madmax7774

yeah, I'll bring them to the meeting. John

The oatey brand one (Lowes) is usually 5.99$ a tube, and I have used it with no Ill effects over the last year. John

I live in Centerville, and I will be driving to the winter meeting in D.C. I have room for 1 or 2 people to ride with me if you want to carpool. I have to drive, because I am bringing some equipment in for Carla. If anyone lives between Centerville, and D.C, and wants to carpool, let me know. John PS - I drive a VW beetle, and theoretically we could get as many as 3 extra people in the car, but the 2 folks in the back seat better be small!

Jason, I have 2 coralife moonlight spotlights that I stopped using in favor of the cold cathode light. You can have them both in trade for a cup of sand from your system. They are not great, but they work, and I owe you a favor anyways. I used to have them mounted in my hood, and one got a little overheated being next to a MH light. It's slightly warped, but otherwise works ok. John

Thank you guys for all your opinions, I ended up going with ARO electronic ballasts as part of a package deal. John

You know, I really should, but I don't. It's just on all the time. I think compared to the main lights, that the moonlight is so minor, that I just leave it plugged in all the time, and when the mains go out, the moonlight is what is left. I've been meaning to refine the whole moonlight setup a bit. Right now it's a mess of wires and a big ugly silver computer power supply are laying on top of the tank. i am going to move the powersupply down under the tank in a cabinet, and then cloean things up a bit. That is part of my upgrade plans for the future...

no not really. I took it apart and looked at it while i was building it, and it's really just a white cathode light inside of a clear plastic sleeve with blue tint to the sleeve. Since about 80% of the cathode is covered to reduce light, it really just adds enough light at night to see what's going on.

I am trying to decide what color to go with when I upgrde my tank. I am going with paint, but I can't decide between dark blue or black....

I made my own moonlight from one of those cold cathode lights that they sell in compUSA. They are the ones that the kids are using now to pimp their computers. I got a blue one for $9.99 and hooked it up to an old power supply I had laying around. It's too bright, so covered the light with some black electricians tape to reduce the light. Works great, and it's cheap.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt....

In my view, an awesome vendor should: (1) have the best prices or darn close to (2) be willing to answer my questions without losing patience just because they answer the same questions 20 times a day. (3) pack the order well, to prevent breakage (4) ship in a timely fashion (5) if they spot an obvious problem with component compatibilty, call the customer and say "hey are you sure you want this because of X, Y, and Z...." (6) if they screw up, own up to it, and fix it. (7) not try to take advantage of the customer. if they can hit most or all of those, they are an awesome vendor. Hellolights has done all of the above for me except for #6, because they have never screwed up any of my orders. Even if there prices are a few dollars more, I am loyal to them for their overall quality. It's the same for me when I buy Computer parts. I always go with newegg.com Occasionally their prices are slightly more, but the customer service is beyond comparison. John

I have a totally enclosed top, However, I did design in some serious cooling fans and air ducting to keep the hot air rising out of the hood. With the 175W bulbs I never had a heat problem. My tank is on the fisrt floor of the house, so it is always the coolest floor in the summer time. I am hoping the 250's will be just right in terms of low heat, high light. I have some thoughts on adding a water cooling system to the fishtank that circulates water through the vent in my A/C exchange in my furnace. It would be a relatively easy and cheap way to help cool the tank if need be.

Thanks for the warnings about the 30" tall tanks, but I have no direction to expend in except for vertically because of my tank location, wife's preference's etc... So in the interest of more room, I will put up with the height issues. I am leaning heavily towards 250W bulb as I am worried about heat issues. At this point, I am just trying to narrow down which ballast to use. I have had much success with my XM mogul bulbs, and I am thinking I will probably stay with the XM brand. I am leaning towards a pair of ARO electronic ballasts I think... mostly it is depending on price at this point...

Wolfman, I just saw what looks like a great deal from marine depot for a PFO dual 250W ballast. it is the here: http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=PF1652 I am not sure what the difference is between the "EYE" ballast, The "HQI" ballast, and the "pulse start" other than the obvious price difference. I am used to running mogul bolbs, and will likely stick with them as I already have the base and reflectors setup for them. Which kind of PFO ballast do yuo have, and for mogul based bulbs, which do you recommend? John

When I do my tank upgrade, it looks like I am going to have to upgrade my lights as well. Still trying to decide between 250W and 400W, I was considering the bluewave ballasts from hellolights.com http://www.hellolights.com/250wablwa7du.html http://www.hellolights.com/430wablwa7du.html I have several questions that hopefully someone can answer 1) - is the brand decent quality? 2) - does a dual ballast mean it runs two lights? 3) - does a 430W ballast run 400W bulbs? 4) - is this a decent deal? I have bought other products from hellolights, and as a vendor they are awesome. thanks! John

ok, so lets say I upgrade the lights first. I sell off the ballasts from the 175's and replace them, and the bulbs with a higher wattage. For $383 I can go dual 250W or for $419 I can go with 400W is the extra $36 dollars worth the cost to go with 400W bulbs. Is 400W too much? I worry that dual 400's would overheat the tank. Since my Bio-lode will be lite, and I am adding a automatic water change system with this tank upgrade, I will address the protein skimmer in a few months, after I have saved some more money up. As far as bulbs go, I am going to go down to 10,000K I think, and supplement with actinics

For those of you that were following this thread, I have gotten my nitrates under control through the use of az-no3. The coil denitrator is still running, but I have realized that so far all the nitrate reduction has been because of the az-no3 product, and water changes. I am going to continue with the coil and see if it gets to the point where I start to see significant benefit from it. The test results from the Jan 4th post I am now convinced were faulty. For those who were skeptical of the az-no3, it works as advertised. John

As some of you know, I am upgrading my 75G (20" tall) tank, but I am now considering NOT going the planned 90G and Going all the way up to a 110G tall. (30" deep) I am looking at the AGA 110X reef ready. My big dilemma is whether or not my lights will be strong enough for such a deep tank. I curently have 2 175W MH 20,000K lights and 2 Normal output 48" 10,000K florescents. as my light source. I am worried that this will not be enough light to penetrate a 30" deep tank. What do you guys think? As of right now, my inhabitants are mostly softies, but I am slowly aquiring more and more SPS frags, and hope to have lots of hard corals. Also, I recently upgraded my protein skimmer from a coralife 125 junker to a Euro-reef RS80 It works great, now that i have modded it with a collection cup overflow, and a gate valve. My worry is that this will not be enough skimmer for a 110G system. Euro-reef's site is no help because they list a recommended rating and a comparative rating whatever that is. In the experience of the club members, do you think an RS80 will keep up with a light-to-medium bioloaded 110G tank. John

sadly the Tang did not make it. He perished sometime late this afternoon. He also took it upon himself to go down behind all of my rocks, No chance of getting to him without Major disassembly. Thankfully I am breaking everything down starting tomorrow night for my 90G upgrade. Well I guess that an excuse eventually get a new fish....

update - I isolated him for a bit, and coaxed him into eating a small snack. His color is slowly returning, and he seems to have lost some of the permenant left curve that his body had earlier. There is a chunk of his rear fin missing, and he he still has a long way to go, but I think it's possible he may survive...

I was thinking of picking up a ph monitor for my tank. Who's got em, and which brand do you recommend? ARE pinpoint marine monitors worth the money? what about the milwaukee brand I have started seeing lately? John

Yesterday I got a call from my wife at work, to tell me that my yellow tang had died. I was bummed, but these things happen. I got home about 2 hours later, and saw the tang was stuck to the side of my modded maxijet, and looked dead. I turn off the jet so I could pry him off and give him a proper burial, and to my surprise, he swam away!! turns out he got sucked up against the maxijet housing and got stuck. He was seriously upset, and looked very ragged, but alive! At this point (20 hours later)he looks really wasted, and I don't know what to do for him. I want to help him get better, but I don't know what to do. His left fin is damaged from a 2 hour beating by the prop in the maxijet, and he seems permanently bent to the left now. I feel badly for him. I put some food in for him, and he is not eating. :(

I have had my XM brand MH lamps (175W 20,000K) in my aquarium for exactly 1 year now. They both still work, but I have noticed some threads where folks replace their's every 6 months. What's the consensus, is it time to replace my bulbs? John

I had the cheap "super glue" brand glue from Lowe's. it was nothing but a problem. I wnt to hobby hanger in Chantilly and got some of the really good "CA" glue that I used to use when I used to build my RC airplanes. That stuff bonds in about 10 seconds. Sanding down the prop was the ticket for my tank. I also sanded mine down to 37mm and it dropped the flow down to an acceptable level. Thanks to Ybenormal for the sanding tip. John

yeah, tried all of that, and I am tired of fooling with this thing. I am going to keep one, and the other 3 are going in the 4 sale forum. John