My fish got a new home!

[Tigahboy]

hahah...everytime I hear from you, your tank keeps increasing. Hey, man. The bigger the better. Do what you gotta do to make you happy. And do it for the Tangs! haha. j/k.

[bowfront26]

ill bet the clowns jump in today. What do you do for top off Tigah... float switch or what?

[Shaz]

lol tigah i am VERY indecisive the tanks that I have thought about doing have went in this order: 20h, 55g, 75g, 29g, back to a 55, then back to the 29, then a 40g breeder, now I think a 50g breeder. I know people say to NEVER rush things in this hobby, but I am getting pathetic haha. Do you think the 250w Mh would reach the bottom of of the 18" high 50g breeder?

[Tigahboy]

Bowfront26, unfortunately, the clowns did not jump in yet. Why? Because the RBTA has decided to hide in a cave. haha. Hopefully, he'll come out soon. I can actually see his tentacles reaching thru crevices towards light, but his body for the most part is under a rock. I just hope he doesnt end up in the back of my rockwork...another reason why I should've just pushed all the rocks to the back of my tank. =/

[Tigahboy]

What are the exact dimensions of a 50g breeder? I think it should be able to reach. I have a 16" tall tank, but b/c my tank is acrylic I have them really high above the water (10-11")...if you are going w/ glass, you can place them a little lower...which would result in less spread outside the tank and more reach to the bottom.

[Tigahboy]

Originally posted by bowfront26

What do you do for top off Tigah... float switch or what?

Unfortunately, I don't have auto top-off. I do it myself. Every single night and sometimes mornings...Kind of a pain, and not really consistent cuz I do forget occassionally. I really need to buy an auto top-off set-up soon. If you find any cool ones, let me know.

 

And what do you do for top-off, sir?

[Tigahboy]

[Tigahboy]

[Tigahboy]

Finally the RBTA is somewhat facing the front. Now I can actually see him!

 

[Tigahboy]

Wohooo! Zero nitrates at last! Just thought I'd share my joy. haha. I really gotta prune the chaeto tho. Out of control.

[Sushi]

i just noticed, your coralline algae looks so nice ... such nice coloration

[Tigahboy]

Thanks!...I didn't have such nice coloration until I started dosing stuff...and it grows mega fast now.

[TheCheat]

Tigah,

 

Great lookin' tank!

 

You're running the Aqua Medic 250W pendant now, right?

At what height above the tank's top, do you get light spill-over? I just picked up the same light, but I'm still trying to find out what tank it would fit nicely over without frying stuff.

Thanks,

B

[Tigahboy]

Hey TheCheat. Thanks for the compliment!

 

Yes, I do have the Aqua Medic 250w. I just received it last week, and was running the 150w before then. I love these lights! Even though I was initially told that one pendant may not be enough to spread adequately across a length more than 24", as you can see in my pics that it does quite well over 36". In fact, I still have a lot more room for more coverage.

 

But yeah, part of this is b/c I have my lights a little higher than what I have seen on others. I have mine at 10-11" right now. But even if I lower it, I still get good coverage and I don't think it is possible to have like ZERO spill over of the lights w/o 1) frying stuff and 2) having a pendant in your way everytime you want to do some maintenance in your tank.

 

I have it at this height for 2 reasons: 1) Access. I have plenty of access to my tank when I need to do some good scrubbing of algae, feeding, etc. The pendant does not get in the way at all at this height. So less cumbersome is a good reason to have it a little higher. Also, no worry about water splashing up and messing up the lights. And 2) heat issues. Having my lights this high does minimize heat issues. Though I do realize that if I did not have a sump/refugium or if it were summertime, I probably would. I could probably put a fan to cool it down, but I have enough evaporation as it is and I don't want to deal w/ drastic salinity swings (I don't have auto-top off yet). But more importantly, it's b/c I have an acrylic tank. The mh's get super hot and can easily warp or weaken the structural integrity of the acrylic bracing that is directly under the lights. So I read that it was safer to have it at LEAST 9-10" above. I rather play it safe and so I follow.

 

So if you want to have a tank that will nicely accomodate the lighting. You could go for either a tank that is much wider than mine....like maybe a CUBE design. I think my lights would be perfect for a 30" x 30" tank. Maybe a 30x30 w/ a 16" height (my tank's current height). I think that would be perfect. But the lights do spread more in the left-right direction rather than the front-back direction, so it wouldn't be perfect perfect; but damn close. but that would be like a 70-80g tank!

 

OR you could go for a glass tank so you can drop the lights a little lower than mine to reduce the spillage of lighting. Maybe something like a 40g breeder...

 

Basically I think the lights can easily handle 36" long and, at the least, a 20" wide tank. I'm no expert in the physics of lighting to be able to speak on the correlation between height of tank and the corresponding intensity of light penetration, but I do know that I have plenty for my 16" tall 30g. Others (like uchiha) have 18" tall and they also keep light-needy clams at the bottom w/o incident, so I'm sure that would work as well.

 

Sorry for my VERY long-winded response. I am in a "writing" mood right now. Hope that helps!

 

P.S. I'm a HUGE fan of Strong Bad as well!

[smokez01]

hey tigah if you prune your cheato do you think you could send over a small zip lock baggie of some as soon as i set up my refuge probably after x-mas

[Tigahboy]

Hey Smokez! Well, I have to figure out how to go about doing that. But if I figure it out, I can sell you some for a very reasonable price (basically just shipping plus a couple dollars to go to my upgrade fund. hehe.). I should have plenty to spare by after X-mas.

[TheCheat]

Tigah,

Thanks very much for the thorough reply. I've been following this entire thread. It's impressive how much you've learned AND taught people in the seemingly short time you've been on this board. Well done.

 

So... sounds like I've got more than enough light with my new Aqua Medic to do some serious coral growin.' For budgetary reasons, I really want to keep the tank in the 20-30g range, plus a 10-15g sump. i've considered the 30g oceanic cube, but a standard tank wont fit in the stand (which is really a shame, since it's so beautiful).

anyway, thanks for the response. i appreciate having your thoughts on the 250W pendant and what it can do.

~b

[Tigahboy]

Thanks for your kind words! I think I spend more time reading material on reef-keeping than my law school reading...which is not necessarily a good thing. haha. but I have learned so much in such a short period of time from not only reading articles, books, etc...but by feedback from helpful nano-reefers here and in other similar forums...so I just try to give back what I've learned, but only within the limits of my own experience. For there is always so much to learn and there are many many areas I am clueless about. So, I'll probably be coming to you for advice soon. So beware! hahah. see ya around!

[bowfront26]

i want to get a top off system with a float switch... i keep putting it off b/c it isn't too bad right now. I only lose about 3 cups of H2O/ day. what is your rate of evap.? i also keep my lights 10 " from the tank.

[Sushi]

bowfront26, try a slow drip method. it's the cheaper alternative to the float switch, all you need is a 1g jug, some airline tubing, and a little "drip" control thing. i've recently set one up and i just realized how stupid i was for not setting one up months before... it's about one of the easiest things u can do to help control salinity and it costs literally pennies.

 

for my tank, i top off about ~1g every 2-3 days. so 1 drop per 2 secs is about where my drip speed stands. like i said, it's really easy to do... u should try this alternative first before dishing out the money for a float switch.

[Shaz]

Tigah---

the dimensions of the 50 breeder is 36 x 18 x 18 I know its not really much differance from the 40g breeder, but i felt like the 40g was a tad too "Short" for my taste, and the 2" extra height on the 50g breeder would help with that.

[Cesar]

Hey Tigahboy, how did you drop your nitrates? I remember you said you had it somewhat kind of high.

[Tigahboy]

Originally posted by Cesar

Hey Tigahboy, how did you drop your nitrates? I remember you said you had it somewhat kind of high.

Cesar. See here:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...0771#post380771

[Tigahboy]

Originally posted by bowfront26

i want to get a top off system with a float switch... i keep putting it off b/c it isn't too bad right now.  I only lose about 3 cups of H2O/ day.  what is your rate of evap.?  i also keep my lights 10 " from the tank.

Mine are 10" above as well. You know, I've never actually really calculated how many cups. Let me see tonight when I do my top-off ritual. I'll get back to you later tonite.

 

I want the float switch set-up too. But yeah, it's not a priority yet. Do you know where you would buy it? You going to DIY it? Let me know. I wanna get one too!

[Tigahboy]

Originally posted by uchiha

bowfront26, try a slow drip method.  it's the cheaper alternative to the float switch, all you need is a 1g jug, some airline tubing, and a little "drip" control thing.  i've recently set one up and i just realized how stupid i was for not setting one up months before... it's about one of the easiest things u can do to help control salinity and it costs literally pennies.

 

for my tank, i top off about ~1g every 2-3 days.  so 1 drop per 2 secs is about where my drip speed stands.  like i said, it's really easy to do... u should try this alternative first before dishing out the money for a float switch.

Bowfront...try this out. let me know how it works. lol.

 

What happened to your avatar, Uchiha? You going anime on us now? :nerd: haha. j/k.