randumbwit
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Posts posted by randumbwit
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I think the 150 is 6'x18"x12" but I will get definite answers for that tonight. The 180 is 6'x24"x24"
I will try to get pictures of the corals tonight.
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Due to a move I've decided to simply get out of the hobby until I'm in another home that I'm sure to be in for more than a few years!
Below is what I have up for sale:
Super Reef Octopus XP-5000 internal skimmer $350
4 Stunner 6 watt 453nm Blue LED Strip 12.5" W/ REFLECTOR $35 each
stunner 24V 60 watt Transformer $25
stunner 4-Way Splitter $10
4 stunner Extension Cable $10 each
electronic ph tester $35
refractometer $40
brand new bionic 2 part (gallon size) $25
Tanks will be available after livestock is gone. They are down about 18 stairs and you will need to remove them yourself. I will provide at least one set of hands (possibly 2) and industrial suction cups.
180 gallon tank (drilled with 2 1.5" holes in back) a few scratches, but nothing that can't be buffed out $150
150 gallon tank (this tank is in beautiful condition and has a fitting hood) $150
On livestock I've got:
Pink Sea Cucumber $10
Choc. chip starfish $5
2-3 inch horseshoe crab $10
Red mandarin $15
green mandarin $15
8" naso blonde tang w/ 3/4" streamers $175
7" hippo tang $60
4 barred dartfish $50
3 engineer gobies (each are 5-7") $10 each
a large RBTA $75
a large colony of purple nurple montipora (oddly shaped encrusting) $100
a 9"x13" hollywood stunner chalice with hundreds of eyes $100
a war coral colony roughly 3"x3" $45
a meteor shower cyphastrea colony roughly 4"x4" $75
a frogspawn colony with about 17 heads $55
medium sized dragon soul prism favia $50
2 really nice blastomussa colonies each with 12-16 heads $85 each
acan lord colony $45
Prices are negotiable and there are more random items and pieces of coral
There are also lots of random polyps, some ORA Red Planet encrusted to the back wall that I can scrape up and other freebie extras for those who show up to purchase.
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I've never tried bonding the 2 different materials together, but I'm pretty sure methylene chloride works with PVC. Would it be worth trying to make a custom size/shape patch out of a piece of acrylic with a heat gun and using m.c. to affix it?
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I have a tiger cowrie that inhales GHA. When he runs out of that he moves on to Xenia and Zoanthids....
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My ~65 gallon fuge has a DSB, and I have TONS of bristleworms. I pretty rarely feed the fuge directly though (once a week and only to make sure the peppermint shrimp don't starve when the aiptasia is running low!)
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My tiger cowrie eats that stuff like candy. Not so good for a tank that doesn't have good and stable water parameters though.
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Newto, it sounds like you've picked up a tank and stand, but haven't quite done enough research to jump into a full tank set up just yet. I would recommend a lot of internet reading, and I'm sure several members can suggest good books for beginners. You don't want to spend a lot of money on this hobby only to have your first tank fail. All of the questions you're asking are things that you should really get figured out before getting your tank running.
As zygote pointed out, the $20 investment in the club is a good move. You'll get to see a lot of experiences other people have already had, which will help in decision making. Also, the Buy/Sell/Trade forums are great for picking up those remaining pieces of equipment.
As far as your specific questions go, a lot of that stuff is personal preference, and how much money you're prepared to spend. New LED set ups are really nice, and will save you money on your electric bill, but have a higher initial cost. Some people prefer the way metal halide looks, and some people still swear by T-5 lighting. What you want in your tank should also play into that decision. For amount of flow, most sources recommend a turn over rate of at least 10 times tank volume per hour, with SPS tanks leaning toward the higher end. Choosing your sump has a lot to do with what equipment you plan to put in it. Are you going to have an external or internal skimmer? Is there going to be any other equipment inside the sump? Also, a larger sump just adds water volume to your system, making it more stable. I have a 150 gallon sump, but space isn't an issue for me. A lot of these decisions have to be made based on your situation, and on what kind of tank you plan on setting up, so planning is key!
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This is a shot of my ORA Red Planet colony. When I first put it in this spot it started growing onto the back glass. After a couple of weeks a snail pushed the colony off the wall, and broke the "bridge" between the main colony and the spot growing on the glass. Since then the spot has grown to be ~8" in diameter. My real question is: Has anyone ever seen this start to actually table off of the glass, or will it just spread along the glass, making my best bet for useful propogation to attach things to the glass around the growing area in a removable fashion?
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I'll be down in St Petersburg Fl for a long weekend, and wondered if anyone knows of a good LFS in that area? I like to try and swing into different stores when I'm traveling. Its interesting to see the differences in the stores from region to region.
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Swung in this afternoon on the way home. It is huge for a shop in this area. The owner and manager were both around, and were both extremely nice. They are dealers for several of the top equipment manufacturers, and will be holding certification courses. The owner is also a marine aquarist, with 2 large reef tanks, and is talking about setting one up in the store.
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Assuming we're talking about a tank larger than 38 gallons or so, isn't flow just as important as heat? In my 180, even if I were to stick a heater or two in the display tank at the onset of power outage issues, without flow the heater wouldn't effectively heat the entire tank. I have 3 heaters in my 150 gallon sump hooked up to a hefty UPS, and my return pump on its own also heavy duty UPS. I just purchased a generator which I'll be hooking everything up to, but I plan to keep those things on their UPS backups. In the 3 years my tank has been set up in the house, my power has only ever flickered a few times and the UPS system has been completely reliable.
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Just saw this deal online. Something like this is what I've been waiting on to buy a generator, so maybe someone else is too.
Home Depot has Generac 5939 5500-Watt Portable Generator 389Cc OHV engine for $649 - $250 Off (discount seen in cart) - $20 off code HDAPPLIANCE = $379. Shipping is free.
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http://www.splashcam.com/underwater_video_cameras.htm
Take a look at those. I installed the Deep Blue Pro at a park in the Everglades so that they could view gators in the water. I don't remember them being outrageously expensive, and the video quality is pretty darn good.
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I just got back from doing some diving in Oahu and uploaded some of the better pics to an album. The link to the album is here:
http://www.wamas.org/forums/gallery/album/2632119/931-oahu-april-2011/
Not sure if there's a better way to do that. One of the pics I was really excited to get (and excited just to see it taking place!) was a Tritons Trumpet Conch consuming a pretty large pin-cushion sea star. the conch in that picture is longer than my arm from elbow to figertips.
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It sounds like buying the water until you decide to upgrade to a larger tank (It'll happen eventually!) makes sense for you in a lot of ways. My only suggestion/comment would be this:
Make sure that you keep a supply of spare fresh and saltwater on hand if you're going to purchase all your water.
The last thing you want is to have an emergency need for water at 9 PM on Christmas Eve and not be able to get it for a couple days.
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Haydens diagram is correct. I would say that you should definitely solder the power supply to your terminals, then double check it with a meter to be safe. Its worth it to avoid the risk of reversing the polarity and ruining a piece of equipment.
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Haydens got it spot on.
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My thought would be that with a 100 gallon sump, you're most likely dealing with a 6' + length display tank. If I were trying to do something like this, I would want the sump to move forward or back out of the stand, not to the side so that you can have access to the complete tank while moving it as little as possible. I'd make sure that my stand allowed for that. What you're talking about (casters in a track of some sort) would definitely work, I've done it with heavy objects that had to slide out like this before. I WOULD consider what the previous poster said as well. You don't want fast or jerky motion, so I would look at using gears/chains(extremely well lubed of course) and a crank of some sort to very smoothly move the tank back and forth. The one other way I've used to slide very large/heavy objects very successfully in the past was a roller system, that I'm not sure would work in this case. http://www.theonlinecatalog.com/advancedhandling/store/Conveyors/SKATEWHEELCONVEYORS/
Something like that could be extended out of the back of the stand(to try and hide it as much as possible). With the sump tank on a base that slid with it
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My guess would be that they photograph different from tanks with MH/fluorescent lighting at least in part because the light that they throw is more focused and directional. Even with reflectors traditional lamps are almost certainly going to create far more light spill than LED.
Rob- You seem to have put these PAR38's in several tanks. Do you find that in general they light up entire rooms less than MH/fluorescent? I know that my 180 puts out a lot of light in a very large room just from light spill out of the tanks glass.
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If you're putting a goby in, I'd make sure that your rock is sitting on the glass. From the pictures it looks like its sitting on top of the sand, and I know that my yellow watchman does a LOT of tunneling under rocks.
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These LEDs themselves will definitely last. Their actual purpose is lighting channel letters for building signage. I think tomorrow I will try cutting it down to about 20% of the number I was using tonight and see how it goes. They're just much brighter than I'd anticipated. I think I'm going to run a switch so that I can turn the rest on for viewing, it really does an amazing job of lighting the tank for viewing, and didn't seem to bother the nocturnal creatures in the slightest.
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Couple more pics:
And I've turned them off until I hear some feedback. A few Google searches didn't turn up much of an answer
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I happened to have some extremely inexpensive LED strip lighting and decided to try a DIY LED moonlight bar. It works, maybe too well? Can too much blue light at night be bad? Aesthetically, its amazing! This pic was taken in the dark, and the colors are accurate:
If it isn't good for tank inhabitants, I can easily remove lighting strips. This was done with about $10 worth of LED strips and a 1 amp 12vDC wall wart.
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Hi randumbwit. Welcome.
A past member, Fishwife, had a similar over-the-top closed loop on her initial system setup. You may be able to search some and find her build thread.
Your 150 AGA should have a tempered bottom, but I don't know about the sides. According to the Aqueon (AGA) spec sheet (http://www.aqueonproducts.com/assets/011/19784.pdf) it's the bottom that's tempered. You may be able to drill the back. This might keep you from having to use an overflow box.
Thanks for the welcome! Perhaps I was mistaken and its not an AGA. I am fairly certain that it is tempered though. Thank you for the tip on the past member as well! I'll do some digging...
Jeff
Out of the hobby sale
in General Discussion
Box is no longer full, but the stunners are spoken for. I will be posting an updated list shortly