fjdog

I have an octopus nw150 needlewheel skimmer and it comes with an outflow tube that you can adjust up and down. The instructions do not tell you the proper method to set the height. So far, I started at the bottom and have been moving it up daily by about a cm, but I am not sure how much foam/ bubbles should be overflowing to the collection cup. It seems to collect a little liquid over time, but it looks pretty clear. I am wondering if it is just from evaporation/distillation of the skimmer contents and not actual junk overflowing the top. Any hints about what I should be looking for?

Update I added some livestock to the tank on friday. First, I got a dozen turbo snails, six blue legged hermit crabs and a "Giant turbo," which I cannot find any info on. The inverts are doing a great job on the algae and debris on the live rock. For fish, I added a royal gramma and two yellowtail blue damsels. The gramma was out the first day a little bit, ate some flake food and dissappeared into the live rock has not been seen since. The damsels acclimated great and seem to be doing well. Apparently, there is a lot of differing opinions on yellowtail blue damsels. Both reference books I have say they are fairly mild mannered, but reading some forums, some people have had really bad experiences with bullying. I have not seen any evidence of bullying behavior from the damsels so far. As for the gramma, it was not found on the floor around the tank, and it has not been captured in the overflow, so hopefully it will resurface.

Got the live rock from Coral Reef Pet Center in Salem. It appears to be sprouting some hair algae in the week that I have had it in my tank though.

Noisy? I have been looking into these, but I have heard conflicting reports on how noisy they are. Some say they are silent, others say noisy. I am looking to get 2x Koralia #1's. What's the consensus on noise vs a standard powerhead like a maxijet or hagen with similar output? I heard that early versions came without the rubber gasket to dampen noise. Are all of these out of the chains of commerce or do I have to watch out for this when ordering?

Everything is going pretty well with the tank except for the humming noise of the pumps. See my posts under the "soundproofing stand" thread in general discussion. Here are some new photos. I picked some wicked cool branch live rock at crpc. Although my wallet is a bit lighter, I am very happy with the results. I cleaned them out of all of their branch stuff, but would like to add about 10# more or so. He said he will be on the lookout. Oh, also, I added another 45# of aragonite, cause it still looked a little light. Now it is about 3.5-5.5 deep in different spots. Now we need some fish and some critters to paw around in that sand. Here are some new pics.

I hooked up an old 2000 l/h powerhead yesterday and it was quieter, but the flow was also lower. You could still hear the combo of the pump and skimmer pump pretty easily. I've got dynamat on order from amazon.com. I'm also planning to replace all hard line on the return with vinyl. When it gets here I'll let folks know if it makes a difference.

Well, the open cell egg crate foam (not the pink version) pretty much did nothing to cut the noise. Maybe cut it by 10% or so, but not enough to deal with the hassle of moving it every time I want to do something underneath. Maybe I'll try the dynamat. Just to give a relative comparison, I was standing at the dishwasher while it was running last night and I could still hear the pumps from the tank 25 feet away over the dishwasher noise. We've got a pretty quiet dishwasher, but still... :(.

The pump is suspended about a cm off the bottom by the vinyl tubing on the return line. It does not touch the side or bottom at any point (and you are right that when it does touch the side the noise is louder). I have a camp mat and two layers of thick indoor/outdoor carpet with rubber backing below the sump (probably 3/4" total). I will try the foam egg crate stuff and report back. Thanks.

I called Hear No Evil about using dynamat. He did not think I would get really good results. Has anyone actually used it to quiet a submersible pump in a sump? He did think I would be able to attach it to the outside of the sump because it is waterproof. It's not cheap, so I want to make sure I'm going to be satisfied with the results. Some other options I am considering: 1. buying another return pump - I still think I might be fighting the battle against noise with everything except maybe an eheim, but those are really expensive and the 1260 would not fit in my sump. 2. going with a smaller/quieter return pump (such as my aquaclear 70 powerhead) with additional smaller powerheads in the display. 3. poking some holes in the wall and moving the sump to the garage - would require major plumbing rework and would have possible temperature control issues. Also, the garage is the workshop, so possible dust/fume issues as well. Seems pretty extreme. I'm pretty sure I don't want to put up with the sound. It really is annoying. I'm probably being a big baby about it, but I envision this tank being a relaxing environment where I can sit and relax, not the same as a stressful noisy appliance! Any opinions are appreciated.

OOPS in my last post, I meant the dynamat. What is the pink foam and where might you get it?

Can this be applied directly to the outside of the sump? I think at this point its either that or move the sump to the garage and pipe through the wall. The noise is pretty annoying. AARGH!

In my quest for the quiet tank, I have made some mods, but still have some challenges, so I thought I might resurrect this thread First I made some mods to the plumbing. The "Herbie" overflow silencer is INCREDIBLE! I went from the re-filling toilet/waterfall sound of the durso to absolute silence (on the water side). Now, the next challenge is the return and skimmer pumps. I have a gen-x 2400 on the return and a octopus (similar to the ocean runner) on the skimmer. Both are somewhat noisy, but the gen-x is much worse. The soundproofing (indoor/outdoor carpeting and camp mat) on the inside of the stand drowns out the higher pitched sounds, but there is a low pitched hum that fills the entire livingroom. The stand actually vibrates slightly and I think it might be actually transmitting the sound right into the room. Is there anything that can be done to isolate the sound/vibration or do I just need to suck it up? I have heard that putting a mouse pad under the pump helps, but I am skeptical and worry about the safety of putting non-silicone rubber products into a reef tank. I have even considered removing the pump and encasing the entire housing in a layer of silicone (except the intake of course). HELP!!!! Any other ideas?

Thanks for the compliments on the stand. It was a fun project that took waaaay too long! If I was to do it over, the only thing I would have changed would be to resaw my own veneer instead of the very thin veneer they sell at woodcrafters (that is easily sanded through...OOPS!). It is probably way over engineered, but I figured better safe than sorry (there are even adjustable height adjusting feet built in underneath). I think the hood will be quite nice looking. I saved a highly figured piece for the front. With the t5's I only had to make it about 4" tall total. It's not quite done yet, but I figured I can save it for last. As for the soundproofing, it is mostly heavy duty indoor-outdoor carpeting with a thick rubber/vinyl backing (didn't want to spend the money on dynamat). The bottom has a closed-cell camping mat. There's not much room in that cabinet, so I did not line the entire thing with camping mat. I can already tell it's going to be WAY quieter - when you stick your head in there you no longer hear the echo/reverb of the bare MDF surface. The sump was also re-designed from a glass 20 gal tank to an all-enclosed plexi with closed-cell foam strategically sealed under the pumps. With the new sump, hopefully the sound will be reduced and all of my micro-bubbles will be cured with the baffling. Pretty soon I'll fill the tank, test for leaks in the plumbing and see how it does.

I have not made that much progress since the last post. Just some plumbing finished. You can at least see the DIY stand and Acrylic sump. More pictures will follow as progress is made. BTW I read some more on the 6 line wrasse. It is funny how some sources differ from others in terms of how these fish (and others) are viewed. Thanks for the heads up.

I am not 100% sure on what fish I will have in there. I am fond of small colorful ones with not-too pugnacious attitudes. Some ones on the radar screen are clowns, royal gramma, 6 line wrasse. I also find the lawnmower blennies quite entertaining. Basically I'm just looking for a good blend of species that will not eat one another. As for other things, I like zoo corals, star polyps and other encrusting species. Although I think they are beautiful, I do not think I have enough wattage going into the tank to support sps corals. I was set up with 80 lbs of sand for the 3'x1.5' floor of the aquarium. I do not think this will add up to a deep sandbed, probably will be about 1-2". I am hoping to keep this stirred with some serpent stars or other sand-sifting organisms and occasional manual intervention. I am hoping to get some time in to work on plumbing this weekend. Perhaps I will drag out the camera and post some pics of my empty aquarium!! Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Hello, I tried to post a couple of days ago, but perhaps I am too much of a newbie that that isn't even working for me. So if you find a very similar post to this one, please ignore. I would like to welcome myself to the club forum. I have been in lurk mode for a while as I have been building a stand and preparing a 65 gal tank for arrival into the home. I have been out of the hobby for about 10 years, but am excited to get back into it and kick it up a notch. So here's what I have going (and planned): 65 gallon megaflow tank, diy custom built cherry/mdf stand with cabinet to hold a diy custom built plexi sump, Octopus nw 150 skimmer, diy retrofit t5 lighting from hellolights, genx 2400 main pump with powerheads in tank for extra circulation. Right now the tank is empty as I am trying to sound proof the cabinet some more and replumb for the "Herbie" overflow silencer. Anyway, enough with all the equipment talk. I can hardly wait to get some fish in there since I have been chipping away at this since last winter. I still need to finish the plumbing, get some live rock let it stew for a little bit then add some fish. I would like to thank Jason at CRPC for some good advice and supplies. I was sad to see advanced aquarium go out of business, but at least I was able to enjoy going in that shop while it was open. Hope to see some of you at an upcomming meeting. I will probably miss the next one and try to finish up getting the system back up and running. Roland Salem, OR