ReefSafari

From my quick search, I am seeing Blue Life SPS 20K have been discontinued, which is a bummer as that was the next bulb I was going to try....It seem like the options for 250w DE bulbs is slowly dwindling down to a few options....LED's here we come I guess...as I don't care for T5 lighting...

I didn't think Radium made a 250w DE bulb, only 150w.....Anyone have a link to some more info?

The only bummer part is I don't think Radium makes a 250w DE bulb.....I don't know why they don't as it seems to be a popular bulb and and many people use 250w DE....you would think they would make a killing if they offered that type. I know a dozen people right now that would probably buy several of them, including myself...lol

What I am noticing is for example the Poll on the Percentage of propagated corals, while on the main page it shows "Stylaster" as the last person to post a comment on that thread, when you click on it, its actually not Stylaster, its someone else, and on the main page it might show just one reply to a thread but when you click on the thread it actually has many replies, almost like the main page is delayed, or some threads are not updated. Not sure if that is what they are talking about or not....but its the glitch in the matrix I was talking about...

Cool! When you get it and set it up I would love to hear your opinion on it, what you like and dont like....

I hear ya, for me it came down to ease of use and price, I wanted something that was pretty much a plug and play, something that would do the job and not hurt my wallet too much, There are skimmers out there that might be a little cheaper, and virtually do the same thing, and I know there are better skimmers on the market, I personally wasn't looking for "The Best" skimmer I could by (I know that sounds stupid)....I was looking for a decent skimmer that would pull out good skimmate for a good price, and I think I found it. I know there are better skimmers out there, and you might pay a little more for it, but many of the negative things I read about this particular model where on the older version, the one without the red gate valve control, the old style had the pull tube style as the adjuster, the new gate valve allows you to fine tune it much easier, and my previous limited expereince with protien skimmers was with an Eshopps HOB that had the same pull tube style, and it seemed much harder to keep dailed in. I have found it much easer to make smaller adjustments with the gate valve. With my newness to the hobby I really didn't have a whole lot of experience with what to look for and what is good or bad, This has been my first INsump protien skimmer, so take my opinion with a grain of salt...lol My exprience with it has been a good one, I don't find it too loud, it pulls out some nice skimmate and it was a good price, it was easy to put together, and get up and running and seems pretty easy to dail in, so from my experience its a decent skimmer. Hopefully someone with some previous expereince with skimmers this size can chime in, and maybe mention what to look for and what to stay away from....

I have the Reef Octopus NWB110 and I have been happy with it, as far as how quite it is, it seems everyone is different when it comes to level of noise, I think I am imune to noise and virtually nothing bothers me, I would consider it quite, Between the fans from the halides, the overflow the MP10 and the return pump, I personally can't single out the noise from just the protien skimmer. I would consider it quite, but I know there are people who desire as quite as possible, I wouldn't say its dead silent, but to me its not noisey. I chose it as it seemed to get good reviews on different forums and online, its rated for up to 100g's and it was a good price, so I went with it, and I have been happy with it. I am using it on my 40b as well.....I am sure there are better ones out there, but after researching as many of them as I could, and having trouble choosing, I just went with it for the reasons I mentioned, good reviews and reasonably priced.

YUP! Still doing well, Birdsnest is one of the things I seem to be able to keep alive, I love the ORA Green I got from you! Thanks! yeah, its gross....I don't know if people clean thier refugiums or what, I have just left it as is with the thinking that I really don't care if the refugium is ugly as long as the display is algea free....now as long as it stays in the refugium...I am ok with a ugly refugium. Do people clean thier refuigums? or do you just let it grow algea everywhere?

Well...This probably is a tie for worst build thread EVER!! Anyway...a little info.... 33 Long with Current USA Sundail T5, 3 Actinic 1 Daylight... Aquaclear Filter, Reef Octopus BH 800SBS Protien Skimmer, about 40 lbs of live Rock..two Oceanic Powerheads on each side for flow Corals...mainly Softies and LPS Fish.... 1 Blue/Green Chromis 5 Yellow Chromis 1 Red Spotted/Pajama Cardinal 1 Dragon Goby 1 Black Comb Tooth Blenny 1 6-Line Wrasse She wanted to do a very simplicitic setup, she is also not happy with the aquascaping, and will be redoing it soon....

OK...So this probably takes the trophy for worst build thread EVER!...(laugh) So here is an update, Everything finally came together, the tank has been up and running for a couple of months now. Not lost one fish, but did loose just about all my SPS(sad)...I have been slowly adding one little frag here and there....and so far things seem to be doing ok. A little info... Drilled 40 Breeder with Glass-Holes.com Overflow (700 gph) 20 Long Sump with first chamber Reef Octopus NWB 110 Protien Skimmer and Refugium in the second chamber with a Mag 7 Return pump in the third then to two returns on each side of the tank. Vortec MP10w ES for flow Dual 250w Sunpod with Phoenix 14k bulbs About 65lbs of Live rock (Some established and some Marco) At the moment its a mixed reef, and will probably be that way for a while, hopefully in time I would like to shift to more SPS. List of some of the corals.... Birds Nest (Pink, Green, Bird of Paradise, Green Tip, Orange and Green) Pocillipora (Green and Purple) Pagoda Cup Scroll Coral Duncan Frogspawn Candy Canes Mushrooms and Zoanthids Toadstool Leather Devils Hand Leather Ricordias Fish include... Royal Gramma 2 firefish 2 Percula Clownfish Bangai Cardinal Yellow Watchman Its amazing how the refugium/sump looked so nice and clean when I set it up... And a few months later, its crazy... Full Tank Shot Right Side View Left Side View Was trying to go for a Lagoon look, not quite happy with aquascaping but I am leaving it alone for now... Would love any constructive critisism or comments...I am pretty open to any suggestions or opinions or ideas....

What a small world...as this is what I did last night...LOL...Woke up to the sound of water running, turned on the RODI and fell asleep...OUCH! needless to say, my washer and dryer are full of every towel in the house...LOL Too Funny... Glad it wasn't your tank leaking or something....Luckily my wife has done it before, so I guess we are even now...she couldn't be made at me...LOL

The other bulb I have thought about trying is the Blue Life (South Pacific Sunlight-SPS) 20k bulbs, There was a member here that really liked how they looked.

Your setup is a 250w right? I don't think Radium makes a 250w DE...People really seem to like the SE Radiums though, I think they are the bluest of them all. I really havn't read much about the Elos though....

The Phoenix 14k are nice, but they are not blue enough for me, with maybe suplimental actinics maybe. I just got mine fairly recently, so I will use them up but I will be trying something different next go around. I was thinking about trying the XM 20k's but I have heard rumors that they tend to fizzle out early like you might need to change them in 6 months.... I will be following this thread to see what people say....as I too would like a bluer DE bulb...more blue than the Phoenix 14k..

Big thanks to OIAB for the Salt, Black Comb Tooth Blenny, and Wicked cool Frogspawn frag. Thanks for double checking my water too...Really looking foward to once I regain confidence to do SPS getting some of those wicked cool Milli's from you...So much cool stuff, so little space in my 40b....(plotting)

Some great advise from everyone, All I can add is...an adapted quote from the movie Friday... Keep your chin up, its a challenging hobby, I know personally, I have been there, got the T-Shirt, and will probably visit again....But don't let it get you down, makes some adjustments, tweek a few things,.......

I know every coral I have personally in my tank is frags from other members and or local shops, so I am guessing if a shop gets in a wild colony and frags it up, and I buy it, would "technically" I be putting a wild coral in my tank? or would it be at that point propagated? and how many times of that coral being propagated would it not be wild anymore? meaning is a frag of a wild import still be considered wild? or captive propagated? See in my other hobby, I have to breed two things together to produce offspring, once I get copulation and egg production and then I artificialy incubate, the first generation is considered captive bred or propagated. With corals many can be traced directly back to wild stock, as its just continueing to grow and we frag it, which means that all of our corals where not "made" by us just fragged and grown out and fragged again, so how many times does it take for a coral to be considered propagated?

WOW...Great Scores!!! That superman Milli is to die for!!!

Yeah it was cool, all I did was PM Robert and not even 24 hours later he PM's me back and says he has one in for me, its the first time I have ever ordered anything through a shop before, I was shocked at how quickly they where able to get one in, great customer service thats for sure.....picking it up tomarrow...

Hey Jesse, I wasn't sure where this was headed, I contacted OIAB about the Comb Tooth Blenny, and they hooked me up, so sorry about that, I am good, they got what I needed...

I was reading another thread and saw this posted and thought it was relevant to talk about, so I copied and pasted it in my thread I had started instead of hijacking the other thread....

Awesome video of a beautiful tank! I love the part at 6:25 where you go to zoom in to get a closeup of one of the corals and your tang jumps right in front of the lens in a very comical way (at least to me it was funny)...what a character....Great Video! Thanks for sharing...

Well, better late than never I guess, its DUMPIN HARD here in Hood River...My office window faces the Columbia and I am right on the water front, and I can't even see the river its snowing so hard...WHOOOOhoooo...!