andy

Two, in the sides of a 'standard' countercurrent skimmer. One towards the bottom, the other just above the midpoint. Uniseals Wait for Eheim's needlewheel pump that comes out this December.

Yes, and no actual evidence of any camera connection capability beyond a casual mention of a "range of accessories." I'd love to see one in the flesh.

Yes, I came to the same conclusion for overflows -- but as you imply, it is a lot easier on straight joints. I considered routing a circular slot into the bottom of my Phosban reactor, but had basically zero confidence in my ability to get the groove in the right place. Instead, I just butt-joined and glued. Hopefully the relatively low pressures needed for Phosban will help. Any idea how the high-end skimmer manufacturers get their welded acrylic joints? Is it a heat-based welding, or solvent? Thanks for the tip on the acrylic-based epoxy, if I do end up with a leak I'll use some of that to seal things up.

Hey Rich, You mentioned earlier on in the thread that you had a leak in the neck; how did you end up fixing it? What I do is make a gel from Weld-on mixed with acrylic shavings, then 'flow' it down the inside of the leaky seam. It works ok on low-pressure seams like overflow boxes but I worry it might not be enough on a reactor. I'd hate to have a blow-out and spray saltwater everywhere. I've had all kinds of trouble getting good, void-free seams on my acrylic DIY projects so fixing leaks is something I'm really interested in ;-) Of course, I'd love to not get the voids in the first place, but I guess that's another thread.

This is an absolutely terrible picture, I'll try to get a better one... but anyways, it seems like I've got a baby shrimp of some kind or another. Based on the shape of it's claws, I'm thinking Coral Banded. I think it hitchiked in on that brown-out Acro colony, along with 2 Acro crabs (one Acro crab was evicted by the other dominant one, and is currently homeless).

Yeah, agreed. I also thought it was quite ironic that the same issue of Advanced Aquarist has an article on how much more important flow is than lighting :-D

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2

I use one of those silicon hot pads normal people use to take hot stuff out of the oven...

I think Joel has them at Waves. I've read the same rave reviews but haven't seen anything with my own eyes. Having seen what kind of performance I can get out of my crappy Red Sea Berlin with a NW pump, I'm thinking that more of the magic is in the needlewheel than in the skimmer itself.

Dang, that's gotta smart. Glad there's no permanent damage.

After I read a bunch of posts around the web that were critical of the Red Sea Berlin skimmer's capabilities, I strapped a Gen-X 2400NW to mine in hopes of getting some performance out of it before eventually upgrading. I emptied the cup on mine today: If you ever see someone dumping one cheap, it might be worth picking up (I got mine for $25); fed by a needlewheel pump, it works pretty darn well -- Nice dry foam and Guinness skimmate. I think I'll be keeping it around for a while.

You say that a Clown just started hosting in it? I've heard that some Torches get annoyed if a Clown tries hosting (I've also heard of some Torches that don't care). Maybe there's a connection? One head of my Hammer just did something similar. It died and melted to nothing over the course of a day. The other head? It's happy, has grown a second mouth and is splitting. In my case, I don't think the death was related to anything environmental since the other head is perfectly fine. Weird stuff.

I've seen the Mesoscope web pages. It looks really cool, but it's expensive ($500) -- and they brag about "Removable eyepiece allowing for a range of accessories" but don't seem to actually *have* any accessories. Maybe if there was a lens mount option... If you do get one, be sure to brag to us I would really like to see one in person.

(welcome) (To) (P) (N) (W) (M) (A) (S)

Glad you caught it! Good advice regarding cleaning, particularly the bit about fiddling with ball valves every once in a while. I found that mine can get stuck after as little a week or two -- unsticking them makes me nervous since it torques the bulkheads (scary)

How much flow does that leather like in your tank, Mike? It seems to like the calmer areas in mine....

Tunzes aren't any smaller, are they?

Andy Hi, I'm Andy. I live over in the 'couve with my wife, two kids, dog, cat, and 60 gal reef tank. I'm just getting back into aquaria, been gone for a long while. I was crazy for FW when I was a kid and through my teen years. When I got old enough for a 'real' job, I started a FO marine tank... this was back in the 1980's when most of use were running undergravel filters, and the Germans were keeping the whole skimmer-thing to themselves. I didn't do too well, and gave up in a fit of diatoms, cyano and dead Koran Angels. It seems that everyone has their particular favorite type of critter in this hobby, some like Acros, others Zoas -- me, I'm really fond of Euphyllia sp. corals. Right now, I have a huge green Torch (got from Ahbrit), and smaller red Torch (got from Lowman) and a recovering Hammer (from Upscales). I'm on the lookout for a really nice looking green-with-purple-tips Frogspawn (divisa, not paradivisa), let me know if you see one When I'm not scraping algae off everything in my tank I can usually be found playing World of Warcraft, taking pictures or building some DIY project in my shop/garage.

New Pics Full tank shot, horrible exposure: Turns out I had more than one Acro crab. I guess this little guy lost the battle for the good home: The leather I got from Mike. Polyps retract late in the day: The Green Torch is a monster, the Red is working on it: Green algae crop almost ready for harvest (enforcer)

Cool, I'll just tap off my return then. You just want a steady flow through the media right? Not like a fluidized sand bed...

Whoa, like a PVC version of an Alien facehugger ;-) Do I see it right? Are there no bulkheads on the returns? Just PVC fittings and gaskets?

I've been surprised, what with fuel prices being what they are, that we haven't seen larger price hikes on just about everything. I guess transportation is a pretty small part of the cost of most items, livestock notwithstanding.

I'd go for the 75. You'll get the same front-to-back room, which is in my noobie mind more important than up/down space. You'll be able to use your current lighting, saving a bunch of money.

Cool. Do you actually want the Phosban and carbon to roll around from the flow. I thought that I read somewhere that Phosban pulverizes easily and shouldn't roll around much, but I may misremembering...

I'm building a simple Phosban reactor, not much more than a acrylic tube sealed off at both ends. I'd like to put both Phosban and Carbon sections in it -- any problems putting both Phosban and Carbon in the same tube? Each media would be in it's own filter bag, and separated by a filter-floss disk. Also, how much flow do I want through this little bugger? Would an Eheim 1250 (300gph) be over the top? I am planning on putting a ball-valve in-line, but still... don't want to overkill *too* much (scratch)