What do you mean I'll want to upgrade right away?
- Thread starter LaurieC
- Start date
- Location
- north jersey
ah....you may be right the fan.....i haven't used a fixture in awhile.....
i have a diy aliminum light rack with reflectors and endcaps.
wait until you fire up the return and if the duroso and the overflow isn't adjusted yet, it may be even louder but i find the sound of the water flow and humming of all the equipment soothing....lol. i have a couch infront of the tank and my whole family take turn taking naps on it.
- Location
- NY
And your wonderful saga continues. Thanks for taking the time to document your endeavor. Glad the lights work. Looks really sweet.
R
R
- Location
- Flushing, NY
Actually, the humming is from any magnetic ballast. (at least if its the same hum I'm thinking of) Electronic ballast are the ones which come on right away.
Both MH and T5's can have magnetic and electronic ballast.
Electronic ballast being my preference because there wont be a hum, and there isn't a 1-2 second delay before things turn on which only matters for T5 because MH bulbs take a while to warm up before it gets bright regardless
Both MH and T5's can have magnetic and electronic ballast.
Electronic ballast being my preference because there wont be a hum, and there isn't a 1-2 second delay before things turn on which only matters for T5 because MH bulbs take a while to warm up before it gets bright regardless
not sure. I only push one on/off button. I only plugged in the plug for the T5's. I have not hooked up the plugs to the ballasts yet because I don't want to run the MH at this time. My tank is going from 15w T8's so I thought better to get things used to the T5's first and then move on to the MH. Besides, the dimensions of the 55g should mean T5's are plenty of wattage, but the 90g will do better with the MH. I still have a ways to go with the build before I can move the contents of the 55g over
- Location
- Staten Island, NY
.
<<< this is why I have this.
Haha when you sent me the pm telling me thank you for the chaeto, I was like what??? I never even met arthur to give it to you! left me confused for a good bit.
I love chaeto, amazing stuff. My tank's nitrates are ALWAYS at 0. I believe that's why my refugium is always packed out. If I cut chaeto out, within a week it will grow back. My tank do not have perfect parameters but I do believe that a little dirty water is better than perfect water. If my parameters were perfect, I doubt my refugium would be overflowing chaeto.
<<< this is why I have this.
Haha when you sent me the pm telling me thank you for the chaeto, I was like what??? I never even met arthur to give it to you! left me confused for a good bit.
I love chaeto, amazing stuff. My tank's nitrates are ALWAYS at 0. I believe that's why my refugium is always packed out. If I cut chaeto out, within a week it will grow back. My tank do not have perfect parameters but I do believe that a little dirty water is better than perfect water. If my parameters were perfect, I doubt my refugium would be overflowing chaeto.
Last edited:
I Told You It Would Look OK
For the last several weeks, my husband has been dubious (that's putting it mildly) about the changes to our apartment to accomodate a bigger fish tank. He wasn't a big fan of the freshwater tank, so when I switched to a 55G FOWLR he was not thrilled, but willing to indulge me. When I decided to upgrade to a 90G, he grumbled about it, but still was willing to indulge me. But this bigger project wasn't something he signed on for and he definitly didn't ok the renovations to our built-ins in advance. The guys in his weekly poker game are ribbing him for the number of tanks in our apartment and the sprawling reef stuff. He must love me a ton and I'm sure I don't thank him enough for putting up with all of this. Despite his grumbling, I have caught him watching the fish tank, asking questions about it and when he got back from playing cards the other weekend, he gave me a full report on the many fish tanks in AC. I think the tank is slowly winning him over and I am glad to report that we have been living sawdust-free for the past couple of days and the paint fumes have dissapaited and if I may say so myself, the renovation turned out A-ok. Next stop: sump and plumbing!
For the last several weeks, my husband has been dubious (that's putting it mildly) about the changes to our apartment to accomodate a bigger fish tank. He wasn't a big fan of the freshwater tank, so when I switched to a 55G FOWLR he was not thrilled, but willing to indulge me. When I decided to upgrade to a 90G, he grumbled about it, but still was willing to indulge me. But this bigger project wasn't something he signed on for and he definitly didn't ok the renovations to our built-ins in advance. The guys in his weekly poker game are ribbing him for the number of tanks in our apartment and the sprawling reef stuff. He must love me a ton and I'm sure I don't thank him enough for putting up with all of this. Despite his grumbling, I have caught him watching the fish tank, asking questions about it and when he got back from playing cards the other weekend, he gave me a full report on the many fish tanks in AC. I think the tank is slowly winning him over and I am glad to report that we have been living sawdust-free for the past couple of days and the paint fumes have dissapaited and if I may say so myself, the renovation turned out A-ok. Next stop: sump and plumbing!
Attachments
What Can Brown Do For You?
40% off! There are few better words. I really like the frags I picked up from Pacific East Aquaculture at the frag swap, so I thought why not, I'll just peak at what they have. Looking at the sight wasn't enough though. So many jewel-like treasures. I had to have some! So I made my very first on-line purchase of live aquaria this week. It was all very simple and would be delivered for pick-up to the UPS in Rock Center right near where I work. Easy!
Famous last words.
I was hoping to pick up the box first thing in the morning so I stopped into the UPS Customer Center on my way in to the office. Alas, nothing yet. The UPS guy said to come back after 11 am, so around 11 I checked the UPS tracking. It still read "out for delivery" hummm. I let the folks at Pacific East know what was going on and they started tracking the package too. This was the first time they were sending to this particular UPS rather than the UPS they prefered to use for NYC. The day went by and no package. At 4:00 I called UPS. I really hate how everything is automated now. Even if the customer service representative you got couldn't help at least you were talking to a person and not some annoying, emotionless robotic voice. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." "I said TRACKING!" Ug! After much pushing of buttons, I finally got a rep on the phone who told me the package would be there before the center closed. I quickly Googled the hours for the Rock Center UPS Customer Center: 8am-8pm. Then he said, "and if you don't own a mailbox there, they will deny the package and send it back into the UPS system". What????!!! Oh hell no! I asked to speak to his manager. She got on the phone and I explained the situation in my best pleading voice. She said I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do, it's on the truck. "But it's LIVE ANIMALS", I said. Then she said, "what do you mean? What kind"? oh, no, she's envisioning cute little puppies. I took a deep breath, feeling kind of sheepish, and said "coral." To my suprise she gasped, "oh my God, I keep a saltwater tank and I know just how concerned you are. Hold on!" I couldn't believe it! I swear this really happened. She came back on the phone and told me she couldn't get through to the store, but that the UPS man was at that store now. Then she said, "Here's what you do, you go over there now and ask for April. Tell April that Glovia said to escort you to Rich's truck and he'll get the package for you." Apparently Glovia is the queen of UPS--what she says goes because the moment I found April and told her all of this, I had four UPS people looking for Rich. While I waited, April told me about a customer who brought in a huge, live tourtise to ship via UPS. They did it--put the turtle in a pillow case and a box with holes and sent him on his way. Apparently Glovia wasn't happy about this, she called complaining about the box with a turtle sticking it's head out the holes. But the turtle made it to it's destination. Ten minutes later they had located Rich and gave me my box. They were FANTASTIC. A huge thank you to UPS!
I let Beth at Pacific East know I had the package in hand and we all sighed a breath of relief. By the way, if you do a pick up from UPS in NYC, only have it sent to the UPS hub at 601 West 43rd and 11th, that is the only place in NYC where the package will arrive before 10am, no matter how it is shipped.
I got home, the box was expertly packaged and the warming packet was still doing its thing. I pulled each layer of wrapping away and nesteld inside were four bags each containing a little piece from the ocean. Spectacular! I let the bags float in the water for 20 minutes and then I acclimated them by transfering a little bit of water into the container holding the corals, letting it sit and so on until I'd filled the acclimation container. I also put in a couple drops of Salifert Flat Worm Exit. Then I transfered them to my tank. I ran the T5's for 3 hours tonight and it was really cool to see everything glowing. The new pieces are amazing. I only wish I had this whole camera thing figured out so you could see how much they glow. Thank you Pacific East Aquaculture: Dr. Mac, Beth and Becky!
Here's what I got:
Green Montipora capricornis
Magenta Mouth Metallic Orange Fungia Plate Australian
Neon Red Hardy Goniapora
Rare Green Moon Montastrea Australian
40% off! There are few better words. I really like the frags I picked up from Pacific East Aquaculture at the frag swap, so I thought why not, I'll just peak at what they have. Looking at the sight wasn't enough though. So many jewel-like treasures. I had to have some! So I made my very first on-line purchase of live aquaria this week. It was all very simple and would be delivered for pick-up to the UPS in Rock Center right near where I work. Easy!
Famous last words.
I was hoping to pick up the box first thing in the morning so I stopped into the UPS Customer Center on my way in to the office. Alas, nothing yet. The UPS guy said to come back after 11 am, so around 11 I checked the UPS tracking. It still read "out for delivery" hummm. I let the folks at Pacific East know what was going on and they started tracking the package too. This was the first time they were sending to this particular UPS rather than the UPS they prefered to use for NYC. The day went by and no package. At 4:00 I called UPS. I really hate how everything is automated now. Even if the customer service representative you got couldn't help at least you were talking to a person and not some annoying, emotionless robotic voice. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." "I said TRACKING!" Ug! After much pushing of buttons, I finally got a rep on the phone who told me the package would be there before the center closed. I quickly Googled the hours for the Rock Center UPS Customer Center: 8am-8pm. Then he said, "and if you don't own a mailbox there, they will deny the package and send it back into the UPS system". What????!!! Oh hell no! I asked to speak to his manager. She got on the phone and I explained the situation in my best pleading voice. She said I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do, it's on the truck. "But it's LIVE ANIMALS", I said. Then she said, "what do you mean? What kind"? oh, no, she's envisioning cute little puppies. I took a deep breath, feeling kind of sheepish, and said "coral." To my suprise she gasped, "oh my God, I keep a saltwater tank and I know just how concerned you are. Hold on!" I couldn't believe it! I swear this really happened. She came back on the phone and told me she couldn't get through to the store, but that the UPS man was at that store now. Then she said, "Here's what you do, you go over there now and ask for April. Tell April that Glovia said to escort you to Rich's truck and he'll get the package for you." Apparently Glovia is the queen of UPS--what she says goes because the moment I found April and told her all of this, I had four UPS people looking for Rich. While I waited, April told me about a customer who brought in a huge, live tourtise to ship via UPS. They did it--put the turtle in a pillow case and a box with holes and sent him on his way. Apparently Glovia wasn't happy about this, she called complaining about the box with a turtle sticking it's head out the holes. But the turtle made it to it's destination. Ten minutes later they had located Rich and gave me my box. They were FANTASTIC. A huge thank you to UPS!
I let Beth at Pacific East know I had the package in hand and we all sighed a breath of relief. By the way, if you do a pick up from UPS in NYC, only have it sent to the UPS hub at 601 West 43rd and 11th, that is the only place in NYC where the package will arrive before 10am, no matter how it is shipped.
I got home, the box was expertly packaged and the warming packet was still doing its thing. I pulled each layer of wrapping away and nesteld inside were four bags each containing a little piece from the ocean. Spectacular! I let the bags float in the water for 20 minutes and then I acclimated them by transfering a little bit of water into the container holding the corals, letting it sit and so on until I'd filled the acclimation container. I also put in a couple drops of Salifert Flat Worm Exit. Then I transfered them to my tank. I ran the T5's for 3 hours tonight and it was really cool to see everything glowing. The new pieces are amazing. I only wish I had this whole camera thing figured out so you could see how much they glow. Thank you Pacific East Aquaculture: Dr. Mac, Beth and Becky!
Here's what I got:
Green Montipora capricornis
Magenta Mouth Metallic Orange Fungia Plate Australian
Neon Red Hardy Goniapora
Rare Green Moon Montastrea Australian
Attachments
- Location
- NY
LC, I'm going to need you to autograph this book for me.....oops, I mean thread. The thing is, it reads like a book. Kudos to you. Glad to hear everything worked out ok.
Mac & Rebecca are two good people. I've got the utmost respect for them.
Enjoy your new critters,
Russ
Mac & Rebecca are two good people. I've got the utmost respect for them.
Enjoy your new critters,
Russ
- Location
- New Jersey , 07057
You have some really nice stuff ! Anything for sale lol j/k glad every things coming along.more pics please lol
lol j/k glad every things coming along.more pics please lol
- Location
- north jersey
good read....like russ said. nice progress and great job on the built in shelves.
noticed there are many frags on the frag rack and they are quite close to each other. you'll have to give them more room in between. they will sting each other.
the mushrooms are fine on top of each others but the lps's, i think i see acans, candy cane plus the new montastrea, they have stinging tentacles that come out at night and... like its name, sting the heck out of each other. there's even an acro frag in the midst?
rule of thumb is that you do not want different familes/genera of corals touching or so close together.....especially lps's....they have fairly potent and long stingers. some torch/frogspawn/bubble stinger tentacles can get several inches long....
noticed there are many frags on the frag rack and they are quite close to each other. you'll have to give them more room in between. they will sting each other.
the mushrooms are fine on top of each others but the lps's, i think i see acans, candy cane plus the new montastrea, they have stinging tentacles that come out at night and... like its name, sting the heck out of each other. there's even an acro frag in the midst?
rule of thumb is that you do not want different familes/genera of corals touching or so close together.....especially lps's....they have fairly potent and long stingers. some torch/frogspawn/bubble stinger tentacles can get several inches long....
You have some really nice stuff ! Anything for sale
This really made my day!! Huge smile!! It's all really small right now, but when things start to grow out, I plan to start offering pieces up. I've decided to add a frag tank to my system (don't anyone tell my husband! lol!) so I can keep some different things as they grow.
You are so right! The very day you wrote this, I discovered one of the Acan's had attacked my Dendro. Poor Dendro had a brown spot on him, but I've moved him to the other side of the tank and he's recovering. Looks like he's even sheding the brown spot. Caught it just in time. I took your advice and moved all of the Acans, the Candy Cane and the Montestrea to their own piece of egg crate. Even so, I discovered just this morning that one of the Acans (darn Acans!) attacked the Candy Cane, so I've moved the Candy Cane further away. I read an article somewhere entitled Coral Wars--I'm just discovering this to be really true. Amazing how aggressive they are and how far they can reach! I've just been reading about this in and excellent book: Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Aq...n/e/9781890087470/?itm=1&USRI=aquarium+corals
Some of those sweeper tentacles can be five times the length of other tentacles and they will stick onto the competing coral and continue to discharge poison. And this can happen from a coral several feet away! Amazing.
I just ordered another little frag rack for the Acans--they obviously need their own little space to hang out.
And because, I've discovered I'd like to keep the frags out of the DT, I've decided to add a seperate little frag tank to my system, so stay tuned on that addition.
Here are some photos of the Dendro before and after. The new isolation rack and the poor Candy Cane.
Attachments
- Location
- Bay Ridge, BK
Yea Laurie, be careful. I have a favia that shoots out a sweeper about 6 inches, this was when it was just a frag, it is bigger now... have it in the corner. Many of my corals shoot out the sweepers when I put holdfast epoxy into my tank to secure rocks or corals. Anyone else have this happen? I just used the stuff for the first time a couple days ago and noticed it.
Sump!
Manhattan is known for top notch museums, Soho, Chelsea, the Factory, Sotheby's, Christies. For historical architecture: The Flatiron Building, the Empire State Building. And across New York in the home of reef keepers, what can only be considered a work of art is popping up: sumps made by Custom King. Gleaming, crystal clear structures of perfect angles, cut-outs and baffles that create a symphony of water movement. You might think I'm being dramatic, but just look at this sump and tell me if you've seen anything more beautiful.
When I started to work out my plan for my upgrade, I initially thought I'd turn my 55G into a sump and I spent a load of time researching sump construction, chamber order, baffle height and width, and what kind of silicone to use, but then two things happened. First I began to realize the dimensions of the 55G aren't very good for a sump because the 55 takes it's volume from height rather than width and for a sump, you don't need the height, you are better off with a wider sump. Then second, I saw a sample of Custom King's work at the Frag Swap.
So as I've been tearing my apartment down and building it back up, Custom King was working on a sump for my tank. The end of last week, he called to let me know that he was coming to deliver the sump at 8 am Sat. I was estatic--even if that meant I had to get up at 7 am on a weekend! I had a very hard time falling asleep on Fri. night and even woke up at 4 am I was so excited about the new sump.
The alarm went off and I sprang out of bed. Aslan, our Briard, and my husband were still asleep and I left them, closing the door behind me. I started my tea and went online in case there were any updates from Custom King. As you can see hardly anyone was even on MR!
At 8am Custom King called, he was just parking (no small task on my street!) and would be right up. He arrived with the glorious sump and when he pulled back the paper to show me, I was all smiles. Absolutly beautiful! The sump is 42L x 13w x 16h and fits perfectly below my tank. Here are the rough estimates of each chamber listed in the direction of water flow:
1. 8" x 8" drain filter sock section for one 7" filter sock
2. 13" x 15 1/2" skimmer section where I will also house two heaters, a Two Little Fishes reactor with PhosBan and another Two Little Fishes reactor with Carbon.
3. 8" x 4 1/2" Baffle section with four baffles
4. 22 1/2 x 4 1/2" Fuge (since I will have a display fuge, I just wanted a small fuge area here--I am toying with the idea of keeping sponges in my sump where it is darker)
5. 18" x 8 1/2" return pump area
I am delighted with the sump--everything fits in it nicely with plently of room. Oh, and he even polished the edges for me Thank you Custom King!!!!
Now I can't wait to get the plumbing finished and get water in the system! Stay tuned...
Manhattan is known for top notch museums, Soho, Chelsea, the Factory, Sotheby's, Christies. For historical architecture: The Flatiron Building, the Empire State Building. And across New York in the home of reef keepers, what can only be considered a work of art is popping up: sumps made by Custom King. Gleaming, crystal clear structures of perfect angles, cut-outs and baffles that create a symphony of water movement. You might think I'm being dramatic, but just look at this sump and tell me if you've seen anything more beautiful.
When I started to work out my plan for my upgrade, I initially thought I'd turn my 55G into a sump and I spent a load of time researching sump construction, chamber order, baffle height and width, and what kind of silicone to use, but then two things happened. First I began to realize the dimensions of the 55G aren't very good for a sump because the 55 takes it's volume from height rather than width and for a sump, you don't need the height, you are better off with a wider sump. Then second, I saw a sample of Custom King's work at the Frag Swap.
So as I've been tearing my apartment down and building it back up, Custom King was working on a sump for my tank. The end of last week, he called to let me know that he was coming to deliver the sump at 8 am Sat. I was estatic--even if that meant I had to get up at 7 am on a weekend! I had a very hard time falling asleep on Fri. night and even woke up at 4 am I was so excited about the new sump.
The alarm went off and I sprang out of bed. Aslan, our Briard, and my husband were still asleep and I left them, closing the door behind me. I started my tea and went online in case there were any updates from Custom King. As you can see hardly anyone was even on MR!
At 8am Custom King called, he was just parking (no small task on my street!) and would be right up. He arrived with the glorious sump and when he pulled back the paper to show me, I was all smiles. Absolutly beautiful! The sump is 42L x 13w x 16h and fits perfectly below my tank. Here are the rough estimates of each chamber listed in the direction of water flow:
1. 8" x 8" drain filter sock section for one 7" filter sock
2. 13" x 15 1/2" skimmer section where I will also house two heaters, a Two Little Fishes reactor with PhosBan and another Two Little Fishes reactor with Carbon.
3. 8" x 4 1/2" Baffle section with four baffles
4. 22 1/2 x 4 1/2" Fuge (since I will have a display fuge, I just wanted a small fuge area here--I am toying with the idea of keeping sponges in my sump where it is darker)
5. 18" x 8 1/2" return pump area
I am delighted with the sump--everything fits in it nicely with plently of room. Oh, and he even polished the edges for me
Thank you Custom King!!!!Now I can't wait to get the plumbing finished and get water in the system! Stay tuned...
Attachments
- Location
- Staten Island
Great build Laurie! Jeff builds great sumps, I also have a custom king sump :inlove:
- Location
- New Jersey , 07057
ha ha ha ! glad to hear that.i was the same way when i recieved my sexy sump(there is no other words to discribe it) !the best part was it was made the way i wanted!
!the best part was it was made the way i wanted!
- Location
- New Jersey , 07057
btw if those pesky acans are getting introuble and giving you a hard time i have room for them in my tank :lol2: i<3 acans! lol
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