teg

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.

if you have one of those 6080.50 tunze magnet holder let me know. Or something that work on 3/4" glass, Please let me know.

. ~1" blue tip slimer. $10

Monitor your alkalinity and pH over a week to see if it swing, like Hamp said above.

kind of look like some type of cyano bacteria. If it is, you can do 3 days lights out, and reduce feeding.

I think Chad and Belinda have something similar to this; it got really bright orange skirts and I think whitish center.

I think I have red bugs ("yellow" bug), not 100% sure. All of the acros have good PE in the day and excellent PE at night (like a bush), for this reason i'm skeptical it being the red bugs. But for a backup plan, I want get a couple of Interceptor pills in the event things falls on the bad side. So if anyone have a couple they can spare, please let me know. Thanks

Just an update....

It's been almost another month and these bulbs (and coral) continue to impress me. This coral has changed from brown, to green with sky-blue tips, to completely sky-blue all over!

1/14/11

2/10/11

Did those light aid in the algae growth seen in the second picture? don't mean to offend... just wondering.

The only issue I have is people bulk-buying fish and/or corals and then reselling. That should require sponsorship.

I agree, but only if they make a profit.

That is some nice looking fish, is it as hard to raise as clownfish?

If your oddysea fixture has same power plugs like mine (computer power cord F/M adapter), then you can go find an unuse or buy a new computer power cord at Radioshack or Frys then splice the cord to ballast for connection to the fixture.

I assume i just hook the same colored wires together? green with green, white with white, and black with black?

correct

If your oddysea fixture has same power plugs like mine (computer power cord F/M adapter), then you can go find an unuse or buy a new computer power cord at Radioshack or Frys then splice the cord to ballast for connection to the fixture.

Sometimes that's some sort of feeder testicles. A lot of my sps have white stingy things when I feed. I'd say either that or slime. If you think its when the coral is stressed I'd say slime. If when you are feeding I'd say feeding response.

Testicles? i didn't know sps have those.

I've got several sps, especially the two of tri color does that as well, and only when it's feeding time or when I clean the glass. I also have red planet but I don't recall it slime white string, it might have though.

if anyone is wondering about the par value here is some experimental values someone took. http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/35542-400w-se-mh-bulbs/

Does your signature still shows your current system spec? (135 gal, 4 250w etc...)

I have a odyssea 36" metal halide and PC fixture, which i replaced the stock ballast with dual 250w galaxy ballast. It got 2x 250w DE HQI MH, 2x 65w PC Actinic Blue, 4x dual LED moonlight, I think couple fans. There are separate switches to control each thing. It'll come with mounting legs, hanging kits, 2 used pheonix bulbs and the PC actinic. $300

I've seen a lot of people run coralvue brand ballast, they operate at the rating they claimed; but IMO coralvue is a value brand. I have used icecap, galaxy, lumatek and coralvue; I prefer to use icecap, galaxy or lumetak over coralvue. Those other brand run at slightly higher wattage than their rating, thus making the bulb output looks brighter than what you'd expect to get from a coralvue ballast. Thus, the reason why bulb color output depends on the ballast used. If you have multiple halides over your tank, you'd want to use ballast with similar actual output rating or you will end up with slightly different color over the tank. If you only have halide, it really doesn't matter which brand you choose. But from those stock oddysea ballast to even a coralvue ballast, I'd bet you'll see very noticeable change in brightness from your pheonix bulb (it will look less blue than it was before). That price seems to be average for the 250w coralvue ballast.

Stick with the electronic ballast, it can light up most of the DE or SE bulbs on market (as for radium bulb, it will light up radium bulbs fine, but doesn't overdrive them as much as magnetic) . Also everyone says electronic runs cooler than magnetic; if that's true I wonder how hot magnetic ballast gets, because my 400w icecap is HOT! to the touch (hot like you can't leave your hand on it for more than 10 sec). Dimmable ballast is for switching between different intensity using the same bulb (not same as 400w and 250w setting on one of the galaxy ballast).

I think Oddysea stock ballasts are junk when you're using them for their rated wattage. I also got the Oddysea fixture 36" but with 2 DE 250w, and their stock "250w" ballast couldn't even light up the 250w Pheonix; but it fired up their junk 250w bulbs find. I got a watt-o-meter at lowes and turns out those Oddysea stock ballasts are only running at 175w when they are rated at 250w. I ended up switching over to dual galaxy ballast and it ran the 250w Pheonix nicely with just a tint of blue. I think Pheonix has one of the best PPFD for 14k range, you'll have to lower in K to get higher PPFD with the XM bulbs; check out Sanjay's data on all the bulbs he tested.

I dont trust those peppermint shrimp either. Two of my cleaner shrimps died within a week when I added 4 peppermint shrimps into my tank (but my coral banded did fine).

T5 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(MH1) (MH2) (MH3)

T5 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

T5 12:30 - 4:30 PM

MH2 1:00 - 6:30 PM

T5 6:30 - 10:10 PM

MH1 4:30 - 9:00 PM

MH3 4:30 - 9:10 PM