jbharlan91

@victoly - I've replaced the ballast with a new one from RCA. I've replaced the bulb. That's all I can find that I can actually replace without cutting wires. I checked both fans, both fans are working. The light is getting power, because it starts to light up at the end near the plug, but it just turns an odd shade of yellowish pink, like maybe it's overheating, and the rest of the length of the bulb never lights up, and it doesn't put out any light. The blue light still works fine.

I do have a little time now to figure it out, a friend is letting me borrow a spare light that sits over the top of the aquarium. So we have that installed for the time being.

Hmm...not sure if this is getting beyond my abilites or not. I have a soldering iron, but haven't soldered anything but stained glass. Not sure if it's too big for little wires like that. I'd love to try to fix it though, I'm worried that my mushrooms and anemone will get upset fast without their light. What guts would you recommend trying?

Yes, looked up the parts online and we replaced the ballast. I thought the ballast was the piece that the bulb plugs into, guess not. We switched out the ballast, and the bulb, and no luck. It's obviously getting power, and both fans come on. The weird thing is that the bulb looks like it is trying to come on, at the end where it plugs in it will start to light up and turns a weird yellowish pink, and it heats up. It just won't light up all the way. Can the capacitor be replaced?

We have a biocube, 29 gallon, and the light won't come on. It's the main light, not the actinic. We switched the lightbulb, still doesn't work. Both fans still come on, and the blue light comes on. We went to RCA and got a new power cord, still doesn't work. The end of the lightbulb, where you plug it in, will look like it's trying to light up and turn pinkish yellow, but the rest of the lightbulb won't light. Has anyone had this problem, or know how to fix it??? Thanks!!

Yeah, me too. The anthelia I think could be leftover from the anemone sitting on it. The eyelash?????? The piece came undone, I moved it up higher in the rock to see if that helped. I need to get some glue...

We're looking for a reefsafe, fun looking starfish to replace our chocolate chip cookie starfish. We had to take him back after realizing he wasn't reef safe (yes we're new to saltwater) and our 4 year old was only consoled when we told her we would look for a new starfish that wouldn't eat our corals and that was pink. I think we can get away with one that isn't pink though (I hope!) We're also looking for soft corals that are easy - we're struggling with a couple, our eyelash and anthelia. We have a 29g biocube. We have been successful so far with a kenya tree, mushrooms, neon green zoas, devils hand, and fairy dust palys.

I don't have much to trade, but I do have a powerhead that is too big for our tank (creates too much flow and takes up too much space). I'm also willing to pay - but posted this in the trade section since I do have one thing to offer for trade. If you're interested in the powerhead, I can send you a picture and the dimensions.

Thanks!!

I have some iodine that they gave us at RCA if you want to try some....

i recomend you both to soak your food in vitamins (i.e. kents zoe) and garlic extract.

I soak my food overnight in garlic extract and pure vitamin c once a week. I've had two fish near death with ich who have pulled out of it after boosting their immune system this way.

Can I ask - what do you feed your fish? We have mostly damsels, one goby, and soft polyps, but I've been wondering what the best thing is to feed the fish / corals.

I would love to pick some up if you have any left!

Thanks for all of the good information! I will give the turkey baster and siphoning a try - so far there isn't any on the rock, just sand, glass and 2 of the corals.

Okay, another question pertaining to manually removing it. There's not a lot of space between the rock in my aquarium and the glass, definitely not enough for me to get my siphon hoze nozzle in there. Are there smaller tip siphons you can use to siphon the gravel in salt water tanks? Is it a good/bad thing to do to siphon the sand? I have noticed that the red extends down in to the sand in some areas.

Okay, if it doesn't clear up with water change or gets worse, I'll check out the chemiclean. Thanks!

We've got a lot of snails, they don't make a dent in it. Also, I don't think it's at the point that I would consider bad, I was just concerned that it seemed to be creeping up the base of those 2 corals. Will it hurt the corals? If not, I'm not too worried about it, and will try more frequent water changes and cutting back on the lighting. I don't really want to add chemicals unless it's truly a big problem, which it isn't right now. I've got a lawnmower blenny, a peppermint shrimp, one other type of shrimp, lots of snails and quite a few hermit crabs to clean stuff up. There is also a bristle worm in the back somewhere.

We're starting to get a build up of what looks like the red cyanobacteria on our sand bed and climbing up the glass a bit. I haven't been too concerned about it, but then I noticed that it seems to be climbing up 2 of our corals, the green eyelash and the fairy dust palys. Is this bad for the corals, and if so, how do we get rid of or reduce it? We just had our water parameters checked, no phosphates or nitrates, everything looked good. It's a 29g biocube.

Cool, thanks. I'll stop worrying about it and keep an eye on it.

My anthelia is shrinking. It was doing really well and seemed like it was starting to spread. I'd heard that some people think of this as a weed, so I thought we were pretty safe with it. Then, it started shrinking. Haven't checked the water parameters except salinity, and it's fine. The only thing that changed is the GBTA moved almost over top of it, but they weren't in contact for very long. Could the GBTA have damaged it?

Thank you Theresa for having all of us!! You went to a lot of work and trouble and we really appreciate it!

If you bring ice I have lots of ice chest we can use for the ice. Plenty of room in the house for folks to come in and cool off. I have fans in the back, a mister and someone else is bring a mister. If anyone can bring pop up tents that will help as well. I am thinking maybe we could more tanks into the house if everyone would help more stuff out of the way, what do you think? We will figure it out when everyone gets here Wagons in the front yard for you to use to bring things to the back of the house. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon. OH, and many, many thanks to everyone for chipping in on bring goodies to eat. thanks theresa jbharlan91 we have stuff here and surely someone will be able to help fix your jeep.

I'll see if I can make it - I have a van, and my jeep is currently stuck in our parking lot at work, so I'm not totally out of transportation. I am still at work though, so it depends on how that goes too! As for the jeep, I just replaced the starter recently, and am hoping maybe a wire is just loose - getting power, just no starting! Maybe I can try to tighten stuff up tomorrow and just forget about it for today....

Not sure now if we're going to be able to make it. Had to go to work this morning, and my Jeep won't start. May have to spend the time trying to fix it....

jbharlan91 is + 3 - I originally thought my 3 year old would need a sitter. It will be me, my husband, 11 year old son and 3 year old daughter. My kids don't eat that much though!!

We're bringing a canopy for shade, chips, a dessert, and some drinks! I also have some plastic cups to help out with cups.

Sorry to hear about your sea hare! Maybe your superman is just mad at you....

We're new to reefs too, and took back our choco chip star. I never saw him actually eat one of my corals, but I did see him next to one with an arm up towards it. After talking to several people, we took him back to be on the safe side. My 3yo daughter was very sad to lose "cookie", but we're planning on replacing him with a reef safe "pink" if we can find it starfish. We also have damsels, clowns and an angel, and everyone seems to have sorted out their places and get along.

I WANT A TENT IN MY PRINCESS CUP!

We'll bring a tent and a princess cup just for you!!

I have an old canopy - seen many a soccer game and is dirty and faded, but it should still give some good shade if you would like me to bring it. My daughter has a small "princess" play popup tent that would be good for a couple of kids if there are going to be more "little uns". We can easily bring chips, or how about a dessert? Or will you have tons of those? We can make cookies, or chocolate cake, or a chocolate pie.....