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Stupid Questions

I

Inquisitive

ok...electricity isn't my thing....I was going to get the coralife powerstrip with the timers included and keep things nice and simple....until I read that they were a fire hazard.....

I have a new, basic powerstrip to take care of my skimmer, powerheads, and heater......I just ordered my lighting which is the nova extreme T5 unit with lunar lights...the thing has 4 power cords.....anyone have Timer recommendations? (pics or website would be helpful too)....I figure I can buy another powerstrip just for the lights and buy separate timers......What light cycles do you guys use?....examples would be appreciated....any help would be appreciated..thank you! ;)
 
C

calaxa

4 power cords? Mine only has 3.

One daylight, one actinic, and one lunar. This is on the 48" 8x54 model. I run 12 hours actinics and 8 on all. I started with 10 but there was too much algae growth so scaled it back some. If you are coming from PC, you might want to ramp up slowly or start your corals down at bottom of tank. If your budget allows, you can get a controller like the Reefkeeper Elite.
 
I

Inquisitive

hey cal....it hasn't arrived yet, but the description in drsfoster's mag said 4 powercords...I'm starting from scratch here....so I need to know what the light cycle should be while the tank is cycling and then what the cycle should be after it has cycled....

so then your cycle would look like this?......actinicts on at 12 noon...all on at 2pm...actinicts only from 10pm to 12 am?....when do you use the lunar?...
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

personally i like the dj panels...like these

You can order them pretty much from most stores (i got mine from a dj store in long island) but you can order them from amazon here

In terms of timers, you could just get any heavy duty ones sold at a hardware store. To calaxa's point - you could skip that by going ultra-geek (just joking) and get a controller like the ReefKeeper brand or the Neptune brand.
 
C

calaxa

The fans turn on automatically on the Nova. I don't see how these would have 4 plugs unless they recently changed them to be more like the outer orbits (they have 2 lunars). The lunars on the Nova extreme are not very good at all. I run the lunars opposite the actinics so in your example, midnight to noon. Obviously, if you have something like the RKE or the Neptune, you can mimic a true lunar cycle. However, I can't emphasize how bad the lunars are on the nova extreme. Did you already order from drs? I know they are on sale and it is a good price for new. I hope you got a chance to see how they look. The light themselves are fairly good and they do not generate much heat. I would limit the lights during cycling unless you see some hitchhiking coral that you want to preserve. There shouldn't be anything in there that needs the light during the cycling process. I did not on my newest setup and I got a massive hair algae bloom within 1 week. Going to be real hard to get rid of because my son says I cannot put any crabs in there. I see a lot of manual tweezing in my future. I tried to sneak an emerald crab in there but he busted me.

I actually use the Coralife timers as they are dirt cheap. I live dangerously I guess.
 
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