250 Gallon Starphire SPS tank

I'm a bit leary of the CV bulbs, myself. Especially, after hearing about the problems with them a year or 2 ago when they first came out. They didn't have a good enough uv shield and their bulbs were frying people's tanks. I don't think those people were ever compensated for their losses either.:( They have fixed their envelopes since then. Supposedly, the new reeflux line sounds to be ok.
 
Gisho, that M5 is sweet. BMW definitely peaked when they made that model (pre-Bangle design), I don't like the new ones as much.
 
jeffbrig said:
Gisho, that M5 is sweet. BMW definitely peaked when they made that model (pre-Bangle design), I don't like the new ones as much.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the Bangle design either.
Nowadays, you can't tell the 7, 5, 6, or 3 series apart from Japanese cars (i.e. maxima, solara, etc.) from a distance. I think the pre-bangle era 5 and 3 series had the simplest, cleanest and sharpest lines. They always had a uniqueness about them that made them very distinctive even from afar. I can't stand I-Drive either. But sales are up significantly for BMW so Bangle must be doing something right....
 
Travis said:
Supposedly, the new reeflux line sounds to be ok.
Click to expand...

I have heard good things about the reeflux line as well. But only in SE not DE.

I am confident the Pheonix are good bulbs, but I can get the reeflux for cheaper.................still debating.
 
Gisho said:
Sales are up significantly for BMW so Bangle must be doing something right....
Click to expand...

I am not a big fan of the BMWs either, althought the new 3 is OK.

Sales being up might have something to do with a 500 hp M5!
 
LittleBlueGT said:
I am not a big fan of the BMWs either, althought the new 3 is OK.

Sales being up might have something to do with a 500 hp M5!
Click to expand...

:lol: yeah, I'm sure that doesn't hurt. Might be my next car if the design grows on me a bit (as it has recently) and I can get over the I-drive and not having a stick shift to row. Apparently the motor, even at 500 hp, is detuned and is relatively easy to uncork to ~550-600 hp. Talk about a sleeper! With a msrp price of ~$80K + dealer markup (at least initially) this will be a very exclusive car and only targeted at a small market. Where BMW has had success lately is making their entry-level models and even mid-level models more accessible to the base market, as has Mercedes.

IMO, unfortunately this "watered-down" effect leads to cheaper build parts, reduced fit-and-finish, and unneccesary gadgetry.

A lot of the die-hard, old school BMW owners are having a hard time swallowing this change of direction....myself included.

Ah well. *sigh*

Sorry LGT, don't mean to go OT on your thread.

Back to your tank! Let's see some pictures!
:beer:
 
Gisho said:
IMO, unfortunately this "watered-down" effect leads to cheaper build parts, reduced fit-and-finish, and unneccesary gadgetry.
Click to expand...

I'm a pretty big fan of BMW's cars. My wife drove an E46 3 Series for a little over a year. I really liked the car, great "feel" to it, nicely appointed, etc. The engine and handling were head of its class. Unfortunately, the rest of the car ended up being a complete piece of junk. Power window mechanisms broke repeatedly, window trim fell off the car, the (steptronic) transmission was clunky.

Then it sputtered and died in traffic one day while my wife was driving home from work. Spent about a week in the shop. When she got it back she stopped to refuel, and it dumped 5+ gallons of gas on the ground from a leaking seal at the fuel tank. Suffice it to say, we didn't have the car much longer after that. Traded down to an Accord V6 - less car but much better reliability.

I would like to own a BMW again one day, but my confidence in them is pretty low right now. In the meantime, I'll having a lot of fun driving my S2000. :D

(We really need to stop hijacking this thread to talk cars)
 
jeffbrig said:
I'm a pretty big fan of BMW's cars. My wife drove an E46 3 Series for a little over a year. I really liked the car, great "feel" to it, nicely appointed, etc. The engine and handling were head of its class. Unfortunately, the rest of the car ended up being a complete piece of junk. Power window mechanisms broke repeatedly, window trim fell off the car, the (steptronic) transmission was clunky.

Then it sputtered and died in traffic one day while my wife was driving home from work. Spent about a week in the shop. When she got it back she stopped to refuel, and it dumped 5+ gallons of gas on the ground from a leaking seal at the fuel tank. Suffice it to say, we didn't have the car much longer after that. Traded down to an Accord V6 - less car but much better reliability.

I would like to own a BMW again one day, but my confidence in them is pretty low right now. In the meantime, I'll having a lot of fun driving my S2000. :D

(We really need to stop hijacking this thread to talk cars)
Click to expand...

:lol: Yes, we are going to get banned soon! Sorry, LGT.

Feel ya on the 3 series issues. My fiance has a 330 Ci convertible. These cars are tempermental
and NOT cheap to fix. You don't even want to know how much it would cost me to fix my car if something major were to go wrong with it (which luckily it hasn't yet *knocks on wood*). A full, extended warranty on these cars is a must.

Nice car that s2000. My buddy has one and it is incredible.
Highly engineered car. The amount of power they get out of that little n.a. 4 banger is incredible. I think it still has the record for power/displacement ratio for a n.a. factory production car doesn't it? He let me drive it once and we took it through the canyons. Boy that rear-end wants to step out! :D

You can't beat a Japanese car for reliability for sure. The infiniti's are real nice. They are doing some good work there with their M and G cars.

Now, back to the tank! Pictures LGT!
 
My last car post, I swear :D

Gisho said:
I think it still has the record for power/displacement ratio for a n.a. factory production car doesn't it?
Click to expand...
1999-2003 (mine's a 2002) was 240hp@9k from 2.0L, so that's 120hp/L. That was the record for any "mass produced" n.a. engine at the time. If anything newer tops that, I haven't heard of it. The current model's engine (2004+) was "upgraded" to a 2.2L for slightly more torque, but generates the same 240hp. It's the same block with a lengthened stroke, but they had to reduce redline to 8k. Personally, I'm glad I have the old one....it screams.

Gisho said:

Boy that rear-end wants to step out! :D
Click to expand...
It can, but it's completely controlled by the throttle, IMO. I've hung it out there on a few occasions, but never felt out of control.

Gisho said:

The infiniti's are real nice. They are doing some good work there with their M and G cars.
Click to expand...
Agreed, the G35 6MT is a great car and value.
 
jeffbrig said:
My last car post, I swear :D
Agreed, the G35 6MT is a great car and value.
Click to expand...

It won't be your last, inthe future I am sure I will instigate more car talk.;)

I almost bought a G35 6MT. But AWD not available in the 6MT, and not as easy to mod as a Subaru. Besides how many Gs can do a sub-5 zero to sixty?
 
Just about done the car and time to start getting the tank looking from good to great!

I have a new kalk reactor on order from Brent at barraquatic.com, it is the KR 3020, and is big.

"KR3020: 8" tube, 30" high x 8.5" x 8.5", 5.2 gallon capacity (200-1000+ gallon systems)"

I hope for this to keep my systems PH stable and lower maintenance for when I am away. Currently I fill my 25 gallon Kalk container about once a week. With the large kalk reactor I am hoping to fill it about once a month. That should mean that when I am away from the tank for a few weeks the person watching it has to only feed the tank and maintain the skimmer. The kalk reactor is also smaller then a 25 gallon container.
 
I also have to get new bulbs for my 250DE fixures.

I was alwasy thinking of the Pheonix, but have recently taken a close look at the CoralVue 10K ReefLux. I have heard good things about the ReefLux in SE form, but not too much info in DE format.

Still debating............................

I don't really need them right away because my halides still seem to be going strong after a year, but I would like better coloration from a bluer bulb.
 
I have heard many good things about BARR.

The design of the top makes refilling the unit very easy as well. Just twist the top off, add kalk, and twist back on.

Maybe I chould change that to twist the top off, hold breath, add kalk, and twist back on, exhale. I hate kalk dust in my nose!;)
 
Orderd today:

3 - Phoenix 250 watt 14K DE bulbs
1 - ROIII pendant for frag grow out area in sump
and some other misc stuff

I am very excited to get the new bulbs and to see how good these bulbs make my corals color up.

Also, I am really looking forward to setting up my frag grow out area. I have many zoos that look like they are ready to take over the tank and they need to be fragged in the basement. A few of my SPS are also growing like weeds and need to be fragged.
 
A pic of the kalk reactor from BARR's site.

46161kr1220_3.jpg
 
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