fly guy

That DOES suck. I liked that guy. He was nuts. The irony of all the crazy stuff a guy can do and then getting killed on fluke like that. Its too bad. : (

I dont know abouot the asbestos thing but i do know one swab on the black with your lovely clear primer and glue detroys the entire can of both......doesnt destroy the function it just isnt clear anymore......... I used a 2 foot piece of black on my last tank..... hmmmm.....asbestos NO WONDER everything DIED...... (laugh) j/k

What is the mortality rate of doing this in comparison to the usual way out of curiousity...... to be sure, i dont expect scientific answers, just educated guesses....... anybody???

DRILL IT!!!!!

I will add this as well in concern to spaflex, to spare some poeple who have never used the stuff much a little bit of pain. Do NOT take any joint for granted or it can easily leak and/or create air bubbles. On a closed loop it can create bubbles in every one of your lines if it is seated funny anywhere on the suction end or on specific lines making a venturi effect on the push end. Due to the nature of it it is real easy to sit crooked into fittings. Use lots of glue and HOT primer. If you can find the clear stuff not only does it look better than purple streaks everywhere, but it melts the plastic more as it is hotter stuff. then when twisting it in place, try to get one full twist bottomed out and look at the joint from two angles and make sure it is flush in the fitting and not crooked, do this quickly and you can correct it before it sets. Just thought id throw that out there........

ill second the flex pipe thing...its the ONLY way to fly. I use hard pipe only for connecting fittings to fittings and where PERFECTLY straight runs are required. Heres the pics you wanted. I put pics of a rock lift i am making as we speak.........i havent finished shaping the rods yet so only 3 of them are in place......a 48 x 18 tank takes 32 rods, but once you start stacking rock you can remove many of them that arent necessary by simply lifting them up. These lifts are strong enough for my fat @SS to stand on OUT of the water, so holding your reef up is a non issue. They are a dream to stack on. The teeth i make in the top of the rods stick like glue to rock. 1" of substrate completely covers the rack that holds the rods. the one pic of the barebottom tank is the first invisible rock lift i have made for a BB tank....it is a pretty good pic of my adjustable spraybars as well. I attached a couple of FTS to see(or not see), the lifts in action I sell the rock lifts for $75 typically but anybody from here or TRT who wants one is $60. There is $30 in acrylic alone and that price is based on a 48x 18 footprint. Add $5 or subtract $5 for every 10 gallons above/below that roughly. Lifting your rock this way inhibits the flow very little and i have complete flow under and through my reef. It not only works better than pvc lifts it looks infinitely better. Just my opinion of course. One more thing. I just do these as Im playing Mr Mom right now and have some free time on my hands. I did design it and think it is the best way i have ever seen, but i dont profess it to be rocket science. : ) Anybody like the concept and want to know how i do it so you can make one yourself....ask away. : )

You already probably know how i feel about lifting your rock and spraybars. I thinkk it is very important and done correctly givew you ZERO dead spots in your tank, and a healthier biological filtration system overall. I lift my rock with those invisible rock lifts and have the spraybars aiming both under and at my rocks by positioning of the holes......i also make the spraybars so that they have a threaded connection and can be adjusted directionally...... I have came up with a better way to do my invisible rock lifts and can do them faster with less materials than before.....so i can charge lesss for them.......if you want me to make you one PM me. Or I can send you a pic of my new style and you could make one yourself. I have orders for 4 of them at the moment and could tag another one on real easy. 1" of sand competely covers the frame and the frame doesnt affect your sand critters in any way.

I think 2 siskou, or maybe 1 1/2. FWIW, i wanted 4" in my 225, and it took 240 lbs of caribsea seaflor special. BUT, you are going shallow so throwing one 50 lb bag down might suffice for you.

Southdown is aragonite sand. It costs about 1/10 as much as aragonite such as Caribsea brand. It isnt sold for the reef hobby, it is sold for playgrounds and sandboxes etc. Home depot used to sell it but i hear they dont anymore or are phasing it out or something.......

You know, drilling and tapping that out to one inch( i think its 3/4" now) and just putting a 1" mpt to 3/4 fpt reducing adapter might be the easiest and guaranteed to work thing to do..........then DONT glue it........plumbers tape "MAYBE" a little silly cone will work just fine...... connections like that should never be glued it might be safest to take a dremel and grind that fitting out of there before you drill...........try not to grind any acrylic out...just the fitting

I dont know what prime means...LOL its a 90 mm here ....... http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=330643&is=USA&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation Im glad you just asked me...i forgot about my rebate : )

I picked up a Tamron macro lens for my nikon a couple of weeks ago.....LOVE IT

Then you can try to epoxy the broken piece back together or option # 2 above. I would try the epoxy first...if it doesnt work...you havent lost anything....... Another idea is to maybe call James and see if he can hook you up with a piece of acrylic that matches the curve......you can then simply cut the broken fitting out and simply adhere a new piece of wall on the reactor, drill and tap it to the correct size and replace the plumbing........

It can be fixed two ways. 1. get the piece unscrewed that is broken inside the acrylic........replace the fittings starting at the half of the union closest to the broken part all the way to the male threaded fitting that screw into the reactor. If the union is threaded(it doesnt appear to be) you dont need to replace that half of the union even. 2. If the acrylic is thrashed and or the threads screwed up on the acrylic, you can tap out the hole to one size larger and do everything listed above....just with a one size larger male threaded fitting that hooks into the acrylic. I highly doubt this is necessary, and you would only do this if you absolutely had to. hth

yep. whatever size the bulkhead is should match the threads. : )

Nice work!!! Everything looks GREAT!!

If you can find a threaded plug just that...if not you can glue a slip plug onto a threaded fitting that will fit the bulkhead........a few wraps opf teflon tape and thread it on firm hand tight. Sometimes for connections like that i will actually throw a super thin layer of silicone down on the threads UNDER the plumbers tape on the fitting you use...........especially if it is a used bulkhead with a little wear and tear on the inside threads......... hth

Dont reuse it. Really. Its NEVER worth it IMO. I can honestly say one of the biggest mistakes in my reefing history was trying to wash and reuse sand, and like us all, ive made plenty of other silly mistakes........ i like Caribsea Seaflor special

LOL, i just realized it was glass.............my mag 77 idea wouldnt work so hot...............

SWEET pics CCR!!

I wonder if hed let me come by with my mag77 and cut it into pieces and load it into the back of my tundra for scrap.....(laugh)

I want this brain. Is this for sale Shannon??

IMO, its way too much hassle lowering them.....just adjust your photo period, start at half and add an hour every 4 or 5 days

I run a dart on the 90 bb sps tank and a barracuda on the 225 dsb lps/softy tank, both with OM 8 ways. I think the dart would be a great pump for your mixed reef, and like i already emphasized before, IMO pay the extra 100 bucks for the 8-way.......I guarantee you wont regret it if you plan on running spraybars. To be sure you understand the "why" of this, it isnt becasue you cant split the 4 way out and get just as many returns....... its because you cant get a drum cut with 3 ports open, one every 120 degrees, so that your spray bars are never taking more than 1/3 of your total closed loop flow. hth