looking for help

[cross]

well i ordered the bulbs last night. they should be here the end of the week or so. hay MGD how many bulbs and what K rating do you have over your 10gl?

 

[Workaholic]

I would split your actinic and 10k for good growth. Honestly 2 24w t5's I would think should give you enough light to keep just about anything you want in a 10gal. barring filtration and water quality of course.

Tom

 

[cross]

I would split your actinic and 10k for good growth. Honestly 2 24w t5's I would think should give you enough light to keep just about anything you want in a 10gal. barring filtration and water quality of course.

Tom

there 18" 20w bulbs and i plan on putting 4 of them over it. but starting with two right now. it will be 2-10k and 2-460 nm actinic.

 

[busdriver]

you should use "F4" tape one the ends of the ballast. It goes by names like "extreme tape" or "rescue tape." it is 100% silicone and only sticks to itself. it is good for just about everything!
I've seen at Harbor Freight sometimes...

 

[cross]

you should use "F4" tape one the ends of the ballast. It goes by names like "extreme tape" or "rescue tape." it is 100% silicone and only sticks to itself. it is good for just about everything!
I've seen at Harbor Freight sometimes...

i'll have to keep an eye out for it, harber freight huh?

hay busdriver, thouse zoa's i got from you that no one new what they where. the big green ones with the light blue ring MGD, you and I didnt know what they where. they are monster lips.

 

[cross]

DIY T5 attempt

OK, the first two bulbs arrived today, finally. this is the plan, the diagram shown is what i hope to accomplish. i have two ballasts so i will run 4 bulbs 2 of each ballast.

i probably wont get to it to day but thats the plan, stay tuned and wish me luck. the light I'm going to chop up is the only light i have at the moment. risky business..

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

hurry it up I'm anxious!

 

[cross]

hurry it up I'm anxious!

:lol: oh the suspense :lol:

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

The future of my 10 gallon depends on yours! Don't let it die!

 

[cross]

The future of my 10 gallon depends on yours! Don't let it die!

the pressure, i cant handle the pressure.... your making me feel badif your tank dies so will mine..

 

[busdriver]

you can get yer tank to live on 6500 K CFLs... it isn't something i would do forever, but if you nuke yer light it'll get you by for quite some time... i used them, some emergency solar blanket (Al + mylar), hot glue, milk cartons, and those ceramic fixtrues for a buck each... i wish i could find the pic of it.

 

[cross]

thanks for the heads up. if things go south on me i will need a back up plan. how long can corals go with out light before they start to die?

 

[cross]

ok, so this did not go as i had hoped... turns out these ballasts from this fixture will not run two bulbs like i thought, they ran two 39w bulbs one bulb per ballast in the fixture. i wanted to run two 18w bulbs per ballast "36w on a 39w ballast", wrong... so i am running 1 18w bulb per ballast. the same ballast was running one 39w bulb . so i added a 1x15w T8 light that i had running over it with the old set up. needles to say im not very happy. i hope this holds the corals till i can get the other two bulbs going like i planed. here are some pics of the hole thing. i dont know what you would call the set up because i dont think the ballast is acualy 39W. but what is over the tank at the moment is 2x18w T5ho bulbs on a two "39w?" ballasts and a 1x15w T8.

 

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more pics...

 

[cross]

the last two pics here are with the 1x15w T8 mounted in the canopy. it deffinetly needs more light.

 

[Workaholic]

I would let it just do its thing for a week or so and see how the corals react. Keep in mind you are running 36w of t5 and 15w of t8. Those t5's have a allot of punch in their little package. Do you have a skimmer on there? If not I would look into one of the Bubble magus HOB skimmers. Most people like the CPR backpacks but having had one for some time on my 20L I would recommend it unless you don't mind messing with it all the time.

Tom

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

I had a bad feeling this would be the outcome. I was told awhile back that a single bulb ballast would not run two bulbs, but i was leary

That lighting will sustain that tank no problem until you can get two more bulbs working. I just have the 2 18" t5s over my 10 and my montipora digitata is growing, however slowly. My zoos, frogspawn and hammer all seem perfectly fine, my GSP turned totally brown but looked otherwise healthy, but i threw it back in the 20 cause i want GSP not BSP . Your canopy looks great though btw!

 

[cross]

I would let it just do its thing for a week or so and see how the corals react. Keep in mind you are running 36w of t5 and 15w of t8. Those t5's have a allot of punch in their little package. Do you have a skimmer on there? If not I would look into one of the Bubble magus HOB skimmers. Most people like the CPR backpacks but having had one for some time on my 20L I would recommend it unless you don't mind messing with it all the time.

Tom

tom, it will have to run like that for at least a week, i dont get paid till then . as for the skimmer no i dont at the moment, i did try running a prizm on there and it did absulotly nothing so i took it off. it has been doing realy well with out one though. but i may look into that bubble magus skimmer.

I had a bad feeling this would be the outcome. I was told awhile back that a single bulb ballast would not run two bulbs, but i was leary

That lighting will sustain that tank no problem until you can get two more bulbs working. I just have the 2 18" t5s over my 10 and my montipora digitata is growing, however slowly. My zoos, frogspawn and hammer all seem perfectly fine, my GSP turned totally brown but looked otherwise healthy, but i threw it back in the 20 cause i want GSP not BSP . Your canopy looks great though btw!

MGD, why didnt you worn me man :lol: . boy i could have used that info earlyer . oh well i still plan on running the other two T5's over it, just have to do some recalculating's all . thank you for the coment on the canopy though.

 

[Workaholic]

Cross: Here's a link. I recall seeing some reviews of it in the bubble magus club thread on RC and it looked very promising. The best thing is most of it is out of the tank so takes up little real estate.

http://www.nuocean.com/skimmers/bmqqexternal.html

Tom

 

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thank you...