inedukated

Ditto. Mine runs out of room to grow (on an isolated island) and it huge chunk of it dies, then repopulates. Ain't nothin but a xenia thing...

Thanks guys. I will try to contact Sunlight and see what they can do for me. Will I need to ship the bulbs as well? Do you think an old Orbit 4x65w PC unit will suffice (2 SPS colonies, no clams, many other LPS and softies) until I get it back?

I bought a 48" 6 bulb Tek Light T5 unit from BRK last November, around thanksgiving. It's been running fine for about 6 1/2 months. Last week, two of the bulbs won't fire. I took it down, cleaned it out, swapped bulbs, and still those same two bulbs aren't working. I can only assume it's the ballast. 1) any other tips to get this working? 2) Does Tek have some sort of warranty on these things? -Ben

I've had xenia spreading issues for a while now, so I completely separated my xenia on an "island" rock, which was about 6 inches away from anything else. This kept it from spreading to the neighboring rocks. Unfortunately I might have led it to suffocate.... It's growing back, so I'm not too upset, but i'd like to know why it died in the first place. Can anyone find a link to info about "critical size"?

Hi everyone! I've been so busy with school that I haven't had even 30 minutes to get on WAMAS and chat it up, but I'm hoping you guys can answer a question for me... I have a rock in which I keep all my xenia isolated. It's about 9"x6", and roughly every week i need to trim it back due to all the growth. Well, I've been so busy that I didn't trim it for three weeks. Like my lawn, it got a bit crazy for a while, then I came home one day and couldn't believe my eyes. Half of the rock was completely dead. It was as if I shot Kalk paste all over them. Now, it's been 2 weeks since then, and the surviving half is doing well and slowly starting to regain control of the rock. I am wondering, do you think the xenia all died because I didn't trim it back as usual? Does xenia reach a maximum occupancy?

I go to the oriental market (Grandmart) and buy sheets of Nori and other sushi-roll type seaweed. My lawnmower loves to eat it from a clip. What he doesn't eat, the snails get at night. Perhaps that'll work for you.

Mine's just as retarded. I assumed it was normal. I hope I'm right.

Hey guys.... back in December I bought a TekLight T5 unit, 6x54W from BRK. It's been a great investment so far.... growth is great. Around 8pm tonight, while I was watching the tank, 2 bulbs went out at the same time. If you arranged the bulbs in order 1-6, it was bulbs 4 and 5. So naturally I started cursing, thinking I was out even more money.... When the lights went out later at 10pm, i swapped around the bulbs to see if that would help. (swapped bulbs 2-3 and 4-5) and again, only spots 2-3 worked, not 4-5. I switched everything back again to the original configuration, and low-and-behold...everything works now. Is this a sign of a problematic future? bulbs/ballast? do these units have warranties?? -Ben

Yeah... sucks. Gotta run Virtual PC, or if you have boot-camp on an Intel-mac, you can run that way. I hope someone, someday, ports this app over to OS X, or some other app gets created.

Barry's rock is great.... If anyone is in the market for more rock, jump on it. wow, it sounds like barry is my dealer.....

I don't think my tank looked that nice until a good 6 months into the hobby! Welcome.... wish you the best.

Hello everyone, Every year, an event is hosted which gathers hundreds of people to collect waste from the Potomac River Watershed (the land on both riverbanks). Last year, hundreds of tons of garbage was collected. This event is this weekend, March 31/April 1 Please consider volunteering at this event. Afterall, our run-off/waste ends up in the Potomac, which ends up in the Chesapeake Bay, which ends up in the Atlantic ocean. http://www.potomaccleanup.org/ There are currently 348 sites which will be gathering trash, in DC, Maryland, and VA (as well as WV and PA). I hope to see some of you out there, protecting our waters! -Ben

Just keep any eye out for them coming back. they are like zombies. You may think you got them, but they may easily rise from the dead.

personally, I have no problems with marine scene. The staff (melissa mostly) is extremely helpful, and as far as their policies.... once you know the policies, there shouldn't be a problem. I know that I have to take off my shoes during airport security, and I know that I can only return livestock to MS on tuesdays. But heck, they give you $$ for your stuff! Their hours might also suck, but some of our favorite stores (I'm sure you'll all know who I'm talking about) are only open Thurs-Sun. But I love all these stores anyway! I can't disagree with anyone on their prices though... yikes!

I hope not... It's 2 months old. I may upgrade to a more powerful heater, to see if it helps.

temps on that controller are set to 81deg. It places the temp in the main tank at 79deg.

When my tank lights (T5's) are on, I never have this issue, but as soon as the lights go out, this happens.... Heater video Is this normal? I don't think it's affecting my heater, and everything works fine, just wondering if I should be concerned....

I went to the local fabric store and purchased pillow stuffing for $3 (non toxic, of course) and placed a few wads of it in the sump section just before the return. I figured this would provide good mechanical filtration and reduce microbubbles. Within two days, it was completely green/brown (usually white) form all the gunk it removed. I swapped it out, and kept doing this for about 2 weeks until it seemed that there was nothing floating around in the tank. Worked for me, so maybe it's worth a shot?

Share your tricks/secrets.... I do 2 water changes each week (10% total) and have to keep it in check constantly. Looking for better suggetsions

Brilliant!

I have a 20 gal sump, and did the exact conversion you are talking about. 1. I removed all the "fuge" stuff (algae, rocks, sand) from the sump, put in a temporary bin 2. Got a 10 gallon tank, drilled it for a drain bulkhead near the top. 3. Elevated it inside the stand so it sat above my sump 4. Put a small pump in your sump that runs into this tank (300gph MAX) 5. Run PVC from the bulkhead back into the sump 6. Replace all the "fuge" stuff in this tank. Seems to work for me. I will see if I can send you a pic

I second Dave. get a fully submersible titanium heater. Watch out though, they can get hot, so place it wisely inside the protein skimmer. Also, with titanium heaters, you need to make sure they are always submersed. If they are exposed to air while on, they could easily start to leak out the ends...

I've been having hair algae problems off and on for about the past year. I usually do 2x5gal water changes every week, which is about 10% of my total water volume weekly. I scrub the algae off the rocks/glass before every water change and try to siphon out the algae. Here's what I've noticed: Hair algae ALWAYS starts on one rock in particular. I must have 20 different rocks, totaling 70lbs, but one rock always develops hair algae first. Is this common? Should I just remove this rock? Also, my anemone is attached to the same rock. Suggestions?

geez..... did your tank break? how did it happen? Sorry for your loss (frustration) Please post more details.

Who do you know that's eating zoas? Are they like psychedelic mushrooms?