Entropy

I'll take the skimmer when you are ready James.

That is what I am thinking as well James. They have 5500k bulbs that are not too bad in color and mixed with the T5 actnic it looks pretty good. I want it bright enough that the fish stand out at least. I figure the coralline will do fine, but the anemone and little zoo colonies will have to go.

That is pretty cool! Do you have issues with your office temps? My office pretty much shuts off the ac about six pm so by midnight it is 80+ in the office.

They don't. Not sure what I was doing with my calculator last night, but it came out different (correct) this morning. 500w (250wx2) x 7 hours x 30 days / 1000 (kilowatt/hour) x $0.157 = $16.49 I am pretty sure both my ballasts drive the bulbs a little less than 250w (IceCap and ARO), so the input power is probably pretty accurate at 250w each. I am going to have to do some thinking and see how much I can simplify my system. Currently I have: Rio2100 pump @ 37w (24 hours) Koralia 4 @ 11w (24 hours) Koralia 4 @ 11w (24 hours) Koralia 4 @ 11w (24 hours) Koralia 4 @ 11w (24 hours) MJ1200 @ 23w (24 hours) T5 Actinic 2 32w (2 hours) 250w Halide 250w (7 hours) 250w Halide 250w (7 hours) Phosban Reactor 12w (24 hours) Heater (250w) (0 hours currently) Reefkeeper II (2w) (24 hours) I secretly dream about a freshwater community tank with just the return pump and a single T5 light, but fortunately it usually passes.

It is about time to change out the halides and I am thinking of just going fish only since I only have a couple of expendable zoo colonies and a GBTA that would be simple to remove to a better home. Anyone running inexpensive lighting over a fish only? I was thinking of just swapping out the 250w halides with the 100w equivalent compact flourescent bulbs (5000k color). I think the draw about 26 watts each. I am not sure what the color would look like but they are pretty bluish white in my mom's kitchen. I would keep my T5 actinic and maybe add another (just need a bulb). It would save me the $150 in replacement bulbs, plus about $35 a month in electricity, but I am just wondering how the fish will handle it?

I have used zip ties many times. Clear zip ties blend faster (plastic covers with coralline quickly), but black is easier on the eyes in the beginning. After it covers with coralline it doesn't matter.

I just stopped buying stuff. I have been thinking of converting to fresh water since it is so much cheaper, but as long as my tank stays on auto pilot I am ok for now.

I am not sure. It has a logo on the top. I will look at it when I get home and see if I can get a model number off it.

Used Koralia 4 for sale. It does not have the new shroud. I couldn't squeeze a fifth one into my tank so the first $25 takes it.

bumpasaurus... OBO for the two ballasts.

sale pending

**SOLD**

Just keep feeding it. It will split on its own.

I don't think I would trust Chinese waste water, now matter how much filtration was used. Eeeeck!!!!

Just hit the +Edit button (bottom/right of the original post). Choose "Full Edit" and then you will be able to change the topic.

The dimensions are off or tank size is off. 53x23x31=164 gallons

I have four K4's and they don't move unless I mess with the cord. As for this poll, I think it depends on what you are keeping but for the average reef I think you should push as much water through your sump as your skimmer can process, unless you are using the return pump for your flow in the tank. For circulation in the tank (non filtering) I think you should have as much as you can get. I wouldn't add a pump just to add it, but if you have any dead spots adding more circulation can only help and I think you have to keep the pumps in scale with your tank. Adding 4 Koralia 4's to a 29g for instance would fit fine, but would probably just create a whirlpool. In my 135g I have a Rio2100 for the return pump (roughly 300 gph return), and four Koralia 4's for in tank circulation. I actually have 5 of the K4's, I just haven't figured out how to squeeze the fifth one in there yet. I am guessing I have about 30x turnover in the tank, maybe 35x depending on what flow numbers you believe for the Koralias.

What does your lighting schedule look like? I just add a T5 actinic to my tank so mine looks like this: 3:00 PM left side halide comes on 3:15 PM right side halide comes on 8:45 PM single T5 actinic (39w) centered goes on 9:00 PM left side halide goes off 9:15 PM right side halide goes off 10:15 PM T5 goes off 10:15 PM led night light goes on 12:00 AM led night light goes off I pushed my halides up an hour and added an hour of on time to each plus added the actinic for an hour. I only have a couple of zoo colonies so I am interested in see what they do. Also might start adding some more stuff so it looks less like a fish only tank.

Honestly I think they do it once or twice a week. It seems like they have different style events each week so probably several times a week. See the link below. The Jack Hanna specific one is only once or twice a year but it would be pretty awesome otherwise. I think you might have to have a kid though. It says Pre K - 8th grade, but you can always call to make sure (or borrow a kid). To be honest, most of the older kids where by themselves, but most of the little kids had parents along. They have a group event as well so we could in theory have a ARC or MAAST get together. I think they might have done that with MAAST last year or something like that. http://www.swbg-adventurecamps.com/adventu...pover/index.htm

I paid about $2000 for mine. I figured I could get one from Marine Depot for $8 or just get kidney stones and make a hospital visit. Hey at least I got a really cool drip line out of it.

I wonder if there is a safe way to rig the shop vac to the router (Flowbee style). It probably still wouldn't catch everything, but it might make clean up a bit easier. Congrats on routing your own baffles!

If you really want to get your feet wet without much financial risk go with damsels. You can can get them for $3 a piece in most cases and they are extremely hardy. They don't get along with much else or each other, but they will do well in a tank that size and if you lose a couple learning it will not break the bank. You can also mix in chromis (again $3) and clowns ($10-15).

I am thinking about a small UPS for my Koralias. Even just keeping one going would be enough for a while IMO. At 10-15 watts for 1 pump I bet a small UPS could keep it going for at least a hour. In my case I would just like to keep the pumps from clacking everytime the power blinks on and off.

And BMWaaron was in the laundry room with prefect access to the bleach. Man you should have heard my five Koralias clacking away over and over again. I think I need to get a UPS for the tank just so the little brown outs don't drive everything crazy.

Hope for the best is my plan. If a tornado hits the house the last thing I am going to be worried about is my fish tank. Hiding in the downstairs powder room aint much fun either.