Lance? Please tell us the tank is fine this morning... :pray:

Well I came down at 3am to check things out and couldn't see anything. The water level in the tank is fine and no wet spots anywhere. Checked again at 6am before going to work and again just now: no apparent problem. I think it must be the reflectors cooling down. The sound seemed to come from up higher. Don't know why this would happen all of a sudden, the light has been on the tank since May?

Good to hear, I continue to hope it's nothing.

Have you checked the lights themselves? It's happened to me where the glass envelope itself cracked and fall partly off. This was bad news I lost a pile of corals to UV damage and when it happened to Christy she lost fish to UV burn as well so it's something you'll want to confirm ASAP.

I checked the lights last night and they're fine. I'm pretty sure it's just contraction of the reflectors. Sure scared the crap out of me though!

Good news!

My reflectors pop all time as well.

dumb stoopid light! I think you should sell it, cheap! asap!

I was bored so decided to re-read this journal (cause this tank has always been one of my faves)....

*ahem*

awwweeeeeee you guys missed me!

That would have scared me quite a bit! I'm glad it seems to have been nothing!

Yup, pretty sure that's what it was.



Not gonna happen. I'd sell my first born and left pheasant ball before I let this light go.



Wow, you must have been really bored to re-read that much drivel, and yes we did miss you.


Won't lie to ya, my knees were knockin' pretty good there for a bit.

Man I hate those little noises that you hear (or think you hear)....sets up hours of paranoia:twised:....good to hear all is well Lance...

btw....you still running the pellets?.....nitrates still low?....just curious as I use your tank as an example of a successful pellet story all the time at the shop....

Doug, I couldn't be happier with the pellets. Nitrates start at 0 and only get to .25 before changing 15% of the water every two weeks. (Salifert & Elos) Phosphates are always zero on the Hanna checker. I used to have to do 15% changes weekly to keep the nitrates under 25. Tank has never been clearer and corals are growing well. I run the pellets in a Vertex UF-15 and just a small amount of GFO in a TLF reactor. I find if I don't run at least a little GFO I get some cyano.

Thats great mang!.....do you find the need to clean your equipment(mind outta the gutter kids:wink:) more?....

Briefly thought about running them on the old version but nitrates sat around 5 so I figured "why bother"....thought about it briefly again right after the crash and the algae explosion happened....was kinda sittin on the fence waiting to see what time would tell with them....sounds promising!

When I first started them I had a small outbreak of cyano and film algae on the glass. This lasted no more than a couple of weeks. They are pretty much maintenance free. Pour them in the reactor, turn on the pump and forget about it.

Dammit I hate when equipment doesn't last.
$150 per bulb and one burns out after 5 months. Grrrrrrr! Would have liked to get another 5 months out of it. The next bulbs will be the cheaper XM's.

eeeek! 150 bones for a bulb!.....what flavor were they?.....seems pretty steep for a bulb these days.....

Geiseman Megachrome 400w 13000K = $130 plus tax plus freight = $150

Anybody using the XM 15000K 400w MH? Would like to hear what you think of them.

I am using the SE 14K XM, little on the yellow side but getting good growth.

I wonder how much difference between the 14K and 15K? The sales pitch is a blue/white colour.

I figure the difference would be somewhere around 1K :eyebrows: seriously tho that may just be the difference between the SE and DE bulbs as I have not seen a 15K SE. I am due for a city trip if you want me to pick you up a bulb (save some shipping, and know it won't get smashed on the way here)

Thanks Dave but I'm good for bulbs. I've still got about 6 months left on the other two and I just stuck one of the original bulbs in the centre to replace the burnt out one. When are you going down?

It will be next week now, you want to take a day off and go for a road trip? just be one day down and back, most likely Thursday.

Can't make it this time, but definitely something we should do.

Holy crap Chromis are prolific little buggers! Once a week like clockwork. The female (?) guards the eggs from all intruders, even keeping the Tuskfish and Lunare Wrasse at bay. The eggs are always laid in the same place; out in the open on the end glass.
From the thirteen I originally bought in January '09 I am down to five. Since arriving at five the bickering stopped. I suspect I now have one male with a harem.

No photos for us Lance?

Sorry, no camera tonight. But I will take some.

Neat!!

They get pretty aggressive when paired or what? I'm down to 2 and they are definitely displaying some courtship-style behavior. I'm thinking I don't want them to get jiggy...

They're Damsels. That's what they do: pick on the weak one until it's gone and then move on to the next poor soul. Funny thing is though, I only had a couple of spawns when I had the larger group. Now that the group is five they spawn regularly.

Maybe you should sit them down and give them 'the Talk'.

I think it's pretty obvious nobody ever sat ME down for it so I wouldn't have a clue what to say :neutral:

I'd pay good money to see that: Brett sitting down with a little blue fish discussing safe sex.

you want a secret?
I'm using ebay bulbs.. 20$each
:whistle:

Think he'll use flash cards?

Not going there guys I'm semi-reformed here.

What kind are they Josie?

the mark is Artemis...
and the guy selling them on ebay is in Ontario
seller: hobbylighting
:)

Thanks, I'll check it out. Oh, and I just finished installing the Mocean. Pics coming later.

Ryan here's a few pics of the Chromis and the eggs. Other than feeding time he/she will stand guard over these eggs against all comers. The Kole Tang is the funniest to watch: pretending to go about his own business cleaning the rock and glass all the while edging closer and closer to the eggs, until he passes the imaginary line and the Chromis dive bombs him and drives him off. I've tried numerous times to catch this on video but when I get the camera out all the fish get camera shy.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMG_1021.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMG_1019.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/IMG_2162.jpg

Here's a crappy video of the the new Mocean I just installed. Needs a little tweaking yet: I have the 1" outlet on it and about 900 to 1000 GPH running through it. You can see some bubbles and crap in the water due to the Mocean current hitting the Vortech currents and boiling the water surface. With a little bit of fiddling I'm sure I'll get rid of that. Over all I'm quite happy with it. It seems to be made well and is dead quiet. You can program the speed as well as the degree of rotation from 360 degrees to stationary. I was able to eliminate a couple of flat spots I had on the surface. (click on the picture)
(notice Bubba the Trigger hangin' in his own personal little flow there in the corner).



http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...h_MVI_2163.jpg