travisurfer Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 are they parabolic? or just bent to the point which still allows a large amount of light to be reflected Link to comment
Lingwendil Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 When space permits, they're parabolic, individually fitted to each bulb. For double bulb setups where space is limited, I bend them almost the same as the coralife reflectors. On another note... The company zeroed us on my bulbs! Now I'll have to wait until next week, or order them online. I just finished cutting down a 48" aqualite down to 12", And installed a pair of 22w max ballasts, a 12v transformer, fan, and a moonlight LED. I already have a 18w 6500K bulb for it, but was hoping to get an actinic in there tommorrow. Drat.... only 18w of light? How will my zoos ever survive until next week? Link to comment
travisurfer Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 lol, that is what i did with my fixture too except it was one of those plastic strips. Link to comment
Lingwendil Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I'll try and take some pics of my old fixture at work tomorrow. It was one of those 12" strips with (at one time) four bulbs crammed in, now it's got only two. Honestly, the best way I ever got it to work using 13w's was when they were all mounted on parabolic reflectors in an old aqualight mini hood. I'll start a thread soon on my 2.5, with pics of my 12" aqualight retro project. Need to get my camera working right first! Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 i've got a coralife 36w aqualight (dual 18w) over my 2.5, with an aquaclear 70 refugium. since the light is 1" wider than the tank front to back (it's the same with the current fixture as well) i just rested the back of the light on the AC70 and put the front of the light on legs. looks great, and since the AC70 is so wide it's perfectly steady. my zoanthids have gone nuts since i put them in this tank, and so have my GSP and purple mushrooms. i had a clam that was pretty happy, too, but my blue leg knocked a torch frag on top of it while i was gone for the weekend and it never recovered . Link to comment
Lingwendil Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 i've got a coralife 36w aqualight (dual 18w) over my 2.5, with an aquaclear 70 refugium. since the light is 1" wider than the tank front to back (it's the same with the current fixture as well) i just rested the back of the light on the AC70 and put the front of the light on legs. looks great, and since the AC70 is so wide it's perfectly steady. That's the best idea ever! I'm definetely doing that for mine now! Keep thinkin' like that and you could have my job some day. Link to comment
travisurfer Posted October 26, 2006 Author Share Posted October 26, 2006 nice idea, do you have any temp issues? right now i cant have a fuge because of my lighting but that could be a great idea. the 36w i believe is $54 from the drsfostersmith. Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 nice idea, do you have any temp issues? right now i cant have a fuge because of my lighting but that could be a great idea. the 36w i believe is $54 from the drsfostersmith. well i like my room cool so i've got a ceiling fan on 24/7 and another fan in the corner across the room from the tank, so there's plenty of air circulation in the room, but on the hottest summer day at my house the tank topped out at 82 degrees. 90% of the time, the tank hovers around 76-78 (almost always 76) during the day and 73 at night (what my heater's set for). i've had no problems at all, EXCEPT for when the power went out the other day and the YCB i've had for a year decided to swim up the intake of the filter... and then the power came on. apparently, clown gobies aren't impeller proof... but the BIGGEST suggestion i can make, lighting aside, is cram it with live rock. i've got 5 lbs of fiji, including what's attached to corals. i have NEVER had a chemical spike, after my nazi YCB chased a rose banded goby into the rocks until it died and disappeared and a rainford, not to mention my clam that finally kicked the bucket the NEXT weekend i was gone. came back to it in a pile of mush and my tank was still PERFECT. not even any nitrates. Link to comment
Lingwendil Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 but the BIGGEST suggestion i can make, lighting aside, is cram it with live rock. i've got 5 lbs of fiji, including what's attached to corals. i have NEVER had a chemical spike, after my nazi YCB chased a rose banded goby into the rocks until it died and disappeared and a rainford, not to mention my clam that finally kicked the bucket the NEXT weekend i was gone. came back to it in a pile of mush and my tank was still PERFECT. not even any nitrates. LR is wonderful stuff, aint it? I cooked a maxima in my 2.5G this fourth of july, and when I tested my water the next day my Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate all read zero. My 2.5G has a zoo-med canister filter (~80GPH) crammed with LR and a sponge for my filtration, And it's doing great. Three pounds in my filter alone is pretty good, With another four or so in my tank. I'm getting an AC70 soon though, and that'll have some more of course. I know it's off topic, but what's a good heater for an AC70? Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 LR is wonderful stuff, aint it? I cooked a maxima in my 2.5G this fourth of july, and when I tested my water the next day my Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate all read zero. My 2.5G has a zoo-med canister filter (~80GPH) crammed with LR and a sponge for my filtration, And it's doing great. Three pounds in my filter alone is pretty good, With another four or so in my tank. I'm getting an AC70 soon though, and that'll have some more of course. I know it's off topic, but what's a good heater for an AC70? haha, i have so much live rock i didn't need to worry about hiding my heater in the filter, so i put my 25w visi-stealth along the back of the tank at the bottom. you can't even tell it's there. not sure on one to go IN the filter though. Link to comment
travisurfer Posted October 27, 2006 Author Share Posted October 27, 2006 the theo 50w heater is extremely small. i currently have mine in a whisper 20 filter. my tank as around 4lbs of rock. i am thinking about some kind of additional filtration in the form of a small cannister filter with rubble. that way the tank will be bullet proof and i may even be able to put a heater in there to clean up the tank even more. do you have any pics fishguy? Link to comment
Lingwendil Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Yeah fishguy, sow us! I just added a blue LED fan to my fixture, the stock ones are too loud... It's now even better! Oh, and here's my canister if anyone's interested: http://www.shop.com/op/~Zoo_Med_Save_Your_...060?sourceid=57 Link to comment
travisurfer Posted October 28, 2006 Author Share Posted October 28, 2006 we will have to compare the filters since i just got a similar one from toms aquatics. wont come until sometime next week Link to comment
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