victoly

I'll have two of whatever that gentleman is having.

he burnt up one of the drivers that controls one of the channels for his LEDs.

#1 acro is gorgeous! well done.

ALWAYS err on the side of sexy.

look at you go! question: given the very tidy nature of your build, are you going to conceal the aerial portions of your overflow?

Ain't nobody got time fadat.

For reference, what medication did they gave her that had happy attitude as an outcome? I'd like to stock some for emergencies.

I can't think of a musical selection that is less related to sand waterfall thatn Drowning Pool's - Let the Bodies hit the floor

1) Yes, mostly. 2) BPs will end up consuming virtually all the nitrate, Kaldness can end up leaving excess nitrate in the water. 3) Nah, it's a new take on an old school bio media. It;s very popular on large scale ponds. 4) No clue on this 5) Both are not nitrate factories. BPs can get you all the way to zero, in fact it can be harmful because of O2 depletion and total lack of nutrients. 6) Wouldn't use k1 in a reef, live rock achieves this function just fine. BPs are another story, many use them with success for ULNSs. 7) See 6.

That is an excellent resource Patrick! I was comparing 4x54w fixtures over $300 and I think this beats them out and you get twice the output! I just one one question, what is a 3000k bulb? I would like to achieve a 50/50 look of four 6500k or 10000k bulbs with four actinics. 3k is yellow yellow yellow starting to head into the reds.

looks like glass to me, black silicone and a frame.

How can I tell what the par would be for a particular lighting system? I mean besides buying them and then measuring with a nifty gadget. Like you suggested, the only way to actually know is a par meter, or finding someone with similar tank depth and light layout that has posted a measurement.

Wattage is going to be a pretty crummy comparison (unless you're talking about total consumption of energy vs light output).LEDs out out much more light per energy consumed, which is amplified by less heat output. A better metric would be par/$ at your desired depth (assuming you get the rest of the items you might desire: color spectrum, controllability, etc.). There needs to be a light rental place online where you can try out lights before you buy them.

well this turned out to be a bit of a letdown.

Interesting. If I were to switch to a reefbreeders or an evergrow 36" controllable fixture that would replace my aquatic life 4 bulb T5HO if would cost around $500, and with bulb changes and electricity factored in it would take me 10 years to recoup the cost of the new fixture. Aside from a bit more par, doesn't seem worth the cost. Better fixtures would likely nevr be recouped as they would be obselete by the time I made tha money back. Lol. Now...I know many of us are in the hobby to keep healthy and amazing looking livestock, not to save money. Which is why a lot of people still use MH. Just an interesting tidbit that kind of negates the "cost saving" argument of switching to LEDs. In short...if you're gonna switch. Don't do it to save money, because by the time you will have saved that money, you'll be looking to buy something new long before that. Do it for better performance No one has shown me better performance with LED. When enough research is done to show specific spectrum required to grow macro and coral then I would expect performance enhancement. Because LED are mono specific with respect to spectrum, the need to crowd in many different colors arises. Few scientist, even fewer hobbiest, are knowledgable enough about the complexities of different coral spectrum requirement at different phases in the growth of coral. In the greenhouse industry, much money is spent on research and development to light spectrum. Not so in our hobby. My choice to use LED on some tanks is a combination of heat reduction and a streamlined appearance to the top of the tank. From the perspective of covering all spectrum that may be required by different corals and macro, T5 can not be touched. During the winter time with reduced sunlight in greenhouse grow out tanks, I use MH on moving rails. My objection to MH was large percentage of heat given off. During winter in my outside greenhouse, I need this heat at night to offset heat loss to the night time. The traveling rails eliminate the need for many single point light source fixtures. If you can stand the heat and the extra electrical consumption, MH provide extraordinary lighting effects and growth. Viva la difference, Patrick Agree. The best you can hope for with LEDs is to approximate T-5/MH (which are slightly superior for growth/coloration IMO) at lower energy consumption and heat creation rate.

Stop. Hammer time.

As a winner for the prize, i get bleached frags of everything that has died.

It's almost like someone was telling you repeatedly to order those boards...

good luck! at first its going to complicate your life, then it's going to improve it 10x

Having to resolder suuuucks. Looks good though, the end is near !

sometimes in the small print, if you dont use it by xyz date, it decreases by a dollar a day. If you're 100% sure that it doesn't do that, I'm interested.

Does it expire ?

pseudocorynactis. kill it with fire, or a majano wand. they're not fatal to zoas, but they will sting them and piss them off. they can multiply to other areas as well.