teg

Interesting article talking about what we do to effect the PAR values.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-10/bp/index.php

looks dangerous for having MH ballast on the floor right next to the tank, it might get fry from accidental flood.

I'll grab a pH probe

You wont have to take out the whole wavebox to replace the driver unit. You can seperate the power/speed controller (Driver); you will have to take off the "cap" of that driver unit, then you can unplug the wire from the driver itself. There are 4 screws that need to be remove to take off the "cap". I wouldn't recommend combining the two waveboxes to 1 driver, it could overload that one driver and fry it too. Roger probably will that some spare drivers at his place, new or used.

2 buckets of red sea pro

It depends on the aggressiveness of the pair towards other clown fish. I have a mated pair of Os. Clown with 1 Gold stripe. The female of the Os. pair is larger than the gold stripe. There are times when the Os. pair lives 6" away from the GS clown. I had a 220 before and a 120 now, from what I have seen, in the 220 they were living further apart but had more fights, now in the 120 they lived closer but no fights. Os. clown is known to be nonaggressive and in my case she was also the largest clown in the tank, while the GS is more aggressive but smaller. If it was the other away around where the GS clown is larger and the Os. pair is smaller, the story might be different. I have 6 clowns, 5 Os. and 1 GS, all living in a 120 peacefully. So it is not impossible to have different species living in same tank. I think the most important thing to look at is the size of the two species and their aggressiveness. Tomato clowns is known for their aggressiveness, so it might not work mixing them with Os. clowns.

PS, when I added the 3 Os. clown offspring of the mated Os. pair into the same tank when they were still Juvi. I did see the large female Os. grab one of her offspring and drag it across the tank to her carpet anemone, I had to tap on her so she would release the juvi. offspring. When the offsprings got bigger this was no longer a problem and now one of them even joined his/her parents sometimes in the carpet anemone. So size matters!!!

mostly it's a hit and miss. I usually see clown start hosting when there's a threat around. You can try to confine the BTA and the clown together in a small area, this way they might learn to host the BTA. I have 5 clowns in my tank and they formed two groups (one group would hose my carpet anemone, while other didn't host any anemone) with one messenger going back and forth between the group. Then when I switched tank, all 5 clowns were put together in fairly small container, now they all school in one group (this is assuming all clowns are form same species). When they went back to the tank, they all now host same carpet anemone.

how old it it?

pmed

Yes you will need goggles when try to reach the bottom of the tank. Tank is 37" deep so I dont think anyone can reach the bottom without getting wet, unless of you drain 1/2 of the water out.

PS. please get at least 3 other people to help, this is a heavy tank, No Kidding.

3/4" thick glass with reinforced plywood bottom; it is semi euro braced. The tank shape is not the classic brick style, it's different... check out the pictures

Canopy is hanging type, its a DIY'er made from aluminum and white acrylic.

Stand is also DIY'er with 6x 4x4 as main posts. tank got 4 holes drilled in bottom towards the back at equal interval, it was used for close loop.

Buyer will be mover, this tank weighs "a ton", so get at least 5 buff friends.

I'll also add in the PM skimmer body w/o pump; the collection cup has a drain so you can connect it to waste collector box (I have a DIY waste collector box that can also be included if you want). skimmer is at least 30" tall.

Get it all for $100.

Can you let me know how that new Skimz is working? is it up to the hype that so many people are giving it?

Will anyone take it for $200????

Interested in bird of paradise

I'm thinking about switching to smaller tank. So, I'm checking to see if someone out there might possibly be interested in an Oddly shaped tank. This tank have been in service for well over 10 years, so it's a proven durable tank. 3/4" thick glass with reinforced plywood bottom; it is semi euro braced. Canopy is hanging type, its a DIY'er made from aluminum and white acrylic. Stand is also DIY'er with 6x 4x4 as main posts. Tank got 4 holes drilled in bottom towards the back at equal interval, it was used for close loop. Buyer will be mover, this tank weighs "a ton", so get at least 5 buff friends. I'd like to get $400 for tank, stand, canopy, and 55gal tank (that I used as refugium/sump) with its own stand. Check images for dimensions, tank is roughly 210 gal.

I'll also add in the PM skimmer w/o pump, you can get a sedra 5000 to power it; the collection cup has a drain so you can connect it to waste collector box (I have a DIY waste collector box that can also be included if you want). skimmer is at least 30" tall, I haven't measured.

My mangroves grew pretty slow; now both are dead. When they're dead, the body will shrivel up and turn deep dark (almost black). If the body of your mangroves are still plumped and green, it should still be alive.

I enjoyed reading your updates, so I figured I'd throw one in myself.

The macro algae is growing slower now, but I think the rotifers have taken off in my culture. I don't have a magnifying glass, so I can't be sure, but here's the observation:

My water had been growing increasingly cloudy, even though I wasn't adding much food. I thought it was just green micro algae, but when I looked at it outside of the light, it appears to be cloudy with "white stuff." This looked very similar to the rotifer cultures I've seen online. In an attempt to get a better look, I strained the water through a 52 micron sieve to discard the used water (mine has decaying algae and I've been dosing with plant food to help the macros grow). Then I strained that through a 120 micron sieve (thanks to KimP!) and saved the water that ran through while the sieve caught some macro algae and larger amphipods. The remaining water was cloudy with tons of tiny tiny white dots - not green. I am hoping, fingers crossed, that these are the rotiers finally reaching a critical mass. I am going to start harvesting them on a regular basis. I would love to look at it under a magnifying glass or microscope - anyone know where I can get one on the cheap?

Craigslist sometimes have microscope on sale; that's where I got mine, it's one of the HS microscope. When I strained my rotifers, they look darkest orange on the 50micron sieve. It's likely the tiny tiny dust like cloud in the water are rotifers; any other organics that size, will foul the water rather quickly and that's how you know they're not rotifers.

I run GFO rx, calcium rx and carbon bag. I tried carbon dosing for about 3 months; if you have a filter sock and do carbon dosing, you'll have to clean it every 2-3 days. I got tired of having to clean the filter sock every few days, so I switched back to GFO rx (less daily chores). Carbon dosing does work, just as well as GFO rx IMO; I guess if you don't use filter sock and have an over sized skimmer, carbon dosing is ok. Right now, my filter sock is acting as "pods factory", all the detritus that get traps in the filter sock are eaten by the pods; thus I no longer need to clean the filter socks (i use nylon mesh filter sock). To me Calcium rx isn't too hard to dial in, but it's important to have pH monitor for monitoring the effluent pH and also the tank's pH. Good test kits are a must when you running calcium rx, you'll want to keep track of the Alk and Calcium, so it doesn't get out of range.

#11 looks like candy cane (Caulastrea)

please do post pictures when you silicone the bottom and sides together. Interesting to see how it's done.

@Hydro: Raising clowns isn't hard, it's just tedious, extremely tedious.... Of course there are many steps that you can automate if you were to raise clown fish "commercially". For most of us that wanted to experiment with this at home, I don't think its worth our time (not to mention the $). Unless of course you're raising those platinum clown fish that sells for $500/pair. I experimented with my orange and black pair, because I was curious on how it would look like (result: darkest orange color...); but pretty much stop breeding it after several batches (they still lay eggs like clock work). There are plenty of information available on the web, if you're truly interested in experimenting I can direct you to those places, as well as share my experiences with you. (as you can see from my avatar pic, those different color dots are me, trying to count the # of eggs, lol...was fun)

I have the same odyssea fixture as Irssix, 2x250mh with 2x65 PC actinics, moonlight's and fans. I used it for over a year, I first used their sliver aluminum e-ballast; then switched over to galaxy e-ballast. It'll grow things for you just fine. I recommend testing their stock ballast for correct wattage usage.

What I like

- decent looking all-in-one fixture (LED moonlights, MHs, actinics and fans, all in one fixture, nice....)

- independent switches to control LED, actinics, fans and each MH)

- good reflector reflectivity (i.e. mirror finish).

- LED moonlight put out decent amount of light, that let you easily see your tank at night.

- cheap

What I dont like

- stock ballast runs at 175w, but was rated for 250w (stock ballast couldn't light up a 250w phoenix DE)

- very difficult to replace the MH bulbs, you pretty much have to take apart 20% of the fixture to take replace the MH bulbs. There is no way you will be able to do it, while it's on top of your tank, unless they have changed their design recently. PC actinic were easier to replace just have to slide out the plastic cover.

- MH reflectors are small and it is pretty much a spider reflector with two additional reflecting pieces added at two ends. It does not spread the light out very wide, due to it's size and angle.

Price Reduced.

1. mini colony of orange Montipora digitata. $10

the higher numbers on the bottom edges might be due to "total internal reflection" from the water/glass index.

larger hammer frag is gone, top post updated.