Recent Blogs Posts

This bill arrived last night, and I was grinning from ear to ear.

Every year, Texas residents have the right to pick a power company via a website called powertochoose.org and I found a company called Hino two months ago. My previous contract just expired a couple of days before. As I looked at this list of companies, I spotted this offer and couldn't believe my eyes.

I called the company to find out what the fine print hid from ...

As the years go by, equipment gets old and eventually fails. I've used UPS (uninterrupted battery system) to keep things running when the power goes out initially. They are designed for computers, but I've used them to run pumps, powerheads, and the Apex. Over the past 60 days, I've had some really old one die. When they do, they bleep or blare a never ending sound which indicates it needs a new internal battery.

However, mine are really old and once that happens, my faith waivers ...

Well, I decided I had enough of the noise from my 2 mp60's so I upgraded both to the new quiet drives. What an amazing difference! One is now almost silent and the other is at least 80% quieter. Here's where things go a bit sideways. Neither driver will remember night mode. While not a big deal I think all features should work properly. I reached out to Ecotech and basically the new drivers need a firmware update. I tried contacting the retailer I purchased them from to see if they could do it for ...

Am I crazy?

I switched to LED's in July of 2011 since then my fixture has almost 9,000 hours on it. I've been reading that LED's start to lose par even after the first year. I've noticed my growth has really started to slow, since probably last year, and with my LPS die off I'm thinking it may be the lights either too bright for my system or not enough.

So I am thinking of getting an ATI Sunpower Dimmable fixture 6X54w for my 90. Anybody have experience with these fixtures? ...

That's a good question, and any hobbyist that has been reefing for a while begins to try to figure out what the tank costs them, electricity-wise. I've done a couple of blogs pertaining to the 280g reef, found here: http://www.melevsreef.com/labels/electricity.html

My overall estimate for the 400g is about $85 per month, but it may be worth figuring up the total wattage again now that it's 2014. My latest electric bill came in, and the graph showing usage for the past 13 months was ...