Recent content by shellshocked

I have ran VHO, CF and MH. You probably are bit on the low-end of the light for SPS. If you are bulding a canopy I would do a single MH maybe 175W or 250W and a couple of CFs to augment. You will need some type of fan to keep the MHs from heating the tank. Nothing big or noisy but something...

I got a new calcuim reactor today but cannot figure out how to bleed the air out of it. The pump return is on the top and any air in the system causes the pump to loose prime. The reactor seems to be working fine but I think I am missing something in regards to operation... Here is the...

A tank on hardwoods is no problem if you are half way careful. I have had one for years. I have a piece of carpet pad and a piece of carpet that I had trimmed about six inches bigger than the footprint of the stand. I am careful not to spill a lot of water but some spillage is not a problem...

I have the answer and I am a noise freak - only silent will do. Take a fan from a PC power supply (or buy one from radio shack) They are 12vdc. Get an AC/DC converter that has adjustable output voltage. Again radio shack should have. I run the fans at about 5vdc and they run silently. If...

Same here, I used to fight algae. I have a good skimmer, RO/DI water, etc... But only after I added a fluidized bed and ran phosban did my algae problem dissappear. My SPS do not seem to be doing any worse or better after the addition of the fluidized bed. I run it continuously. FWIW I had...

A cheap altermative might be sprinkler control valves. They are electrically activated (might be DC).

I would bet a ball valve cycling once a minute will wear out quickly. I used to do industrial controls. What fits here is a solenoid control valve. Check some industial control supply houses.

I have just installed a seio 820 superflow powerhead. It does move water well but it is very loud. Does anyone have experience with this powerhead? I have a tunze stream in another tank and while it is more expensive, given what I see now I would not buy the seio over the tunze even with the...

440 watts of VHO or PC is definitely not over lighting a 150. If anything it might be low.

I tried orange gorgonian a couple of years ago. It eventually died. It required feeding and the feeding was beyond what I could keep up with. Also pumping enough food to feed it into the tank even with targeted feeding was quite a bio-load on the tank. They are pretty but beyond what I can...

I would not worry about that amount. It should be fine. That is the problem with dripping kalk - it is difficult to get the drip rate right day after day.

If you can afford a tunze stream it is the way to go. I have 58 gallon and use one and have much better flow than when I used three different powerheads. If you don't have a big budget then put your powerheads on one of the cheap wavemaker power strips.

I tried it a long time ago. It did nothing for my corals. The best thing for me is normal water changes evey 1-2 months about 25% with only buffer and calcium additions every couple of days. I occasionally dose iodine (because I have a big bottle of it and can't resist the temptation to add...

I put mine in the basement! I run one tank upstairs in the living room and two tanks down stairs in the basement where noise is not an issue. All tanks are plumbed together. I have not seen a really quiet skimmer. You might focus on sound insulation in your tank stand.

Tunze Stream. Huge improvement in quality water flow.