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Beretta

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Posts posted by Beretta

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Watch the 2 part putty epoxy. That's what I tried using for my first corals. It took a few times to figure out why my skimmer would suddenly go nuts. Then I noticed it was within a minute of placing the epoxy in the water that my skimmer would violently spew forth brown water all over the inside of the tank and on the floor. Super glue for me.

    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.

  4. 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?

  5. 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.

  6. This is a very bad thing to know for me. Controller + iphone app = supreme geekiness.

    I can't imagine running one on my 29g though. Seems like quite the expense for not a whole lot of gain.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. Party bus is a good idea, though it can get expensive. We chartered one for about 15 people, and it was $30 per person for the whole day, and the bus was comfortably full.

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