dread240

I run a dual head single motor peristaltic pump for mine. My system hasn't been up and running since the move but will be going right back into service when I get the 315g done. one pumps in and the other pumps out. I ran that system for over 2 years without issues. Since they both moved the same water the auto top off still ran just as normal and I never had salinity drift either.

are you metal halide now? why do you need a chiller?

starfire has great visibility but scratches easier then glass, and is not as easy to fix scratches as acrylic. I had this battle in my head for weeks and ultimately just pulled the trigger on a 315g acrylic

Need to hurry, this can be my last item to practically be hands off with my tank 100%

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH tank maintenance... I've never called it that

I've read reports though that the crew dropped anchor exactly where they were told, and then moved once notified of the damage. This really sucks but from what I've seen I wouldn't really put the crew at fault, it just sucks

Well my parts are finally starting to show up. I'm doing a custom built fixture with the reef led lab 12-up pucks, optics and diffusers, and meanwell LDD drivers (up to 1500ma for the whites) It's very heavy with the violets. 4 of the 12 LED's are violet on the board, and I had great success when I started mixing some of them into my older fixture I had built years ago. The only problem I see with them for your application is that you'd need 2 pucks to cover your application, and if you wanted the full customization of the spectrum you would require 7 drivers just for those 2 pucks. I'm not sure how long you have until you do this. I doubt my tank will even be up and running until sometime in april, but if you're still looking at that point I could see what channels are running at what intensity and you could dial back the required drivers and controls. Maybe shave it down to 3 or so channels to get the light you want. http://reefll.com/12xV3.0 I also bought a couple of these diy housings for them too. http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/AE%252d30-Aluminum-Heatsink-16.5cmX6cmX30cm.htmlThey just arrived yesterday and they look pretty good. I didn't get the hanging kits but did opt for the fan brackets in case I need some cooling.

no disasters here other then my flights being cancelled postponing my texas trip.

I'm slightly surprised at this. I had a triac outlet go out last year and the very first thing offered to me was a temp eb8 for the time being (i pay for it, get refunded after the warranty ticket). I thought that was highly reasonable imho. I did ask about just getting credit back once they received mine but they said it'd be repaired and sent back out. Soon as the temporary eb8 was received back to them I got refunded.

I'm actually going to say no to the bottles of bacteria they sell to start with. I think really you need to come up with a few things right now as now is the time to do it before you start stocking the 180. Have you had any suspicion at any point there might be parasites or unwanted hitch-hikers in your tank? Have you or do you plan on quarantining from here on out? Those are the main things to think of. It sounds like you have an established tank already. Therefore you should have some established rock. That rock has been maintaning your fish in the 55 for the time being, because the tank is going to be bigger does not mean that the same rock you have now is inadequate to maintain the bacteria for what you already own (meaning your current stock list) Yes obviously you will need more as the bio load increases, but for the transfer you shouldn't need anything. You could put more dry rock in there and slowly increase your bio load as that dry rock becomes live rock. If however there's any problems or concerns you have now with the 55, this is the time to fix it before you start off with an uphill battle. The most common would be ich. If you've battled it in the past in your 55, you may want to setup that 180, move the live rock in and let it stay fallow for a bit while you keep the fish alive through tank transfers and the such. Again, just think about it. This is the time to correct problems. I QT'd every fish I ever got but I didn't QT a few corals... and I've ended up battling polyclad flatworms because of it. Not super destructive, but they attack clams, and on top of that they kill snails, so for me, when the 400g system goes up, my current live rock will get completely bleached and I will start with fresh liverock. I will probably try and save a few things from it, I like the mini brittle stars, get a decent colture of pods out of it, but nuke the rest.

Noice, tool? Ever looked @ carolina rebellion? I went last year, was amazing for a 3 day festival.

oh and I guess for how prepared I am..... well I'll probably be drinking something alcoholic at melev's house in texas instead of worrying about it lol

Heh, no really, those smaller systems really shouldn't require much. I'd say the majority of the costs involved though are that you're paying jiffy lube to come to you basically, using a vehicle they purchased, and are also paying the guy, but realistically most of the guys that I know that work on the home products are the equivalent of the jiffy lube guys in our field. It is a totally different ballgame then what I handle these days in my new position, but that's what I learned on was smaller product like that. I will say this much though for you and anybody that does have a home standby system like that. While the hours may not be much, a proper installation should have that thing near operating temperatures and conditions at all time. The oil can also get a moisture content in it affecting it's ph as well. The systems I work on are so big and have so much that we send the oils out for analysis to let us know if they need to be changed. On a smaller setup like yours, it's best to just change it and not worry about it as the testing cost is higher then the oil change cost. Also... USE THE darn THINGS. One of the worst things to do to a generator is to not use it. If it runs weekly does it actually transfer your house to it? (i.e. do you see a quick power outage at the start and end of the test?) If not I'd highly suggest doing that at least once a month, more if feasible. That keeps the moisture out of the windings in the stator, keeps good residual magnetism if it's a self excited end, and those motors are built looser then your standard car motor as they're designed for prolonged periods of heavy load, not sitting there at idle. They're more prone to having issues like fuel leaking past the rings and all on short no load runs or fouling up plugs then if you were to actually put a good solid load on it and get it up to full temperature. They are pretty darn close to a standard car, but there's enough different that you have to take into consideration. By all means though, if you're ever having an issue, hit me up first and I'll try and walk you through it before you get a big bill from a company

not terribly far from my office. I'll have to check it out when I get back from texas

LOL, Dave those things are way below my normal scope of work but if you really need someone to give it a good once over I'd do it. My systems are normally anywhere from 5 to 30 generators in parallel (all like 70+ liter capacity engines too)