AquaticEngineer

I'm going to be making a built in overflow box for one of my coldwater tanks on wednesday. I was wondering if there is a recommended gap size between the overflow teeth or if it is more of a preference as to fish size in the tank? Or potential of blockage by algae or waste? Is there a rule of thumb? Or is it different for every tank? I'm going to have the 3 pieces I need cut at the shop I'm buying the acrylic at. Unless I can get a for sure measurement for them to cut the teeth I was going to wait and do it at home.

Ok so I have been brain storming what you all have said and I think I have come up with a plan to make this work inside my house ( wife and god permitting, they may be one in same :lol: ) I'm going to run a 90 degree elbow off the existing standpipe and run it do the back of the tank. I can build a black overflow box there that will surround the stand pipe and I can add a durso setup to it to reduce the noise. This will allow me to do a lot of the things I want out of an indoor coldwater setup such as: 1)Have the auto feeder plumbed into the inside tank for all my NPS corals 2)Make it reasonably presentably to keep inside 3)Have it quiet enough to keep in the living room 4)Allow me to keep my Gorgonians, Strawberrys, and other really cool stuff inside where I can see them all the time 5)Get the plumbing ran through the wall in my living room to the garage for when I do get the money and time to build the inside setup. This will also help waste less food by having the inside tank dump into the garage 110 and then run through the filter. 6)It will add redundancy of two chillers on one system I can set the inside chiller to come on at 60 as the high and the larger outside on in the cooler garage to maintain the system at 58. Hopefully resulting in the inside chiller running that much less. What do you guys think? It wont be a super cool custom built in badass system, but it will definately be cool.

The only live shrimp I have seen them carry are pacific spot prawns, I bought one for $1 that was about 6 inches long. They have a very short season during the summer when they are allowed to be harvested. I haven't seen any local seafood stores that keep octopus in stock, but I'm sure that if you asked they could get it no problem. They have them pretty regularly in asian seafood markets in california. Your best bet is to hit up the 3 or 4 that are near 82nd and powell up here. Language barrier is sometimes a problem, so be specific and patient.

http://www.tonmo.com All your cephalopod questions will be answered.........

Just buy one from a seafood market Thats where half of my livestock for my coldwater tanks has come from.

Wait is it one of these??????? They are super rare!!!!!!!!!!!! http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Thanks for making sure a tornado doesn't rip my Jeeps door off Nice looking tank, almost convinced me to keep with the tropical reefs.

Any idea what species they are that you're catching?

Check out that link on I posted to Nanoreef. C-Rad has been keeping them for a few years. He keeps Bi-Macs and catches them himself down near San Diego.

Do a coldwater one!!! http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=199695

The only things that are not available out of these pictures are the frogspawn, green brain, and the blastos which I am dropping off tomorrow. I still have the pygmy hawk, percula, pistol shrimp, cucumber, all the clean up crew, the and all the other corals you see in the pics including all the zoa frags. Heres some pics I just took as well as a good one of the Pygmy Hawk and the Psamacora Supernova.

Thought about that too, but the natural rock in the coldwater tanks is pretty much granite. So its not quite so easy to drill as the tropical live rock.

I think that the cleanest look is going to be running it to the back of the tank, building an overflow surround box from the bottom up to the water surface, puting some notched teeth in the top and then adding a durso to the pipe inside the overflow box. What do you guys think?

That is an awesome idea, it would actually give me much more room in the tank as well to aquascape with (clap) Thats what I was originally planning to do but couldn't figure out how? I was thinking about getting a fiberglass log and cutting it to fit. But I think I'm going to try and move it to the back of the tank to get more room. I'll just build a 3 sided black overfllow box and then hide a durso in there or something. Thanks for all the help guys, its always good to get a few fresh ideas and have someone else take a look at things (clap)

I got it all setup and pretty much ready to rock with the exception of a skimmer, and then decided to build a tank inside instead (laugh) Its tentatively up for sale if anyone is interested. Looking to get $250 for it.

Okay gotcha So a 48x24 1" piece would cost about $156 for the front viewing panel and if I do the rest of the tank in 1/2" would be about 24sq ft @ $9.94 per sqft = $238 So materials for the front, back, bottom and sides of the tank would be about $394 That's getting closer to were I want it(clap) The internals for the overflows and false walls should be fairly straight forward and could be 3/8 since they are inside the tank.

I have been thinking about that too, and I guess it would come down to what the price difference on a 48x24 piece of 1" is vs the same size in 3/4. If its not much more, I'll go 1" but if it saves me a $100+ then I'll probably go 3/4 on the front. For the rest of the tank I will definately go 1/2" for added stability. The tank design I have in mind will have some added rigidity by having a false wall in front of the overflow area on one end and another at the opposite end to house the powerheads for circulation of food when the auto feeder comes on. The thickness of the front panel is half about condesation, and half about the best insulation on the viewable portion.

So the current stand pipe on my coldwater cube tank is just that......a piece of pipe. What recommendations do you all have to make it: A) quiet/silent....right now it develops a whirlpool and sips quite a bit. B) Look visually pleasing, its an open top tank where you can look almost straight down the stand pipe. C) Not suck down any small fish, ie: Catalina Gobies etc.... but not restrict it too much? Ideas? Here's the tank thread: http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20163 Here's a pic of what I'm working with:

Ok so what do you think about this........ Since the front of the tank is going to be the only viewable panel, I am going to do that with 1" so I would only need one piece of 1" acrylic about 48"x24" roughly. I can do the rest of the tank in black 1/2" or 3/8" or whatever and add foam to it for isulating. Any ideas on a price for something along those lines?

I'm open to all options, still pricing stuff out so shoot me a PM Do you have any pics of yours you can PM so I can check it out? As of last night the idea behind the whole tank build has changed a bit. I will still need some help I'm sure, but basically it would be a rimless 48x24x24 tank with black back and sides made from 3/8 inch, and the front made with clear 3/8 and a second pane of acrylic put on it with a dry air void in between to creat a dual paned acrylic front viewing panel. For the overflow and cirulation I dont want to have anything visible. So I'm working on a few ways to accomplish that using some black acrylic "false walls". Its all in my head and I'm basing a lot of what I'm doing off of Steve Weasts new tank design. I will try and get a google sketch or at list a paint mock up of what I am wanting to do with tank done soon.

If you find any place that does have these, please let me know, or if you have the time to ask them find out how much they would part with them for

Hmmm, I wonder what price I can find a full sheet of 1" for. I could use the whole thing and make a 48"x24"x24" tank that would work nicely for me

Go pickup a 500w double ended flood light fixture from Lowes, or Home Depot. Pull out the bulb and replace it with an HQI bulb from ebay, then wire it all into a 70w Electronic ballast. Custom mount as you see fit Fixture: $ 15 Bulb: $15 Ballast: $45 Just go with a 14k or higher bulb, maybe even a 20k to get nice enough color out of it. Thats what I'd do.

What are planning to grow in there? Are your kids going to be able to access the light? If your not growing anything with high light requirments I would look for a single Coralife 96w powerquad, or a small t-5 fixture. Open halide setups are scary if you have kids that can get close to em.(scary)

Quick Update of things for sale: All zoa frags $5 (I'll throw up some pics later) Off the top of my head I know I have a couple 3 polyp frags of Bam Bams. All other frags $10 or less, that includes the covered discs of the monti (confusa?) Percula Ocellaris $10 (been hosting my frogspawn) 3 inch Green Pistol Shrimp $10 I have one Large rock (10+lbs?) That has several very cool coral on it. 10+Heads of Acans, Nice Patch of Psamacora Supernova, Green Psamacora, Orange Monti Cap, 3-4 different colonies of zoas. I would like to Get $100 for this rock, It would make a great show piece in a nano with one big rock with nice corals to grow out.