Starsprinkle Rainbowsmile

i've got a spare light you can borrow if you need it.

Not to mention if you ditch the Coralife lamps and replace them with MH lamps with very high PAR performance like the Reeflux's.

You will also come to find out that the Kelvin "ratings" put on these bulbs can mean very little but marketing. One 14K will be yellow/white, another very blue, and some right in the middle. It is better to examine their spectrographs if you can find them, as well as their PAR output. Also one lamp's "blue" will be a pale blue, another a deep rich blue, and another kind of a greyish blue. There are differences in T5 lamps as well, and as with anything in this hobby or others, you usually get what you pay for quality wise, although I suppose there are some exceptions. Hamilton is supposed to make a good lamp; I know their 20K is a very popular bulb as it is supposed to produce the right kind blue to make your corals "pop".

That is funny I thought Grays Papaya was almost the worst food I'd ever had LOL. Actually, there were very few places in NYC where I enjoyed the food at all, and the few places that were great were hellishly expensive. In 7 years I did not find anything even resembling Mexican food, or BBQ. Italian was hit and miss, as was Chinese- some really great places mixed in with really awful ones. Pizza was the same; now I miss some really good NY style pizza, but you had to hit up the right place, which was surprisingly difficult sometimes. Deli's were hit and miss too, some of them were actually pretty scary. And I think I had found one place that had served up a real, handmade, good-old fashioned delicious hamburger. Sure, you could always find a fancy-pants Kobe beef "burger" with triple trouffle sauce and served with "pomme frites"LOL but who wants to spend $48 on a burger? </offtopic> Laura, glad to hear you are doing OK, that looks like one awful wound. Are there gloves available that are a bit more sturdy than the disposable ones, or is that all we have to choose from?

Make sure water params are good. Water flow is moderate to low. In my experience, they need to be on the sand bed, and not on rock. Try feeding it mysis shrimp or marine snow. I had pretty good luck with my plate coral, but I had a hermit crab that would walk all over it and steal food from it, so perhaps one of your livestock might be causing it stress.

Price drop to $200

I have noticed with regularity, that if I work in my tank for any extended period of time, I will feel rundown/queasy the next day. I think gloves are a real good idea, even if its just precautionary. I have read that you can catch all sorts of marine diseases or toxins out of a reef environment, even if its rare. Nonetheless, I'm sure precaution is always prudent. Laura, I'm sorry to hear (and see) about your wound. I hope you feel better, and thanks for the warning.

Just an update, as of today my Royal Gramma is virtually spot free. I think I may see at most 2-3 spots, but it's almost all gone. I don't know if that is just the natural cycle of the parasite, and if it is gone for good, or if they will return.

Would like to attend.

Derek, thanks for the quick replies! That puts my mind better at ease. None of my other fish got spotty after I introduced them, so that knowledge is new to me. But I suppose a trip from California is a bit more stressful, than a simple car drive from Austin.

Really? That is good to hear. Will my other fish be in any danger once the parasites complete their cycle?

Huge incoming pic... I left it large so that hopefully what I am describing can be better seen. It's rather difficult trying to snap a macro shot of moving fish thankfully my new RG decided to give me a quick little pose!

I have never experienced Marine Ich before, but I think I may have it now. Although I am not 100% sure, perhaps someone can help me confirm. A Royal Gramma that I bought in the Vivid group order today appears with a couple dozen small white spots spread variously around his body. These spots were not there yesterday. So far, none of my other fish have any of these white spots. I read through a couple Ich threads here and elsewhere. What would be my best solution to this problem if it is indeed Ich? I do not have a QT tank. But I suppose I could set one up if need be. I just have no idea how I am going to catch my fish and transfer them over. Seriously, I think it would be impossible without tearing down the entire aquascape. In Fishtales' thread, Kich-Ich was mentioned, which I assume was used in the display tank? Any suggestions are appreciated. Also, the Royal Gramma appears healthy and is eating, he doesn't appear "sick" other than the white spots which appeared overnight. Don't know if that means anything. Thanks, ChristianR

Hi Diabeetus, I am running a 150w 14K Phoenix MH DE over my tank. I do not have any actinic supplementation. I was first running a Coralife 14K bulb that was so white it was yellow. It was horrible. When I first installed the Phoenix 14K, I thought I had made a huge mistake. The color was atrocious. It was a dull, washed out greyish-blue that drowned out ALL of the color in my tank. But I had read that you need to let MH lamps have a proper "burn-in" time of up to 2 weeks for their proper color and par to settle in. So I waited it out. After two weeks it was a little better, but still unpleasing. I went to search for a new lamp and let another two or three weeks pass by. By that time, the lamp had settled in very nicely. It now produces a very nice crisp white combined with a nice blue that is not overwhelming. There is even a hint of purple to the color. It is quite bright, and my SPS do well under it. All the colors in my tank are bright and defined. It is now quite pleasing to view and a great performing lamp. Out of all the reviews I've read, I've never seen it mentioned the Phoenix 14K producing any hint of purple, no matter how slight. However, I come to find there are many variables to how a lamp will perform, your ballast being a big factor. So your mileage may vary. Although I am pleased with the Phoenix 14K now, it is still not quite the right look that I am wanting to achieve. As I said, the colors are nice and some of my corals do fluoresce, but they do not quite "pop" and have the contrast that I have seen in many other tanks. This is much easier to obtain with supplemental actinic lighting, and more difficult with only a MH lamp. As I understand it, the fluorescence of corals is due to certain color pigments interacting with light in the 420 nanometer range. You will find some MH lamps that have spectrographs. If you want that actinic coloration and pop without supplemental actinic lights, you will need to find a MH lamp that had a solid peak in the 420-450 nanometer range. If anybody sees that I am wrong in my understanding, please correct me. There are several lamps on the market that receive positive praise, there are the Radium 20K, Phoenix 14K, Reeflux 12K & 20K, Elos 20K, etc... After some research, and wanting a single MH lamp that will produce the par, color, and performance that I am looking for without any actinic supplementation, my next lamp purchase will most likely be the new Elos Spectra Chrome 20K "Abyss" lamp, and I will be sure to write up a review once it is burned in and I have some experience with it. I'd take some pictures of my current Phoenix 14K setup, but I do not have a very good camera or photography skills and its very difficult to accurately portray the color in a photograph without knowing how to adjust for white balance and all those other camera settings.

Purigen is amazing. Almost too good to be true. Just be sure to recharge it properly. Very properly. Or you'll nuke your tank...

Mixed tank 70% - 20% - 10% SPS/LPS/Soft

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm upgrading to a 58 gallon 36"x18"x21 and I'm considering whether to go with Koralia Evolution powerheads or a Vortech. Not only do I like to "looK" of a wave tank, but I keep hearing how much the livestock likes it. Do you know which Vortech you would recommend for that size tank? Sorry, Christian I do not mean to hijack your thread, I thought it would be a good place to discuss the wave tanks, I can start a new thread if you like.

Mark, is that a Tunze Wavebox in the upper right corner? BrooksReef, how do you like the wave-making capabilities of the Echotech? Would you recommend a Vortech powerhead?

As others mentioned, a pier and beam foundation should be OK, but you should definitely have it inspected, and if there is any deficiency, you can have the specific area shored up with extra support. It's not that difficult or expensive either.

Did you get it from Shane? He has lots of experience with them, I'd give him a call.

Man, those are really stunning. How big do they get? I'd love to have one for my pair of percs, but I only got a 28g nano.

That sure is a pretty colony...

Putting this out there again, for anybody who might be interested.

I'd grab the Candycanes if I weren't so dang far from you.

Man you learn something new everyday ha! i caught two of my nasses mating the other night, caught 'em straight in the disgusting act lol but they didn't care. Haven't seen any eggs yet though.