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Tink

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    Basement Fish Room Insulation/Humidity

    in Do It Yourself

    I have an 8x16 rectangular room that I'm setting up as my fish room and wanted a few opinions. The room is painted cinder-block and below grade. The block seems to stay around 50 degrees and at this point in the year the room itself is about 54 (unheated utility room). Three sides of the room are exterior walls (top 8' wall, right wall, and bottom wall).

    I'm wondering if it'd be worth the cost (about $350) to insulate the walls with foam board (2" R13 on the exterior walls and 1" on the interior)? With a dehumidifier running the room will hit about 60 this time of year so I would still need to heat the room further to avoid the tank heaters being on most of the time. I'm just not sure if it's worth it because I imagine the cooler room would be helpful in the warmer months.

    The ceiling of the room in open joists with R13 fiberglass insulation, and another concern of mine is humidity. At this point I'm not sure if it's be better to run an exhaust fan to the outside or a dehumidifier. Would it be smart to add foam board to the ceiling to create an almost sealed box type effect to keep moisture away from the joists and plumbing?

    Any help or past experiences would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks

    Help with new halide rig

    in General Discussion

    I agree with that i did the same, and in your fish room to help you should put in a bathroom exhaust fan to help with heat, since no chiller

    I plan to install a couple centrifugal exhaust fans used commonly in horticulture, and connect them to temp and humidity monitors for environmental control.

    Help with new halide rig

    in General Discussion

    Without getting nerdy about the topic, here is a good take away. Reflectors like LB and Lumenmax are spot lights and need to be mounted higher to avoid hot spotting. A reflector like Lumenarc3 can be mounted lower as its strength is spread. Each reflector has its strengths and weaknesses. You need to determine the maximum height you can mount a reflector. A LB mounted 18" is acceptable as well, granted you have the room. A PAR meter will tell you how evenly the spread is at a given height.

    Absolutely. I was looking at the Hamilton reflectors as an alternative if they would work better in my situation. I have no experience with anything other then LB Mini or Large though.

    Help with new halide rig

    in General Discussion

    Height to mount the reflector is an unknown at this point. If I mount them at 10" from water to the base of the reflector that gives me 11" of space between the top rim of my 125 sump and the 2x6 that is the left to right span supporting the 180 on my stand. So every inch higher decreases that access space, and every inch lower increases it. Obviously I'd like to have as much as possible without shooting myself in the foot lighting wise.

    Help with new halide rig

    in General Discussion

    Do you plan to run a chiller? If not, use 250w MH. Strongly recommend using a switchable ballast 250w and 400w for flexibility. Run 250w for a few months to gauge potential heat and humidity issues and switch to 400w if you want more growing power.

    Exactly what I was thinking of doing. I've got Lumatek switchable ballasts.

     

    Any thoughts on a reflector to use in this case? I'd like to be able to keep them closer to the water to free up some space if possible, but realize that LumenBright mini will push a good bit of light.

    Help with new halide rig

    in General Discussion

    So I'm getting hung up with the lighting plans for my new 180 build.

     

    My fish room has a ceiling height of 7', and I'll be using an older 125 as a sump (72x18x22, only 1 center brace). The trouble this creates is a close balancing act when it comes to stand height (every inch shorter gives me that much smaller of a gap between the 125 sump top trim and the stand structure, but then every inch taller a bit more room is gained).

     

    What this comes down to is planing to give myself the proper distance between the ceiling and the tank to accommodate my metal halides. I currently have LumenBright Mini reflectors to use, but am not married to them if there is a better option that fits. I plan to use either 250w or 400w Radium bulbs ( I like that 400 Radium color, but realize I may not have the height to run them safely/effectively ??) and just need to figure out the best space to have so that I can start planing my stand.

     

    So my questions are these:

     

    250 or 400 on my 180? Why?

    Which reflector would best serve my needs (least distance between water and reflector, but still put out efficient PAR numbers)?

    Optimal distance to allow myself from water to ceiling (keeping in mind that every inch counts)?

     

     

     

    Decisions Decisions

     

     

    Thanks for the help folks

    Gold Torch not doing well

    in General Discussion

    That's correct, and that was a relatively brief event.

     

    I don't believe there's a flatworm issue due to the other euphyllia doing fine. Also, no new adds for over a month or 2.

     

    The coral has been fed in the past. I feed it meaty foods any time I feed them to the fish. The system is relatively low population, only 3 fish.

     

    I've relocated the torch to the frag tank to rule out an environmental issue I hope. It seems to be doing the same.

    Gold Torch not doing well

    in General Discussion

    Have a 2.5 year old gold torch that has started doing very poorly. This started almost a week ago, and has slowly gotten worse (well, if you consider 6 days slowly). No alk swings, and everything else is doing fine (SPS, LPS, etc.).

     

    pH 8.1

    Alk 9.6 dKH

    Temp 75.5-76

    SG 1.025

     

    Tried a Revive dip yesterday, but that just upset the coral more it seems. Should I move this to the frag system perhaps? Maybe a Lugols dip?

     

    Sucks to watch your favorite coral die.

     

    You can see the flesh recession in the pictures, as well as a picture of other LPS in the system.

     

     

     

    Any ideas?

     

     

     

    71f821a45a34e952cd2b6aa116768525.jpg

     

    003030061c3a30904cf103b6a45bebd0.jpg

     

    a48fe8cabb8e38841df05b0e87365e70.jpg

     

    ac53871e70bd70c1dd3d0121ed2838d6.jpg

    New Marineland 180, to keep or not?

    in General Discussion

    Here's the deal, I bought a new Marineland 180 last summer for a tank build and just now got to the point of fully unboxing it. Before cutting it free from its pallet and removing all the cardboard I had to get a few measurements, and pulled back some of the cover to do so. After removing the side panels I discovered some very crummy silicone work. I'm looking to get some opinions on weather it'll be a good idea to fight for an exchange (despite having lost the receipt, and it being bought a year ago. Though I did fill out some paperwork when I bought the tank, so there should be a record I hope) with the fish store. Here are some shots of what I'm working with:

    IMG_2467_zps571108e6.jpg
    In this shout you can see that the silicone has been squeezed out of this seam and left to dry that way. You can also see the bubbles in the seam itself.

    IMG_2469_zps3f4799ae.jpg
    Here you get a better view of the top half of the seam as it seals the 2 panels

    IMG_2468_zps3d27b368.jpg
    Here is a shot of the lower half of the seam

    IMG_2470_zps5d43ecd0.jpg
    And finally for this seam the very bottom corner mess

    IMG_2471_zpsb2dc766b.jpg
    This shot is of the back left seam, but is kind of hard to make out what I'm attempting to show. The gap between the panels that is filled with silicone is about 1/8"... normal?

    IMG_2472_zpsa58b81c0.jpg
    Here is a different angle of that same seam

    IMG_2473_zps0abd083a.jpg
    Here shows the bubbles in the front right seam

    IMG_2474_zps895d51cd.jpg
    Here is a zoomed out view of that same front right seam

    IMG_2475_zpsca959779.jpg
    And lastly a shot of the tank in its still fully boxed state.


    Thanks

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