pledosophy

Lookin Good. Thanks for the work.

If the blue with yellow skirts are the same ones as in the first pic, and grown out from the frag I brought you they are eye or rah's. That's a screamin deal on them. I have seen them go as high as $5 a polyp. Are the magicians the ones with a speckly center in the first pic? I have the same ones, never ID'd them.

I was very unhappy with my Nova Extreme. I got my first one and it lasted two days before it went kaput. They did honor the warranty and were very expediatant about it. I took it in to my LFS, back in Cali at the time, and they had a new one for me two days later. + on that end. There is only one reflector, which at first I was like no biggie, but after I got a fixture with individual reflectors I was amazed at the difference. Same bulbs even the difference was huge. I was actually worried it was that much brighter at first, but those reflectors make a big difference. I had to replace my fixture within a year and a half. The actinics would not fire, the bulbs were only a year and a half old, no biggie I thought I went and bought more bulbs. When I took the fixture off to change it there was burn marks around both sides of the end caps. When I went to unscrew the bulbs the plastic on the end caps cracked, making them useless. When I got my Tek fixture my old bulbs worked just fine, so it was the fixture not the bulb. IME they had bad reflectors, bad wiring, cheap endcaps and bad stock bulbs. They get an F on my scale. I was lucky I did not have a fire. If you wanna go T5's I'd Tek based on my experience. I have had a Sundial too. It was a PC version. It was fine for a few years until the switch started leeching electricity. I've never used there MH fixture. For a 20g long I'd go with a Tek or a retro fit T5 unit. I tried using a 150w Jalli HQI fixture on mine, but even with the bulb 12" off the surface of the water I still had shading and I had a hard time getting corals to grow in the center of the tank. Sounds silly but with that depth the light was kinda to much. JME, not that I know anything .

Basically the attachements will not have the same depth of field. The sides of the pictures will also be out of focus. Meaning you can have a great centered shot (when using a tripod even at higher shutter speeds) but the sides of the picture quickly fall out. It's not a dramatic of a blur as say a vasoline filter, but it is pretty noticiable to me. Everytime I use one I end up cropping out the sides. Some of the filters are nice as they are stackable. But then the fall out on the corners is even more significant IME, and focusing is much more of a chore. At some point in stacking you just have to go manual for the focus and use a shutter release for the camera.

I used a D1X for awhile. IME it's a piece of crap. I couldn't make large prints (maxed out at 20x24), had focusing problems, did not respond well in low light, and had a bunch of noise. I forget the model of lens we had for it, was a $1500 lens at the time. Thing is bulky as all get out too. Replaced it with a 10D (it was awhile ago) and the 10D clowned it in every element mentioned, well except maybe in low light. I've never gone back to the Nikon's from there. Completely felt burnt. JME. Personally I don't see a need for most people to go beyond a point and shoot camera at this point, unless your going to be actually working in the industry or a very serious hobbyist your not going to appreciate the differences, or know how to use them. Also in "pro" gear your going to invest so much the variety of lenses you are going to need you'd be better off with a simple point and shoot and a few thousand dollars richer. For point and shoot's I like my Sony Cybershot. It's a DSC 300 or something like that. fists in the pocket, takes great pics. I don't want to lug around my "gear" at this point anyway. To much hassle.

That's the one I was referring to as well Mark.

Some people are uncomfortable making offers, for fear we will insult, but if you post a ball park price, it might help you out. Looks like a nice tank, the wife has wanted me to get a black stand and canopy . . .

Always a pleasure doing business with Matt. More of a pleasure when he frags out the certain polyps I have my eye on Come to think of it last time I did feel kinda guilty when I was leaving. I mean I paid what he asked for what I got, but still felt like I had just shafted the dude. All my stuff is doing great as well.

I noticed no benefit from it that I saw so I stopped. One of the food additives I was using does contain Vitamin C as well. I haven't tried it since I moved up from So Cal.

I could do a generous frag of these too if you like or a very nice size colony of

How about a frag of and for your nukes. We might have to meet at the 711 again I don't think I can find your office.

That way by bumping it more people can see it. Nice to know about the Dr, I might have to order some, they are great for frag trays too. I have one I use as a feeding dish also, cool little invention.

No worries my man, whenever is fine. The zoo's are yours.

IIRC Garrett got the frag from me back in the day. If not I have the same ones. They are a bit different then RPE's. The most noticable difference is the polyp size, it is much much larger then the RPE's. They are a but lighter in color, kind of a purplish mauve to my eyes. They are a nice addition and even next to all of my other zoo's those always get a comment. There center really is a bright green. They are fast growers as well. I think I started with 4 polyps, have traded the coral 10 times or so and still have 30 polyps left. If you feed them, they will grow even faster. Mine will eat whole mysis. HTH

Can you post a pic? I don't think I have those, but I'm not so good with names. Could be easy though.

I would start doing water changes. Maybe 4g's everyday until ammonia and nitrate are zero. If your really ambitious you could do 4g's twice a day. Buffer the new salt water to the appropriate pH before it hits the tank, then start keeping up on your alk more often. JMO

Koralia's don't work that well on timers IME. I would go with two nano's also though. There flow is pretty gentle IME, but having two would help with dead spots IME. HTH

Just flip the arrows 180* and you will be fine. Really I would just switch where the water enters and exits.

Anyone got anything good to trade for them? I might have a frag or three.

IMO it is backwards. The return pump goes on the side of the bubble trap.

IME it is very possible to control phosphates with a refugium. If you have nitrate and phosphate present and your caulerpa is not growing like mad, then you have a lack of iron or lack of light. Both are limiting factors for growth. Some species of caulerpa can grow by more then 10x in a day given the right conditions, so if it's not, check your iron or light. There are many of the spiral bulbs out there, but not all are good for growing macro IME. I have had the best luck in growth with getting bulbs that are spiral, but incased in glass with an internal reflector. Personally I would recommend getting two or three of these for over your refugium. http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/PROD/Reflectors/1P381951 Increasing the flow in the refugium is also good IME. You want it in the 30x range IME. I have kept quite a few nice tanks over the years using only a refugium for filtration. I wouldn't recommend it for an SPS tank so far based on my experience, but for softies, LPS, or variations, it has shown to be successful for me. I did get a skimmer about 7 months ago for my reef, but my other tank is only run off a refugium. I have had some type of setup that uses refugiums only for the last 8 years. JME

Ya I think you might be right. If this thread has offended you that greatly we are probably not the club for you. No worries there are many other clubs out there. I hope you can find one more in line with your personal views. (waving)

Maybe less of your implication and more of my reading it wrong. No worries. I was beginning to think that maybe you were mythical, and see through since I was sitting right next to Benny. I still don't believe your real. (whistle)

Matt flaked too Mark. I was the only one who showed up with frags. Benny took them all home.

You no showed to the meet and greet to, but made a post eluding that you had met Benny there. Strange.