Ooo, shiney, so I guess you scrapped the idea of DIY reflectors eh?

Ya...I guess. I really wanted to do that but in the end I guess this was just easier.

I bought two XM 20K bulbs today and even with my old reflectors and crappy light set up, they are great. Really like the color and you certainly don't need any actinics. They seem WAY brighter than I thought 20K would be.

I would have loved to have been able to get PAR readings before and after changing the bulbs. Would have been interesting to see the difference between year old 14K and brand new 20K. The new ones of course look 10 times brighter even though they are so much bluer.


Hahaha...I also just realized I forgot to dose ZEO again today. I am on quite the roll here. I did it all yesterday but have missed 3 of the past 4 days :neutral: I really hate messing with the tank on a daily basis. I prefer just to watch it. Thats the funny thing...I must have spent like 2-3 hours today just sitting and watching the fish but it never occurred to me to dose the ZEO.

Going to be hard to explain but looking for light hanging help.

I need to hang my two reflectors. I was thinking to build a rectangle out of aluminum to bolt them both to and then hang it. So very basic. What I am wondering about though, is how to hang the whole unit. I was hoping to hang it how pool table light racks are often hung...(heres where I can't really explain things) so that there are four cables bolted in each corner that then meet a few feet up and in the middle...make sense? So that only one cable is bolted to the ceiling.

But this seems like it would move around maybe? Will it stay steady? A heavy fixture would have an easier time staying steady but this would be so light. Am I better doing this a different way?

Or any other ideas for hanging the lights? Even thought of doing something like rods from the back of the stand that extend out over the tank and the reflectors hang off of them but I think this would be ugly.

Looking for ideas because my ceilings are 14' high and concrete. I don't really want to be drilling them too much. I also think its going to look silly having the lights hang down so far...

Check out Untamed's build thread he has very detailed light hanging ideas

J

I am going to his place today actually so I will see if his lights inspire me at all :D

The coral snow is no longer working for the cyano. It came back 10 times worse after about 4 days of being gone completely. Nothing had changed in that time except I was feeding much less to the fish.

I still dont want to use any chemicals, so I am going to do the lights out for a few days. I have added a few new corals though two days ago and was worried that maybe going lights out on them already may just add more stress than normal since they are new to the tank? They did come from a members tank and have acclimated great.

I hate to say it, but it's starting to sound like Zeo can be more trouble than it's worth. i've read some zeo threads where people have no cyano outbreak, and others were peoples tanks are over run with it. I wonder what makes the difference between the two....odd

I think it has to do with your nutrient levels at the beginning of zeo, during zeo and how lucky you are. Luck because you are feeding bacteria with the carbon source but not just a specific strain of bacteria. In this case, cyano is being fed and is apparently dominant. This is obviously the reason to dose more ZEObak (bacteria) but I think you still have to get lucky.

And yes, I feel now that ZEO is more of a pain than its worth and still don't know about starting again with the new tank...leaning towards no.

well I'm starting to vodka dose the 90 today (as soon as I get a syringe...) so I'll keep you posted. I recently discovered that an old friend of mine from way back in the day vodka doses their tank and think it's the greatest thing ever. I was a little worried about trying it because of the DSB, but have read how some people deal with it. IF they have problems. I guess what it breaks down to for me is: Zeovit - hundreds of dollars. Vodka - 40 bucks.

So after all the searching for ideas on how to hang the lights...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ankresize2.jpg



Doesn't get much simpler ant it looks EXACTLY how I want mine. These are the exact same reflectors hung by one cable each. I PM'd the guy and he said they never move around unless you move them physically.