Saltwater & Reef

dezso · 04-22-2010, 05:15 PM

I got a Bubble tip rose anemone yesterday, it was a steal deal.
She is small 2-3 inch when open, hiding for most of the time but toke the piece of kril fish I put close to her today, all of the cleaner shrimps was ready to male their move but luckily she swallow it before they had any chance. I noticed some of the shrimp was very aggressive and tries to pull the food out from her mouth, is this could damage the anemone ?

Mitchell0605 · 04-22-2010, 10:21 PM

I don't think so but they will try and steal food definately so watch that.

dkpate · 04-22-2010, 10:59 PM

Seriously? Shrimp steal food out of it's mouth?!?!?! That's insane! But it did make me laugh LOL!

Aquarium1 · 04-22-2010, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkpate

But it did make me laugh LOL!

not surprised lol.

dezso · 04-29-2010, 09:46 AM

Planing to replace my 400WHamilton MH with one of this

or this

or this.

Any feedback on the Sun Blaze T5 ?

Want to get rid of my 400W MH, to much heat, and the replacement bulb is crazy expensive, or at least my LFS aka "the criminals" want $180 for a new bulb.
Ordered 2 on e-bay for $30 each, both arrived broken !!!!
The same bulbs in Aquacave is $90+S&H at least I can get T5 for somewhat reasonable price ~$20 each here locally.
I'm also thinking the T5x8 will have much better light coverage then 1x400HM !!??

dezso · 05-03-2010, 10:02 AM

Nothing at all !
zero, squat, nanan, zilch, nothing...
Fine, then I will but the New Tek Elite

ccCapt · 05-03-2010, 01:06 PM

400w MH is definitely overkill for a 125g tank. What kind of bulbs do you buy for $180 each? That's insane. You can get 400w XM's for $65 w/free shipping from Hello Lights.

Just keep in mind a 6x54w=324w will only produce slightly less heat than your 1 400w MH and an 8x54w=432w will produce MORE heat than 1 400w MH bulb. Remember a watt puts out the same amount of heat no matter what type of bulb produced it.

dezso · 05-04-2010, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccCapt

400w MH is definitely overkill for a 125g tank. What kind of bulbs do you buy for $180 each? That's insane. You can get 400w XM's for $65 w/free shipping from Hello Lights.

Just keep in mind a 6x54w=324w will only produce slightly less heat than your 1 400w MH and an 8x54w=432w will produce MORE heat than 1 400w MH bulb. Remember a watt puts out the same amount of heat no matter what type of bulb produced it.

I completely agree with whit the price, it should be fairly close to online competitors, but not.
400w double ended, I don't remember the brand but it was $178+TAX.
The ones I but from eBay keep arriving broken, the seller send me a second one, it also arrived broken, I believe the inside glass hit the outside glass when get drooped.

As for the heat, my 400w reflector body runs at 92.5c and the 108w T5 runs at 37c, I don't believe 400w T5 with built in fan will run that much hotter, maybe 50c !??

Also I find the 400w single point light source does not distribute the light evenly, even tho I have a light mover gadget for it, its very intense right underneath and somewhat faded on the sides.
8x54 will cover my tank much more evenly and I can turn them on/off in 3 step, that will also help on the heat problem.
I'm somewhat EVG in electronics, and I can program my controller to turn off some of the lightbanks if the water goes above a preset temperature, on a single source of light is kinda hard to do that.

On the other side I'll have much better display as well since the light's can be changed to different color in a small step instead of jumping from 10k-14k-20k. The light's is used manly for the benefits of the corals, but also for my viewing pleasure to !
To keep it short, I have a 400w Hamilton light and transformer whit a new 14k and a used 14k for sale

Now waiting patiently for my new light's.
Until here is some of the most recent pictures from today, will try to make somewhat similar when I set up the new light.

Greenmaster · 05-05-2010, 01:34 AM

The statement that all lights put out the same heat per watt... that is false (IMO) as different lights us the energy to create heat/light in different ratios... MH produces the most lumens per watt also an incandescent produces the least lumens per watt and the most heat per watt. But as far as the different lights you have posted on a per watt basis those lights are similar. For efficiency MH is king for watts per lumen but LED technology in the next few years is supposed to double light output per watt which will make them the king by far... a fan always helps keep things cooler and the temp on a T5 is spread out across the tank instead of concentrated all in one location. Heat disperses way faster on T5's because of their surface area... but they do produce more heat (in watts) per watt of electricity than MH

dezso · 05-06-2010, 12:39 PM

5-6 days until my new light arives.
I setup a new thermo sensor system, it measure temperature down to 0.125c.
It also log the result in every minute average temp.
In a couple days I'll have a very acurate temperature curve and will compare it with the new lights.
The room temperature is fairly stable 19-22c in various phase as the Furnce timer setup. I'm manly interested how much the lights heat up the water and not as much how much heate produced by the lights.

willbo · 05-06-2010, 08:45 PM

NICE WORK !!! Your tank looks great, keep it up.

dezso · 05-13-2010, 01:33 AM

Got my New Light today

Also got some result from my temp logger, it is past 11PM here tied, sleepy, happy.....
Here is a chart I made from the data gathered over 3 days, temperature in "C"
time in 15 minute increment, so 40 mean 10 AM "40/4 = HR".......

Greenmaster · 05-13-2010, 02:30 AM

That seems kinda low for the temp to kick in... and a huge temperature swing...22-27C almost 5 deg C... (71-80 / 9 deg F)

dezso · 05-13-2010, 09:24 PM

That is why I want to replace the MH, if I set the heater to 24C than the heat up will start from 24C and I was afraid it will go higher than 29C by the end of the day.
The new light is on since 1PM the water temp is 25.8C and that is with 8x54 watt !!!

dezso · 05-13-2010, 09:28 PM

ohh btw the auto top-of solenoid is also on a timer, this way if my home brewed system fail the timer only give 20minute for the water to flow, this time allow to add ~20 Liter of water to the tank but it will not fill up my basement