Hi reefers!

[joe perry]

I suppose I'm in the Sierra Nevada foothills (Grass Valley). Are there any other Nevada County reefers subscribed to this thread?

[Machupicchu]

Im in grass valley. I never see anyone in here so i usually post on MARS though. Haha

[joe perry]

Thats a shame. I wish there were a good reef club up here. Seems like the MARS guys really stick together. They are welcoming but they are so far away. You know?

[Machupicchu]

ya i know a few other reefers in gv that would probly like to start a club. I know quite i few actually, i work at Muttleys.

[joe perry]

I was at Muttleys a few weeks ago. No offense but I was underwhelmed. I'm not a coral snob or anything but the salt water stuff just seemed blah. How do you like working there?

[boviac]

Primarily this was a focus for the Paradise area of the contiguous 'ridge', so I can see your interest based on your Grass Valley Location - Several of those in the hobbby in your area are a part of MARS - Sacramento.

However, we do have Chico Reef Club - new website chicoreefclub.net

[Machupicchu]

I like it for the most part but your right we dont get much love back there. We try and make what we have work but i dot think we've done a salt water order in like 3 or 4 weeks now.
Kinda sucks.

[joe perry]

Wow. I thought I offended you with my comment. Hope I didn't. I realize people that work in a place have little control over stuff. Totally hear ya on making what you have work.

[Machupicchu]

Ya i just stopped by Exotic aquarium in Sac for the first time, and holy crap!
There filters and misc supplies section is as big as our entire store! haha

[joe perry]

I was havin' a hard time keepin' my drool from goin' into that frag tank you guys have set up there. I want to get that frog spawn you have. What are those little green-tipped guys you have on the right side? To be honest, I don't know what it takes to keep all those guys. you have any advise on how to catch some camel shrimp? I tried the inverted-top soda bottle but they were much too smart for that. Any ideas?

[maringoddess]

I had a 30 gal nano cube and the hood/lighting went out.

Selling all contents of my aquarium for $70 / take all

Well established aquarium, have had for 3 years.
Pencil Urchin
Several mushrooms / pollups
Mandarin Dragonete (RARE-Eats pellet food!!!) Have had him over a year, and sad to part with him
Bi Color Angel
Clown fish
Black Blenny
Watermelon Wrass
Large cowrie
Small money cowrie
Peppermint shrimp
Anemone
Lots or crabs/snails
Live rock and live sand


Tiffany
(530) 913-3333 cell

[joe perry]

Did you want out or is it just because of the cost for replacing the lighting Tiffany? If you're just selling your tank because you're sick of it then I'm there. Sold. But if you're just discouraged I would ask is there anything I might be able to do to help? Fellow reefers in this county are kind of rare IMO so I personally would rather benefit from a new acquaintance rather than a tragic resolution. LMK

[maringoddess]

How thoughtful Joe. No, absolutely not sick of this amazing hobby. My *dream* is to someday have a 50gal-90gal corner aquarium and this was the beginning.

My discouraged feelings are mostly financial, and that I am not able to bear the expense of a new set up, especially with the holiday pinch. So, I figured I would clear it out, and start again... someday.

I have a self timer, and Saturday the lights went off as scheduled, and on Sunday they never came back on. Have switched out the bulbs (duh!), but to no avail! Since the unit is a nano cube and self contained, it was not easy for me just to get another over the counter light set-up that would fit properly. I have no electrical knowledge, my resources are thin to get this fixed, and fixed quickly as they have not had light in three days. Poor things.... All the tiny liverock starfish have made their way to the aquarium walls in search of light and I feel like a bad "mom" As a last resort, I figured I better just do something, than have casualties.

If you want to chat in more detail, I welcome a call. 913-3333

[joe perry]

I'm guessing the lights are T5 fluorescents or compact fluorescents? I know nothing about nano cubes except what I've read and it seems like some of them have metal halides but most of them have fluorescents with remote ballasts. I started into the hobby just a couple of months ago so I'm really not versed in much more than apitasia and cyano but I have been doing a lot of learning with my lighting. After I bought my tank (used) one of my T5 ballasts went out so I researched it and found that a replacement would be about $40. I want to do the whole dawn-to-dusk plus lunar cycle thing though so I bought an LED kit to get started with. I digress. All this to say that I have found that replacement of a ballast is a simple task and your circumstances sound similar to mine in that I had the same, sudden loss of lighting. I don't have extra lighting but maybe I can help troubleshoot the problem? Is there a black box attached to the power cord? Can you post pics?

[Machupicchu]

If you bring the hood to muttleys ill tae a look at it for you. Alot of times those all in one aquariums have cheap ballasts that can go out and trip breakers as in my case. Thats why i ditched mine and went leds, but if you want to bring it in ill take a look, ask for chris.

Joe if your interested in the dawn to dusk effect like i was, check out the reef keeper aquarium controller. It has a module that you can connect to an led array to automatically dim leds over the course of a day.

I have one on my tank and the blues come on at 10 and gradually get brighter untill around noon, and then at 7 they start to gradually get dimmer until they are off at 9, the whites do the same but are on from 10:30 until 8:30. Pretty cool, not to mention the whole reef keeper kit comes with a power strip that lets you plug in a heater and a fan to keep your temperature within 1 degree, and 2 extra slots for a wave maker, i love mine. http://www.digitalaquatics.com/saltwater/RKL heres the controller
http://www.digitalaquatics.com/saltwater/ALC and the module that controls the leds.

[joe perry]

Thanks for the heads up Chris. I do want to do the dawn-to-dusk thing but I would rather get the Neptune Apex controller (next time I have more money than sense). It was nice meeting you today.