gastone

Knowing Steve that skimmer will be for sell in about 2 weeks. G.

Why did you decide to tee off and run the CL outlets to the front of the tank and up the front corner? Could you have just taken it to the straight along the back wall, up the back corner and teed there so that the outlets for the front just run along the top of the tank and don't run up the front corners? Garrett.

Jason, IMO it just come down to preference. You can grow SPS and clams under both T5 and halide setups. The upfront cost on T5s if probably a bit steeper, but the bulbs are cheaper and will probably need to be replaced less often than halides. The T5s will also use less electricity saving you money in the long run. The halides will give you *glitter* lines that T5s don't offer. Look at tanks, look through the dedicated tank forum and then go from there. As far as halide ballast choice, pick first which lamp/reflector you'd like to use. Many people use the spider reflectors with great success, but they aren't nearly as efficient as the lumenarcs or lumenbrights. Using halides with spiders is kinda akin to using T5s without individual reflectors... nothing wrong with it, just with a little bit more upfront you can get a lot more return from your investment. Once you've got your lamp/reflector chosen, then you can decide which ballast to go with (based on lamp manufacturer specs or spectral plot or energy savings or whatever your criteria is (I say go with manufacturer specs, but that's just me)). Garrett.

Matt, how's the tank coming? Anything you would have done different at this point? Garrett.

I think they are good for like 8000 hours (give or take). I run my lighting 24-7 on the fuge. That's close enough to a year, though the 2 that I purchased at least 2 years ago are still working. As Jason stated, I'm not concerned about a color shift. They'll get replaced when they burn out. Garrett.

You could make/purchase an alkalinity standard???

I have no experience with DE bulbs, but Radium do come in a DE format... 150w. I'm assuming you are talking about 250w DE format? G.

I looked for the book Friday before I left work. It goes for roughly $150 new... and used ain't easy to find, though I believe I saw it for north of 50. G.

It's just a muffler. Make a bigger muffler. G.

I searched and came up with this http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...amp;hl=silencer G.

Richmond has Fish World and Atlantis, both of them worth visiting for different reasons. Garrett.

While I prefer T5 to VHOs, I do agree that 250w lamps will be the better way to go, if for no other reason that there are more options available than 175. I recommend that people pick out which bulb they want, then select a ballast/reflector combo to best showcase/operate that bulb. FWIW I use a 250w radium and don't see myself switching to anything else. Garrett.

Sean, urchin have teeth. I know you are planning an acrylic build. Urching teeth + acrylic = me not wanting anything with teeth eating off of my acrylic. Garrett.

The sun was my next question.... You guys are good. Thanks for taking them time with me. Of course I'll have to spend some more time digesting, and reading wikipedia before it hits home... but I honestly think we are getting there. G.

Ouch. Where did this info come from? Garrett.

You guys should all be afraid that I am the one educating your kids... I'm under the (dis)illusion that heat and light are the same thing (energy???). You guys need to remember to use small words when you talk to me. Okay, so if I were to put a 250w lamp over my tank operating at 20% efficiency, and was somehow (we are on fantasy island remember) able, with complete efficiency, prevent the other 200w of heat (energy not emitted as light) to enter the tank, that the 50w of light (presumably) would not effect the temperature of the tank??? If you guys get tired of me, feel free to recommend some low level reading and I'll try that on for size. G.

...or some wall brackets and... well, you get the idea.

Thanks Mark for taking the time to talk to me. I'll keep digging around in my basement ceiling/walls to see what I can find. G.

Oh how I love the French. 1. I'm an idiot. 2. I admit I'm an idiot. 3. WAMASers still pick on me. Boo. G. Edit: Jean-Marie, if I continue eating junk food and putting on more weight, will me descent from the plane be faster?

I can't get there from here. And I can't access that page from work (silly firewalls). I'll have to wait until I get home to educate myself. Garrett.

Gary, it's finished, but I can do some structural mods if need be. G.

You guys want to argue fish tank semantics with me. This is the WAMAS productivity I was expecting. G.

...it gets worse. Not only am I a math teacher, but I studied architecture in college. One might think I'd know a thing or two. Apparently I didn't study much. G.

I'm looking to put a new tank into my new house. I'll offer the specs that I know and the smart people here can insult me first and then help if that's their desire. The tank will be on the main level (full basement underneath). I'm looking to do a 36x36x25 cube (or thereabouts), the total weight with sump, LR, cabinets will be in the neighborhood of 1500-1600 lbs as close as I can guess. I can oversize the stand to be 48" +/- long, putting me over 4 joists if they are 16"oc. I don't know what the joists are, but maybe you can tell me what they need to be. Let's assume the tank will sit in the middle of the room, 10' away from a bearing wall underneath. What size to they need to be in order to support the load? How far o.c. do they need to be? Can I do it? Garrett.

I'm always looking to learn something new. Can you elaborate? My position is that 100w of heat from a source is equal to 100w of heat from another source, the source being irrelevant. ie 150w from a metal halide (operating at 150w of course) is no different than 150w of heat from and LED (operating at 150w... of course). Heat being transfered into the room or heat being transfered directly to the water (via a heater for example) doesn't matter... it still has to be accounted for. Of course it's easier to deal with/accept 150w of heat in a 1000 cubic foot room then it is to accept 150w of heat in 10 cubic feet of salt water. Help me out here. Garrett.