[email protected]

PM sent for wp40 and mag18

PMed

Sent TXT

pm sent

I have about 120+ lbs of live sand that was been in an established reef tank to few years. Asking $100 or will trade for dry crushed coral substrate (I'm converting the tank into a chiclids tank). It will be ready for pick up in a week or so once the livestock is gone. I also have some "dead" fine argonite sand that I pulled out of my fuge a couple of months back and dried and washed. I have a about 50 lbs of that for $20 PM me if interested.

Part 4 (painting): The instructions on the Gorilla Glue bottle said to wait for 2 hours, I left it for most of the day to be safe. once I removed the clamps and screws I was relieved to see that the wood held the curved shape ( see photo). I ended up using a black enamel spray paint to get the glossy look to match the rest of the stand. even though I only had broken one door I ended up replacing both sides so that the shine and look matches. (So I have an extra glass door if anyone is in the same boat and needs a replacement )

Part #3 (building the door): here are the steps I followed (per door): 1) lay the 30"x20" sheet of wood with the smooth side facing down. 2) follow the instructions on the Gurilla Glue package: - dampen the rough side of the 30"x20" sheet - apply thin layer of the glue to rough side of each of the two 12"x19" sheets - wait 5min 3) place the two 12"x19" sheets on top of the 30"x20" sheet (rough side to rough side). evenly center them in each half of the larger sheet 4) screw in the center column of 3/8" screws to make sure the sheets stay lined up at the center axis 5) place two of the 4"x1"x32" scrap pieces with the 1/2" thick piece in the middle on the floor about 20" apart 6) flip the door and center it on the 2 scrap pieces. 7) use the remaining 4"x1"x32" scrap pieces to clamp down the sides of the door (see photos) 8) screw in the remaining 3/8" screws. 9) place something heavy on top of the curved part of the wood to make sure the two sheets stay clamped down as close as possible.

Part #2 (The plan): To duplicate the curvature I needed to glue two sheets of wood back to back and clamp them down while holding the curved shape until they fully dry. To do this I use four 4"x1"x30" scrap pieces of wood to make a clamp. To hold the curved shape I nailed small 1/2" thick scrap pieces (about 2"x5"x1/2") to the middle of the 2 horizontal pieces (see photo). To make sure I have a good hold I used twelve 3/8" screws per door to hold the two sheets together. The problem I ran into is that the smallest screw I found (the 3/8") is actually too long for 2 sheets of this material and will puncture the outside of the door. To get around this I used washers to shorten the screws (see photo)

Last weekend I was trying to take out the glass doors on my 175G bow front stand to get better access to the sump and fuge to clean them.needless to say one of the doors shattered into a million pieces. I called all the LFSs to try and order a replacement door and found out that Oceanic discontinued the bowfront tanks and has no replacement parts (so much for the lifetime warranty ). I decided to build a replacement out of wood. The tricky part is that the bow front glass doors are curved to match the tank curvature (30" x 20" and at the center the curvature is 1/2" high). Part #1 (Materials): I looked for a flexible type of hood and found this composite 3/8" sheet of wood at home home depot. its similar to the material peg boards are made of but without the peg holes (see picture bellow). Its relatively cheap ($6.98 for a 4'x8' sheet) one side is smooth and the other has a fabric like texture. I had them cut it into 4 doors (30"x20") plus a few smaller 12"x19.5" pieces I was going to use as back support. The other material I got was Guerrilla Glue and 3/8" wood screws. I also found a few scrap pieces of wood in the guarage to use for clamping down the doors while the wood dry.

Are there specific ballasts for DE vs SE bulbs? I found a few 150W and even a dual 150W ballasts at aquacave, but wasn't sure if all of them would work or if I should be looking for something specific. My setup is a DE one by the way. I like this one: http://www.aquacave.com/2-x-150w-dual-ocean-brelectronic-metal-halidebr-ballast--by-aqua-medic-1172.html

Thanks for the info. If I have to replace the ballast I was thinking of going with an electronic ballast instead. most of them are expensive ($150-$200) but I found a couple of them that were suspiciously cheap ($50-$60). They are from international stores online and on ebay. Is there a way to tell if they are any good? here is one for $50: http://cgi.ebay.com/INNOVA-INC-150W-MH-HALIDE-ELECTRONIC-BALLAST-NEW_W0QQitemZ310195598936QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4839193658 and here is another one for $53: http://www.reefshops.com/150w-metal-halide-e-ballast.html The OEM replacement for my exact ballast in ($118): http://cgi.ebay.com/150W-Coralife-HQI-Metal-Halide-Replacement-Ballast_W0QQitemZ300357552265QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45eeb48889 If I replace the ballast with the OEB then I only would get one ballast. if I was going to replace it with the electronic one then I might buy 2 of the cheapo ballasts and replace both lights in the hood.

hopefully not, the replacement is like $120 Last night I opened it up and everything is pretty much molded in there. There was a piece of cardboard under the cover that was a little flaky. I cut of all the loose edges from it and tightened everything back up. we'll see if this improves the noise this evening.

I got this used MH hood a few weeks back. it runs great, but one of the two ballasts is much noisier than the other. its starts out fine but as it warms up it has this laud buzzing noise. I thought it was something loose, but it seems that the casing is on tight. anyone has a similar issue and knows if there is a way to fix it?

I'll take them if they are reef safe