Once in a Blue Moon....there is a Supermoon and Eclipse

The modern definition of a blue moon (though not the first definition) is 2 full moons in one month.   One happened January 31st, 2018, another will happen in March 2018 and then it will be 2020 and 2023 for the next ones.

A supermoon is when the Moon is the closest to the Earth based on its orbit.  A full supermoon happens 3-4 times a year.  A supermoon happened to fall on January 31st, 2018.

And to top it off there was a lunar eclipse on January 31st, 2018 too.   The moon set on the East coast before the eclipse really got going, but it was an impressive night for the moon.

I found a Forbes article that showed the odds of a supermoon, bluemoon, and eclipse all on the same night.

With all that, we can combine this information to arrive at how frequently we expect all of these to occur together:

• Blue Moons make up about 3% of all full Moons,

• Supermoons are approximately 25% of all full Moons, and

• Total lunar eclipses occur during 5.6% of full Moons,

meaning that a Blue, Super, totally eclipsed Moon occurs with 0.042% of full Moons: once every 2,380 full Moons or so. On average, that corresponds to once every 265 years!

The full article can be found here:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/01/24/how-rare-is-the-all-in-one-supermoon-blue-moon-and-lunar-eclipse-really/#10bc7c843cf2

So since it is a fairly rare event I did not want to miss the photo op.  In reality a full moon is my least favorite to photograph because you don't get the sun contrast an a part of the moon that will show the craters really well.   However I used the opportunity to play around with photo stacks and HDR processing.  

HDR Moon

HDR stands for high dynamic range.   Creating an HDR photo starts with taking multiple exposures of a target in which you have at least a normal photo, an overexposed photo, and an underexposed photo.  Then you combine those photos together to an HDR photo where shadows are much more impressive.  HDR has become very popular and many phone now will do all these steps for you and give you an HDR photo automatically.  Of course I still think taking each photo and stacking them creates the best HDR images.

Here is a stack of 3 moon photos that were normal, under and over exposed.

Stacks

Since I had a large number of photos you can also stack them all and get more detail.  There is a lot of software out there that can help you with this, but I used Affinity as a one stop shop to combine the images. 

Using 1 RAW photo

DSLR cameras take RAW photos and it is pretty amazing the amount of detail you can pull out of one photo.  RAW is just a format in which the picture was minimally processes by the camera.  You have the most basic "raw" image.  This give you a lot of flexibility in doing your own processing.  With just 1 raw photo i could pull a lot of detail out of a moon shot.  

If you take photos and want to play around with stacks and HDR I would highly recommend software called Affinity.  I love photoshop, but it has become fairly expensive in my mind.  I am not a huge fan of the subscription service.   Affinity is a photoshop like software that you can buy for fairly cheap and you own it.   I am slowly switching all my normal photo processing to this software.  

The link to the website is:  https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

You can also buy a nice book that helps you become even proficient in the software.

BEE-leive in your dreams - Making a difference through STEM outreach

Maybe you are a teacher and had a long week with the kids struggling on a subject.  Maybe you a scout leader and the kids were rowdy and unfocused this week.   Maybe you have a passion for outreach of some kind, but after one interactive night you never see those kids you talked to again.

If you are like me, then the question pops up am I really making a difference?  Is this time worth it?  I know that deep down in our hearts we all know it is worth it and it really does make a difference.  However the scientist in me asks for the evidence.   I wanted to find a personal story that speaks to the time and passion that our teachers, advocates and mentors spend investing into our younger generation.

In fact when I was at the 4H Youth Summit a few weeks ago, I walked right into one of these stories.   I met a wonderful group of students from Wake County, NC who our group with our Bayer shirts.   They immediately came up and introduced themselves and told us their story.   After hearing it, I asked them if they would write their story so I could share it.  Their story is a testament to the importance of outreach by all of us.  It is a perfect example of why the investment into our kids is worth every second.

Here is the story about how outreach inspired Humairaa, Ameen, Duha, and Anam to not only dig deeper and learn more about a subject, but start their own outreach activities. 

SO SMALL, YET SO MIGHTY

First and foremost, we would like to thank Bayer for giving us an opportunity to write about our journey on our enthusiasm in bees. Second, we would like to thank our mentors, Elizabeth Driscoll and Sarah Dinger, for sparking our interest in pollinators. We are a part of 4-H Wildweeds, located in Wake County, and Project Plants, a middle school horticultural science club exploring everything from soil and water to plants and pollinators. Project Plants is a partnership between the J.C. Raulston Arboretum, NC State University, and North Carolina 4-H. Humairaa and Ameen Zafirudin graduated during the first year of Project Plants 2014 -2015 while Duha Iqbal and Anam Akhtar graduated in 2015- 2016.   

During our time at Project Plants, we visited Bayer Bee Care Center located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. We explored the facility and were fascinated by the numerous jobs performed by pollinators, specifically bees. We learned about the importance of bees and how they aid in the production of many agricultural products. We became fascinated by bees after our visit. Generously, Bayer Bee Care granted us with funding to start our own youth-managed beehive in the JC Raulston Arboretum. Over the summer of 2016, Elizabeth Driscoll and Sarah Dinger invited us back to start the construction of our beehive. We all worked together to design and compile the pieces of the beehive. After hours of hard work, we completed the structure of the bee frames for the beehive. Later that year, our beehive thrived with many healthy and lively bees! We would observe the way they went from one flower to another collecting pollen. We learned many thought-provoking facts about bees, and wanted to share them with the rest of our community.            

We were all thrilled when we heard about the 4-H National Youth Summit so we decided to submit a proposal to the National Youth Summit on the topic, “Bee Good Stewards.” Pollinators play a significant role in each of our lives and the topic is engaging to all ages. We were eager to present our topic to our peers. We sought a hands on presentation, so we decided to put together activities that would spark interest for people of all ages.

Our very first activity in Project Plants was pinning bees. Bee pinning is essentially taking frozen bees and pinning their body parts on a piece of wood or styrofoam. There are many benefits associated with bee pinning. It is an excellent way to preserve bees, so we can further utilize them for research.  Additionally, we can examine the different, detailed parts of the bee, classify their species, distinguish between their genders, and learn about their behaviors. 

Bees secrete beeswax from special glands on their abdomen. Beeswax is incorporated in many items such as candles, lotions, sunscreens, chapstick, and many more. We decided a fun way to engage youth and adults would be by making chapstick. We bought beeswax pellets, essential oils, shea butter, and coconut oil to produce our chapstick. We melted all the materials in a pot and put it in a chapstick molds. Everyone enjoyed taking part in the production of organic and natural chapstick. They even got to take theirs home!

Undoubtedly, bees help us in many ways.  Bees greatly impact our lives by pollinating most of our fruits and vegetables. Therefore, we collectively came up with the idea to make smoothies. While using the fruits pollinated by bees for our third station. We used fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. We also used bananas but when we furthered our research we figured out bananas are pollinated by other organisms.  Despite that, we mixed all our fruits with honey to make smoothies and we each got to try some.

Our final station was called “Habitat Haven” where youth created landscape designs of pollinator gardens. This station required participants to use their creativity and imagination. Participants all came up with fascinating ideas and enjoyed designing various arrangements.

Our trip to the 4-H National Youth Summit was one of the best experiences we have ever had. We enjoyed sharing our knowledge about pollinators with others and providing fun-filled and educational activities to go along with that. When we first learned about pollinators, we were amazed to learn of the multitude of tasks performed by them. That is why we decided to dig deeper into this topic; we wanted to show everyone our appreciation for bees and all their vigorous work. Before Project Plants or our visit to Bayer Bee Care, none of us really thought about how greatly pollinators impact our daily lives. Pollinators are crucial to the existence of plants, animals, and us! So next time you go outside and come across a honeybee, do not run away out of fear; instead, take the time to admire how such a magnificent, yet tiny organism is critical to your life.

WOW.   These 4 walked into the Bayer bee care center and then found some amazing mentors at a local university where they learned and connected with a topic.  If not for those meetings, they may not be doing what they are now.   There are defining paths we take in our life at certain moments.  Most of the decisions we take for one path fork or another is influenced by those around us and this is why it is so important to give our time for outreach.  I now know that Humairaa, Ameen, Duha, and Anam are going to mentor others and inspire even more leaders as they place themselves in other's life paths. Stories like this inspire me and give me so much hope. For all the teachers, agvocates, and mentors out there, keep making a difference!

Here were some other pictures of their outreach.   What an amazing group!

Check out the Grow For It website too!  http://www.growforit.org/

Investing in our agricultural future - 4H Youth Summit

There was a flyer laying on the table at work advertising the fact that Bayer and the 4H were teaming up.  My first experience with that team-up was an awesome..  On a weekend in January I got to go with some of my colleagues to participate in the 4H National Youth Summit Series on Agri-Science in Chevy Chase, Maryland.   This is just a few miles outside of DC although I quickly found out a mile in DC takes a lot longer to travel than in my town.   I thought I would share my experiences including some great time in the city itself.

The teamup with Bayer meant I got to know a little more about the 4H.

The first question I had is what do the H's in 4H stand for:  They stand for head, heart, hands, and health.   I even learned the 4H motto which is "TO MAKE THE BEST BETTER."   Here is a little more about 4H taken from their website, https://4-h.org/

It's headquarters is located in Chevy Chase, Maryland and that was our first stop to get checked in for the weekend.


DAY 1

It was time to drop in to center.

The site was bought by the 4H in 1959 where it had been a women's college.  It now houses meeting rooms, dorm style hotel rooms, and a cafeteria for many 4H events like ours and can house over 800 people.

We had the rest of the day to explore before the keynote speaker that night.   We had done a little pre-planning and scored a tour of the White House.   If you haven't toured the White House, I highly encourage you to do so.  It takes a little up front work, but it is worth it!

Here are just a few of the sites you would see in the white house

Then it was off to the Holocaust Museum and Arlington Cemetery, with a pass by the Washington Monument.  These are some tough places to visit, but a powerful story awaits.

Back to the 4H center the first speaker was Stephen Censky, the US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.  He gave a positive message to all the kids about agriculture and their future in the Ag industry.  Couple of the things he mentioned were:

“if you want a challenging career, pick #agriscience bc in next 32 years we have to produce as much food as last 10,000 years.”

“Do right and feed everyone.”

DAY 2

The day started off with a career fair.  There were people from multiple jobs in agriculture including, Bayer, the US Park Service, and many others.

The was followed by a speaker from the University of the District of Columbia.  I learned that this university located in DC is actually a land-grant university that caters to urban farming.  If your ever in the area check this place out which houses a large farm on the rooftop.

After these events we all took a field trip down to DC.  During the day we went the Smithsonian, the Botanical Gardens, and a walk past the capitol building.  Some beautiful sights as well as so much knowledge to take in at these amazing museums.

During the night we took a tour of five DC monuments at night.   The stops included the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the MLK Memorial.  They are beautiful in the day, but the night let's you see them in another perspective. 

Speaking the MLK monument, this is one of my favorite quotes:

DAY 3

The last full day of the youth summit involved multiple workshops all through day.  I attended a couple and then helped run some others.

The first one I attended was "Precision Farming - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and You."   This was presented by Luke Zerby from New Holland.   I can tell you that when it comes to technology agriculture is leading the charge.   Your phone has a GPS accuracy of 16.4 Feet.  That tractor going through the field with a GPS system has an accuracy of 6-9 inches.   This is how ag is evolving and I can't wait to see how it plays out.

Speaking of Luke, here was an article I stumbled across after the workshop.  http://precision.agwired.com/2016/04/22/new-holland-prepares-for-the-future-of-precision/

The second workshop that I went to was "The Growing World of Ag Technology" presented by  the Nebraska Extension in Washington County.  The extension educator is Tracy Behnken and she presented this workshop as a train the trainer.   They have some awesome ideas to help show anyone from primary school on up to high school the importance of agriculture and the facts that support the need for continued innovation in the field.   The posters they used can be replicated and for more information the Extension Center has info.

Here is what the program looks like and the extension center would be happy to help get you started.

The second activity from this workshop was how to make butter.  This was a great way to help introduce to groups where our food comes from and is a fun, easy, and hands-on exercise.

I enjoyed myself!

Next the University of Maryland showed off a complete curriculum to help teach STEM to middle schoolers.  Check this free resource out and use it!

https://extension.umd.edu/agsploration

Alright, now it was time to roll up our sleeves and help run some workshops.

The first workshop is one I have talked about before.  The exercise lets students come pick a GMO or gene edited product concept and market it from start to finish.   Product concept 1 was a product that gave pest control and product  concept 2 gave a yield increase.   They make many decisions along the way like whether to research internally or use a 3rd party and how many field trials they would run.  Finally they would come up with their own product name and see how much profit they make based on the decisions they made.

We ran two sessions with 4 groups at each session and here are the 2 sets of product names.

 
The next 2 sessions we ran were some general hands-on and information on GMOs, traditional breeding and gene editing.  First DNA extraction from strawberries ensued with Kurt showing where the DNA in a plant cell is located and how we were going to break it out..

Next we watched a video on trait research which i have shared before.   But if you haven't seen it, it is a great one to watch. 

And then Kurt had some fun showing the kids how GMOs, traditional breeding, and gene editing differ and why we need all these tools.   Kurt even showed off his passion for GMOs !

For added effect Kurt had gotten some GMO Arctic Apples that are a product that does not brown like a traditional apple.   The pictures speak for themselves.  Both of these apples were cut in half at the same time.

Check their website out:  https://www.arcticapples.com/

I work with an amazing team and these events make a huge difference in kids lives.   Great job 4H and Bayer for putting together an amazing weekend.

Understanding Science Acceptance and Rejection

I was reading the news and came across the headlines about the 7 words the administration banned for use by the CDC.    As a scientist I could not believe any of those words are banned, but my mouth hung open a little bit as I scanned the list and saw "science-based" and "evidence-based" on there. 

So of course I had to wear my Science shirt and show my support of science.   Then as it happened I was at the gym listening to "The Skeptics Guide to the Universe" podcast when they referenced a paper on understanding Science Acceptance and Rejection.   I dug the paper out and it was quite interesting and I thought worth sharing especially as this nation seems to be taking a step backwards on the science front in some cases.


SCIENCE FTW!

On one side of the spectrum we all have doubts or questions about many topics especially when it is something we are seeing for the first time or have little personal experience with.   On the other side of the coin we have science as a methodology to answer those questions and either confirm or deny our doubts.    But the question is why do these doubts stay with some of us no matter what  anybody says while others are willing to change their minds based on sound scientific results.  In other words Why do some people readily accept science and other's reject it?  It is a good question and one that in my opinion is relevant.   STEM jobs continue to grow (10. 5% from 2009 - 2015) and will we need our younger generations ready to step into these jobs in the future.  If you are interested in more STEM job info for the US this is nice resource. 

US Bureau of Labor STEM info

So if we are looking at a trend of more STEM type jobs being added and needed, it is important to understand why people do or not believe in science.  A group of scientists decided to answer this tough question and published a nice article on the subject.

The journal article can be found here:  http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167217741314

It is quite long and detailed so I am going to try and give the cliff notes. 

THE CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS 

When looking at the science acceptance or rejection question, the authors picked several controversial scientific topics to understand why people agree or disagree with the science on each topic.


1.  Climate Skepticism 

We hear lots of chatter on this one with the two sides firmly entrenched.  One side says climate change is real and things are going to get worse if we don't take some measures soon.  The other side does not believe climate change is real and that we are just in a natural pattern.

2.  Vaccine Skepticism

Vaccines are another hot topic with the "anti-vaxxers" saying vaccines cause other problems like autism even though the science says otherwise.   Some parents say that no one should be able to make them vaccinate their kids.  On the flip side we have seen outbreaks endangering other people at places like Walt Disney World from these decisions.  There is also plenty of science available showing vaccines are a good.

3.  GM skepticism

This one is a daily conversation for me since my job is all about making GMOs.   The biggest concern to the people who do not accept GMOs revolves around their belief that GMOs are unsafe.  On the science side there are more studies than you could read in a day to support their safety.

4.  Science Support 

Science Support has been in the news lately as well.  The march for science was a big even to support science, but there are just as people who think science conflicts with their personal beliefs.


THE PREDICTORS -  TRUST vs DISTRUST OF SCIENCE

The overall findings of the paper linked each of these topics to WHY people do not accept or believe in them.   The parameter they looked at to understand science denial or acceptance were:

1.   Political conservatism

One thing they say never bring up in a conversation is politics, but it can play a big factor in what we believe.  This paper was focused on a US population. 

2.  Religion 

Well the saying actually goes don't talk about politics or religion and here we are bringing both into the equation.  However there are times science and religion seem to conflict with other and so it is no surprise that religion can play a large role in peoples trust or distrust of science.

3.  Morals 

Our morals and values are who we are.   Those values are embedded in us by our life experiences and beliefs.   Morals speak strongly to our consciousness of what is right and wrong.  These do not easily change and thus it also makes sense these influence what we believe and how we process information.

4.  Faith in science 

Is the scientific method inherently a good system you can trust. 

5.  Scientific literacy 

Science is a word most people have heard, but understanding what it is saying can be challenge.  It may be we don't understand what the science is saying because we don't want to hear it, we don't believe it, we haven't taken the time to study it, or we just have not been informed due to lack of communication or availability.

THE RESULTS

A lot of work went into the below graph, but this is the summary of all the work.

What does this mean?   The interesting thing is that even though science attempts to explain every controversial topic here,  the topics can be quite unique in the predictors that determine whether we believe the science or not. 

There are several conclusions we can draw:

1.  Climate skepticism -   Where we fall on the climate debate is almost completely explained by our political attachment.  Usually the more conservative a person is the higher the predictor for climate skepticism.

2.  Vaccine skepticism - The best predictor of whether someone believes in vaccines is their religiosity.   However other factors also help predict including faith in science (which can also be predicted by religiosity), morals , and scientific literacy.

3.  GM skepticism -  Scientific literacy and faith in science is a big predictor of GMO support or not.

4.  Support of Science - The biggest predictor in whether someone supports science or not is their religiosity.   One interesting finding is that men have more faith in science than women.

All of this mean science acceptance and rejection is a complicated topic.   As the authors state, "different forms of science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, although the case could be made that these are generally grounded in conservatism."

PERSONAL VIEWS AND GOING FORWARD

I personally really like this study and find some positives and frustrations.  On the subject of climate change which I do personally believe in, it seems that politics will continue to drive or not drive peoples thoughts and actions on climate decisions.   The study is pretty spot on with what we are truly seeing play out with the current US administration not believing in climate change.   This is the type of headlines we see in today's news under the current administration (NY times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/climate/epa-climate-change.html

However this topic will bounce back and forth depending on the political side in charge.  This one is a bit frustrating in that according to the results scientific literacy is not a driver of scientific acceptance and so education is not really going to have a huge impact on changing minds.

The good news is that GMO skepticism is highly predicted by scientific literacy.  The more someone understands the science, the more they are willing they are to understand and adopt GMOs.   This means that outreach by scientists, universities, governments,  industries,  and consumers on the benefits and safety of GMOs can have an impact.   The science on GMOs is beautiful, but unfortunately people are not getting the information.  This study highlights the need to tackle this topic head on through education.  We have to keep educating and answering questions.   I have numerous posts on GMOs on this blog if anyone reading this has questions and am always happy to answer or find the answer to any question someone wants to ask.  As always a great resource is  https://gmoanswers.com/ 

Religiosity is the biggest predictor of vaccine skepticism.  I personally do not understand the reluctance to vaccinate because by not doing so puts not just one person in jeopardy but all the people around you.  This is a topic that can have a lot of consequences for others.   And I have this stance as  a religious person.   From a Christian point of view Scripture is silent on vaccinations and so we must make our own informed decision.   I personally believe the science on this one and will vaccinate myself and my kids. 

Lastly support of science is also highly predicted by religiosity.   As I mentioned I am religious and I personally co-exist with a strong belief in science.   Because I am a scientist I agree that there are conflicts of interest between science and religion.   However I have never found that the two cannot co-exist for me.    I and friends have had friendly debates on this topic so many times and my argument continues to be that science and religion are answering different questions.   Religion is answering fundamental existence questions that science cannot (at least yet) about the universe such what is my purpose?  who am I?  how should I live and treat others?   what happens when I die?  Science is answering questions about the processes and properties of the universe to make our day to day lives better.   They both are useful in my life. 

 I can only hope that all sides see the benefits of science.   No matter your religious or political affiliation I hope we all see the good that science can do in our world.  Science is not just an opinion, but a systematic method to to answer a question.

Setting up a saltwater fish tank - PART 2: Equipment

In part of one of my saltwater blog (Part 1), I went over the basics of getting a tank on the stand and the plumbing that goes along with it.   Before we fill it up with water there is some equipment you will want.

The following list are the products I used.  The brands are by no means the ones you should use, but will give an idea of the types of things you will need to get.

SUMP ITEMS

 There are a lot of items you will want in your sump.

1.  Heater

For a saltwater and reef aquarium you will need to maintain the water temperature.  I have my heaters in the sump so they are hidden and not in the main display.   My main heater is a 400 Watt Titanium Aquarium Heater by Aquatop for a 125 gallon tank.   I also have a small 100 W Titanium Aquarium Heater in the sump.  If my main heater were to malfunction I have a backup to hold over until I can get it fixed.  I like these titanium heaters because they are long lasting.  There are a lot of opinions on the temperature you should keep your tank and a lot of it depends on the fish and coral you will have.   I keep my temperature at 79 degrees F.  No matter what temperature you chose as your main temperature, stability is the key.  You do not want the water temperature to deviate too much through the day.

2.  Skimmer

In my opinion a skimmer is one of the most important things to have in your aquarium.   A skimmer is a piece of equipment that keeps your water clean.   Here is how a skimmer works.

I think a skimmer is very important and actually went a little bigger than needed.  There are many skimmer brands and you can research the one that will fit your sump.  I chose to go with a Reef Octopus 202-S model.  The  biggest consideration in picking out a skimmer is to make sure it will fit in your sump since a skimmer can take up a good bit of room.  I placed the skimmer in the water drain section of the sump so that water coming down from the main aquarium will get skimmed before being pumped back up to the main tank.

The reef Ocotpus model I used is rated for 265 gallons and I have only a 125 gallon tank.  I personally prefer to go a little big on the skimmer because it plays such an important part in keeping your water clean.  Here is what the model looks like.   

To operate a skimmer you plug it up and use the knob to adjust the water level.  For this skimmer you turn the red know and water level rises towards the collection cup.  The water will be full of bubbles and I take the bubble line about half an inch from the top of the collection cup.   It will be personal preference on example where you want you water level to be depending on if you want a light or thick skimmate. 

3.  Return pump

As your water drains to the sump and gets skimmed it moves through the sump and gets pumped back up to the main tank.   You will need a pump to to get the water back up.   I started with a generic outdoor fountain/ fish pond pump.   It only lasted 2 months before the motor played out.   I needed to replace it quickly and after doing a little research I decided on a Jebao pump.   The particular pump I chose was the Jebao DCT-8000.  The rate or flow of water draining down in your sump depends on the flow of water going back into the main display.   You want a  good bit of turnover so be sure the pump you chose can push enough water up to maintain a good flow.  Remember the higher you have to push water up, the lower your flow rate will be for the pump.  

I again went a little bit bigger than I really needed too, but I wanted to have a pump that had power.  The nice thing about this pump is it has a controller to adjust how much water it is pushing.  I run this pump in a 125 gallon at half power.

4.  Reactor

When I first started my aquarium I did not have a reactor and I do not think this is something you need at the very start.    However I am a firm believer that you will eventually want this once your tank is established.   As your tank matures there are certain chemicals that build up.  One of these is phosphates.  As phosphates build up, they are fuel for algea.  I ended up with a bad algea problem at one point and figured out it was high phosphates.  A reactor can be used to help control phosphates.  You add a procuct called GFO that binds phosphates.  Your reactor has a small pump that pumps water through a column of GFO at a very low flow rate.  I have a dual reactor which means one column has GFO for phosphate binding and the other reactor has carbon.  The carbon helps with any smells and keeps the water clear.   I have the reactor right in the middle of the sump.  A small pump pumps water through the GFO column, where it then goes throguh the carbon column and finally flows back into the sump.   I change the GFO and carbon every 2-3 weeks.  It is a very efficenit system to keep phosphates in check and I recommend setting on up 

There is a nice site called bulk reef supply and it has a dual reactor kit that also includes all tubing and the pump.  There are alternative reactors, but this kit includes everything you need including all tubing.  I haven't found a more user friendly setup if you want convenience.

The GFO and carbon can be found at this site or your local fish store as well.  

5.  Autofill

Evaporation is your enemy with a fish tank.  I do not have a lid on my tank so that I have better oxygenation and so my lights have better penetration.  however this means I get a lot of evaporation.  the good news is that salt stays in the tank and only water is leaving.   so when topping off the water you will use freshwater.   Because you have a sump the water level in your main tank will stay constant.  The water in your sump will go down each day depending on the evaporation in your house and this changes in winter vs summer and low humidity vs high humidity.   I mark the level of water in my sump and always keep the water at this level.   You can manually add water each day to back to the line, but the easiest way is to automate this step.  I use SMART ATO (Intelligent Aquarium Automation) by Autoaqua which is just a small sensor and pump.  The sensor goes in your sump at the water line where you want to maintain.  The pump I put in a separate 10 gallon aquarium full of freshwater.  As the sensor picks up that the water is low it tells the pump to add water.  This keeps the water line constant throughout the day with you have to do anything except keeps the small freshwater supply filled up.  10 gallons of freshwater lasts me about a week.

Here is the magnetic sensor right at the water line you want to maintain.  Once it senses water below the line, it will pump water into your sump to fill it back up.  

  

6.   Filter Sock

As water drains into your sump from your main tank, it is preferable that the water is filtered.  This is just another way to help maintain good water conditions.  The filter is a type of mechanical filtration that catches a lot of the big stuff like algae or chunks of food.   The filter is called a filter sock and is where you send your draining water.  I try to replace this sock once a week although sometimes I get lazy and only replace it every two weeks.

The next picture shows my drain lines going into the filter sock.  The black piece is a filter sock holder that has two holes already made for the tubing.  It just hangs on the side of your sump and holds the filter sock in place.  This is another great addition.  

Here are the all the supplies put together in the sump. 

And here is the bigger view where you also see the second tank holding the top off water.

MAIN TANK ITEMS

1.  Circulation pumps

In the main tank the main piece of equipment you will have are your circulation pumps.   The ocean is constantly moving with currents and your aquarium should be no different.  There are so many circulation pumps out there.  If you want some really fancy pumps then look up the vortech pumps.   I chose two Hydor pumps rated at 1350 gph (gallons per hour).  So far these pumps have handled the work load well.

Here is the pump in action.

2.  Lights

The other huge piece of equipment you will need are your lights.   This may be one of the hardest decisions to make.   If you are going to have coral you need good lights.   The golden standard of lights for years for reef aquariums were metal halides.  The downsides of them is they are expensive and they run very hot!   So you have to have good cooling.  They also use a lot of electricity.  You still cannot go wrong with metal halids, but with the introduction of LEDs you can have a cooler and cheaper option.   I decided to go with LEDs.  Once you make the decision of metal halides vs LEDs, then you have to figure out what LEDs you want.  Once you start looking at your options you will see two categories.  There are some name brand LED systems that are very high quality but with a high price tag.   some names are Radion or Kessil.   then there are your "Chinese Black Boxes".   these are cheaper LEDs manufactured for cheaper, but sometimes quality can be suspect.   I did go the Chines black box route, but chose what i think is one of the higher quality companies offering them.  I used SB Reef Lights for my lights.  You can see how many "boxes" you need based on your tank size at their site.

https://sbreeflights.com/

Lights are something you do not need for the first few weeks that you get your tank up and going, but you will want these in place and working before we get to the point you add fish and coral. 

Here are the lights hanging and in action:

3.  Netting

I chose not to have lids on my tank.  Some people like a lid as it helps limit evaporation.   The other downfall of not having a lid is that many saltwater fish are jumpers.  Therefore I recommend a net of some type to help prevent you from losing any fish.  This is not something you need to do immediately.  We still have a bit of time before we add our fish.

The kit I used was a DIY netting kit form Bulk Reef Supply.  They have kits for rim and rimless tanks.  It took about 30 minutes to put it together for my tank.

Here is what it looks like once you put the pieces together:

Next time we will talk about getting your water, rock and sand set up and cycling your tank.   Almost there!