sheac12

Those look really close to what my maroon clown had. Unfortunately I didn't treat in time, but I am pretty sure it was a fungus. I am by no way a disease expert, but if I had to do it over again, I would think about a fresh water dip with methyl blue and maybe a copper treatment in qt. Please take my word as an idea and not as an answer. Hopefully someone else can help.

Well it has been a while since I updated this thread, so here is the current status and look. I replaced the Current USA T5 setup with 3 36" T5s and 1 36" VHO all driven off of an ICECAP 660. The addition of the VHO really seemed to make the few, very few, corals I have color's "pop". I decided to go with the 36" VHO and T5s as I plan to use them directly on the 180 in June. Next I replaced one of my maxijet 1200 with sureflow mods to a koralia 4 with a sureflow medium flow prop. and magnet. I really like the magnetic mounting of the Koralia 4 and I think if I can get the high flow prop. to work from the sureflow mod it will be replacing my other maxijet 1200. On Monday(12/29/08) my main pump's circuit popped and unfortunately I didnt notice until the temperature dropped into the low 60s. Unfortunately I lost my favorite fish, my Juv. Emperor Angelfish, due to the temperature drop, the next day. He was in the middle of his color transformation and you can see from below his yellow really starting to show up in the body. After his lost, I decided to redo my aqua-scape into something new. I did this for my own liking and to screw with my Humu Humu trigger. He really doesnt like it when I stick my arms in the tank. He ends up bitting me, but I think that is because I hand feed him and he thinks I am feeding him. The one thing I am still struggling with is algae build up against the back glass. This slowly get worse as the days progress from the water change on Sunday. I am thinking though this could be directly related to my sand bed getting disturbed every time the maxijet's suction cups give out and the bed gets blown all over. I also think my refugium is too small for the tank(currently 5 gallons), so I decided I am going to make it bigger. The easiest way for me is to move the return pump and remove the glass divider that was between the pump and fuge in the sump. Doing this will double my fuge's area and I will be adding sand to keep a good 4-5" sand bed. Thats all for now. Well I would love to add photos but for some reason I keep getting "sorry dynamic pages in tags are not allowed" well how can I link to photobucket?

I hate traveling with a saltwater tank at home. I was at home Monday, after traveling all week, and my main pump, only thing on one GFCI, tripped and I didn't notice it. As much safety as those things provide, I think they are a giant pain in the arse. I personally have an experienced reef sitter come over every day to check for me when I am away.

Wish I had one to blame!

Thanks, I guess I feel a little better then before.

By poor acclimation you mean to the new temperature change?

I lost my favorite fish a Juv. Emperor Angel this morning and I need/hope someone can help me figure out what I did wrong. I have had him for over a year now and he was steadily growing and changing color. Sunday night when I went to bed his color was really good, he was swimming around and eating from my hand. Yesterday at some point two things happened. 1 my main pump died, this killed the circulation to the heater, and 2 the temperature dropped like a rock because water was not moving across the heater. I didn't notice either of these, I was exhausted due to driving 14 hours the day before. By the time I saw the temperature, it was 60F and the Emperor was no where to be seen. My Huma Huma was swimming around looking for food and appeared just fine. I threw in a new heater, moved the old one to a new spot directly in the tank so both where in the main tank to stabilize the temperature. I was able to slowly up the temperature and started a water change at the same time. In the end I was able to find the Juv. Emperor stuck/laying on its side under a rock. I was able to get it to move, but not far. When it moved I could see its colors had become extremely faded, I will attach a photo later, but from the dorsal spine down to the middle of the body. He huddled at the bottom of the tank, unable to swim correctly and seem to get "thrown" around in the feeble current. I started testing the water and found everything was good except for my PH which was 8.8 according to my test kit. My PH is still stuck at 8.8 but I don't know if it is my test kit or the water really is at 8.8. I found my Juv Emperor Angel this morning sucked into my power head. However, my corals seem to be fine, as does my Huma Huma, fat son of a gun was begging for food this morning when I had to flush my Juv. I don't know if I lost my Juv. due to the temperature or something else, any ideas suggestions are appreciated.

Your PM mail box is full....

I had thought about using VHOs on the 180, but it is getting harder and harder to find them. I think I am going to try my original plan of 4T5 on the ICECAP 660 with a 250W MH. What "color" bulb and brand would anyone recommend, 10k or 14k? Thanks

I have decided that I am going to change my lighting setup to be more in line with moving to the 180 next year. With that said I currently have 6 T5s over my 90, 2 on my ICECAP 660, 4 in a Current USA setup. The bulbs are 3 10ks and 3 420/460. What I am thinking about doing is adding two more T5s on the ICECAP and either a 175W or 250W MH. The goal of the MH is for the Sparkle effect, something that is missing with T5s alone. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to use for light bulbs, and is this too much light for the tank? I should add that when I move to the 180, I want to the same idea, 4 t5 36" + MH on each 3ft length. As for corals, right now I have some ZOAs, frog spawn(Euphyllia paradivisa), and a couple of hammerheads, at least I think they are, but I would like to add some bubble coarl(Plerogyra sinuosa) and some of the plate/brain corals. Oh and I do have some type of leather. Thanks

I believe most people say a DSB is 4-6" deep, but I could be wrong.

I believe most people say a DSB is 4-6" deep, but I could be wrong.

Sorry I dont know why I keep double posting.

I don't see why not. Have you figured out how you will plumb the Refug. into your sump? The DSB is a really good idea and a must in my opinion. For lighting I use a 6.7k 15W compact fluorescent light bulb from SYLVANIA and one of the cheap shop reflectors. I find that the light is great for cheato growth and does not affect the temperature of the tank.

huh, posted twice for some reason....

I have taken it apart a couple of times to clean out and replace the fan. I like the look of the LEDs in the tank so that is why I want to replace them. I will be soldering them into the current string of 4 that the light has. Thanks for the offer for LEDs, I am pretty sure the Current USA doesn't use 12V LEDs because the power supply is only 6V at 150mA.

Anyone know what the part number for the LEDs that are used in the Current USA NOVA Extreme?

Few updates: Picked up a used ATO system and a Current USA T5 setup(4x54) over the past two weeks. I have always been unimpressed with the performance of my skimmer, an Octupus 150. I had hoped that performing the mods listed on ReefCentral would help improve the amount of skimmate it produced. While they seem to make it "better" it wasn't until I hooked up the ATO that it really started working. Since using the ATO the skimmer has been working over time! More crap has been removed then ever. Thank god for ATO systems. Wednesday night I ran out to Hagerstown and picked up a used Current USA T5(4x54). Its great, four bulbs, four moon lights, independent control. I am now running six T5s over my 90, 3 Actinic bulbs and 3 10000 bulbs. The tank looks great and I think the fish like it better too.

Ah, wow that is a low Salinity. What I usually do to raise salinity is water changes with higher salinity then my target, or adding salt to my top off water. Both have worked very well for me. Normally, I will aim my water changes .02 to .03 higher then my target to get the total tank salinity up.

Tuesday I went out and purchased a used ICECAP 660 ballast for my 2 T5s. Currently, I have a Vossloh Schwabe for a ballast and I want to increase the number of bulbs and thought this was a good way to start. I must say after replacing just the ballast I can actually see the difference in the light level. I always knew that these are the best of the best of ballasts, but I never believed they made that much of a difference. Was I wrong! When I got the 660 the gentleman threw in two sets of VHO end caps. Is it possible to mix VHO's and T5s? Is the light output for a VHO all that much better?

My tank has been running now for just about 9 months now and it is doing pretty well. I knew going in that the fish I wanted were going to require me to get a larger tank. So on 7/11/08 I purchased discretekarma's tank, originally own by Jamesbuf, a 180, but that is for a different thread... Any way I thought I would give the build story on my 90. In June of last year I received a 29 gallon free from a friend who was moving to Arizona. I started researching, thanks to Reef Central and here, and found I needed something bigger, so I purchased a 75 non-RR from craigslist two weeks later. In August I moved to Columbia, MD and did some more info research and realized I really needed a RR tank, I was threaten with bodily harm if the external overflow ever failed and spilled over. So, I went to aquarium one in Rockville and purchased a 90RR, not the smartest thing I have ever done, but at least I learned to look for someone down sizing or getting out of the hobby. I started out knowing that I needed a decent skimmer. I purchased a used Octopus 150 off of cmas-md. I then went a head and got a Mag 7 for a return, and a 20L for a sump. I did not have any power heads at the time and that was a major mistake. My first round of live rock purchase came from tgallo and I also picked up his seven stage RO/DI unit as well, as he was moving out of state. I setup my tank and let it run for about 3 weeks. I setup the sump into three different sections, drain/skimmer, return, and refugium. I went ahead and started designing a stand for the tank. I knew I wanted something taller so that it came to eye leave. I really liked the http://www.petsr4u.com/proddetail.asp?prod=56202 but there was no way my wife was going to let me purchase it. Thus, I ended up designing and building my own stand. Originally I was going to design it with all recessed panels as in the same form as the link above. However, due to construction setbacks and over spending I ended up with this: As you can see I replaced the door panel idea with glass and then used a frosting spray to "frost" the glass and cut down on the refugium lighting. The lighting is provided by utility light and a screw in compact fluorescent bulb(6700K) by sylvania I picked up from lowes. I have gone through two different refugium designs. The first was based on a design from melevsreef : http://www.melevsreef.com/55g/55g_sump.html, the one on this page where the water flows into a pipe and under the refugium and into the return section. However, this didn

Ah well maybe I will just order the new stuff and if you dont mind Bob, could I bring the stuff to the Frag Fest and have you take a look at them? Why would there be three stages of DI resin any ideas?

After reading all of these and attempting to figure out what is going on I think it is time to replace my prefilters and my resin too. Currently I have a 7 stage RO/DI. The RO should be fine. However, the DI has changed colors and needs to be replaced. The current setup, I think, is as follows 10 micron sediment filter -> 5 micron carbon -> 1 micron carbon -> RO -> resin 1 -> resin 2 -> resin 3 I am only guessing the last three stages are resin, honestly I have no idea, but it only makes sense that they would be. I have two bags of what appears to be resin, however, it doesn't seem to match anything on the AIW site. One bag is a majority of little yellow/goldenish balls with almost purple ones mixed in. The other bag is a majority purple balls with the yellow/goldenish balls mixed in. Does anyone have a guess to if this is DI resin? I will post photos of the resin later today once the wife gets back from work with the camera. Thanks, Colin If anyone has some time today or this week and won't mind stopping over and checking this stuff out I would be very great full.

Ah, I don't think I have a pressure switch, what does it do? As soon as my wife allows me today I will be paying you for the AWI group buy. Would I use the pressure switch in conjunction with the restrictor valve? Sorry I sound so dumb, but I have no idea about this.

So I re plumbed my RO/DI system the following way faucet -> booster pump -> pressure gauge -> first stage -> second stage -> third stage -> RO -> resin -> unknown -> unknown -> output The waste water is now plumped with the restrictor valve. If I have the restrictor value in place and close it, the pressure is 38, if I turn on the pump with the restictor valve, the pressure ups to 90-100. I attempted to change the amount of cut off with the pump on, but to no avail. the pressure still goes to 90-100. I am wondering is 38 pounds of pressure good enough?