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Origami

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Posts posted by Origami

    Where should I buy my 150W 10K HQI DE MH bulbs?

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by Origami2547

    Jamal, I just started my tank out last September. I've got a number of SPS frags sitting mid to high in the tank. A couple of montipora (green and orange), a pink birdsnest, bali green slimer, an acropora, and a green christmas tree something-or-other frag from Dave Lin (I'm going to have to look that name up again, I guess). Down low, I have some mushrooms and a couple of GSP frags. I also have a couple of anemones that have done very well - a flower anemone which is now a good 7 inches across and a purple condylactis which is at least that large. The flower sits about 3/4 of the way up and the condy is about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. Both seem to like where they're at as they don't move much (the flower anemone, in fact, has only moved about 2-1/2 inches over the last 5 months or so). Really, though, I'd like to add more SPS if I can and get decent growth.

     

    Where can I find more information out on the XM's and the Ushio's? There doesn't seem to be any really recent studies by S. Joshi on 150W halides in the last 3 years or so.

     

    Interesting that you run your bulbs for a year plus. Metelsky, in Simplified Reefkeeping, recommends a 6 month cycle saying that while the light looks OK to us, the aged light color shifts month-to-month and should be replaced. Kent-Marine also says, "Replace metal halide bulbs every 6 months or so, and fluorescents every 12 months " on their website at http://www.kentmarine.com/kent-university/reef-lighting.htm. Other people also talk about replacing bulbs at longer intervals (1 year typical but sometimes more). One site even went so far as to say to replace the halides when they began to flicker (that would seem to be pretty far along the age path, you'd think).

     

    So, besides telling me a little bit more about XM's, presuming that I wait a few months to replace my bulbs, what are the in's and out's of doing so? What do I have to look out for? Should I back off the photo period or do something else to ease the corals into the new lighting?

    Where should I buy my 150W 10K HQI DE MH bulbs?

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by Origami2547

    Gotta admit, Jamal, that I'm considering changing out because I've read that I should change out MH bulbs after 6 months and my fluorescents after 12 months. My MH's mostly have run 8 hrs per day but I've recently cut it back to more like 6 per day while fighting back a mild cyano outbreak.

     

    Color? Crisp white, I guess. I'm running a 90 with 18 inches of water to the sand bed, and 6 inches to the halides. I'm inclined to stay with 10K bulbs for fear that my PAR will suffer if I go higher. My lighting is supplemented with 2x96W Actinic 03's which give me an overall decent look.

     

    Thoughts?

    VHO, PC, fluorescent and ballasts

    in New to the Hobby

    Lightbulbsdirect.com has a replacement bulb that would work for you. It's a 40W, 48", 10K bulb and it runs about $12. Of course, that's not including shipping. The link to their aquarium bulbs is http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/CTGY/Aquarium. Go down until you see F40T12/AR/SA (I'm assuming that your "standard" light is a T-12. Even though the table says that it's a 1000K light, that's a typo. Other vendors sell the same bulb. It's a 10000K.

    too old for this?

    in General Discussion

    Now that sounds familiar but I can't remember. Tanks were rimmed with chrome or nickle and the bottoms were a slab of slate. 10g was a handfull.

     

     

     

    We had a slate-bottomed tank when I was a kid, too (back in the 60's). It had shiny trim and was 10G - pretty standard in those days. Dad had a freshwater tank stocked with swordtails and such from KMart. Like Chip recalls, they came home in a paper container, much like a chinese food carton, but with a fitted lid (if memory serves).

     

    However, my first goldfish came home in a small spherical bowl - won at a fair when my ping pong ball landed in the container. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who remembers bringing a fish home like that.

    Anemone behavior question?

    in General Discussion

    sometimes folds inward and gets really small.

     

     

     

    Yeah, just wait until it shrinks up, folds inward, and all you see is the foot - no tentacles at all - showing. It'll make you wonder. Then, the next morning, all is normal and the thing is expanded and looking good.

     

     

     

    What you're seeing is perfectly normal behavior.

    black spots on clowns

    in General Discussion

    Thanks, Sean. I have no evidence of having picked up anything but am just providing a data point since I received something from Dave here recently. I'll be keeping an eye out, though. What exactly shoud we be looking for anyway? If the spots show up, will they remain or will they come and go?

    mini blue starfish?

    in New to the Hobby

    No, you don't say. Another controversy in the reefing world?

     

    Seems others have noticed and reported otherwise, directly observing the buggers making a snack of polyps. Still others don't notice a thing.

    Fins And Feathers

    in Vendor Experience

    Where is ashburn? :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

     

    Near the Safeway at the corner of Broadlands Blvd and Claiborne Parkway, just off of the Dulles Greenway.

     

     

     

    Arghhhh, this coach situation is bizarro. Dan Snyder is a doof.

     

     

     

    He's no Jack Kent Cooke, now, is he, Tracy? I share your frustration. Time to go by the OD Brewery.... :drink:

    Need help getting rid of stuff killing corals!

    in General Discussion

    Cyano is also photosynthetic (in fact, it's the basis of chlorplasts in plant cells). So, you can really cut back on its presence by plunging your tank into darkness for 72 hours and bringing your light cycle back up gradually. I've also cut my temperature back a few degrees. This doesn't get rid of your nutrient problem (reduce feeding, skim heavily, use carbon, and possibly a phosphate remover), but it will knock it back a lot.

     

     

     

    That's how I've been dealing with a small outbreak on my relatively young (<6 months) tank. The lack of light really sets it back.

    mini blue starfish?

    in New to the Hobby

    I'm thankful for this thread. I saw one of these in my 29g setup last night. I'll be tracking it down this afternoon and getting it out. It's apparently a baddie.

     

     

     

    Having done a little bit of reading in the last half-hour, it seems that they multiply by fission (splitting). Typically having 7 or fewer legs, if you've got a 3 or 4-legged one, you've probably got it's other half somewhere in the aquarium.

    Opinion on JBJ Ocean Pulse?

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by Origami2547

    Got my answer from the manufacturer:

     

    Quick answer: Not compatible:

     

     

    Here's the email exchange:

     

     

    ***********

     

     

    These are on off type

     

     

    Thank you,

     

    Marc

     

     

    From:

     

    Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 2:01 PM

    To: orders@Aquatic-Store.com

    Subject: Question about the compatibility of your Ocean Pulse WaveMakers and Hydor Koralia's.

     

     

    I'm having a lot of trouble finding an answer to a rather simple question about your Ocean Pulse Wavemakers. Maybe you can help me.

     

    Are the wavemakers in the Ocean Pulse series the on-off type, meaning do they apply and remove power from the powerheads periodically? Or, do they adjust the voltage/duty cycle to the powerhead thereby modulating the pump speed?

     

    My question is driven by the desire to employ Hydor Koralia's in my aquarium using some sort of wavemaker. My Red Sea Wavemaker Pro is clearly incompatible with a long life for my Koralias because the uncertainty in the initial direction of the impeller from a dead stop stresses the pump whenever that start up direction is the wrong direction (the impeller/propeller bangs against the front of the housing until it restarts in the right direction).

     

    Thank you in advance for your response.

    Shocked!

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by Origami2547

    I turned off the entire power strip that controls the lights and other things in that corner of the tank. I actually then got another much smaller shock not too long after that, while reaching for another powerhead, which I thought was weird, b/c the second shock also felt like it came right where my upper arm was touching the light fixture, but the light fixture was off. What might that have been? Does that maybe have anything to do with "stray voltage" that I've heard mentioned?

     

    I'm guessing that the case of your light fixture is grounded and that you were taking stray voltage from something that was still "live" in the tank (not a good thing!), having it pass through you and into the case ground (thereby completing the circuit). This can be very, very dangerous. It only takes a few 10's of milliamps across the right area of your heart to put your heart into fibrillation. Is your equipment on a GFCI? Do you have a glass heater that might be cracked?

     

    A grounding probe is a good idea. But you need to track down where the charge is coming from. The multimeter idea is a good one. Put one line to ground (the third, round pin on a socket) and one into the water. Set the multimeter to AC volts since that's the likely source. Look for a reading. Then take everything down and bring your system up one item at a time and watch to see which thing is causing the problem.

     

    Good luck.

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