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Width, front-to-back?

You guys have the Actinic, not the 50/50, correct?

Cool. Thanks,Ty!

Anybody have a picture or video of what this light fixture looks like without any other lights on?

YouTube wasn't helpful.

Looking to add some 'pop' and pondering this fixture vs actinic T5s.

Big shout-out to nori4dori for the awesome frag-pack!

FYI, if you were considering buying his ASD Jawbreaker Monti frag and passed, you can start kicking yourself now. 😆

I posted this pic a couple of months ago, after the 1st incident.

I thought I'd share an interesting experience I've had with pods and newly-glued SPS frags.

With the last couple of SPS frag packs I've purchased, I've had a lot of death within 24 hours. I chalked the 1st time it happened up to different tank parameters.  With the 2nd pack, I lost 6 out of 10 overnight, with the remaining 4 on life support. Water testing showed no issues.

Then, I remembered something I had observed previously. Whenever I glue new frags, the pods (big amphipods) are all over them after lights-out. Could they be attracted to the glue and, as a result, stressing the frags?

I tested this theory last night, after I received another SPS pack. I put 8 newly-glued frags up high on a frag-rack instead of on the liverock. I also glued a couple of empty plugs to the rocks.

Result? After light-out, the empty plugs were swarming with pods and the frags were clear. This morning, all frags are alive and looking great.

Coincidence? Anecdotal evidence?

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

Thanks!

Hi, everybody.

My 135g reef has been on the decline for several years. My wife gave me an ultimatum in December: clean it up or shut it down. So, I started the clean-up just before Christmas and now I'm hooked once again.

The tank only contains two tangs, which I've always kept fed. The rocks were covered in hair algae.  After about a week of cleaning and new aquascaping, the tank looked much better, so I tested at that point with Salifert kits. Phosphates were at 0.5 (can't imagine what they were prior to clean-up).

I decided to try NO3PO4-X and I have to say, I'm impressed. I haven't done any water changes since I started dosing over a week ago and phosphates are down to between 0.1 and 0.25 (Hannah checker is next on the order list). Algae is starting to peel itself off the back glass.

Dosing is very simple, so I'll probably continue a maintenance dosing regiment going forward.

Boy, I thought hooking-up my VHO ballast/bulbs was intimidating and confusing.

My 135g....

The 14K 250W Plusrites are now 8 months old....coral growth and color still impressive:

April:

September:

The short answer is "no", but that really depends on several other things:

How often do you plan on doing water-changes?

Is the tank filled with base-rock, newly cycled live-rock, or old live-rock?

How tightly packed will the rock be, i.e., will there be good flow or can detritus build-up?

How much do you plan on feeding?

What kinds of food do you plan on feeding?

What kind of sand will you use for the sandbed?

How deep will the sandbed be?

These will all contribute to nitrate/phosphate levels....it's just a matter of how much (without a skimmer).

Yeah, I'm fine with the API test kits.

I hardly ever test for anything, other than calcium & alk. It's just that I went so long without doing a water-change that I started to feel guilty. I was just pleasantly surprised with the test results, thus this thread.

The acceptable ranges for most of these test results is so broad, why pay so much more (some of the test kits are really expensive) for "accuracy"?

I mean, proper pH is important, but there's not much you can really do there anyway. I figure if my alk is good, so is my pH. I haven't even set-up my pH probe from when I bought my Apex controller.

Oh, and my old swing-arm hydrometer is just fine, thank you.

I know, I know, this is reef blasphemy. What can I say, I'm a rebel without a refractometer.

Cute, but these will eventually end-up in a box in the attic/basement right next to the old "Big Mouth Billy Bass". You remember those, right?

ditto what jestep said. The API kits are the worst, but hey, they are cheap!!

Here's my hands on experience with API summed up: A Tale of Two Test Kits

The API kits are my back-ups....I rely primarily on the "eyeball test"!

This same test kit was reading higher phosphate levels (1.0-2.0) a few months ago.

Hey, phosphates/nitrates, who's your daddy?

BTAs that are hosted by clownfish do receive a steady supply of "marine snow".

How long have they been in the tank?

Hmmmm, Mr. Saltwatertank said otherwise. Oh, well.

...wattage applies to the ballast, not the reflectors.

You would still need to use 400W bulbs...just dimmed to 250W.

Lumenarcs...Large or Mini's?

Ballasts....250W adjustable?