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Well being that I am a newbie to reefs but somewhat experienced at fish keeping( freshwater). So far I have decided on a 33 gallon long with a custom sump under it that should hold 30 more gallons. I am going to build the sump and stand myself. I received a kit for xmas from my mom that is 700 gph overflow. It is made by glass-holes.com. I can not wait to drill a hole into a piece of glass I paid good money for! Also I have a octopus skimmer rated for 200 gallons. I know this is overkill but I am ...

The Plan
So in the fight against ConEd and their .33 cents per kilowatt policy, I decided to stop using my sump as the main source of display tank flow and remove the Mag9 that was in there.

The Victory
The Mag is listed as using 93 watts of power...welllll, WRONG, more like 124 watts. I have been using a device made by Ryobi, purchased at Home Depot, and it does the same job of the Kill-A-Watt device at half the cost. I hope that half the cost don't mean crappy readings. ...

I'm preparing my shopping list for this Saturdays trip to my local LFS(FAOIS). So far my list consists of the following:

Replacement Filters for RO/DI, Calc/KH test kits, Salt.

Here's where I need advice. I have an OLD Nova Extreme 8x54w T5HO fixture with the single reflector. It's not ideal, and bulbs are 13months old so they need replacement. I bounced a couple of ideas around. I would hate to spend the money on new bulbs for a fixture that isn't ideal, and that ...

Since were all presenting our tanks to get to know one another, I thought I'd join in.
My tank is a standard AGA 210 built into my Laundry room wall. The overflows, returns and closed loop are all plumbed into an addition I built onto the back of the house. There, I have a 150G sump, 40 G frag tank, a 65 and 35 gallon refugium. I have mulitple reactors, controllers and everything else related to a large system.

First the tank room,

...

As far as the ballast goes looking for Metal Halide and t5.... ive heard some things about workhorse ballast for t5's. Anybody have any experience with these or specs?