blown65

Those cheap fish stats are pretty screwy. I have one that reads 80, another that reads 85 and my expensive HVAC stat reads 83. LOL

Just running my two 250W DE bulbs right now. Pretty bright actually. Still kinda cloudy but its clearing up nicely.

If you have an RO system I always like to have an inline TDS meter, really easy to install, runs on batteries and is very cheap. Check your water anytime you want that way. I think Jody has them for about 35 or 40 bucks.

I have DE 250's and have tried quite a few different bulbs. My favorite was what I got this last time from Jody, they are the 250w Icecap 20k's running on EVC electronic ballasts. Ive tried the Phoenix 14k's and a few other 14k and some other brand of 10k that escapes me now. It really is going to depend on your ballast, since they will drive the bulbs differently and you will get different coloration out of them.

Well the move is done, kinda cloudy right now since the move of sand from the old tank to the new one but its clearing up pretty fast. Maybe tonight some pics if it clears enough. Looks good, thanks Jody for coming over and getting the dirty part done.

Dont have to dry the cars, spot free. Tank is 8' long. Salt is in the tank, thanks Jody for the delivery. lol Not long now, nearly at temperature too.

Thanks, I like the Vortechs but since the overflows are on each end, I wouldnt want one on the viewable sides. Still thinking either 7 or 8's. Plan on one at each end.

k, so worked on it tonight some more. Was waiting on some nondrying silicone grease for the plastic unions, forgot to grab some the other night, so waited one more day. Helps with the plastic binding. I have some release silicone grease coming that is actually better for that purpose but this still worked fine. Eggcrate in with 210lbs of sand dunes. lol Started filling the tank, after filling just the overflows and checking for leaks, none to be found so good to go. Tank full and my crazy cat that loves water checking it out. Just gotta wait for it to get to temperature, just going to let it come up with the room some, all I have is a 400w heater and that would probably take forever. My RO water tank that I used to fill it is outside, so its pretty cold water. oh well. Maybe next week start moving stuff once the temp is up. 8:45pm 10-22-09 62 degrees. lol

Decided to make a drainpan for under the pumps. That way if I gotta remove one it has a place to drain and either soak it up or let it just evap away. Paint is drying right now. Got the eggcrate in the bottom for under the rocks, so maybe if the paint is good and dry on the pan I can test for leaks tonight since thats where I'm at now. If alls good its ready for sand/water thu or fri.

They say 1750GPH each. Effective should be around 1200-1400 each though with friction loss figured in. They came with the tank, so its better than buying a new pump, I'll just use them for now and put a couple Korilia #8's in the tank, they do about 3000-3500gph with way less electrical useage. Maybe tomorrow, but more than likely tue. Wont take long to fill, I have 300 gallons of RO water in a tank that I use to wash my cars.

K, some plumbing Got the returns done also, didnt get pictures yet of that. Tried to keep it easy if I want to change to a single pump down the road I can with the two unions on the suction and discharge. More than likely I'm only going to run two of the three pumps, and keep on on standby if one of the others has issues. I plan on adding two Korlia 8's in the tank on a controller for a wavemaker, should give me plenty of water flow thru the tank. Don't mind those short pieces of hose above the glued spaflex. I just wanted to keep any stress off the joints while drying, that stuff is pretty [language filter] stiff. It should form to the route anyways once in place over night anyways. Gotta pick up some glass for the sump and make baffles and silicone those in tomorrow. Then run the little plumbing for the sump and pump there. Close to a water test. (clap)

Agreed, it is already back down there with him.

Guy here locally does them. Builds them for the shop Reef-Tech in Medford.

K, so ran into a couple snags. 1-They sent the wrong type of ball valves. Dont really care for these, so gotta look for some different ones. Luckily my larger plumbing can get done since those are correct. Got time though since.... 2-They only put doors on one side of the Canopy, which would just suck big time trying to clean the tank. Lifting this off after all the lighting is up there would be a huge pita so back it goes. Here is how the Doors look though. Should be a pretty easy fix. Plus not sure why he used such different wood grain, going to try and have that part fixed also. The panels just slide up, much better than swing out doors IMO. Tons of access that way.

Agreed, got about 12 of them in my truck. (clap) Got a picture with the canopy on.

Yup, thats where its going. Let all the plumbing begin tomorrow. DOH! Yes, it has overflows on both ends. I have 3 blueline mag pumps that are getting plumbed in with a wavemaker hooked up to it. Should be right about 70gpm from those, plumbed in closed loop. The sump will have its own pump with a small return. Didn't want that much water flowing open in the sump, would probably end up too noisey. Not sure the return pump, its sitting in my garage, only goes to the sump for my skimmer anyways. As for under the rock, I think we are going to use egg crate with pvc attached to space it. Thats how I did my 90 gallon and it worked pretty good too. The canopy is open also, but I gotta put egg crate up there or something, otherwise my curious cat will have a swim. Probably not the best thing.

Got it set in place, started with the bulkheads, missing 2 so gotta make a run tomorrow for a couple. Ran 2 20amp circuits. Did my loads and really only need 22 amps, but this gives me plenty of headroom.

8'x2' and I think it was 30" tall. Would have to double check on the 30" tall part though. Going to be a room divider of my living room and dining room.

I've done it once before, but I sold my old tank and regretted it terribly. It should go pretty smooth I think, I really dont have much of a load with fish (only 4 of them) so it should be ok. Mostly just a huge amount of plumbing and wiring.

Ya, I agree. Plus it holds your rock from sliding and causing a big problem.

Well, found a great deal thanks to Jody at Tidalzone. So had the tank cleaned up by ReefTech here locally and its all ready to start to put together. Out with the 90 gallon and in with the 300. Old tank New 300 Getting the stand and canopy later today, then the work begins. Still torn between going bare bottom or sand bed. I'm leaning torwards a sand bed though. Just dunno if I can get used to no sand on the bottom or not.

I believe one of the octopus skimmers has it under, not sure though. I know I saw one the other day though while browsing around.

Sure. If you read thru the thread, there is a guy that used different fittings on his, I tried that method but they kept blowing apart. So I went the dremel way and bored out the elbow. I cant really see a difference in performance. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1284642&highlight=meshmod Here is some pics. First 24hrs with just the mesh, didnt have the rest of the parts for the airline mod and boring out the elbow. Performed somewhat better, but not near what it does after moving the airline location. This is the second 24hrs, with all the mods in place. This is about the amount of skimmate I got off the skimmer in a week prior. Just never performed very good IMO. This is at 12hrs later. Really starting to pulls quite a bit. The entire chamber is full of bubbles, where prior it wasn't. I did have to cut the riser about 4" like that first post shows.

I know its been posted here before but wow, I shouldn't of waited so long to do this mod. What a huge difference it makes in skimming, I swear its going to pull in 1 hr what the old way pulled in 24hrs. More air is an understatement. Gotta get a killa-meter to make sure its all fine, but very impressive.