acropoorer

Hey Jeremy,

I have a 4 bulb 4' t5 fixture you can use as a temporary light when you get to that point. Just let me know if and when you need it.

-Dale

If I told told you blue green chromis will eat them would you believe me?

I have always kept a copperband and have 0 aptasia (at least visible). That said, my first one died after 4 years and my new one picks at acans. I also had suspected him of killing my clams, but never witnessed him doing so. Beautiful fish, and if you feed well there is less chance of nipping. I am thinking of getting rid of this one (want to get some clams in the future), but if I develop an aptasia problem I will get another. In my opinion there is no better control for aptasia and the darn things are always lurking somewhere in the system.

Daaammmnnnnn those look cool. do you have your chalices in a low or high flow area?

I would say low to moderate flow with 400W 12K's under 16" of water. Some of my chalices don't like that much light.

Looking for small colony of chalice

Bd 2108453150

I have large fragable colonies of both but I am in Austin. Call if interested. My cell is 512-968-6211

Very cool Chris. I would comment on the LED's, but all I know is I like the blue ones I have in my tank and would have no clue as to how to go all the way LED. How are you doing your overflow? Didn't see one in the picture.

I have dual calfo's on my tank. I just cut two 1" slots (drilled each end), but you could do a similar thing at the very top of the tank. I bought a wet saw with a diamond blade specifically for glass and some hole saws. If you need a saw I would loan it out if you need it.

I love not having the clunky looking overflow box in my tank and the waterfall doesn't fill up with algae like the teeth flows do. The only downside is that you have to have the space behind the tank for the box or boxes.

Here's some pic's. Instead of a slot, you could do a trough. The slot is just big enough to put my returns through. Also, I did a full 4 sided acrylic box so that I could color the back glass and not have it as part of the overflow.

Here's my advise for what it's worth. If you have a small load, get a timer to control your solenoid and set the drip to a solid steady stream, with a bubble rate of say 100 to 140 per minute. Let it run for 15 or 20 minutes and check the KH of the affluent. It should be > 25 dkh and < 40 or you need to increase/decrease the bubbles or decrease/increase the drip. 20 lbs should be plenty on the pressure. Use the timer to turn on the C02 for 4 or 5 Hrs a day and watch the kh of the tank. If the kh stays in the 9-12 range you should be good. If it creeps up decrease the on time or if it creeps down increase the on time. Slow drips and low bubble counts are your worst nightmare as the water control valve plugs (particulates) and small changes in pressure affect the bubbles with low counts.

I run mine this way without the timer as my calcium load is high (have lots of big acros, coraline and lps) but many tanks run lower loads and can't run full bore 24/7. As your coral grow you will have to slowly increase the ontime once you find the sweetspot.

i have a ph probe in mine but more to keep an eye on things, it doesn't control anything. Once in a while I make an adjustment to the bubbles or flow, maybe once a week.

Another thing you might like if you don't have a dual chamber is to run the efffluent into a bucket with an air stone (drives off excess C02), in my tank this raises my ph about 0.2 and keeps me above 8.2 in the daytime. You may not find this a requirement if you are only running C02 in the daytime as photosynthesis burns the excess C02 off.

Just works for me and no or few system failures as it is simple.

What you want to do on your reef. There are soft coral, lps and sps corals, mixed corals or fish only with live rock, or....

Any idea of what you want to put in the tank yet. This will greatly influence the type of advise you will get.

Stephen,

I got my low iron glass from glass cages and haven't noticed a problem with scratching. I did have lots of scratches in my old tank which was standard plate -- many from getting sand in the cleaning pad when I had a sand bottom, others from bumping rocks into the side of the tank. My understanding is that low iron glass requires a "cleaner" starting material as iron often exists in varying concentrations in sand, the main ingredient in glass. It's not like the iron is added to make the glass better or stronger, but rather you need a cleaner higher quality starting material to make low iron glass. I think, with exception of reduced iron, it is standard soda-lime float glass with near identical properties.

That's nothing, can your urchin do this??? Everything in the center of the pic is attached, even the clam and pvc pipe.

Very clever how you piled all that stuff on top of your urchin to one up Elizzy

Saw this at RC and couldn't resist. It even looks good with an Iphone camera under my halides, but better live.

I just got rid of a fox face that after a year started eating acans, sps, and my open brains. I had to order my fish trap and it took weeks to get it. By then head had eaten one head of my rainbow acans and about 10 heads of others that I had. He also kept nipping at zoas so they started not opening and then dying off. I hated that fish by the time I got him out.

I have a trap but I'm using it to catch a couple of other fish.

and he's very happy and well behaved in my tank. (for now) lol

I have an aptasia eating copperbanded butterfly you can have if you want to catch him. Once he is finished with your aptasia he will pick on your acans and steals mysis from lps. Beautiful fish, come and get him.

Nice looking tank Don, and once again I'm amazed at how quickly you've set it up. Still no where near done with mine.

Someone please buy it whole as it is at a size that is going to grow incredibly fast. Here's a pic of mine and my camera doesn't do it justice (camera washes out the size and color of the eyes). I paid $100 for two eyes and it took a long time to get to the size of Brooks, but then it just took off and it's over 3" now. At 9 eyes and expanding it will be a show piece in a few months. One of my favorite corals.

I nominate you Dear Sir! I know I didn't have the full scale destruction that Don had but I lost all my sps'. It sucks, was expensive, and to tell the truth pretty demoralizing.

I feel your pain and was certainly not trying to make light of your situation by suggesting a controlled experiment, just drive home the point that I think you are dealing with a contamination issue from the light in the water. Based upon my experience and yours I think you need water changes. Again, please accept my apologies, I don't think there is anything funny about losing any amount of corals (lost plenty of my own stuff and it feels bad).

This is interesting as I had a similar situation 4 years ago. In my case the light was in the water (in the sump) all night and there was clearly plating removed from the reflector. Here's the thing with electricity, current will take the path of least resistance so it is unlikely that current will travel far from the light. Also, the neutral wire is really an insulated ground wire where the Hot wire is an oscillating voltage (110V rms at 60 Hz). I think the voltage swings both positive and negative so the average voltage is 0V. Can't imagine how you could get much, if any current in the tank as a current path would be very resistive through the water hose, into the tank and back to the wires.

By the time my tank lighting came on (6 or 8hrs) all my corals were major freaked out, sps were covered in slime. I did major water changes and added anything that could remove heavy metals. Most of my stuff recovered after a month, but all of my stoney coral were affected, especially sps and hammers. None of my fish or soft coral suffered. I thought it was some sort of electroplating, but wasn't sure of what. The wires were copper and the reflector was some sort of light weight alloy like aluminum (the reflector had small holes eaten into it). Then there is the element in the bulb which is probably a tungsten alloy, so maybe the burned up element contaminated the water.

Hard to believe a voltage in the tank would cause a problem. Voltage is just a difference in net charge between the the water and ground. Humans quite frequently develop large potentials of several thousand volts and it doesn't harm us. Walk on a carpet and touch a wall sometime. Current through humans though is a very bad thing, a few milli amps passing through your heart can kill you -- say one hand to the other. It disrupts the tiny electrical flow of the nervous system which can stop your heart if the signals are overpowered.

So the fish are fine and they have hearts and nervous systems, but corals are affected?

I never did figure out what caused my coral to almost die, but I still believe it was contamination from the light and after hearing your story I think maybe the element in the bulb. Controlled experiment anyone?

You got me Mark, that was funny!

We tear on each other pretty hard around here, but it is all in good humor. If Brooks ends up like us, civilization is headed for the toilet!! (south Austin)

I don't think you have to worry about Brooks, he's a class act. You other guys....

Nice scape Brooks, version two looks great.

Nice looking tank Don. Looks incredibly good for just being moved. Some people just have the touch...

How about coming by my house and taking a few shots sometime?

Not sure why no one wants to use a copperband butterfly. I have owned three and all of them have kept my tanks completely clear. There is a small risk of coral nipping, but if you feed them, not a problem. I had one that lived for 4 years plus and a second one I've had for almost two years. And hey, pretty to look at and not very expensive.

If you want to save $$ and get a fast setting epoxy, get it from marine depot. They have the 2 little fishies AquaStik in stone grey and coraline red, 9.99 and 10.99 respectively. These are the big 4oz sticks. I have used it all and find this to be the fastest setting and best colors (white is the worst). Just be sure to get it with a big enough order to avoid the shipping cost.

http://www.marinedepot.com/miscellaneous_epoxy-ap.html

Looks Great! But now you are probably thinking you need a bigger tank.

Hey Jerrad,

See you got my sun coral. It's the three or four yellow bumps on the bottom rock. This coral has been hitching around in my tank for several years and was hidden till I pulled the rock out. Didn't even know I had it. It will open, but if you want it to live it needs to be spot fed meaty foods (mysis or smaller food). This coral isn't photosynthetic so it can grow in the dark but has to have a food supply.

Now you have it. Will it live or die? Let me know if it opens up.

Aqua scape looks good. How do you get the rock to stand? Hope things progress well and it was nice meeting you.

-Dale

Thanks.

Is that 1.5" or 2" (in the direction of the bulb-width)?

One last question....

What is the total length including the end caps? I'm trying to decide between the 48" and 46.5" bulbs.

You need at least 48.25 inches for the 4 ft bulb with end caps. I would say a 2.5 inch minimum for each bulb, actual cap is 2" but you will need room for the screw caps.