hypertech

Budget? I'm anal about noise. I run a Alpha 170 and am very happy with it.

I'm interested, but I just noticed you are in WV. I don't think I'm going to be able to work out pick up arrangements.

Dead clam takes the cake. I've had one go blender on my in a power head with no issues. It recovered from a tiny shred too. They are tough if your water quality and lighting is good.

Does teh blue spot puffer take pellets or frozen? Any trouble with corals/clams/shrimp/etc?

I'm waiting for yellow submarine mode.

I don't see how this would matter other than making the test harder with more steps. Since you are putting a fixed amount in the syringe, you can easily convert the chart to amount used instead of final reading if you want.

Pic? I've never seen a green flatworm. Is it coralline algae?

As long as the tip is on when you fill the syringe you dont have to worry about the volume in the tip. Ignore the air and read the plunger.

You should leave the tip on when filling the syringe. Ignore the air and read the plunger.

My sump raises a quarter of an inch when the water shuts off and most of that is the drain plumbing and overflow emptying. I have one return half out of the water. No valves, no floods.

FWIW, I tried torching some and it didn't work. I just tried using a lighter though, I did not use a propane torch.

No they can't. They can get into a lot of thiings, but they can't get everywhere. You can put mesh and covers on things to keep them out.

Its $36 that you didn't really need to spend. If you extend that logic, what's another 50g capacity in the sump so teh whole display can drain? Its just silly. You have to draw the line somewhere. A simple hole drilled in teh right place will suit your needs. If you are so concerned about Murphy the snail, put it somewhere a snail can't get.

That's a pretty expensive solution when an appropriately placed hole in the return line will do the same thing and be more reliable.

How could it make any difference? If you put in big drops or little drops, you still need to add about the same amount of regent to get the reaction. Its a titration not a drop wise test.

Do a muriatic acid wash (diluted and wear gloves). When it stops foaming, rinse it in fresh water and its ready.

They sell 1/2" and the tubing that fits it. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/reverse-osmosis-filters-and-systems/ro-plumbing-fittings/1-2-reverse-osmosis-fittings

Interesting that you say that. Most say that LEDs (particularly royal blue) give a pop other lighting can't. I built a royal blue Cree XRE? (can't remember exactly which but it is Cree) strip for actinic. It definately adds that pop to my MH. FWIW, I would stick to a major name like Cree. It will be easier to get standard sized stars so you can replace them if needed and don't find that your replacement is 2mm off. It will also make it easier to find optics, etc. Although there is little data available, my gut says that Cree's performance will be closer to their data sheets, so if you are expecting it to last a long time, your chance of that actually happening is better with Cree.

They are from shallow areas. I don't have a link to the pic, but I know I've seen one of clams exposed during low tide.

There just isn't any logic to this. You are advocating an LED setup that has a pretty small number of LEDs and arguing that most people are suggesting too many LEDs for full blown SPS tanks and everyone doesn't need it. Then, you compare to a 400W plus 2 T5s lighting, what I certainly would consider lighting for a full blown SPS tank. Unless you can produce PAR numbers that 36 LEDs are equivalent to 400W plus 2T5s, this is a wholly skewed apples to oranges comparison.

I wouldn't. The DOF on a MP-E 65 is about the size of a gnats ass. The 100L is a perfect lens for tank pictures.

It does in fact invalidate their lumen matinenance properties because they output can drop to 70% or even 50% or less over a relatively short period of time. I had a friend jump on the early adopter train and go to an AI fixture for a couple years. Half the LEDs burned out over that period. I'd say a reduction to zero is a siginificant lumen maintenance problem. If you are really that worried about it, point them at the wall for the first day or so when you add a new bulb and let them suffer through a cloudy streak. Its just not a big deal.

LEDs lose their intensity much quicker if the junction temperature gets too high. All these "cold" heat sinks that people and manufacturers like to flaunt as evidence that their fixtures are so great actually has me thinking that they aren't being cooled well and the junction temperatures are actually too high making longevity suffer. A sunny day is a sunny day whether its every 6 months or once a week. I think the corals can handle it just fine.

You make good points. About temperature, I really don't think its that important to have such fine control over temperature. I've had tanks with up to a 6 or 7 degree daily swing (a 150W halide built into the closed hood of a BC29) that flourished. Not too long ago, there was an article on reefbuilders about a liquid cooled LED heatsink and a bunch of comments directed to how great it would be if you could pump tank water through it so that they wouldn't need to run their heaters as much. I thought it was pretty funny. Most people refer to limiting heat into the tank as a big benefit of the LED and here were a bunch of LED users trying tot get the heat into the tank. About longevity, LEDs lose their intensity too albiet over a longer period of time. The difference is that I can throw a new bulb in a halide fixture and its as good as new. Its not so easy and much more expensive to replace LED emitters. Regarding stability due to new bulb burn in - well, there are cloudy days and sunny days in the ocean. I suspect it is like having a sunny day.

I don't believe a word they say on their ratings. It looks like puffing to me. You think a 400W MH would only give 200 par at the bottom? I get more than that with a 250. Plus, they say stupid things like this: "produces far less heat due to our built in heat sink". Heat sinks do not reduce heat production. They transport the heat away from the source so that it can be dissipated across a large area into the air (or water, etc). You don't actually want the heat sink to be cold. It should be warm in most cases. If the heat sink is cold, there probably isn't a good transfer of heat from the source to the heat sink likely due to poor design or poor assembly. That will lead to early device failure. Still, this is just minor differences from the analysis above. You can push it a little one way or the other based on exactly what you look at, but the bottom line is that it isn't this super huge savings that no rational person could deny. That's just not true. There are good reasons for getting LEDs just like there are good reasons for going with MH or T5.