Origami

The Reeflo Snapper will give you almost 1200 gph for about 100 Watts at 8' - how about that? Too much flow? Add some valve resistance and it will actually use less power. Plumbing is 1-1/2" FPT in / out. Looks to be about $200 retail nowadays. 3 year warranty. Should be quiet, too. (BTW, that 40W reduction, for a pump running 24/7/365 should save you about $35 per year in operations costs at $0.10 per kWh.)

And that is why people have upgraded their ballasts. The metal halide ballasts on the stock light under drive the lamps, only delivering 175 Watts or real power to them. (It's easy enough to see this if you put a kill-a-watt meter on one of these ballasts because you'll find that it draws 175 Watts.) If you look at the fixture as a mechanical component that houses and protects the wiring and the lamps, you're primarily concerned with the materials used, quality of construction, and ease of maintenance. While there are other internal components that are factored into this, including fans, fluorescent ballasts, and switches, but these have not been the focus of hobbyist concern for this fixture. The concern for the newer model with electronic ballasts has been the inefficiency (poor power factor) of the ballast which results in lower PAR and differences in the color that lamps put out. Some hobbyists who seem pleased have reduced light demands simply run a different bulb at the lower PAR to get the color that they want. Others, who have higher light demands and wish to use the published literature on lamp output and color for predictability of lamp performance, upgrade their ballasts and buy specific lamps. For these people, the Odyssea fixture is simply that - a fixture to mechanically support the lamp and wiring - and their performance is just fine.

Technically / biologically, yes, since it's an albino. However, in more common terms - it's pink and pink's a color.

Glad this looks to have worked itself out to a mutually agreeable resolution. We've been seeing Jeff a bit more on the boards lately. It's made me hopeful that things are getting back on track with his business as well.

Chris,may I suggest that you post your location so prospects have some idea of where they might be headed?

Wow. That's some coloration!

Their first MH fixtures had a problem with the ballasts overheating and catching fire. The newer models have an electronic ballast that does not have the reported problem. However, the newer 250W ballasts seem only to deliver 175W to the bulb with another 75W being "reactive" power (for a total of 250 VA). The basic fixture is a knock-off of a Coralife Aqualight Pro. The last reports I've read are that the many serious hobbyists buy the fixture and immediately upgrade the MH ballasts to something like Ice Caps. This works well. There is quite a thread (over 3000 posts) available to you for research on Reef Central if you wish to read more: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...mp;pagenumber=1 This post is only 2 long, but gives the same info I've already given you. (That is, the stock ballast is not all that it could be while the fixture itself is not unreasonable.) http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...ghlight=odyssea

4 ppm is very high and may result in a longer cycle. The water change should get you down, nominally, to 0.4 ppm if you assume that your replacement water is 0 ppm for ammonia. If your replacement water is still at 0.5 ppm ammonia, then you'll actually be closer to 0.85 ppm ammonia, I think. Unfortunately, that 4 ppm ammonia really messes things up. If this is the case and you're going to do a 90% change, I'd go ahead and make it 100% just so you can knock the ammonia level way back (to 0.5 ppm because of the change water). Then, test your water as much as needed and do water changes to keep the ammonia below 1 ppm worst case. This will be enough to keep your biological filtration growing and adapting to the load, but not enough to kill off life that's growing on your rock and further increasing the ammonia load.

Thanks for the tip, Boret!

Hi Jan. Joker's doing great. She's eating flake and living the sweet life. It's funny, but she and the other clown are hanging out together on opposite sides of the egg crate. The egg crate's actually open enough that the two damsels and the peppermint shrimp in there cross between the sides fairly regularly, so Joker's not lonely. I've been changing out about 5 gallons per day which has kept up the water quality. Her fins looked a little beat up initially but I think that will heal up just fine as I think her health is returning from the ammonia stress. How is your tank set up doing?

Jan, check this link out: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=28488 http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=20710

+1 on Bob's (YBeNormal's) advice. I have a Typhoon III and am very satisfied with it.

Yes, exactly.

Thanks, Chip. Just set it aside for that visit I've yet to schedule.... Soon, I swear! (BTW, the flower delivery on Saturday went well. She wasn't home at the time, but knew I'd been there because of the handwritten note that was enclosed. I followed up on Monday and the personal touch really made a difference. - Good advice. Thanks.) Hilary, I figured as much. I'd like to take one apart anyway to see how they're made. If I can figure out what component they're using inside and how it's mounted, maybe I can learn something that benefits all of us.

I've got both a Fiji Purple and and ATI Pro Color coming in toward the end of the week. I'll be using one or the other along with some blue, daylight, and actinics in my lighting setup. No experience with them yet, but soon!

Hey Boret, I contacted Curt also (on a different issue) and took the opportunity to ask him about the probe failures that members have seen. While I have an ongoing dialogue going, he replied with this, "A small number of people have had their old temperature probes fail. Failure analysis revealed that the temperature sensing element was cracked. So at some point the probe was mechanically stressed, and that ultimately caused the failure. We are now encapsulating the probes in epoxy so this type of failure is not possible." I've since asked him other questions regarding how the cracks may have been induced and if he had any recommendations for placement and handling of probes. This was his response: "I'm not exactly certain how the thermistor is cracked in some cases. Perhaps dropped, or the cable is flexed too close the encapsulation. Since we've been encapsulating them there aren't any more field failures of this type." If you're not doing anything with your failed probe, I'd like to take a look at it and maybe cut it apart to see how it was built and to see if I can determine the failure mode. Let me know if you've still got it lying around and could part with it.

The only caution I'd add concerns the heat that will be generated under this particular reflector and what kind of hazard it might present as well as the impact on bulb performance (if any). The reflector you've shown may only be rated to provide adequate ventilation for 60 watts.

108 degrees now! Boret, your effluent pH is reading out at 4.69. That seems unreasonably low. Where'd you get the code for that banner in your signature anyway? That's pretty cool.

Your clown's settling in now, Jan. Here are a couple of pics of her temporary housing. The clown on the right is yours. As you can see, the two are getting to know each other (no aggression, just curiousity). The lights are out now so everybody can settle down and settle in....

In carbon-dosed systems, there have been reports of SPS tips being burned at higher alk levels. I think that's what Mark's referring to. From: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php Burnt tips - Some users of organic carbon dosing have reported the tissue loss at the ends of their SPS. These "burnt tips" have recovered once the user reduced the alkalinity levels within their tank to alkalinity levels closer to natural seawater (7-8 dKH), pictured below. Unfortunately, the root cause for this is not known.

10 dkH.

I use this calculator a lot. In fact, I saved it to my desktop so it runs locally on my computer. Along with a couple of electronic scales that I bought off EBay that I use to weigh stuff out, it's really handy.

For me, 2 ppm calls for a pretty big water change to prevent the rising ammonia level from killing off stuff and rising further. You may want to consider using something like AmQuel right now to bind up some of that ammonia. If you have a rock in there that you suspect has die-off, get it out and let it cycle in another vat (with a heater), isolated from your tank. Bring it back to your main tank after it's finished. If you notice anything like dying sponges on the rock, scrape them off before you put it in the vat. That way things will move along more quickly.

Jan, my concern was that, if the new mix was too caustic, it might cause a die-off of bacteria or other forms leading to an increase in ammonia. A lot of salt mixes have low levels of residual ammonia when mixed up. This thread might offer you some insight: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1432895

As I mentioned above, there's not clear consensus on the asterina question, but it's good to ask and to research it. Some have problems with them, some don't. Some don't think they have problems but later do. Very few go the other way (because they take them out). Anyway, here's a few links that might be worth hanging on to. You'll see the controversy even in these links (people in the first link think asterina are falsely accused opportunistic feeders, in the second link asterina are coral killers). Some posts I've read try to distinguish between the two by saying that one color morph is peaceful while another is a pest. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/asterinafaqs.htm http://www.garf.org/Star/starfish.html http://www.nano-reef.com/invertebrates/?id=9