Entropy

SOLD

I have the reef octopus recirculating 150. It works pretty good IMO. I think my old EV-150 worked better, but this skimmer does almost as good a job while using a much smaller (less power) pump. I just gravity feed it from the drain and the little pump on the side does the rest.

(Pending)

Sold....

I am not at that point yet. I am going to dump them on RC today, I just wanted to give ARC first look.

250w ARO Eballast for sale. Comes with the ballast wired for standard 110v, a batwing reflector, standard mogul socket (attached to reflector) and a 1000 year old 20k bulb if you want it.

$50

I have two Koralia 4's for sale. $25 each. I think they are about two years old and work like champs.

I am down sizing my current tank so here goes:

Oceanic 135g, reef ready 72L"x18"Wx24"T dual overflow with a single 1.5 inch drain in each overflow. It has some pretty good scratches on the front. Not enough to ruin the view, but enough so that it definately isn't a show tank. The overflows are missing a few teeth but still function fine. It has a glass centerbrace. It comes with a stand and canopy that are currently mocha brown on the front, but redish elsewhere (in my room you can only see the brown). It basically needs to be refinished to look pretty. It has a older three chamber sump (48"Lx16"Wx16"T). I am not selling any of the equipment with it so it is just the tank/stand/canopy/sump. No lights/pumps/heaters/etc.

Tank/Sump/Stand/Canopy $250

It will be ready for pick up this weekend.

What kind of lighting are you using?

what did you not like about the 90g?

(a week late) Depth is what I didn't like. The 90g is two feet tall so you have a lot of height (which is good), but you only get 18 inches front to back to aquascape (which is the same problem in my 135g). I like at least as much depth front to back as height and preferrably more which is why I like the 120g (24x24). Then again it is hard to pass up a deal.

I got mine out of the backyard. We have quite a bit of really nice limestone in Round Rock and if you drill the crap out of it with a masonary bit it looks pretty good. Then you just let it color up with coralline and it is hard to tell the difference. You can find huge pieces that are bigger than your tank on the side of the road (or in the middle of the road around my house ). You can burn it with acid to make better look holes and make it look more pourous. I am not sure how economical it is factoring the cost of a drill, bit, and maybe acid, but if you happen to already have the first two I think it is feasible. I have one piece out of the ocean in my tank and it has colored up the rest (at least 100 pounds in my 135g).

I would get the 75g or the 120g. Both have better dimensions than the 90g. I had the 90g and regretted it.

How necessary are heaters in Austin on large tanks? I've been contemplating if I really will need one.

Depends on how cold you let your house get IMO. I use one all the time on my 135 (45g sump, so 180g total). I let the downstairs drop to about 60 before the heat comes on since we are upstairs at night.

I think I have a spare EboJager in the junk box if you ever hang out in the Round Rock area. I think it is a 250w version. I can check tonight when I get home.

I am 99.2% sure it is actually 3x175w halides and 4x65 CF actinics. Cool Breeze was nice enough to point out my typo (65w x2). You could run two Workhorse fives (128 watts) or Workhorse sixs (140 watts). for about $50 + shipping. A IceCap 660 would be great but the price tag is going to hurt. Even used the rarely fall below $100. You could also run two ARO Part Number MR192 eballasts. They are a litte more money though ($35 each). I guess it is going to come down to what you can find and how much wiring you want to do.

I don't trust heaters at all. Too cheap to be reliable. I would run an EboJager if I had to run it stand alone, and I would size it just big enough to do the job (or better yet get two smaller heaters). I have a Won Proheat titanium heater which I really like because it is difficult to break unlike the glass Ebojagers. I wouldn't trust the Won heater stand alone though and only use it because I have a RKII controller. If you don't have a full blown controller I would get one, or at the least a good single stage Ranco controller.

Sounds like 2x55w bulbs (130w total) which is pretty standard for PC's. A Workhorse 5 will do nicely IMO. You can pick one up from www.Reefgeek.com for about $30 I think or maybe locally (or eBay). As long as you are comfortable with wiring it up yourself it is a pretty easy swap. You need a power cord for it, but you can probably splice right into what you have now.

Are you sure on the wattage of the PC's? Most I have seen are either 55w or 65w per bulb. A workhorse 5 will power 2x55w or 65w pc's for about $30. I am using one to power a T5 currently.

I think your success will hinge on competition. I am not sure the exact area mandrins come from, but the other fish in the area must suck at hunting pods, because just about everything I have seen hunts better than a mandrin. If you can target feed them without competition I think you will be fine, but if you have hungry mouths all around I wouldn't get your hopes up.

I think a few went under, but it does look like we also lost some. Money is tight.

Are you feeding the octopus with the drain? I am using about half my drain to feed my 150 and what is left comes out pretty much bubble free. The way I did it was to run the drain outlet parallel to the surface of the sump half way under water so there is not much splashing. I actually liked the filter sock, but I got tired of cleaning it.

The dimensions equal a 110g.

What color/brand are the bulbs?

Sounds like a what you have pictured. There are a lot of variations. I almost got a brown tang (spotted cheek is the name I saw), but I settled on a powder brown instead. Both are cheap for tangs.

I am just enjoying (well not really) watching my 401k going down and then back up every other day. Think long term Rich, long term...