What am I working with here.

[BEANS]

Hey thanks a ton for the info. I actually ordered it right now! You have been so much help and I hope I didn't ask too many questions, but I have one more. I noticed that the side stand / legs things dont come with it. So is it ok to just rest it on the glass like my other one is doing? directly touching my glass canopy? well thanks again

 

[TankGirl]

I love the idea of those legs, but they don't always come with them, and on all my tanks but the 150 the fixture is lying right atop the glass. You can order the legs separate if need be, which is handy to allow room to access the tank without having to move aside the light fixture.

 

[fort384]

It will be fine. If you notice a problem with heat dissapation then you can pick up a cheap 3" fan at radioshack and have it blow across the surface. That will cool everything down.

I prefer having it on the glass as opposed to on the feet - more light gets into the tank that way. Both my T5HO fixtures sit directly on the glass.

 

[TankGirl]

Oh, speaking of heat (good call on the fan) I have had these CFL endcaps fuse to the pins in the bulbs because of heat, and this was in a Coralife fixture with integrated fans.

There is an oxidizing grease that you can find in the electrical dept at the home store, or maybe Radioshack, and if you coat the pins in this stuff the bulb won't fuse to the endcap. This was a huge PIA and I had to replace all four endcaps. They were cheap, but I had no light while I waited for them to arrive in the mail.

Now I run an extra fan up in my hood to help with the heat that these things put off.

 

[BEANS]

Thanks for all your help, I ordered the 130w fixture today, should get it in 2 weeks and hopefully my driftwood will be done soaking by then to attach my java ferns to. I ordered some plants from a LFS here where I live and some eggs came attached to them. should I pull them out now or wait and see what they hatch? Could this be something that will harm the plants? thanks

 

[Purrbox]

That first plant looks like it could be Green Hedge. Check out the pictures on Plantgeek to double check.

 

[TankGirl]

Eggs? What do they look like? If they are in a gelatinous mound they are snail eggs and you might want to rinse those away. If they are fish eggs I'd personally let them hatch, if they will at this point, and see what you get.

I recently completely dismantled my 40g African setup, sold all the fish, cleaned out the tank and started over with new substrate, rocks, wood, plants, etc., since I want to make this a South American puffer tank. I was letting the plants settle and essentially running the tank empty while I mulled over my options. Lo and behold, one day I see six fry swimming around in there. I was delighted. Since there are no predators, I'm letting them grow and see what I get. They had to come from eggs off one of the plants, but I did not notice them, and they survived the rinsing I did before planting in the tank. Too cool!

 

[fort384]

Lo and behold, one day I see six fry swimming around in there. I was delighted. Since there are no predators, I'm letting them grow and see what I get. They had to come from eggs off one of the plants, but I did not notice them, and they survived the rinsing I did before planting in the tank. Too cool!

That is cool! I am amazed they survived.

 

[BEANS]

they are gelatinous so maybe ill collect them and put them in my tank with feeder guppies, ghost shrimp and snails. hehe

 

[joy13]

Gelatinous eggs are usually snail eggs, you might get lucky like I did and get some blue ramhorn snails. I like snails but yet have the worst time keeping them alive my fish eat the eggs and small snails.

 

[TankGirl]

If you want to fool with it, you can carefully collect the gelatinous clump and look at it under a magnifying glass or microscope (hey, we all have those sitting around, right?) and you might be able to tell what kind of snail they are. They will look exactly like their adult form (most species are like this, I believe) just teeny tiny, cruising around in the jelly. Ramshorns are very nice. I have some red ones and love them in a planted tank.