Rwynn's 40g Reef Tank

Thanks, yeah I saw the store was having a Koralia blowout sale...K1 - 4s..the 4 was only 27$ but figured it was a little more than I needed. My LFS has the same K3 for 93$ haha.
 
Ok, called Aquatraders today...talked to the lady on the phone(she was super nice). After I described the issue she agreed it was the ballast and is sending me a new one. So...things are looking good atleast from a customer service standpoint.
 
I think that they pay so little for them that they can "give" parts away all day long. Or even replace the entire fixture and still make money. Good to hear that they will stand behind them though.
 
Yup, and once it is all working a little extra time involved is nothing when I factor in the massive cash savings.
 
Ran my tests this morning and Ammonia is at 0, Nitrites are at 0 Nitrates are under 1...Fish are happy, the Gobie seems to have helped with my nitrate issue with all of his sand sifting...too bad he likes to cover my rock in sand now. My new LR is curing still in it's own bucket...Nitrites are pretty high still.

I did a 50% WC today and noticed when I took the rock out that the entire top half is an awesome bright green. Tried to scrape it off and no go, looks like it is coralline. Very excited to get that in my tank. It has some really neat bubble-like formations covered in the green color(all hard part of the rock not bubble algae).

Still waiting for that light issue to get resolved(the ballast I got is on its way back to Cali to be replaced. Should be there thursday).
 
Gah, got my lights today...the actinics come on fine..the MH comes on for about a minute and then click off...seem to have to be unplugged for 5 minutes or so and then they will come back on for a minute or so when plugged back in.,..frustrating, but I figured there would be issues with a 99$ light..so lets see how aquatraders handles the situation...

This is normal for a new bulb.
They can take up to 100hrs to "burn in".
I was having the same problem and also wondering if it was the ballast.
Mine took over a week of random on/offs and flickering color temperature.
Now it runs great. And this was on a premium fixture.
 
Hmmm....wish someone had said that sooner d'oh! Tho the lady at the store seemed to agree it was a bad ballast....It would go off for indefintely after being on for 1 minute(I left it plugged in and on for 36 hours at one point and it never came back on) is that what you are referring to?
 
Rwynn, no... that long. More like 10 minutes like Biff was saying. It very well could have been a ballast problem. If it happens again, give it some time. But hopefully it works great from the start this time.

Biff...
Aquarium Lighting Guide - Metal Halide Aquarium Lighting
and I was also told the same thing by the guys at Reefgeek. Up to 100hrs.

And it was true. After about a week, bingo... it's now solid as a rock.
 
Well the Domino was getting his ass kicked by the clowns, so back to the LFS he went(Along with the other 35 dominos they have(Their shipment came in but the order was wrong, instead of 3 dominos they got 30 haha) Guy traded the one 7$ fish for 3 or 4 hermits so it worked out pretty good. The Clowns and the Goby all seem to be more relaxed now.

My replacement ballast should be shipped this week, so hopefully by this time next week there will be coral in this tank!

I also moved my LR that was curing into the DT finally!

When I get home I'll throw up a few pics nothing amazing(A camera is now on my list of things to buy)
 
The angel would probably be fine with your other fish -- they tend to keep to themselves. But it is not totally reef safe. There's a pretty good chance it'd eat your corals.
 
The angel would probably be fine with your other fish -- they tend to keep to themselves. But it is not totally reef safe. There's a pretty good chance it'd eat your corals.

Yeah from what I've read its sort of "you never know" with these some people don't have issues, others get annialiated...guess I will find out.

Might end up wih an expensive filet of fish for dinner. :mrgreen:
 
Lights should be here any moment now! Getting excited tomorrow is the start of my weekend and I'll get a chance to hit up some coral!

On non saltwater related news, my guppies had their first set of fry today! I'm thinking maybe I'll get some more and use the fry as a great live food for my clowns!
 
Well, I talked to Aquatraders today to get a tracking number, which I didn't end up needing as the ballast beat me home for lunch!

When we were talking on the phone though the lady mentioned that the ballast i sent in was fine, they had it running on a 48+ period testing to be sure.

She suggested the light socket was loose and not getting a good contact. I took it apart on my lunch break and sure enough there was nearly 1/8 an inch travel in either direction before any contact was made. I was able to push the ends together and get it to come on for as long as I would hold it, when I get back home from work tonight I'm going to be doing some work to get it to stay in place and the light should be good to go!

VERY excited!
 
Let me know how you like the light. And now that you bought it, you might as well return it so that you can get the 125g from CL.
 
Lord I don't have a single 6' open spot to put it lol...but it comes with 2x 175w MH some T5 a skimmer and pumps...I could probably sell stuff to make room haha
 
View attachment 5360LIGHTS WORK!!!!!!!!

Ok, here are some pictures from tonight, notice I still have a lot of cleaning up to do....need to add a black background, add the HOB fuge with built in skimmer on the 20th. I'm also working on the design for some sort of integrated hood/support for the light since the mounting legs were not the right size, and hanging isn't an option right now. It will get a coat of black paint and sealer and will look much nicer.

I'm adding rock rather slowly as yall can see I'm sure, I'm trying to average 7 - 15lbs/month. I have about 20lbs as is. Since it is a tall tank I won't be able to get as close to the top of the water line with rock so aquascaping is going to be a challenge to get it to balance properly.

Now that I have some real lights I'm hoping I can start to get some coralline growth and add a few easy coral soon.

I'll be removing the HOB filter, and HOB skimmer on the 20th when my skimmer/fuge combo gets here.
 

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