Recent content by 0db

it was Mr. 4000 I think, his site appears to be gone, perhaps the tank is as well. bummer.

I haven't seen it for months, it was a huge concrete reef setup, had photos of the owner diving in his tank to clean the glass... can't find it for the life of me.

I was at the same point for awhile; something hit my corals and wiped most of them out, my beautiful clam died, and I only had 3 fish in my 60g with 90 lbs of nice live rock being overgrown with caulerpa and ugly black crud. Finally I got up the nerve to do a full scale cleanup, water change...

I've had great success running a HO ballast on my PC bulbs, but never a VHO. I suspect that's going to shorten bulb life significantly.

I miss FFE. :( $10 overnight shipping on box lots of live rock to anywhere in So Cal was such a great deal.

Good job! I bought my 400W ballast off ebay at like $25 a few years ago, have been very pleased. Granted, I probably spent a solid $5-10 on wire and connectors... but still a pretty good deal!

Well, I put 4 peppermints in about 2 months ago, and after that only ever saw one of them hiding in the back corner. They never made a dent in the aptasia, and I honestly haven't seen that "one" shrimp since the joes juice, but I never really look for him either.

8O wow. I haven't been around here much lately, so I'm sure this is totally old news... but I just finally got around to trying Joe's Juice on my ever-more-infested 60 reef. Aptasia = lose Joe = win I'm so happy I can't stop crying.

I was aptasia-free for THREE YEARS... had two on a rock I bought way back at the beginning, put in a few peppermints and they were gone, never to be seen again. Three years pass... about 2 months ago I notice an aptasia on one of my rocks, and now my tank is overrun. I didn't add any corals...

I used seawater for awhile because it was really easy. The university near me had a huge marine biology program and they ran a pipe a couple miles offshore to take in water; they particulate/carbon filtered it and had a hose tap outside the building. EASY free water changes! And since they...

I only run a single 400W (have used 6500 and 10000K bulbs) on my 55G and I had thriving SPS colonies (they're dead now after getting some nasty disease) and have kept a very happy t. maxima for about 18 months now. I tried to keep the light-lovers near the center of the tank (at least keep them...

The part about anemone auras was particularly helpful.

I personally think lighting is one of the areas where DIY is not just justified, it can be a lifesaver. I converted my tank to a single 400W MH and my total cost was around $10 for wiring, $30 for the ballast, $5 for the socket, $5 for a homemade reflector, and the cost of the bulb, which can...

I'm keeping a dusky jawfish ALONE in a 60g reef and I only see him when I put food in the tank. They are not the most visible fish. If you decide you want a jawfish there's no real sense in buying an expensive bluespot since you're only going to see their eyes anyway. Get a dusky or pearly...