Martin McNally

Not sure about those they are pretty thin arnt they, there might not be enough metal there to absorb the heat. Lots of people use square iron or aluminium channels from home depot. Cooling is one of the most important parts though if you want the LEDs to last forever. $50 will get you two heatsinks, then you know you will never need to replace them. Martin

Hi knickle22, 60 degree lenses is more than enough for you. I drew it out and 4 inches apart 6 inches off the water you get 50% overlap on the surface with 60o Lens. 6" below the water its almost 100% overlap. Let me know if you need anymore help. Testing on our tanks here I don't actually recommend 80s at all the par values get pretty weak when you get to the bottom of the tank, not to mention that the LEDs close to the edge of your tank are throwing 1/2 of their light output onto your floor with 80s. Hope that helps. Martin

I got live rock from an established tank that had been running for about 5 years. I kept it in a separate storage tank for more than a week before beginning the cycle process officially in my main tank. I have about 100lbs of rock and approx 70g water. I got some live stand (the carb-sea stuff) and mixed it with crushed coral. I was adding shrimp to the tank to raise the ammonia level and no matter how many I added I have not been able to raise the ammonia above 0.25 I think i added about 6 in total over 2 days. Everytime I add some they are eaten within an hour by brissle worms and some hermit crabs that came as hitch hikers from the other tank. This morning I noticed the tank was alive with worms and small shrimp all over the sand and rock. They quickly got out of the way when the lights came on. It has been cycling now for 16 days and the parameters have been unchanged since day one (except Nitrate): Ammonia: 0.25 (despite adding shrimp) Nitrite: 0.1 Nitrate: Climbed from 5 to 10 pH: Constant at 8.2 since day 12 Can I expect that my tests will eventually read 0 for Ammonia or am I always going to have this 0.25? Is that low enough?

Anyone know a good place to get 1 1/2 inch pvc ball valves in Red Deer? I see the threaded versions at home depot and the like but never the slip versions. Thanks Martin

I used this stuff as well and it sets pretty quick too which is great when working with awkard things like sumps. Martin

Looked at that link and another site that one links to. I dont want to keep anything that could potentially climb out of the tank and eat me in my sleep. :oP Martin

I dont mind the little ones but the ones in there at 5 inches long are creepy. I think they might crawl out of the tank and eat me in my sleep hah. Martin

Do they ever come out during the day? They give me the creeps. Martin

I got some new live rock from an established tank in Calgary the other day. Its currently in a quarantine tank. I see there are now little brissle worms on the rock surface but while I was putting the rock in the tank i seen some real big ones. They must have been 4 - 5 inches long half in and out of a hole in the rock. There were about 7 of them. Should I try and get rid of those before I put the rock in the main tank? Thanks Martin

Yeaa! Some other metric folks! I am orignally from Ireland so this inches and gallons nonsence is all foreign to me. I mixed a batch of saltwater yesterday and was puzzled as to how I got the quantity of salt drasticly wrong when I realised I was measuring in liters and the instructions were in gallons. :tongue: Martin

I was planning on eventually running 2PC plus either 1 or 2 MH so I would be losing out just adding an MH at a later date, since I am building the hood there would be room also. Although I would have to switch out one of the PC 10000J bulbs for an antic, the other would already be antic. Interesting about the mirros I thought you would get 100% reflectivity with a mirror but the trick would be putting 3 of them in, one behind and 2 at each side angled correctly. I suspect they were just talking about using 1 mirror behind the light which yes would mean you are loosing all of the side reflection. Actually now that I think of it you would also lose some direct upwards reflection with the mirror so you might need 4 mirrors 2 top angled at something like 5% then 45% on the sides. Ok its starting to sound like i should just buy the reflectors. haha Martin

Ah Ha, thats the catch then. I was thinking $10 would be it.

I was also thinking of getting some of that stuff. They will ship it to Canada for $10.

I am going to build a hood for my tank. Going to start out just with PCs in it but leave room for a MH or 2 a little down the road when my bank balance recovers from setting up this tank. Do you think reflectors are worth the money to purchase rather than just cutting up some mirros and putting those in the hood. Could easily mount mirrors above the light and at an angle around the sides. Thus saving a small fortune. Martin

Yea the TDS seems to be the key. Will await its arrival in the mail. The current water it is producing I am just going to use for storage of live rock for a few weeks so it should be fine. Thanks for the help. Martin

Did you also tape the little insert clip things where the hoses go into the joints? How much waste water do you get?

Hmm I didnt use any tape. It didn't leak (well after i fixed them all) so I didnt think it was necessary. Where would I get that, Home (we have no staff and will do our best to ignore and not helo you) Depot? Thats there new name heh. Martin

I installed my new AquaSafe RO/DI unit yesterday (worst install instructions ever by the way). Anyone else have these units? I got the Aquarium version. Just wondering becasue I still have bubbles coming out of the thing about every 2 seconds even though its been producing water for about 15 hours so far. I also have been adjusing the flow controler for waste water because the flow of waste seems to change every so often. Instructions say you should aim for about 3 or 4 to 1. Does it all sound normal? I ordered a TDS unit because I just want to check that it is doing what it is supposed to, not sure I trust it yet. Martin

Have a couple of questions on this: How long can you store mixed saltwater for? Should it be constantly aerated (even after a 3-4 day perod post mixing)? Does it need to be heated all the time or during the mixing phase or can it just be stored at room temperature and heated just before using? Thanks for your help in advance. Martin

I went to Big Al's and was impressed with the selection of equitment and live stock and I bought a tank haha. Disapointed in Aquarium Enthusiasts (although to be fair they were under construction), and not sure why I even went to Natures Corner as they had no saltwater at all. However on Saturday i found myself in Calgary and have to say that Ocean City and Wai's Aquarium on 16th ave were both AMAZING with Ocean City slightly better. Humungos selection of corals and fish. Ocean City was immaculate. Anyone who lives near 16th ave in Calgary is lucky. I will def go back to those two stores. Also went to Red Coral in calgary that was good to but no where near in the same leage as the other two. I do realise that stocking, times of month etc all play a factor in case anyone is going to get mad at me. Martin

Ended up going for a smaller tank 65g so not too worred about it. I dont think I can put it perpendicular to the trusses though My only free wall spot is parallel, however I doubt it will be an issue and the house is rented anyways heh. Martin

Just found this http://www.mops.ca/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/sk...e8c8+1215852066 Might be a winner for me. Will wait until the bulk head fittings arrive to see if it would fit. However chop one end of that thing and it would be perfect. Martin

Ok figured this out!

Oh it doesnt let me upload any more images ( Martin

So I got a new tank (65g) and I needed to build a stand. Worked out pretty good I think. I wanted it to be tall (unlike most stand that you see around) and I also did not want it to collapse when I put wanter in the tank (that would be embarrising). Built with 2x4s then covered in ceder (fencing wood) and pine (fencing wood) and a laminated pine top for the tank to sit on (wanted to be sure it was a flat surface). I used fencing wood because it was cheap. Fingers crossed it doesnt warp or something dumb like that. Total cost of lumber was about $70 plus $20 for wood finish. Martin