Recent content by bigsky

hey I got lucky and found 10 50#bags of southdown at Home Depot in Huntsville Al on N memorial prkwy and bought them all for 2.99$ per bag they said they were willing to special order it in for you just goto the contractors desk.

one of these days soon I'll post the math and building of my tank and stand so others can figure out the stresses for them selves. Give me a couple of weeks to get it done. I'll post it as a new topic, but will let you all know when it is up right here.

Pearsont74- when you talk about lighting with your LFS or fellow hobbiests you ask how much light do I need not how much power should I burn....in general the more power you burn the more light you get using like technologies e.g. 40w incadesent vs 60w or 40W NO fluorescent vs 110W HVHO but you...

if you consider a metal halide bulb to be about 1.5" in diameter and say 5" long and a t12 to be 1.5" in diameter.... the metal halide bulb's 9 bend reflector is around 12" by 10" by 5" high... you couldn't even put two VHO light bulbs on a 55 gal tank (assuming reflector being 48"x10"x5"...

Hey greenmaji, you responded will I was having trouble uploading my files. read the second picture first...they are out of order for some reason

for a t5 ho the reflector takes light from all sides of the bulb and shines it into the tank where as you can't use a parabolic reflector on a power compact bulb because the bulb is bent double and can't be in the focal point of the the parabolic reflector. Also the PC's ... what shines up gets...

there is no salt in you test results or copper, salt good copper bad

take a jar and put 15 ml of 5%acetic acid white vinigar in it add 1/2 tsp of pickleing lime swirl until powder is disolved mix in quart of water and slowly add it to your tank (pickeling lime ph=about12 and raises your calcium and magnesium) you might get away with putting a quarter of a jar...

check this out http://www.sealifesupply.com/medusa.htm scroll down to the water tester see what you think

they say 6-8 watts per gallon, but different lights have different lumen output so the real question is how many lumens per gallon and at what light spectrum? say you use 48" VHOs (110Watts) rated at 5500 lumens then you decide on VHO internally reflected at 40% more output say 7700 lumens and...

Frst, think of when you blow soap bubbles... when you touch them they pop. But if your finger is covered with soap they do not pop. The riser tube isn't coated in slim yet so the bubbles pop leaving some residue on the tube, as the slim coat works its way up the tube it will eventually reach...

here are two references for padding under your tank. they do not specify a manufactured tank of custom built tank.

oh yeah, that gap on the commercial tanks is there to replace the foam sheet. the glass is raised so irregularities of your stand don't interfere with the bottom glass but it is supported by all edges with the frame were as Garf's are not. I would not trust garf's design either.

You don't want the bottom of your tank to flex that is how they break. build your tank with the bottom down flat and all the sides glued on top. just besure to put a sheet of 3/4" plywood down and then a sheet of cork or styrofoam or closed cell foam down for your tank to sit on. I use a 1/2"...

the air bubbles get coated with proteins and other DOC's etc. think of them as soap bubbles. the soap being DOC'c. when you blow soap bubles they fly around and bump into each other bouncing off each other and sometimes joining but not popping, but when you touch it it pops. if you dip your...