Blog Comments

Unfortunately, the yellow looking one's were orange when they went in the tank. A couple of years under PC's with crappy reflectors caused them to fade. The one's on the very bottom were a beautiful light blue color when I got them. Now they're a light brownish color. Colors used to be, from top to bottom, Orange/Purple, Green/Purple, light Green, Orange/Blue, light Blue/Purple.

Ahh, I missed it.

@midnight if you look to the left of the bag in the top picture you can see the emerald crab pinned to the side of the bag by a ball of hermits lol

what are the odds that I would read this post right after running to the lfs to get a few turbo snails myself

What, no picture of the emerald crab?

Nice legs on those crabs. hehe

very nice shrooms, I am particularly fond of the recordia with yellow in them, you don't see them often.

Images enlarged by melev.

Thanks Midnight.

Very nice recordias

While I guess it could be a maintenace issue, I don't think so. The pumps and lights get cleaned approximately every couple of weeks when I do water changes. I've never ran any of them in vinegar, but they're pulled and cleaned with different sizes of bottle brushes and a tooth brush. The lights are wiped down to remove the salt creep and the plastic lenses a cleaned when I do water changes as well.

Around the time the rio pump failed there was alot of talk on "the boards" about the rio pumps having problems, so I just assumed I got one of the bad ones. As I said before the lights and maxijets came with the tank which I bought on consignment from a lfs. I've had the tank for over 3 years and no telling how long the previous owner had the equipment, so it was probably just time. Old equipment fails.

My original post about the 29 being jealous was in jest. The failures did occur at an inopportune moment, but old equipment dies. A couple more weeks and maybe I could have replaced the last of the power compacts with one of the two AI Sols that I plan to use over the 75. This would have provided better light to the 29 for the rest of its limited life and I would have been able to move the Sol over to the 75 once it's up and running.

Just venting my fustration at the timing. Thanks for following along.

Blake

blakew,

I would recommend keeping as much of your old equipment as is still working. You never know when that stuff will come in handy! Also, not that I'm an expert by any stretch (just read some of my other blogs and you'll find out what a noob I am), but it might be helpful if you posted your maintenance routine that you follow for the various pumps and things. Calcium can build up on all of our equipment and periodically our equipment will get unhappy if we don't clean it off.

Here's an updated full tank shot with the new light.

I'm guessing age. I've had the 29 for over three years and the coralife power compact units were used and came with the tank. The one that came with the hang on the back fuge was just a cheap piece of crap that I'm suprised lasted as long as it did. I've read several light comparison websites which seem to indicate the life expectancy of the coralife PC ballast is between 3 and 5 years, so it was probably time. Pretty much all the equipment in my little 29 has had to be replaced over the years. I've had 1 aquario powerhead that used to feed my charcoal reactor go out. I've replaced 2 maxijets (one power head for water movement and one power head that feeds my skimmer). Recently I replaced the stealth heater that came with the tank with one of the 150's that I'll use in the 75.

I just thought this was the cost of buying used stuff. It's part of the reason I've been going slow and trying to buy good stuff this time around. I figured on trashing most of the pumps and lights from the 29 once the 75 was up and running (or using the pumps for water changes until they died). The acrylic skimmer and hang on the back fuge I'd planned on selling on craigslist, but I pretty much figured most of the stuff was worn out. I'd just hoped it would last until the 75 was running.

Why do you think these light ballasts are all failing?

Oh yeah...witnessing an event like that, especially in ones own tank, must be an awesome event.

I was still up, actually. hehe I went to bed thereafter and then got up before noon. Coral spawning is like a rave event - you can't miss it.

Off topic...melev you must not sleep much...up until 1:30 or 2 taking pics of your spawning sun coral and then back up at 5:20. I might have gotten away with that in my younger days, but now I'd be worthless with only 3 1/2 - 4 hours sleep.

@ melev - To be honest, there's two areas I'm concerned with (1) the wye for the reasons you mentioned (2) the connections between schedule 40 and spa flex (especially on the pressure side). That being said, I needed both to accomplish my "master plan" (hopefully not a bit of over engineering that bites me in the backside).

@ Midnight - Thanks, fingers crossed

@ baker.shawn - Depending on the size of your reactors, my research indicated a flow of around 300 - 350 gph for biopellets and around 200 gph for charcoal so to borrow a phrase from Midnight, you'll need to plumb carefully.

great work!
i plan on doing something similar with my extra mag 5 after the move