jamal

nah dave i still like the helios bulbs. i guess it will be you and i in that club. by the way i would like to come by again when you get the tank up so i can see how it looks through the glass.

the hardest part is finding how much supplement u need to keep up with tank demand. mixing is pretty simple. i use hawaiian punch bottles since they have colored tops so i know which is which. because of my ph i bake the baking soda first. i also use the magnesium part to keep that up as low magnesium will affect cal and alk uptake and will slightly hamper corraline growth. once you mix the supplements and figure out how much you need it is that simple. i pour in half of a cup of ca and alk each morn on top of dosing kalk through a reactor. once you need more ca and alk then your reactor can provide you can use the 2 part to supplement. though the 2 part will provide more ca and alk.

i have the same lighting as well and i just replaced my bulbs after a year as it was starting to spur nuisance algae. i would say either get a par meter or just replace the pc's at 6 mths and the mh's at 1yr. once you realize the lights are causing problems the animals are stressed by the changed light spectrum

yea 10k bulbs are usually better for growth. once you go above that color temp is for aesthetics. i am more interested in color and visual effects than growth

dag i have been discovered. i will still be going with the helios bulbs. these bulbs were for my sucky fixture before i replace my lights as a whole. now for the moment you two have been waitin for. they are 14 phoenix bulbs. yea!

it was past time to switch my bulbs and i was trying to decide what bulbs would give me decent par without being so white. i have found that bulb. i cant wait to see how blue it is once it burns in. right now it almost looks like a 20k bulb. i am very satisfied with the purchase.

well he is either sampling or looking for food that happens to be in that location

probably monday. short notice is why i didnt do a group buy. let me know

i am ordering some stuff from premium aquatics of the dry goods variety and wanted to know if anyone needs anything.

welcome to the club. definately come to the meeting. it will be a good place to meet people for that sort of thing

does anyone have a fish trap i can borrow? i need to evict my last tang.

brk does indeed stock sequence pumps

i have one and i will say that it loves low flow. it also should be fed. i feed all of my lps corals and they react negatively when i skip a few days. low flow low light are the orders of the day and feed it small meaty foods.

thats actually what i was thinking as well. since i have electronic ballasts in my fixture i can try some different stuff. just wanted some opinions

ok its time to change the lights on my current current fixture the lights are 150 watt double ended powerpaq 10k's. i wanted to look at maybe getting another brand like ushio or xm maybe even a 14k phoenix bulb. comments?

so is the fall meeting on the 10th or the 17th? the title says the 10th but in the post it says the 17th

also they are very active so this needs to be considered. i would recommend the blue throat for his disposition and his adult size. he is a planktivore and reaches about 9 inches full grown in stark contrast alot of these triggers can be 18-20 in full grown so keep that in mind

i used to run a canister filter and took that off with no ill effect however your friend has been running this tank for quite some time and the bacterial cultures are much more established. i would say that there really is no slow way to take it off. its like a band aid its either on the sore or it isnt. the wet dry has to go and there is no way that i can think of to remove it gradually. unless you have bioballs in there in which case you can remove those first

here is an endorsement for using carbon. i woke up this morning to another kalk overdose. the ph was 8.79. would have been higher where it not for the huge reactor i have running about 3 liters of carbon. the reactor is white with kalk it has absorbed from the tank. besides polishing the water it is extra insurance. when people talk about tank disasters. it usually has to do with something that they dosed. carbon will go a long way to buffer those kinds of incidents as most people will recommend running it when something is overdosed. my advice is to get the largest reactor you can afford and some quality carbon to run 24/7

its on georgia ave by where we did the totm interview

well as someone who has kept 2 triggers in a reef tank with snails and crabs and a lobster i will say that there are reef safe triggers though when you watch them eat you can see why keeping them fed is important. reef safe is relative however so if you want a trigger be prepared to restock your cleaning crew a little more often. i have been lucky but you may not be. reef safe triggers are: pink tail trigger, blue throat trigger. somewhat less reef safe but maybe worth a try: crosshatch triggers, niger trigger. good luck

that must be it no more smoking and reefing together

i used to do reef crystals but i kept getting a precipitation so i switched to io salt and it haas worked well for me and mixes very quickly

your tub looks better than my tank. also i would like to schedule a visit

sorry for the jinx howard. we were saying that about the firefish. that they are jumpers.