siskiou

Eheims are not pressure rated, right?

Does anyone here use penductors to increase the flow? Or is there too much of a danger to small fish being sucked in?

Did you find any reviews for it anywhere?

Did you buy it? I'm also looking for a bigger skimmer and have seen that one. Nothing much to find about it on the forums, though, and I don't want to save at the wrong end...

What type of sand are you using? Love the look and currently have somewhat coarser sand that always looks messy.

You are talking about the Vortechs, right? Did they come out with their controller yet? Or is that still in development? Does one of them actually create a back and forth wave motion? Thanks, Susanne

I've been thinking of what to use for water movement in my future lager tank and there are so many different options! What do you all use and have had good or bad experiences with? OM? Wavysea? Sea Swirl? Wave box? Tunze stream? Ignoring the price for the time being, what would you consider the best option currently available? -Susanne

The insulation is not between joists, just tacked onto those boards I mentioned. It wasn't a common practice to "hide" the joists by putting boards one the bottom of them, right? With the jacks, wouldn't you still need a board on the ground underneath, and one across the joists? And I am certain we do get water under there, and we have that horrible clay soil that swells and then dries. Great for foundations in general! Our current tanks (a 20H saltwater, a 40G saltwater, a 29G freshwater) have not caused any trouble, but we've had to shim to get them to be straight and true. I'll keep you updated on the mystery of the missing floor joists!

Just a warning: I used to be a janitorial supervisor at Symantec and they have bamboo floors in the entrance hall. Beautiful floor, but a real pain to keep clean. We had to stop mopping them wet because the floor kept bending up at the edges. It was really easy to scratch, too! Of course, that floor had a lot of heavy traffic, and maybe they improved the coating in the last few years.

Yep, but we need to find someone to get under there. I took a look under the house with a flashlight to find out how far apart the floor joists are and which way they run, and as far as I can tell we don't have *any* floor joists! It's a mess under there, but even checking under the insulation as far as I could reach, there are only flat boards (the edge of those along the house is laying on 4x4s). Cant' see anything that looks like joists sticking out anywhere. It's a pier and beam foundation, and I'm starting to wonder how they did the floor in the late 40s, early 50s around here. I thought the joists would be quite obvious, but apparently not in our house. I think the inside wall I'm planning on having the 90 (or 120) sitting at is the middle support beam of the pier and beam foundation, so at least that's good. Setting up a tank sure gets me into all sorts of reseach I was never interested in before!

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced contractor or handyman in the Eugene area who would install a support brace for the aquarium? My husband tried going into the crawl space today, but he isn't as skinny as he used to be... It's a very low crawlspace under a 55 year old house and the access hole is not very large. Nothing as nice as the one in the picture above! I called a few guys, but the job is too small for many (not worth even coming out for an estimate), or they are too large to want to attempt it.

We have hardwood floors, but they are old and scuffed, so we don't mind a few small spills. Couldn't you lay a nice piece of vinyl where the tank is supposed to be (make the area a little bigger than the footprint of the stand) and hold it to the floor with oak strips? Or tile it, though I'd be afraid they might crack under the weight of the tank.

I was also thinking peanut worm, but mine all stay in their holes and just pick up detritus with their extendable trunks.

I'm impressed! It's so clean, you could eat under there! Thanks for posting a picture. -Susanne

Ouch! Now I finally get the "joke"! Let's see. Our family of three adds up to about 550lbs. So if we stand on the floor next to the currently set up 40G plus 20G sump and everything feels solid, we should be fine with a larger tank!

So, there wasn't a second floor with a tank that caused the damage?

Thanks for pointing that out! But one: it's acrylic which I'm a little wary of. And two: it's in Portland and we couldn't fit the whole set-up in our car, so would have to make two trips, which adds quite a bit to the price. I'm not even sure a 120G would fit into our car at all. I'd need to find something in the Eugene area, maybe as far as Corvallis/Albany/Salem.

:eek: (scary) Whose floor was that in the picture and is it from water damage, or too much weight? -Susanne

Ah, hm, you don't know my husband or the low crawlspace under our house, evidently! The poor plumber who had to crawl under there when we remodeled a few years ago was never the same again! I'll have to take a flashlight and check under the house, but am pretty confident the joist would be perpendicular. Our current 40G with 20G sump, sitting in the same spot the other tank will go, has had no problems for the 6 months it's been there.

Everyone with larger tanks: How did you figure out if your floor was strong enough to support your tank? Set it up and hope for the best? Reinforce the floor? If yes, how? Did anyone actually encounter a floor that was too weak? Our house was built in the 50s. Did they use stronger materials then in the US or cut corners whereever they could? -Susanne

Thanks! I'll see what they have. -Susanne

It will have a shallow sandbed, something like 2 inches, possibly 3. Light wouldn't be a problem, since I'd just add a 2 bulb retro if I really wanted more light later. I went over to Aqua Serene and tried reaching into the 120 (same height as the 90) and taking the sand bed into account, I could reach pretty much anywhere. I think the AGA stands are fairly low, though. Have to check into that to see if my skimmer will fit into their stand. I have the feeling the price for the 120 plus stand will kill the deal, though. Will have to call around and see what it can be had for or if someone sells one locally. When I saw Bobby's tank just a few weeks back, it seemed so huge! Was that really just a 120?

Ahhh, stop telling me to get the 120!!! I really want to, but am not convinced our floor can take the weight. And I'm sure it would add quite a bit to the cost. I do like that it has two overflows/returns instead of one. Maybe if I could find a great deal on one... We'll be combining the current 40G with my good old 20H nano, but all that would probably get lost in a 120 and I'm working on a tight budget. Once school starts again, I can't keep doing the job I picked up over the summer for more than another month (which means working 2 eight hour evening shifts after the regular teaching schedule). -Susanne

I wish, but I have to stop the cost somewhere! And just for perspective, our house is about 800 square feet! Not exactly a mansion.