Ira

Is the club planning on going go karting or something this weekend? I missed the last meeting so I'm totally out of the loop.

The board's clock is fine, you just need to adjust your profile's time zone to account for daylight savings.

I suppose you could use just a small powerhead or something at first to pump the water up from the sump something weak enough it takes ages to pump the sump's volume up into the main tank, give it heaps of time for everything to adjust but...That'd just be a pain in the butt.

A brown mushroom survived on the liverock steve shipped me too. Was just a little thing, barely even a brown speck at first, I think. Actually, other than color it looks almost exactly a little toadstool mushroom at the moment. Oh, and a bigass aiptasia survived too! I bet they're even tougher than mushrooms. Gotta do something about that one.

Because the bigger one was about 4000liters per hour.

So, I had the wifey stop at Animates on the way home from work today and told her to grab an air pump. "Get the biggest they have." I said. Because the one I'm using doesn't quite cut it I thought the next step up would be good and that's the biggest in that line. So she comes back and says, "I got the second biggest I could find." I thought that was ok, that should do well anyway since it'll still be more powerful than the worn out one in there. that's supposed to be rated at about 250 liters/hr. Turns outs she got a resun ACO-001 electromagnetic pump that's rated at about 1800 liters per hour. haha. It's actually doing a great job now, nheaps of current in the tank from all the bubbles. It's being strangled by going through just one airhose though, I bet I could put 3 more of the bubble disks on it without any noticable decrease in airflow. It's actually smaller than the old one too.

Hey! You've got your rocks almost the same as mine! Hehe. Though, my right side is higher and relatively level across the top.

I've never caught why people say MHs have to be so far from the water? I've seen distances from 3inches to 2 feet. There are a lot of retrofit kits I've seen pictures of that don't put them more than 3-4" from the water surface which is about what they'd end up being in mine.

I'd go with the T5s, except for the slight packaging problem...

No moderator for this forum to do it anyway. Maybe someone should email Cees and volunteer?

Or you could throw in a powerhead or something for more current, that should bring the two ends closer AND more current is always a good thing.

There are 1000 cubic centimeters in a liter. Do the math. Just in case you don't have a calculator, it comes out to 108liters, so it's probably a bit over 100.

Don't even bother with putting a tap to turn it off, just have it an inch or so below the bottom of the cup. No reason to make it more complicated.

Hmm, looks like actually I could probably get 175 watt SE ballasts for about $130, lamp holders for $30 each. So, yeah, $160 not including the bulb. I wouldn't think heat would be too bad, there are heaps of retrofit kits designed for exactly the same thing. I asked about them at redwoods...$1700 for one that bad been used in the shop. I suppose a single 175 would end up with just the center of the tank being lit, but would cut any heat concerns in half. But, you think it'd be more light than I'd need, Pies? I've had a closer look at how much space I have and if I transferred the 4' T8s into the hood they'd be practically touching, what effect would that have on lighting efficiency? Just seems that still the MHs might be the easiest, most effective, and not too expensive.

By design on most for more sludge capacity. My mce600 redirects any overflow back into the water...Well, it's better than that crap overflowing onto the floor.

Prices I've seen here was about a $300 nz price difference. I'll have to have a look at that site. Oh, and Pies, PM me your address, I've been trying to PM, call and email you. This time I'll put the damn thing somewhere safe instead of in my saved PMs.

Probably cheaper buying a transformer and a 110V sea swirl than getting a 220V one locally. That's what I'm planning on doing eventually, but,I've already got the transformer near my tank running my PC speakers.

Hmm, problem is the 4X4' T5 unit won't fit in my hood. The hob skimmer is in the way and if that wasn't there it would cover the entire top of the tank making it necessary from the looks of it to remove the hood and the lighting just to feed the tank or do anything else in it. Definitely a point in favor of MHs. Maybe I can tear the guts out of the T5 unit and mount them in the hood so that they do fit. But, if I'm going to do that maybe I might as well just use the 4X4' NO flouros I've got mounted in the hood of another tank?

Anyone got any sources locally for bits and pieces to build MH lights? Most of the premade units won't fit in my tank's hood but if I build it myself I should be able to fit it. Looks like about $700ish for the ballasts, lights and sockets from reefonline.co.au. I'm aiming for two 150 watt DE, btw. I'll still need reflectors and I vaguely remember they need something to block UV? I want MH, but may settle for T5s

Uhh...Mine were orange.

Wow, that's an unusual looking Angel. Went to stop at Redwoods today on my way into Chch, open 6 days a week, guess which day they're closed? FRIDAY AAAHHH!! :evil:

A 4 foot, 220 liter would be the minimum for those once they're grown, they'll be crowded but not TOO badly.

Clown loaches sleep upside down, on their side, head down, tail down, floating around the tank, on top of each other, wedged between rocks or any other way that strikes them as comfortable at the time.

I've found most of my impulse buys to be some of the best purchases I've made.

Oh, and fins you can't claim to have done the most disgusting thing until you've tried sucking on the hose from a cannister filter trying to get it running and suck up a plug of algae and gunk that was in the hose...Been there, done that.