220g New Start

My used Nova lights have both started to give me problems. They both started pulsing for the first few minutes after turning them on. I thought maybe the florescent bulbs were aging out, so I bought two replacement T5HO, 39W bulbs a few days ago. The situation has just gotten worse, and now one of the two fixtures won't even come on at all, and the other is still blinking most of the time. I've tried swapping bulbs around, reseating them, but no luck.
Should I shop around for replacement ballast, or just trash them and buy new at this point?
 
I disassembled the non-working light fixture this morning and removed one of the two ballast units. The wiring pulls right out of the receptacles with no issues, but I ended up snipping the feed and ground wires, which were both soldered.
The average on-line price for a replacement was about $45, with ballastwise.com the cheapest I found by far. But I had another excuse to go back to my local lfs and check out what they had (along with the fish, of course) :)
Turns out they had a reasonable deal on a dual T5HO lamp for $59, so I went with that. It's not as powerful as the Nova, but I was very pleased to see that it fired right up with no blinking and pulsing.

And of course I ended up bringing home a few more fish...
Three tiny spotted cory's, a Pictus cat and a bristlenose plecostamus.

IMG_2801a.jpg
 
I just realized a day hardly goes by when I haven't played around with the new tank - this stuff is addicting! :hypnotized:

I've apparently suffered the first loss, as Mr. respiratory problem (tiger barb) has disappeared. No sign of him anywhere - I'm assuming that once it was lights out he might have then been a midnight snack for the rest.

On a happier note, as promised the tank now has a few live plants. I confess I don't know squat about them besides what the Petco labels provided.
The Tiger Barbs really seem to really like the Cabomba.

IMG_2817a.jpg IMG_2826a.jpg
 
clayt101 said:
That background is awesome. Do you plan on letting algae grow on it or will you clean it off?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking I'll let the algae take its course for a more natural look. The bristlenose may have something to say about letting much of it accumulate anyway.
 
Ok, tonight was fun. For the third time we had to net fish out from behind the background. For those of you thinking about getting a 3D background, invest enough time during installation making sure it's well sealed front to back! I found just the smallest of possible crevices and passageways, but apparently they were enough to allow two of the Tiger Barbs and a tiny Cory to slip past.

While the fish are relatively easy to catch from the main area and bring back to the front, tonight was a more interesting challenge when the Bristlenose Pleco made his (her?) way into one of the overflows. :wall: It took two nets and a flashlight to finally nab him.

But all is well again, and hopefully we've found and covered the last of the escape routes...
:look:
 
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