Mike M.

Provide some more information. That might help with getting an offer. How old are each of the two ballasts? The Blue Wave 1- is it pulse start or probe start-What lamps are recommended for used with this ballast. What brand are the bulbs you are throwing in with the deal? Are the sockets you are including mogul or double ended? Info like that should help get an offer to you. Those are the things that I was wondering as I read your ad. Good luck selling. You can always try eBay as ballasts are easy to package and ship. Best regards, Mike

You are so gracious Laura. The goods were pretty fantastic in all those long tanks! Dave, I'm glad I got to shake your hand. See you all around, Mike

Okay, I couldn't resist. I'm gonna head out and visit with everybody at Austin Aqua Farms tomorrow and they threw out a 50% off sale. If you have been resisting the force, it's gonna be harder. Anyway, I ordered a couple of goodies and figured I alert everybody of the great opportunity! Best regards, Mike

Can't comment on bright vs. dim, but I can say that I put a 454nm URI on and it is a purple/blue which allows for the reds in the tank to show up when just he actinics are on, but the tank doesn't fluoresce the way it a 420nm provides. I like the fluorescence in Mark's tank so much that I have installed a second set of VHO endcaps on the system and as of next Tuesday, I'll have one 420 and one 454 running to get the best of both worlds. Mine will be driven on a 660 ballast. Mike

Some months back, one of the members posted a query about buying a high end sps colony and wanting to go "halves" on it. The page linked was to a vendor with high end aussie sps colonies that were priced in the $300+ range and the colonies were pretty fierce. For the life of me, I can't remember what vendor or website was referenced. Does anyone remember or does this ring a bell with anyone? I didn't bookmark the page and wanted to watch the site going forward for these exceptional corals. See if you can help me out. Thanks, Mike

Hey Buddy, I'd like to tap into your red planet with a fresh cut while I'm out tomorrow. I'm coming shopping so get decided what you want to trim. See you in the morning. Mike

You've done a nice job. Just consider putting something like a vortech or Tunze stream on a ups to keep the water moving if power goes down. at something like 45watts, a stream will go a long time on a mid sized ups.

Hey Peeper, Cool tank for sure. I wanted to put a bug in your ear. I used to keep a softies tank in our dental office. We didn't have backup power on it. Construction crew came into the suite next to us on a Friday and shut down power over the weekend and we came in to a Shrek Stew on Monday that made for the end of our dental office aquarium. Since you probably don't live in the store, be sure you have backup power to avoid the Shrek Soup outcome! Good luck with it. It looks like a great build. Best regards, Mike

The stuff in the last update on the zeo thread was a result of two things: 1. Too high a circulation rate on the zeostones after changing them out 2. Too much B-Balance which bleached my strawberry shortcake acro. It is recovering nicely now though. Given what you shared above, Zeo is not for you. There is a lot of keeping up with the little blue bottles. It was rough at first, but I have settled into a nice daily routine. I dose each evening when I get home from work. Check alkalinity, and then enjoy the tank while I watch TV with my wife. I think it would be possible to automate, but I think you would lose the benefit of daily observance of how the SPS are responding to the dosing. Keep doing what you are doing Mike! Mike

Alright. All frags have either sold or have reservations. I appreciate you all coming out and helping me clean off my frag rack! I'm sure there will be month in 2-3 months. Mike

Oh, yeah...more water changes won't give you the result you get from running ULNS via zeo. That I am sure of.

I like what has occurred since I committed to the full meal deal. I don't believe that I could have maintained faith that I would prevail using any other means simply because of the great support the zeo forum provides. Bob and G. Alexander will watch over you. Look at my thread. They have offered advice on how to overcome the various issues that I have identified over the last nine months. Everything from diagnosis of redbugs to adjustment of supplements. In retrospect, I do believe that it is possible to run a nice tank a variety of ways. I would not have made the gains however, if I had continued to muck and muddle along changing my husbandry strategy every few months. Good things happen so slowly with SPS that you really have to COMMIT to a management scheme. The cost issue comes up over and over in these forums. I can't defend the cost, only assure you that I feel it was worth the expense. It worked for me, but I think you could do the same for less or the same or more money with Brightwell, PolypLab, au natural, biopellets, and many of the other ways. The problem I see with this is that you need to make a six month leap of faith. That's about how long it took me to get me rank tank straightened out and it seems to be a magic amount of time for most of the other zeo tanks posted on the zeo forum. The dosing regimen is confusing at first. With some supplements dosed daily and some dosed two to three times a week, best you can do is setup a dosing calendar to keep it all straight. I have used iCal on my Mac to manage this aspect. That was the best solution I could come up with. The zeoliths are what makes the zeo system different from Polyp Lab and other carbon/bacteria systems. They really do strip nutrients from the water. The effect is very obvious when I change the stones out every six weeks. In addition, if flow rate through the reactor is not monitored and adjusted properly, it over strips the water and you see negative changes in the corals. That seems to be the element of the zeo deal that makes a big difference. I will never say that zeo is the best way. Never. I will tell you that I am going to maintain my tank as a zeo tank until at least January as I committed to running this way for 12 months. I will reeval at that time to see if I want to continue of change to something else.

THis is my zeovit thread: My link I took the SoCal link down cause I just don't want to cause any controversy. Not worth it. Like I said, everyone is smart enough to find the etailer on their own. That'll keep everyone happy! Mike

Fine. Edited it out. Everybody here is smart enough to find them with a search engine. Yes, I am running a dedicated Zeo tank and will until at least January. I promised myself one year to see where I ended up. Started out in January with phosphates at .25mg/L. Now I am at .02-0 and my corals look pretty good. I have a thread on the Zeo board if you are interested in a narrative that shows my aches and pains. Search for threads there by cmm1970 to find it. Mike

Mark C. turned me on to SoCal Tropical Fish Outlet and I ordered some zeo stuff a couple of weeks ago. The Zeo supplements are still 25% off with this guy. That's a good deal in my mind. Anyway, if you are headed this way or are using Zeo products, I don't think you can beat the price. I ordered on a Friday afternoon and received the goods Wed. of the next week via Priority Mail. That's great from California. So anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that they can buy the stuff for 25% off and that they ship fast. Since SoCal isn't a sponsor, you'll have to google them. It isn't the slickest of websites, but the price is right and he shipped fast for me. Mike

Yes, PM if you'd like to come up and get it aft 5:00 tonight. Back to work today unfortunately! Mike

Here is a suggestion: Drain the tank. Remove the tank from the stand and use a 36-48" level to see if the top of the stand is flat. Level the stand. Place the tank on the stand. If the tank is warped, you'll see that with it sitting on the stand. If the tank is warped, I don't have a reliable suggestion. Could probably use some neoprene foam like floor mat material to fill the void under the tank, but risky after water and live rock goes in. Sorry to hear of your recent tank surprise, Mike

Oh dear, I'm sorry. I had a guy by an hour or so ago and just have the JG Yellow left and the A. Horrida that didn't get picked up. I'm sorry I didn't update the thread sooner. Thanks for checking in though. I appreciate the inquiry. Mike

Inventory Update: A. Horrida is sold. I only had one and Josh is on his way up to get it. Hairy Green Millie-1 frag left JG Yellow Millie - 2 frags left Thanks for the response so far. I'd love to rehome these last three frags so I can take the frag rack out of the tank for a few weeks. Mike

Pham, Your inbox is full or cannot receive messages. PM so I can bounce you a message back. Mike

For any of you getting a SPS tank going or that have a place midway or high up in a mixed tank, take a look at these frags. The A. Horrida is a fine branching green polyp with purple body coral. It likes moderate light. I have it at the top of the lower half of my tank. It has grown very quickly over the last nine months and I love its thin, dense, branches. I have one of these available. Here it is: A. Horrida Super Hairy Green Milliepora-SOLD OUT This is another fast growing SPS. I have found it to be easy to keep and can also recommend it to those that have done okay with montis and are wanting to add new acro species to their tank. THese have been mounted for over a month now. $15 each. 4 available. JG Yellow Fast growing millie, likes moderate to high light in moderate to high flow. ANother easy middle of the road SPS. 2 available. Both mounted over a month.

I made it through about ten pages of the ebay bulb thread. Interesting. I think I'm sticking with the spectral and output data available on the web to support my choice in lamp. I don't mean in any way that you couldn't keep a tank under those lamps and I think it would be cool to see a six to twelve month journal of a tank lit by a set of these Plusrite bubls. It might shed some light on low cost ways to operate within this hobby.

Do it! Take a before photo. Install the $10 lamps. Run the tank 6 months taking a photo every 4-6 weeks. Let us see and maybe we can all throw away our $65-135 lamps. I'd love to see a demonstration of a healthy tank under less expensive lamps. Do it!

Yes, they are bluer than the Reeflux stil and I have both lamps over the tank now. Go for it. They are a cool lamp and that's a great deal. Mike

Your head loss calculations look good. SOunds like you are set with a T4.