I would have to hide that one from the wife. $450 thats terrible.

Saw Puttputts tank today for the first time when I picked up my Arcadia unit - looks awesome. Pics dont do it justice really (not a slap at your photo skills Putt :lol: )

itching to get my new lights up and going but will probably be a week or two away as my work sparkie is off to the Bledisloe Cup in Brissie this weekend (supplier perk lucky B!)

Just had a visit from Cracker, damn fine bloke, look forward to seeing his tank.

Wot, youse fellas are just over the hill from one another and this is the first time you have met?? :lol:

When you see his tank make sure its a Sunday so you witness the way he 'drips' his additives for the week.... :lol:

This mans tank is lovely, Acro growth phenomenal. Awesome setup, beaut colours, top bloke and now its time to find some more god damn money!!!

:-?

Those lights.........wooohoooo....

I think I smell luminarcs.....

I have to agree with all here, These lights are definitely a cut above the rest.

Nick, have your coulours AND growth increased and if so how long now? 5 weeks?

Whats the biggest difference you have noticed with the livestock?

What mean as equipment and lighting set-ups.

I have to make do with the single 150watt. :oops:

My wife would shoot me over a $450 power bill. :evil:

My wife would shoot me over a $450 power bill

well i wouldnt equate all that to lighting. 3 x 400W'ers on 10 hours a day is 360KWhrs per month. At around 17c/KWh that's only about $60 a month. Add to that the other equipment and I'd guestimate about $100 a month to run the tank. Although I'd prefer to look at it like $3 a day What I really need is a controller that logs when the heaters come on to see if they count towards the bill that much!

I think the biggest addition to the power bill (which was actually $480 not $450 ) is the wife using the dryer - so maybe i should shoot her

Then you will have to do the washing. Thats not a good look.

Thanks to Cracker, now have toughened starphire glass on the luminarcs.

better safe than sorry.....

Thanks to Cracker, now have toughened starphire glass on the luminarcs.

better safe than sorry.....

interesting. i read SE bulbs dont put out anywhere near as much UV as DE. also read various forms of UV are actually utilised by corals. i'll dig up the pages in "aquarium corals" (bourneman book) and let you know.

its for splash protection Chimera, not UV. Splash your hot bulbs and Bang, tank full of glass.

never had that problem - especially considering the bulbs are 10 inches away from the water

Yup I got one too my bulb is about 10cm from the water so i figure good insurance?

only needs to happen once, I wasn't going to either, but Cracker got these at a good price, and the possiblility is there that at some time or rather, a fish, or you when your in the tank will accidentally spalsh it.

Individual choice, certainly didn't dim the light at all.

Personally I have had the glass covers on my lights break twice, once while I was at work so assume must have been a fish, the other I splashed while removing a pump from the tank. The glass on my lights is 10-15cm from the surface.

But having had it happen I do have to question the wisdom of using toughened glass, it will smash if splashed when hot (mind sure did) and will end up in tiny little pieces all over the tank cause the whole sheet goes and into those little square pieces. The bulb on the other hand would be further away from the water so lesss likely to be splashed and would only end up in a few larger pieces. Of course on the plus side the glass would be cheaper to replace, I guess.

I would think safety glass would stay together albeit in tiny squares if cracked??, and it would also take a decent splash to crack it, as opposed the thin glass on the bulbs, which would not take alot of thermal shock.

anyway, they are up, in use, give me good piece of mind and are alot cheaper than new bulbs.

cover glass is a very safe option regardless of type. your bulb might not explode into a thousand pieces but could crack and keep working killing everything in the process with unshielded UV radiation.

safety glass is different from toughened glass, safety glass has a plastic sheet in the middle so is no good for heat but wont break, toughened is heat treated, its hard to break but when it does goes into a million pieces.

I also think the chances of the outer shield glass on a single ended bulb breaking and falling off enough to stop it blocking the UV and the actual bulb still working is slim, but I could be wrong.

Anyway the point I was making in my first post is the glass will still smash if splashed, and it makes a real mess. Its probably 4 months since I broke my glass and I still find bits of it in my tank every week. The other down side is the extra salt spray you will get on it blocking the light since it is closer to the water level, but I guess its easier to clean off.

pretty sure it's safety glass, and has that stamped on it. If it is, crackers has been on a while and shows no sign of problems with the heat??

Toughened glass is made to increase the force required to break the glass from an impact, as well as reduce the danger of it when it does break, by not splintering.

Safety glass is made to stop glass breaking into tiny pieces and going everywhere, by using a laminate which holds the pane together even if it's cracked into a million pieces.

They are not designed to be inherently resistant to thermal gradients like when relatively cold water hits the relatively hot glass.

Borosilicate glass is made for that purpose. Pyrex is a common brand name for it.

Having said that i've never had the glass envelope on a single ended bulb crack from thermal stress.

My trigger splashes them reasonably often when feeding. Sometimes it even "spits" at them.

They seem to be pretty resistant in the brands i've used. Maybe other brands use different types of glass making them more susceptible to breaking like this.

Layton

The starphire glass used is heat treated and if droplets hit it. it will smash into minute pieces rather than big shards that will cut corals and fish clean in half.

huge amounts of cold liquid would have to hit the glass before it fails first anyway.

It protects the bulb mainly, as the droplets cant get to them due to the glass covers.

The starphire glass used is heat treated and if droplets hit it. it will smash into minute pieces

.....and then simply siphon them out off your bare bottom :lol:

I have 2 cx glass covers in stock and can get more if needed.

PM me if you want these two.

Wasp? Chimera?

but Cracker got these at a good price

now thats ALWAYS a good reason