Folta

Ok, so I'm still not sure about going magnetic or electronic. Also, thats a good point about bulb color.. maybe if I go 14,000k I will get the slight blue color I desire and still look sleek. When you say par in the upper 80's, do you mean @ about 80% of what 10,000k's would give me? Here's another graph of phoenix 14k's vs AB 20k's:

Ok cool. What are your sunday hours Johnny?

How close are you to JM's? I'm not out near vienna often, but I'll be coming down for the Auction on Sunday.

Thanks for the reply! I've heard that too about the ballasts being more energy efficient - but I didn't see by how much. How long would it take to make up the difference in cost between a magnetic and an electronic ballast? So the XM 20,000k's looked too blue to you? That is a good point about the flexibility with intensity.. having the VHO's on a little longer than the MH's. I think I'm leaning towards 10k AB with ROIII+ and icecap electronic ballasts, with VHO supplement. Not sure how I'm going to make the VHO's look presentable though.

You can get him! Remember the rule '1" of fish per gallon' - so you just need to make sure you have a 15 gallon tank!

I've been mulling over what to do for lighting for my 180. My original plan was to 'add-on' to what I have now (two m58 magnetic 250W ballasts with XM 10,000k bulbs, spider reflectors) by adding a third of each of these and one or two 110w VHO actinic bulbs. However, a few things have me thinking of changing this. 1. I still do not plan to have a canopy. So I would like to have my lighting to have a more refined, finished look. 2. I want to get more oomf out of my lights, especially at depth - I plan to make my rock structures much less wall like. 3. I am considering going to 20k as opposed to 10k with vho's. After doing some research, I have pretty much decided on reflectors - Reef Optix III - as far as I have read, they are pretty much the best and since its a one time purchase, might as well make it a good one. This leaves ballasts and bulbs. As far as the bulbs I've been looking at XM and AB. I did some checking on sanjays website and made a few plots. Now, if I go with 10,000k bulbs, we get these spectral graphs for the XM vs. the AB: I have the icecap electronic ballast listed here, but changing the ballast for this really only moved the graph up and down, not the difference. As you can see, the AB bulbs are 'spikeyer', where the XM's have a more even spectrum. As to what that means, I'm not really sure. I'm sure the color will look a little different between the two (I'm thinking the AB would look a little more blue as it has a spike around 420). If I go with the AB, I'm also not sure if I should get the icecap electronic ballasts or if I should go with PFO magnetics: The magnetics give a little more oomf, however I understand they also tend to run hotter. I have magnetic ballasts now for my 55, and I really don't think about the heat as I have the ballasts out and in the corner. Electronic ballasts also cost a little more, but again this isn't an item I plan to replace constantly so I'm willing to put in extra if I feel its worth extra. Last in line, not sure if I want to go 10,000K or 20,000K. On the up side of the 20k's, I get the blue look with 3 pendants and it will be a nice clean look. On the downside, I'm not sure exactly how blue it will be and I definately do not like the really blue look. On the side of the 10k's, they are white to start out with and I can add VHO's until I get a nice slight blue color that I like. Also, my understanding is that VHO actinics really make the corals 'pop' in color. On the downside, this means that in addition to the three pendants, I will also need a strip light going accross the front. I don't know if this will look obtrusive or not. Alright, so everyone give me your advice, your experience, and opinions!

Haha, it's going to be a very tight fit into your nano! But it is doable!

I'll have to look out for that rain-r-shine stuff. How is it better than the purple primer + pvc glue? I siliconed the box up last night. I ran a bead of silicone on the edges of the overflow box, then stuck it into position. I then used a clamp to hold it firmly in place. I took more silicone on my finger, and ran it in the corners both inside and out of the box, where the box meets the glass. Will that be enough, or should I use more and go over the seams again?

Welcome!

Ok, so I went to home depot and picked this up: I was wondering, if I find a leak around a seam of one of my pvc pipes (I used all solvent connections with the excepton of the threaded connections to the pump), can I use this stuff to seal around the seam?

I'll be coming!

I found that one of the bulkheads on my sump is leaking, so I'll need to reseal it (or will I need to replace it too?) I'm assuming I can use silicone in this application as well?

The tank is a glass tank. Where can I purchase said silicone? Do fish stores typically carry it, or should I head back to home depot? Edit: Will this do? Silicone

This is what I have at the moment:

Hello all, I need to glue the overflow box (black acrylic?) to the back of the tank. What product should I use that will hold well and be safe for the tank of course. I have a bottle of 'kitchen and bath adhesive caulk', would that be ok?

Speaking of xenia, check out my cyano thread... I used the red slime remover and about 1/4 of my xenia bit the dust. The rest is doing perfect though, so who knows why, haha... Yeah, I'm really starting to hate the stuff. I tried to prune some last night, and it just slimes and slips out of my grip, only to be back to full force a day or two later. And I found some stalks last night growing on the skeleton part of my hammer coral (a bunch of the heads died along time ago, then xenia grew onto it... I'm going to have to remove it, and cut back all parts except the part thats still alive!

Thats a pretty small water change Chip, especially seeing as how your tank is bigger than a 55, right? On top of that, you're potentially taking out some of the water you just added, since you're adding first then removing.

PAR = Photosynthetic Available Radiation. It's the 'current best guess' as to a way to measure how 'good' a particular light is for providing what corals need. You can mix and match lights, so to speak, if you want. Many people (including what I'll be doing on my 180 gallon) have VHO actinics with MH's. It might just be more of a hassle than its worth, to save those lights. Isn't your 120 4' long?

Bump.

Fall back an hour.

Is it possible that something got into the water? Anybody that could have dropped something toxic in? Any fumes or anything near the tank? Have something on your hands without realizing maybe, and put your hands in the tank?

Neat!

PETA : People for Eating Tasting Animals.

I'm looking for the same thing, as I've got to put sand in my 180 gallon soon, and defintely do not want to pay the premium cost for those 15# bags @ $20-30 each...

If there are enough people interested in getting these, maybe some place will give a group discount? I'd be interested if the discount were enough.