Brand New 8 gallon bio cube

[Katrina71]

Polly was sunning at the French doors with just the screen. She went crazy and I found him. He detached his tail, but I caught him and let him go. There is a tiny gap in the corner of the screen.

 

[Katrina71]

Yes, I was lizard wrangling when I heard the knock!

 

[NY_Caveman]

What the... ? Cute little fellow!

 

[Katrina71]

Holy crap. All of this while not waking my husband. It's MTN dew time!

 

[Katrina71]

Told ya I'm a multitasker. Lol

 

[NY_Caveman]

LOL, everything happens at once. So, funny.

 

[Katrina71]

It looks like Hippie Kid got some free coral with his nem!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Wow, he is going to come home to a huge surprise. What a lucky young man!

 

[tdlawdo]

Yes, I was lizard wrangling when I heard the knock!

Living here in the boonies if KY. I guess my 1030 delivery was not realized...still waiting!!!

 

[Katrina71]

The first pic! He's little and cute. No foul odor on the outside of the bag.

 

[Katrina71]

Living here in the boonies if KY. I guess my 1030 delivery was not realized...still waiting!!!

It's not hot yet. Fingers crossed!

 

[NY_Caveman]

The first pic! He's little and cute. No foul odor on the outside of the bag.

Nice. Tentacles out, bag not really foul. Just remember once you open the bag, get him in quick.

 

[Katrina71]

I can change my bulbs out to 50/50, straight actinic like now, or add a 10k daylight bulb. What would y'all do? All Coralife compact florescent btw.

 

[Katrina71]

C'mon little guy...please be happy! The rock has 2 perfect holes for him.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Hard to say. The corals are used to your lights. The anemone may like some of that 10k though. I guess I would feel 50/50 is a good balance.

 

[Katrina71]

He is stretching out in the bag

 

[Lowell Lemon]

This just happened...

4 Stripped Skink?

 

[Katrina71]

4 Stripped Skink?

Formerly a bright blue tail.

 

[Katrina71]

I'm so excited and nervous!

 

[crusso1993]

Am I crazy to consider a Tribrid?

I don't think the Tribrid has much to do with it!

That should be it. Remember that if you use the HQI, you will need a glass UV shield. The mogul base bulbs, which I prefer has a shield built in to the bulb.

I don't think MH will ever go away entirely. With all of their drawbacks, they are very good for reef tank lighting.

I agree with this. The first aquarium I saw with MH was a 58 gallon Oceanic that was set up by Albert Thiel when he worked for Dupla. I watched him set it up. To me, there is just nothing like it. I actually have that old Sunpower Dupla fixture that Thiel installed on that tank. It needs to be reworked (ballasts are bad), but it was a cool fixture for the day.

Honestly, seeing that first tank as described above, the lighting is what impressed me the most.

20k is bluer.

Remember also that I am not using MH on my "new" build. LED & T5 this time around. Heat is the issue for me, but if I don't get the results I expect, it is back to MH & T5 for me.

What @Fin said about 20k being bluer. An interesting point about Radium 20k bulbs is that when they came out they were considered very blue so everyone just started calling them 20k. They really aren't 20k degrees though.

Interesting in the description it says it comes with a glass UV shield. Maybe I misread it



I gotta say I'm loving all the info here and I really appreciate all of you sharing it. The different methods of lighting I'm not very familiar with and this helps out a ton. I don't think blending all three would be cheap now or in the long term and it would definitely be complicated which is not what I'd like anyway. As much as everyone loves T5 it is a very expensive option for myself and I was thinking maybe going the MH/LED route mentioned earlier. How long do the MH bulbs last when properly cooled? From everything I've read they are usually only run 4-6 hours a day so the bulb time should last a while no?

Some of this depends on which bulb you use and which ballast you use. Nine to ten months is/was considered a general rule of thumb but I always ran 12 months.