Beretta

ATI doesn't make a 30" fixture. I should mention that the light was lower on the tank, and things had really been browning, almost bleaching. After moving the light up, things have improved somewhat.

Currently, it's about a foot above the water.

I've been absent lately, mainly due to work and a blog project I'm working on (not related to reefing). My 29g in my office is currently stocked with LPS/SPS corals, and I'm running a 250w coralvue pendant with a 14K phoenix bulb. My thoughts are I'm running too much light. Most of my corals are doing ok, but it seems I'm pushing the upper limit of my lighting, as some corals have started to brown and I'm not getting much growth. I've wanted to do T5 lighting since I started this tank, but 30 inch fixtures have been difficult, if not impossible to come by that have adequate lighting for a LPS/SPS tank. Lo and behold, Catalina has a 30" fixture now, and for a reasonable price $225. http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_info.php?cPath=71_136&products_id=1414. Would this fixture give me enough light, and hopefully not be too much light? I don't know what wattage I should be running for a t5 setup on a 29g tank. Advice will be greatly appreciated. Also, if I decide to get this light, I'll be selling the pendant and the icecap ballast that goes with it. The ballast is less than a year old.

Ballast is gone.

I have 3 pendings on this ballast. If they all fall through, I will update this posting. Pending for pickup tomorrow.

I am giving away this ballast, for free. It will be a fixer-upper. I am about 99% certain the cooling fans within the ballast don't work, and I have noticed that it smells like something burning, so there is either something within the ballast that is arcing, or a wire is hitting something hot within the ballast. It still technically works, and will fire up when it's plugged in. If you're willing to put some time and effort into fixing it, congratulations; you just got a ballast for what it cost you to fix it. I will be available for you to come by and pick it up between 8-5 during weekdays. First person to pm me to claim it gets it.

I'm vodka dosing right now, and am about 2 weeks into it. I've noticed that the skimmate has gotten darker and stinkier, and haven't experienced any of the clouding that some have had happened to their tank.

I had this same exact problem as well. Plus, I've found you have to use a large amount of the putty to make anything stick. Once I figured out how to super glue correctly (there is a bit of a trick to it, mainly finding a good spot and holding the coral in place for at least 30 seconds), I've had no problems with super glue.

I've had luck with peppermint shrimp. They cleared out the aptasia in a couple of days. I tried Joe's Juice to no avail, but surprisingly, lemon juice worked quite well too.

Good to know. Thanks.

I have a couple of SPS in my tank that aren't really growing "up," but they are growing around the base and in a downward direction covering the aquaputty and rock they are attached to. Is this normal? Do I need to move the corals to encourage upward growth, or just leave them where they are?

River City just got a bunch of CUC stuff in today. It was still in bags when I left.

I'll take 1, 2, the Blue-Green in 3, and 4.

I didn't realize you were talking about filling the tank. In that case, dump measured water into tank, add salt, and turn on return and flow pumps and heater, and wait 24 hours. For my water changes, I use 5 gallon buckets because I change out 8 gallons at a time. Lowe's has 5 gallon buckets in their paint department that are translucent and marked on the outside in gallons. Makes it really easy to figure out how much water you have.

A 5 gallon bucket and a maxi-jet 1200. You'd be surprised how fast it can mix saltwater.

I might start vodka dosing soon. Going to do another water change this weekend and see what happens.

I plan to dose at 1/2 the recommended rate to start with. I'll be damned if I'm going to crash my tank. It looks good right now, but there's a plethora of hair algae right now. It's just in little pockets right now, and is growing on my powerheads. My last water change seems to have slowed it down. I'll do another one this weekend and see what happens. Honestly, I'd much rather dose vodka to remove nutrients than do water changes. They are a royal pain for me to do for my office tank.

Yes, you did.

I'm wanting to start dosing my tank with vodka to get a handle on the nitrate and phosphate problems I'm having. Therefore, I need really accurate and reliable test kits so I don't end up killing everything in my tank. So what are the most reliable and accurate test kits, especially in the lower ranges? I've heard and read that the LaMotte kits are the best, though pricey. The price isn't an issue for me, as I want to do this right.

Space is good, especially when your ato decides to dump all its water into your sump at one time because the float got stuck. Better to have excess space than not enough. My sump is large enough to accommodate a power outage and 5 extra gallons of ato water and not overflow.

If no one else has dibs, I'll take it.

Is this still for sale? I might be interested.

I'll take the $25 pink milli, and the 3" frag of the tri-color acro if they're still available.

Anyone have any idea what the green thing in the bottom of the picture is? I'll try to get a better picture next time.

That's what is so weird. Everything is doing well. The light is about 9 inches off the top of the water (mainly because it's a lot of wattage and I wanted to get more light into the corners). Heat isn't an issue, as I've got a chiller running, and an ato. The rocks look like they might be getting some kind of coraline, but it's very dark, almost grey color with a tinge of purple. I also dosed some b-ionic the other day, and now coraline is showing up in small places on the powerheads. Seems I might be finally on the right path.