Recent content by cheapreefer

Good advice! I put a little blue/yellow one in at about 1/2 an inch. It started out fine but became verry agressive after 6 months at 1.5". It attacked my percs, cardinal and crabs (my purmle psudo did the same). Took me a long time to get the bugger out.

I use a blue outdoor 12' strip light from walmart. Its $7 and comes with all the mounting hardware needed to tack it around the inside of the hood. I leave it on 24/7. It doesn't add heat like an incadesnt and is completly weather and salt proof. Cheapreefer

Forgot to answer your question. A+ took a day of tests, pretty easy without studying-worth it. MCSE took 2 months with a lot of studying- worth it? I did get a job with Comcast afterwards but had to start at the bottom and work my way up anyway.

Depends on what your doing now. If your looking for an entry level job A+ is a good easy start. Then maybe get an MCP (my first was NT 4 Workstation, very easy)and work your way up to a MCSE. An MCSE without a few years of experience will get you nowhere. I am a currenly out-of-work network...

The only time 240 saves electricity is when powering a motor such as in an air compressor or A/C unit. This is why your electrician will get confused. In the US most houses are single phase 120/240 (no such thing as 220v in the US, for the most part). 3 phase systems are wired for 208v. Your...

Sounds right. If there is a green wire, then yes it should be ground. If not then ground it to the metal base of the ballast. Just curious, why not just use 120? I take it you have a 220 outlet near the tank?

Yes, I've used them. In a fixture outside my house. They are maybe 4200k and very yellow, not to mention much larger than aquarium bulbs. I just wish they sold a fixture for these bulbs so i could scam the ballast and reflector. They carry 175MV lamps for $25, if they had a 250w version...

I assume you have one wire labeled "com" and one labeled "240" on the ballast? If so these should go to the two flat prongs on the plug. The third prong should go to ground.

My 228 has been working for 8 months and has never been taken apart and cleaned. The sweeping motion is very slow now but its better than nothing, I guess. The material they are made of seems to get covered in algea very quickly.

Ahh, true. Been too long . But... let me think.

Steve, It probably wouldn't cause feedback (on an electric ballast), but why not just through a diode on each of the feed wires to direct flow in one direction? It would be a lot easier and much cheaper than using relays (which will suck power when energized).

I already have a couple HO ballasts that are designed to run 2 110w bulbs each (96"). That is the same wattage as a 4' VHO would require. But from what I've read it may or may not work. I am going to experiment using these ballasts to overdrive NO's as explained herehere.

Clear. Mounted a cheapie mirror on the wall 6" behind the tank so I can see behind the rockwork, never knew what I was missing, plus it makes the tank look so much deeper.

Roach, I've been trying the no water change method in my 40 reef. Its been up for 9 mo's and has never had a WC. Everthing tests fine and the fish, corals and anenomes are looking great. I don't have an RO system and would rather have aged saltwater in my tank than fresh tap water anyday. So...

I had to move some rock around last night in one of my newer tanks (4 mo's old). Under the rocks was a countless no. of pods and worms that my scooter gulped up. After that he didn't seem to move much, he normaly "scoots" all over the tank. This morning I found him dead . He was my first...