hobogato

i just started a reeftopio order on maast, but you are welcome to participate. maybe one person from austin can swing by and bring everything back for everyone else. i am far northeast SA about 1 hour from the I35 / 183 interchange.

i dont ship, sorry. if you want em, youll have to come get em. i am about an hour from the 183 - I35 interchange.

a whopping $10. not sure how many of each it will be, we'll see when you get here

the biggest ones are about the size of a nickel.

1 and 2 are very similar, but i am not sure they are exactly the same - they came from different sources and looked very different from one another when i got them.

RPEs are $5 a polyp also.

#1 and #8 - cheap - $10 for 5-10 polyps of each

#10 - $5 a polyp.

here are all the palys i have.

those are the RPEs that others have posted, they are much more red in person. i also have some teal palys, some brown/green with white stripe, some purple with orange skirt and some metallic green. i will sell ya some red shrooms too.

too many to list - here are some quick pics, only actinics on right now

tx - i have all kinds of zoas and palys that ill sell ya some small frags of - at last count, we had 60+ different color combos. lmk

I have recently fallen in love with my lights.

oh btw, you can love your lights, just don't LOVE your lights, it could get painful, and im sure it would scare your fish tongue6.gif toothy12.gif

well, i think lighting is some science and some personal preference

on my tank, which is 24 inches deep, i run 3 @ 250 watt SE 14k and 2 @ 250 watt DE reeflux 12k, and 8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic. i like the color and look of the tank with this combo, and i am getting decent growth - i do run a kalk and calc. reactor too which helps.

most of the people i have talked to or read say that 25 inches deep and under is ok for 250 watt lights, but a deeper tank than that would be better with 400 watters.

clint (fishypets) also knows tons more about lights than me, so you may try to get him in on this discussion as well.

side note - if you want to take a trip to my house after visiting your atm, you are welcome to icon_tongue.gif if interested, i can pm you a list of some of the corals i have that are fraggable right now, but all of the frags will be pretty small until my corals grow out a bit more.

nice to get things the way you want them eh? sometimes overdoing it isnt good tho - i think if you go with the 400 watters, you will run into some heat issues unless you are running a chiller. you will also need to acclimate your tank (corals) to brighter lights by running them for less time per day and slowly increasing back to where you are now over a couple of weeks or more.

check with robert (hammondegge) - he is in austin and does a great job. if you were closer to SA, i could build you one.

ill do it if you really want me to, but i need one of the old reflectors as a template.

it was aisle 47 in our lowe's - by the windows. it is called solar tube or sun tube (cant remember for sure). i used tin snips to cut it, it is very thin.

the DE is VERY easy, just take the old one out and flatten it. trace it onto the solar light reflector material and cut it out. there is no bradding involved, it just has four tabs that fit into slots. you could do it easily for about $30.

i didnt take pics during assembly, but the seams are just pop rivetted together.

here's an old pic of when i had them a long time ago - this is a pretty close macro, but they were definitely visible to the naked eye. i had them once more after this infestation, but they werent quite as big and they were not as bright yellow either. the second time they hung out in the polyps of the coral instead of on the smooth parts like these.

ok, so i finally finished this lighting rework project. here's a recap - i made luminark type reflectors for my 3 single end 250 watt mh lights, i made replacement reflectors (didnt change style) for my DE 250 watt pendants, and i made brackets so my PC actinics hang just above the water level but can easily be hoisted for access to the tank.

here are a few pics.

tank with all lights on before i started - 8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic, 2 @ 65 watt PC 50/50, 3 @ 250 watt SE CV 14k with spider reflectors and 2 @ 250 watt DE CV Reeflux 10k standard pendants

tank with all lights on now - 8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic, no PC 50/50, 3 @ 250 watt SE CV with new reflectors and 2 @ 250 watt DE CV Reeflux 12k (new bulbs) with new reflectors in pendants - it doesnt really look this blue in person.

pendant with old reflector

pendant with new reflector

anyone want these? you can have em just pm me, they are the old DE reflectors - nothing wrong with them (well, one of them has been straightened out and rebent, so it isnt perfect)

go to fin addict. they have at least three different kinds of acans right now, and two of them are lords.

the difference (now that i have all three in) is REALLY noticable.

brighter, more shimmer, more color in the corals and the color of the light is better. im running 14k coralvue bulbs in those reflectors and the color doesnt seem quite as blue. also, i turned on the 10k DEs for a minute to see if the tank looked better with them on as well, and the corals didnt seem to wash out in color as much as they used to, so the 2 DE fixtures dont completely overpower the SE fixtures any more.

here is a pic with all lights off except two 250 watt mh. both are the same ballast and bulb, the one on the left is the old spider reflector, and the one on the right is the new reflector. i think the difference is even more noticable in person

happy2.gif happy2.gif happy2.gif

i just took some measurements on a luminarc mini, then made posterboard templates to trace onto the metal. i am making 5 in all, and it will probably work out to about 12 hours of work and $160.