Sol

Nothing until the livestock is sold

Then, one tunze 6201 and one tunze 6205

Sol

Bump, still all available. Make an offer on prices, I'd really like to get moving on this and will accept most offers!

Sol

bump.

Sol

Sorry for the lousy pics but it gives you a sense...

Sol

Due to some unexpected life changes, I'm getting out of the hobby and the fish are the first thing to go. Here's what I've got for sale:

Medium/large blond naso tang, about 5" $50

Medium/large tomini tang, about 4-5" $60

4 blue/green chromis $20 for the group

3 bartletts anthias (all female currently) $80 for the group or $30 each

1 female true percula clown $15

Sol

Is that really the price difference? Only $25? Seems like its a lot more when buying a skimmer. Yeah If you can get a Laguna go for it. They straight rip from what I have seen. Later Ryan

The price difference is because lagunas need (or at least always are given) a custom volute. There's a lot of labor in that, compared to just a new impellar for the sicces.

Those are some seriously goofy looking pumps

Which ones are goofy?

Sol' date=' any suggestions on balancing venturi intake against pump start-up problems? My meshmodded OR2500 had loads of trouble getting itself started (as in, it couldn't -- blowing into the intake line to get it started always resulted in humiliating gales of laughter from my wife), but it hated any restriction on the venturi input.[/quote']

 

A couple things in response to this (some having nothing to do with venturis):

 

1. Obviously make sure the impeller isn't rubbing against the volute walls.

2. Minimize the water level the pump is sitting in. Less head pressure at startup will make for easier startup.

3. Use less mesh. Maybe 2 layers instead of 3?

4. Use a well designed venturi. The issue with a lot of the PVC venturis is that they create a lot of turbulence which robs energy that would otherwise be used for drawing air. The (perhaps counterintuitive) thing is that with a well designed venturi, you actually need less of a restriction to draw the same amount of air.

 

The ideal venturi would have a very gradual contoured inlet, and a pretty rapid increase in diameter after the throat (I'd draw a picture, but I'm lazy). But the LFP venturi I linked to earlier is probably as good as you're going to get without a mill, lathe or mold. My suggestion is to make a bunch of different LFP venturis, and use the least restricting one that still cavitates the pump.

 

If these things don't help, you might be up crap creek. OR's don't have very strong magnets.

 

Yay Obama!

 

Sol

Looking through that QO thread I disagree with a lot of what they're doing--mostly the total crap they're using for venturis.

Remember, guys--if you're running your venturi wide open and the pump isn't cavitating, the venturi is the limiting factor. To maximize air, you need a venturi that can supply more air than the pump can handle. Then dial down the air with a valve on the air intake until the pump stops cavitating.

Sol

At a minimum, you'd have

1. mesh mod it (grind off the impeller paddles, drill holes, zip tie on PF4 mesh)

2. make a venturi (I'd use a classic herschel venturi, see http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1475538)

Ideally, you'd also use a dremel to

3. bore out the intake for less restriction

4. contour/enlarge the volute

5. bore out the output for less restriction

(in that order of importance/usefulness.)

There's a thread on modding these pumps somewhere on reefcentral but I don't know where.

Sol

Depends how much air you want out of it. With just a mesh mod the QO does 800 or so; if you bore out the inlet, outlet, and volute, you can get it up to 1100 or 1200 lph.

I've never heard of an eheim 1248...do you mean 1048? Or 1250?

Sol

They're pretty good. They're fairly noisy (not like a gen-x or anything, but much louder than a eheim or laguna). They run kind of hot.

The air to watts ratio is fantastic, and the air to water ratio is quite good.

If you want the same pump for a 1/3 the price, the quiet one 3000 is identical to the sicce.

IMO, at this point there's no reason to use skimmer pumps other than the askoll/laguna based models. You can buy a laguna powerjet 1500 for $150 vs the sicce for $125, and the laguna will get easilty 1800 LPH of air vs the sicce's 1000, will have a better air to water ratio than the sicce, and be much quieter to boot.

Sol

Fine tuning. A ball valve is pretty much on or off with only a little tuning in between. A gate valve has a lot more control.

Sol

I STRONGLY recommend using a gate valve over a ball valve for this.

Sol

On a little bit of a tangent, for those of us without the means to cook our own BBQ, what are your guys' favorite bbq restaurants? For me it's probably Yam-Yams or smoking pig (a food cart on SW 5th)

-Sol

Here's a picture:

As you can see, it has a black background and left side. Back left overflow with holes for bulkheads. Polished front seam.

-Sol

Replied to.

-Sol

bump. Updated price.

-Sol

For sale:

I've got a 60X18X24" tall tank for sale. 1/2" Acrylic, built by me and James back when I was working for Envision. Has a small flaw in the bond between the back and brace, just aesthetic and will never be noticed with a canopy on it.

Brand new and still with paper masking, been sitting like that for quite a while. Was going to be an upgrade for me, but I decided to go bigger .

$400 OBO (*very* negotiable). I'll take some photos soon.

-Sol

Does anyone have a good 101 article on keeping seahorses? They're really cool, and something I'd like to learn more about.

-Sol

Sorry, but that's the wrong sanjay. Our lighting Sanjay is Sanjay Joshi, not Sanjay Chandran. Both, however, are very smart dudes

-Sol

At Waves there's a steel stand skinned with black acrylic. Looks really nice IMO especially for a more modern decor. With magnets or velcro, you can attach just about any covering you want to the steel.

-Sol

Pretty amazing skimmer for the price. Really the only improvements in design I could think of are:

1) going to a laguna for noise reduction and better air:water ratio.

2) going to a recirc design

3) going to a full-on cone design (ATB style)

I'm also a bit confused on why the MSX300 and the octo extreme 300 both have a 6" neck and 2 sicces. The 12" body would really be better paired with a 7.5" neck and 3 sicce pumps.

-Sol

Certainly safe once cured. You can't apply it underwater, though, if that's what you're asking. AFAIK superglue and epoxy are the only things considered "safe" for that.

-Sol

Awww and I didnt even get to say good bye

 

Sol both the Tomini and the kole are bristle tooths, so both do a [language filter] good job at workin the algae. The bristletooth family in general is pretty killer for tanks, they stay small, are hardy (usually) and eat algae like a machine.

Mine must just be weird. My purple tang eats a ton of algae, but my tomini won't touch it. My tomini also won't eat nori, only pellet. I wonder if he's a misfit? Did all the other little tomini tangs make fun of him when he was in elementary school?

-Sol

Seems like other than the self-cleaning neck (which is very intriguing), there's nothing to like about this skimmer. Square bodies are WAY less efficient than cylindrical (which are in turn WAY less effective than conical), from a couple pictures I've seen the transition from body to neck is horrendous (basically a flat plate rather than a cone transition), and 450 LPH air is nothing to brag about, and 1200 LPH of water (almost 1:3 air:water) is pretty bad too.

I don't think this skimmer will do very well. That said I haven't seen one in person so maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.

-Sol

FWIW the tomini in my tank is the fish visitors always are the first to comment on being the prettiest.

BUT something you may want to consider is mine, at least, does not touch macro algae. It nibbles on slime algae on the glass, and that sort of thing, but to me, at least, there are much better fish for mowing down algae. Might just be my specimen's personality, though.

-Sol