astroboy

Hi Tom, I think the ballast is a transformer. I might even have swapped out a ballast on it ten years ago, or else it was another light. I'll take the thing apart this weekend. Actually, I'll have to check whether the bulb fixture has any voltage first, I suppose. I'm always a little paranoid about working on electrical stuff. If I burned the house down my wife would ruin my whole day! Mark

I've got an old Hamilton Technologies MH/T5 light where on one side the MH bulb won't light now. I've switched bulbs, the problem is not a bad bulb but I'd imagine a ballast or capacitor. Does anyone know of a place in NoVa that might work on this thing? Thanx! Mark

Thanks guys. It's one thing to read on a thread that it's OK to use, quite another to have WAMAS friends tell about their experience. I'll give it a try to paste together an obnoxious frog coral that decided to break apart during the last water change when the level got to be too low.

I'm using a Wavemaster with four Koralia circulation pumps. The Koralias are almost entirely silent, except when the Wavemaster turns them on, at which point you can hear a distinct click. To me, that means that the propellers are getting a rude awakening: the voltage across the Koralia has gone from zero to 12V, or whatever, in an 'instant',, so the magnet that turns the propellor is experiencing a current in it that goes from zero to X in an 'instant'. I suspect, aside from wear and tear on the propellor, this allows tends to demagnetize the magnet, or otherwise mess with the microscopic magnetic domains. I've replaced more than one solenoid in a car starter motor which exists solely to prevent this zero to sixty in a microsecond effect: the solenoid forces the current to increase gradually, so to speak, which I assume is a good thing since otherwise the solenoid wouldn't be engineered it. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had ever come across a device, something like a small solenoid that would plug into the Wavemaster outlet, which the powerhead would plug into. You'd avoid the click and the corresponding strain on the impeller magnet so it seems like a good idea. Are there any EEs out there with some insights into this? Would the solenoid have to be too big or too expensive?

I'm out of the usual coral epoxy, which I've never been all that happy with anyway. I did a google search on "best epoxy for coral' and a lot of people claimed RectorSeal EP-200 was their favorite. It's available at Home Depot. Does anyone have any experience with this stuff? Will it kill everything in your tank as it cures? Thanks

I was going to buy shrimp today for my fish/corals but I'll get clams instead!

I bought four hydor koralia evolution 1500 powerbeads for my 90 gallon reef tank and while I've been pleased with the improvement, over 4 maxi jet 1200s, some of my LPS are not as open as they used to be. I had to move the contents of the tank recently when my old 90 sprung a leak, I had the corals and fish in a 75 where I fed everything very very sparingly for two months. As a result, a lot of the corals (elegance, hammer, frogspawn) lost a good deal of their mass. I realize it will take them a while to bounce back. However, I suspect the current is too much since the LPS in the corners have opened up a good deal more than the ones more exposed to flow. None of the powerbeads is aimed directly at the corals..... I have a Red Sea Wavemaster randomizing the flow. Does anyone have any insights in the difference between reef vs. fish only settings, and/or the gentle/rolling/turbulent settings? I've read the blurb the manufacturer puts out a few times but it's a bit vague. The hydor powerbeads are rated at 1500 gph, assuming they're off half the time for a 90 gallon tank that's 30X turnover per hour, ignoring the return pump from the sump which I estimate at 300 gph. Is that too much for LPS? I realize this is sort of a unanswerable question, in the end, all that matter is how the corals look, but as I said, I'm not sure of the difference between marine and reef modes and I was wondering if anyone has any insights. Thanks, Mark

Thank Scott, this is just what I needed! Mark

My experience with expired test kits in general, including Salifert, is that they give a *much* lower NO3 reading than what the reality, like 25-50% less, I suspect depending on how long past the expiration date you're using it. Not really sure about other measurements....

After Bob Fenner's good talk last week I decided to dig up my old UV sterilizer and use it again on my 90 gallon setup. I was wondering, what is a reasonable flow thru a UV sterilizer? Mine is 24 inches long with a 24 watt blub. Anyone have a ballpark figure on a good GPH rate? Thanks!

HI Tom, From the drip tube I'm getting 3ppm; I seem to dimly recall that when I first got the RODI system it was 1... Anyway, I'll monitor it and if it starts to increase I'll know it's time to replace the filters and media, Thanks, Mark

I'm getting a reading of 9 ppm TDS for my RODI water. Just wondering, is this reasonable for Fairfax county water or is it time to switch out the media? Thanks!

I should have said I used bleach, not beach. It did some good, I'm wondering if there might be a better way...

I bought a couple of 58 gallon barrels on ebay for mixing and storing water. They're food grade and the insides are spotless. However, they contained yellow Greek peppers, whatever those are, and the smell is pretty strong. Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations on how to get the smell out? I filled them with water and put in a gallon of beach, waited for a week, and that helped but I wonder if there's a better way. Thanks, Mark

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'll have to break down eventually and get a new lighting system. I don't have the space to put in a strip of LED lights outside the fixture and inside is obviously too hot.

I don't have picks,but it's an old style fixture: the MH bulbs are in an a sheet metal housing, the bottom is clear plastic. I'd like to put the LED strips on the reflective surface on the top interior, but it gets pretty hot there, even with fans.

Does anyone have any experience in putting LED (actinic) strip lights into an MH fixture. I got a flexible LED strip and ended up attaching to a wood panel which I fastened to the top of the MH fixture. The wood started to char in pretty short order so that's one idea that doesn't work. The main question I have, does anyone know of an LED fixture that will stand the heat within an MH fixture? Thanks, Mark

Perhaps I should be more specific. I'm going to buy strip of LED lights and wrap them around a BRS charcoal canister; inside I'll have the cheato or calaupera. I think about 300 gallons per hour will flow through the canister. I said calaupera, but perhaps cheat would be better? Any advice would be appreciated greatly.

I'm setting up a new tank. The live rock from the old one has been in a holding tank for a couple of months and is covered with all sorts of algae. I can move the fish and corals to another temporary tank. I'd like to get rid of as much as the algae as possible and I'm not sure scrubbing will do the job. Does anyone know of an algicide that would work well? I'll be moving the rocks to a new tank with brand new water... Thanks, Mark

Does anyone have a handful or two of calaupera they'd be willing to part with? I live in Vienna, Thanks, Mark

I'm setting up a new 90 gallon tank and I had an idea for a sandless setup. Over the years, whenever I've had to tear down a tank, the sand always contained a lot of disgusting stuff, even when the sand bed had a depth of under one inch. This seems to me to indicate that even a little sand is an unavoidable nitrate sink, so I've decided just to not deal with it anymore. To avoid the accumulation of detritus I'm thinking about mounting the rocks on egg crate (styrene lighting panel) which would be supported by lengths of small diameter PVC pipe. I'd have small pumps at the bottom of the tank pushing water along the length of the pipes. This should push any detritus up into the water column where it would hopefully be removed by filter socks or the skimmer. Does anyone have any experience or opinions on such a set up? The only problem I can think of is that the bottom current and lack of sand might greatly reduce the population of amphipods and other small critters, but would this necessarily be a bad thing? Thanks!

Anyone know where to get a 90 gallon perfecto or a marine land tank in northern VA? Thanks!

I've read mixed reviews online about the quality of Deep Blue aquariums. Does anyone have an opinion? Also, I've read that the glass has a lower iron content so it's more transparent. Does anyone know if that's true? Thanks!

A few months ago when I was scrapping algae off my 90 gallon with a razor blade I made a deep cut in the sealant on one side, near the bottom. Nothing bad happened so I figured no harm done. Last week the tank started leaking; fortunately I was able to save everything, I have a 75 gallon tank for mixing salt water. I'm thinking about scraping off all the old sealant and resealing the tank. According to you tube, this can be done successfully. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, in particular, what sort of sealant to use? Thanks, Mark

FWIW, I was able to get rid of bryopsis by raising the Mg in my tank to about 1600. Seemed to lessen the growth of other algae to some degree also although perhaps that was just my imagination. No apparent ill effects on fish or corals.