firecrackerbob

hmm... well... technically, the length of tubing should be a minor factor compared to the head (height lift). 7ft distance seems a little excessive though and at that length may start to influence the pumping ability. is the tubing ridgid or really flimsy? at that lenght, if it is really flimsy, it may be collapsing. . if possible, you should shorten the tubing, and also check for obstructions. you may also want to run some vinegar through to remove any debris that may have accumulated in the pump. im using a TOM for my ATO hanging in the stand similarly to what you desscribe, with the inline filter and am getting a fairly small, but steady stream coming out. maybe 10ml a minute.

Ive never had any luck growing it. tried two or three times and my tank is generally on the "nutrient rich" side....

dollar store super glue gel.... comes in a three pack... cheap and easy. how much is it? ahhh...... a dollar

dollar store super glue gel.... comes in a three pack... cheap and easy.

well... lets see... first off, its hard not to make this topic contentious. you will find that there is very much a line in the sand out there between people who like LED and those who dont( I for one think they look like crap) . but lets start with 1 assumption- that all these lights will generally grow most anything if set up correctly. I think that is probably fair, with the caveat that some LED will need some supplementation if the spectra is not complete. MH is the traditional approach to SPS growth, but I have had plenty of luck with T5, and have heard reasonable things with LED as well. so lets approach the problem this way- 1)get out there to a lot of stores and see as many tanks as you can- or see peoples in the club. or look at tanks of the month on reef central 2)decide which looks best to you-T5, MH, or LED 3)decide what color temerature looks best to you- 14K, 20K, 10K... 4)build your settup to match that or to go another way- a 40 breeder is 36in wide I believe and 18in deep. you could go LED(which I dont know much about), you could go maybe 1x250 MH, or 2x150 MH depending on you aquascape with some additional actinic, or maybe 6x T5. my biggest point being that you really first need to decide what looks best to you and work backward. is there any specific questions you have?

its mostly all personal preference! I have a 55 running right now that has been going for about 5yrs. I like the way it looks. that said, I will probably be going to a 75 soon for a little more depth and felxibility. JMHO, but here is what I would do(did): start with your 55. the lights you will be using will probably be usefull in a 75, 90 or 120. be patient and wait untill someone sells one of those cheap and upgrade then. Drilling- is the glass tempered? if so you cannot drill! trust me on this! is you have an older style (untemepred) tank you may be able to drill it. otherwise you will hve to go with an overflow. personally, I wouldnt bother with a canister filter for salt. I run my overflow to a sump. thats just me though. lights- if you go with T5 you will probably have no problems and be able to grow whatever you want. MH works, but for a 55 I think T5 is better due to heat issues. if you Know you will be going bigger eventually though MH may be better... or you could get on the LED bandwagon if you like the way they look... I dont personally and think the claimed $ savings long term is dubious at best... JMHO again.

I feel your pain! came home to a wet floor last night- I cannot wait to change back to a drilled tank.... best of luck though!

not sure that you have enough actinic there to get a huge pop, but im not familiar with the coral plus bulb... here is what I am currently running- you could change the VHO for T5: front blue plus VHO actinic VHO actinic aqua blue fiji purple blue plus back looks good to me- blue ish white, lots of pop, maybe 14-16K color temp. cheers

im not an expert on this subject by any means, but my guess is that many keepers of endangered animans must have permits for them. I dont know for sure if it would come to that or not for the hobby. I can understand a ban on wild collections for many things, but Im not so sure how I would feel if I was told I had to get a permit to stay in the hobby... who knows how it will play out... just food for thought in that there are often consequences to good intentions.

Agreed, but wouldnt putting them on the endangered species list make it illegal to even posses these species?

hmmm.. I just scanned through, but looking up some of the species, it seems like many of them are pretty popular in the hobby... Im sort of waiting for environmentalists to shut down this hobby... time will tell I guess...

Well, I could relay some personal anecdotes, but that would NOT make you feel any better... on the plus side, 10days isnt toooo long.... 1)are you absolutely sure your ATO is good? ie you have been using it for a while right? 2)if it was me I would not use the auto feeder. it depends on how heavy you feed your tank, but it can go a few days without food. personally I feed my tank once or so a week... just me though... if it was me I would get 2 or three small containers, put your normal feeding amount in them and have the inlaws stop by and put 1!!!! and only 1 in at a time in over the cource of the time you are gone. 3)does your skimmer over flow much? if so then murphys law will probably apply.

I saw hello lights is doing a BOGO sale on Iris bulbs, and am thinking of getting a couple of these: http://www.hellolights.com/14-000k-iRiS-250W.aspx does anyone have any experience with these- good bad ugly? thanks!

looks good to me too! the actinics will get you a lot more pop. for a four bulb though... hmmm... might just swap a blue plus for an actinic. I like aqua blue, but it can look washed out depending on the other bulbs. could try getting rid of it and putting in a 50:50, and swapping a blue plus for actinic too... then there is LED if you like the way it looks...

thanks guys... yea, my last bulbs ran for about 4years too. I think I will probably go to the 12-18mo schedule though...

So im doing some reading on bulb replacement and trying to decide how often to replace a actinic bulb. I get that for "growth" bulbs the spectrum shifts over 4-8months or whatever the recomended time is these days, but what about actinic? does it really matter if I dont change my actinic bulbs but do change out my daylight?

HA!.. here we go again!... I say stay with MH and VHO too... dont get on the band wagon. unless you like the band wagons look of course...

Personally I like bare bottom. I had sooo many issues go away when I swithched that I will probably never go back. substrate is a nutrient trap in my opinion, and the risk outways the benefit. JMHO...

oh and heres another thread... Does anyone here know JMBoehling? I tried Pmin him a while back to see what his experience was like still, but no response either... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56125&pp=25&page=40

BTW, my next step that I was about to take before life got a little crazy was to contact sola tube directly and see what they say. if they are willing to put in writing that they support this application and will keep the warranty for fish use, I say go for it. otherwise, I wouldnt put the investment in..JMHO.

Ive heard its the aluminum in the tubes themselves that is the problem... par starts to drop off rapidly... here is one (long) account of the process... one of his last posts is pretty discouraging... still might be worth it though... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1561945&page=16

I reasearched this quite a bit a few months ago--- We recently moved to a new house and are considering building an addition onto the house of a mud room with a possible dedicated fish room. Ive read numerous threads on the subject, and really like the look of natural light tanks. there is an obvious upfront cost of the tubes, but for my situation at least, it wasnt going to be a big deal since I was building it into the new design... aside from the fact that we are holding off on the addition now, most of what I have read is that the tubes oxidize rapidly after about 2yrs. while it seems to be usually covered by some of the manufacturers, they supposedly will just ship you new tubes, which is then your responsibility to get installed.... interested to actually hear accounts of users though. I tried to PM some users of multi-year tubes but have not gotten a responce....

this is all a personal preference thing, but, for me width is almost as important as depth. I really like 48 wide tanks and have standardized my lighting to accomodate. that said, there is alot more I can do with my 120 than my 55... overall, to answer your question, I think a 120 is the optimal sized tank for my preferences.

... still use VHOs here... still like the look better than T5 actinic. just me tho...

Ive successfully drilled 10s. using a circular bit and drilling from the inside out with water flowing and the tank side resting on foam... that said, I wouldnt bother with a tank that small. as others have said, you could get plexi glass and some weld on and make your own tank custom to the size you need. at that size I dont think you need to worry about the integridy too much... all that said, I just go out and get a rubbermaid container. I ran a rubbermaid container\fuge for my 20L when it was set up and it worked fine.