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I've cleaned mine once in the time I've had it (I actually dont know how long, under a year). I do all my pumps about every six months though. When I had it apart and cleaned it it didn't seem to be fouled up at all.

Good to know, I've read a lot of stories like that with some of the cheaper lamps. These ones may be the same, not sure though since they actually produce a lot of other metal halides (and other types of lamps) for industrial use and things like that. I've done a lot of searching and haven't...

Ok gotcha. I have been hearing the DE Bulbs seemed to be less blue then the SE bulbs for some reason. Not sure what the cause could be though. I have tried Ushio lamps before, some 14k's. They didnt look much different than my XM 10k's. Are their 20k's better? I like the color of my XM 20k's...

Ok, next question. Were they yellow yellow or just more yellow then a normal 20k?

Does anyone have experience with these? I'm looking at the 175 watt 20k mogul base bulbs. I haven't been able to find much on them, but the little bit I can find seems to be mostly positive. My XM 20k's I think are about toast, this is my first time with 20k lamps, but these made it about 9...

Correct! I was almost asleep last night when i was posting, at least its coherent =) I only had mine not restart once, and pump was due for a cleaning anyways so i cleaned it and it fired right back up =) Mine only gets restarted about twice per month when i do water changes, I don't shut it...

There are a lot of skimmers out there. I ended up going with a SWC Extreme 160 cone. I believe I paid in the $275 range for it, but it was rated for a heavily stocked aquarium much larger than mine (90 gallons). Skimmy had recommended that one or another one by SWC. It was essentially the same...

Thanks! =) I don't see myself missing the white sandy bottom anytime soon, its cause to much pain over the last couple year.... Haha! That's a pretty cool idea, I may have to try something like that someday, currently I don't really have the space for it. So far i am loving the bare bottom...

I can't see it being that much more month to month. All i do is water changes (i shoot for 10 gallons weekly, usually is bi-weekly), I've never dosed anything (and i do have sps) so that's a huge expense eliminated. Coral you dont have to fill a tank up, shoot, its taken me 2 years to fill up my...

Already done, I thought about that after I put them in and ended up turning them around. I only have one fan one each end, both blowing into the canopy. The back of the canopy is open so I figure the air just goes out that way =) At $24 per fan I want them to last as long as possible!

No worries, i got it handled =) Here's the pics Before After Also After I can't tell if the tank is actually brighter or not, seems like it may be a little? I will have to look at the camera settings for the last picture i took before i changed it, match them up and take another picture...

I went with slightly more towards the center of the tank. Seems to be ok so far =)

Do I want to line the lamps up slightly more towards the center of the tank in each hole, or do I want them right in the middle of each hole??

Nice, great pictures! Me and my inability to wait once i want to do something is about to pull the canopy off the tank and rotate my lights. I don't even have the actinics plugged in since i switched over to the 20k's, so I'm just going to eliminate the fixtures from the canopy. I'll take a...

The tank is a standard 90, 48x18x24. The reflectors are a Sunlight Supply Reef Optix 2. I got them from my lfs but the have them on reefgeek. I think they are pretty basic but seem to do a good job. They are a dimpled aluminum. The halides are only 175w so there's only so much a reflector can do =)

Very interesting, so on my 90 would it be worth changing it over? Since I've re aquascaped this past weekend after pulling all my sand out the tank looks like this: I have noticed the right side has a little bit of a dark area, but i think its due to the tonga branch with the green star...

I wanted to mount my reflectors that direction but they would not fit in the canopy that direction with my actinics. Also the fans are mounted to the sides of my canopy and blow across so i think the air from the fan would just run into the side the the reflectors. Maybe that's a project for me...

Nice, did not know that, good information! I wasn't aware that the angle of the reflective surface had that much to do with it.

I think its just a preference thing. I personally like black, i took the lazy approach though and my local petco or petsmart (cant remember which) sells double sided aquarium background, ones side blue and one side black. I just attached that to the back of the tank (black side) and i think it...

I haven't done any testing yet, im pretty on top of water changes so I actually don't do a ton of testing. Just the occasional nitrate/ammonia test but I do keep tabs on the salt content. No losses to report from the aquascaping adventure. I did use a big rubbermaid to move some of the rocks...