Electrokate

unfortunately i have long been aware of the need for locks and astounded at the local shops that leave everything wide open. Any customer can have a starbucks cup of whatever and look innocent. They can have it empty and fill it with frags. They can have it full and dump it in the tank. And there are accidents, leave something on the edge of the tank it can get knocked in, see this all the time with expensive things like phones and refractometers, digital meters, etc. If the cabinets were designed right the store would not blind the customers with the halides, wreck the workers' retinas with the UV or have as many fish jump. So there are many good reasons. Plus it just looks better. Locking maybe is not so important as them being shut, you can put a baby alarm on them that the staff know how to open without setting it off. You know like you put on cabinets if you have a toddler. Imagine if this person switches to something that can't be tested for, though if this is really happening (Part of me remains in disbelief, thinks it's an accident or insurance scam) it's probably a fish person who wants the owner to find out they got hit deliberately so they use copper. Scary as hell and very very discouraging. Why even bother opening a fish store if you have to worry all the time about some two faced passive aggressive creep murdering your livestock and wiping out your life's savings and dream? Sick people out there.

I am not saying, not sure the owner wants it public knowlege. All shops get cameras ASAP, this guy must get caught. The law might not do much, but we will.

that is actually the 3rd shop owner to report that in the portland area. Every shop needs cameras now. Period. My enthusiasm for opening a shop just went right in the toilet. No way, forget it.

I am waiting to get a quote from World of Wet Pets on a 2nd unit, controller and hanging gear... the owner is apparently at Interzoo (jealous) right now. Generally he has been able to beat most online prices and I know he was going to order a set of them for the new shop as well as his display tank. He showed me the nano, pretty cool. Halides definitely still have their place, but I still love T5HO. Using these LED units will raise my electric bill not lower it (: Still got 4 years of warranty on the T5 unit over my main display so I have plenty of time to save up for or watch the price come down on LEDs for that. Not real keen to spend over a grand to light it for some reason. But if the LED's can do the frags such favors then they probably belong over the frag tank. Need to put them on the 55 too, which is lit by 2 54 watt T5HO's presently. Works but I would like a little more so I can take pictures. Kate

am already seeing improved sps color in frags it's over. I don't have the controller yet so hung it high and used screen over the tank. The frags show the new color even when the LED light is off, so either that's a fast change or they were already changing and it's coincidence. Previously they were under a 175 watt Phoenix 14K halide. If I can get the light to spread out more this is going to be great over the display, til then I guess it's a good idea to color up what I am trying to sell (:

How long do you guys leave yours on?

Oxx's tank is purely amazing. I took some pics but they are not very good. Super fun and awesome donations.

The store looks awesome, love the layout! Congratulations, and thanks for the new beauties. Still pondering that blue anemone (: Kate

Thanks Dave! I think it needed to burn in a bit, the color is closer to the Reefstar today. Really love the Reefstar... Funny how that works. Really love the fact that I can swap out broken parts myself on the Sol though. The Radion sounds awesome and I think in the end they are about the same. The Sol is a better fit for me with the odd experimenting I like to do and somewhat narrow tanks. I think I am going to leave the T5's on the 120 both because I can't spend what it would take to cover it in LED's and I have a newish fixture with 4 more years of warranty on it that is working like a champ. But the 55 could take a pair of Sol's. Been meaning to convert it to LED for a while now. I know I am lucky, I won the monthly raffle at The Fish Store in Seattle two months in a row. Kind of freaked the guys there out a bit, they could not figure out how that happened.

I guess I am used to t5ho, the spotlight bothers me. I don't see it on the Reefstar par lamp either. Will try removing the center optic first, then experiment with the others. Thanks for the tips!

Won the AI Sol at the meeting yesterday and hung it temporarily. It is indeed quite a bit brighter than my current lighting but has a very pronounced spotlight effect even if I hang it very high. I see only 70 degree optics available on the AI site but wondering if there are any others available I can use to spread the light more? Really can't use it as it is on either of the displays because I can't move the corals that would be negatively affected by the spots. Thanks, Kate

Guess I should not say "better color" sub my camera and eye see more warmth and balance in the color of the reefstar

I won the AI sol today. Side by side the Reefstar has better color and spread of light. The sol is far brighter but does not come with a controller so will either burn your corals or you can hang it high and screen it somehow. Also does not come with any hanging hardware (rigged something up). I did not see the Radion when I won the raffle but after reading about the Radion I think I made the better choice for my needs, most of my tanks are narrow. But in terms of color and considering an uncontrolled sol can burn your corals to death... the Reefstar is winning.

double post sorry

You should really put that mantis to Mr Oizo. And give him Legos. What is that, Perfume Tree? This is what your mantis is thinking:

Yeah you definitely have the right attitude... paint the living room to match the tank.

anyone still have tulip anemones? They were everywhere a few years ago.

I have a 55 gallon tank like that. It is "The Rodney Dangerfield Memorial Aquarium for Corals that Can't Get No Respect". Need worlds ugliest ricordea? Star polyps? Purple cloves? Bluish grey toxic palythoa? Coral eating starfish? You should throw a few red and/or purple mushrooms in there too. In the sump I have a pest crab but I don't know if I can find him without touching the bristleworms, which I am now allergic to. I have a super ugly plating monti that is borderline pest. Grows well, is bright beige. For one week every other year it turns bright red. It's too big probably anyways. I might still have a red tabling acro frag with red bugs you could add too, someone gave it to me and it never made it out of quarantine. Then the quarantine tank broke so I tried to feed it to the filefish, they would not eat it. So I threw it in the 55, where of course it did really well. Red bugs and all.

"][/url] "][/url] Here is a current shot of the 55, which is lit by 2 bulbs. ATI Blue Plus and ATI Purple Plus. I gave the filefish to a breeder, which was really sad but I need to get a job and can't be here to feed them 5 times a day. Hopefully she will breed them. Funny how the xenia and tree corals seem more spread and open since they were moved out... think filefish will eat soft corals too. "][/url]

I think the RO unit is probably necessary in some places where people have bad wells or city water, gave the last one I had to a friend who had a well with over 80ppm nitrates and unbelievable phosphates in it. I think the prefilter is awesome though, it's disgustingly coated with brown sludge after only 200 gallons. 5 micron carbon block also great. Seriously could probably ditch the actual RO part and use the prefilters and Di to good effect, if i fill a 5 gallon bucket with tap water it's sort of a greenish tan color from all the tannins in Bull Run and who knows what all else, adding tannish greenish water to my reef kinda bothers me. But I think it's obviously not harming corals. I do accept a certain amount of algae in the tanks that others might not be able to live with. And I can't keep an Oregon Tort alive for more than a few days. Even when I did not know the city switched to chloramine I was doing 20% weekly water changes with chlorine neutralizer and no fish or coral were lost. I used the wrong neutralizer on tap water for a whole year at least.

6 bulbs, currently 2 ATI blue plus, 2 ATI purple plus, 1 GE 6500K and 1 ATI aquablue special. They are all pretty much expired so soon will be replaced, probably will do another blue plus instead of the aquablue special. These photos were top down or from the top and side shots using an underwater camera, the tops of the corals where the light hits are definitely more colorful than they look from the normal front view. I ran this tank with 4 bulbs for at least a year, and upgraded to 6 about half a year ago. Don't think it made much difference. I get a little better results with photos. Fixtures I use are from "indoor gardening" shops as I like their reflectors and bulb spacing better than most aquarium lights. Can't complain about the price either (: So yeah, I grew SPS in a 120 gallon tank with 4 T5HO bulbs, granted ATI bulbs with high par but that is not much light. I don't think the tridacnid clam is doing much growing but the corals grow right into eachother.

I put them on smugmug, don't like flickr and photobucket much anymore. My whole album lives here: http://electrokate.smugmug.com/Aquariums/120-Gallon-Reef-Tank/16969394_pW8JGw#!i=1283378090&k=mb4Hvkw

I was trying to put a photo of bryopsis on the glass of a quarantine tank I had. I quarantine everything. Rocks, snails, plants all of it. Never sorry I did either, only when I didn't. (: I have a blue tang that got sick after I did not quarantine a wrasse (which died within an hour of adding it). This blue tang has had what looks like ich for well over a year. Have to tear the tank down to get him out and treat him too. None of the other fish are sick though. Wish I had quarantined that wrasse, that's how I learned my lesson. "][/url]

hey how did you fix my post? (: Thanks! I am actually thinking of donating the RO unit back to the club, I keep flooding the floor and not convinced it's needed. But I might just bypass the RO part of it and give somebody the membrane, as I think the prefilter, 2 carbon blocks and DI resin are probably plenty of filtration. With our utilities pushing 300 a month I really need to not make them any worse unless it's necessary. think I figured out the pic thing... "][/url] "][/url] "][/url] "][/url] "][/url]