meq/L
Acceptable Range: 2.5 to 5.0 meq/L
Tested: 3.670 meq/L
(GOOD) Your alkalinity level is within the recommended range. We
recommend continuing with your current water change and buffering
schedule. Maintaining an appropriate alkalinity is crucial to maintaining a
healthy aquarium. A fluctuating alkalinity will lead to serious problems in
maintaining an appropriate pH, as well as problems keeping calcium and
magnesium levels within required ranges.

Vortech Wireless Wave Driver

I've had my Vortech WWD running for about a week now and I have to say that I love it! First of all, it has solved my stalling problems, not a single stall since I installed it.

Installation was very easy. All in all it took me less than 5 minutes and anyone could do it.

Right now it is running in Reef Crest mode so I'm getting lots of variable flow.

I tried pulse mode which is supposed to allow you to create waves in the tank. I did get a wave, sort of, but I think that fact that the other Vortech on the tank wasn't being controlled by a WWD limited the effectiveness of the pulse and thus the wave. When the second round of controllers becomes available and I get one, I'll try pulse mode again and see what kind of wave I can get.

Feed mode is nice. I like that I don't have to unplug the pumps any more and that it automatically returns to the preset speed after ten minutes.

In other news, still no lights. I was lead to believe that maybe they'd be shipping this week, but I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

Water testing

I read about a new service recently that performs some laboratory grade testing for 14 parameters on your tank water and I thought I'd give them a try.

I received the kit from AWT on Saturday, and when I did my normal round of tests on Sunday night, I filled the two bottles for their tests to be mailed out on Monday.

Hopefully soon I'll have the results and can compare how I've been testing with what they get.

Plus, the test for many parameters that I can't possibly test for so it should be interesting to see what the final results are and how close to natural seawater I've come.

Catching up, again

Wow, it's been too long since I've updated the blog, and over the next couple of days I'm going to try to catch up.

First thing that happened in the tank after getting back from MACNA was adding the clowns to the display tank.

I acclimated them over the course of an hour even though the temp and salinity were already pretty much the same, and introduced them to the tank.

They explored for a while, and all the other fish came over to say hello, or so it seemed. Over the course of the last three weeks, they've fit right in to the community, often swimming with the school of chromies or with ADD, the yellow tailed damsel.

I was worried about them at first because they didn't seem to retreat into the rocks at night like all the other fish, but they don't seem to be suffering any ill effects from sleeping out in the display.

Overall, a great addition to the tank. The black and white coloration really is striking. Sorry the picture kind of sucks, they just don't slow down tho and without the flash on the camera the shutter stays open too long and I end up with blurs. Hopefully when the new lights come, there will be enough light in the tank too fix this.