jfly

Do you know how do these pumps compare to the Snapper? I was looking to get one of them for my 40BR. Are they loud? My main reason for a snapper was the supposed silence.

How would this compare versus an Octopus NW 110 or something in my upcoming 40BR? I've never had a skimmer before, but this looks promising.

Sounds awesome! I'll be there!

lol. I can't wait to see this thing stocked with corals. My first tank was a 10 gallon. The nice (bad?) thing about small tanks is that they fill up FAST! Good luck with the light swap. Just go slow and it'll work out.

Does the curvature of the glass distort your view at all or is it somehow corrected? More pics!

That's beautiful Frank!

Aww that's terrible. I'm sorry for your loss. Hope things get fixed quick!

Can you post some more pictures of the equipment and your overall setup? I love seeing how these things work! I really like you're cube. I'd love to make on in the middle of a room and have it 4- side viewable. Is the solana a kit? How is the ATO treating you? I've had my eye on one...

I have a few questions for you... What made you decide to go with only t-5's and no MH? What skimmer is that? Is it quiet? I'm looking for a hangon that's quiet for my 20h. Why did you keep the back unpainted? Do you view it from the back? With so much front to back room relative to height on a 40b I'm thinking about putting rock in the middle to use both sides on mine.

That is genius! I have to say I'm impressed by how it looks. When I first saw the pvc christmas tree I was like.. uhoh. But I love it. You're actually making me reconsider a 40breeder and look for a 57 so I can do dual columns.

That's an interesting thought... I would have assumed that the skimmer would work regardless of the flow through the sump as it would still have the same volume of water in it regardless of how fast it cycled. (IE, the skimmer isn't circulating faster, just the rest of the tank) I personally have no experience with a skimmer OR a sump, though. I could do a closed loop for added tank circulation and keep the tank/sump circle on the slow side, but then I'd need more holes. I personally hate having ANY equipment in the display which is just one more reason the big overflow with a screen on it appeals to me more than the common overflow box. What is the "general rule" for tank turnover? Actually, now that I consider it, on the 20H I've got about..900-1000 gph. Can that be right? Wow. Maybe 50X isnt as bad as I thought. This is why I love discussing this stuff with other reefers. My wife just says, yeah, that sounds good, how much does it cost? I tend to get tunnel vision when looking into new projects, and I've been mostly out of the hobby for a while so I'm re-learning a lot of stuff. I was considering an Octopus NW-110 or 150 for the skimmer. Should I go bigger? Lighting will more than likely be 2x150mh and 2x39 t5 actinics, though I've been toying with the idea of putting a single MH on a mover to have it slowly move... Suggestions for bulbs? 10k's plus actinic? 14k's? Or should I go with 175's? I have SO many options floating around in my head. Someday I'll get them all sorted and my tank will love me.

I'm trying to decide how I want to plumb my new tank when I get it. I talked to Joel(?) over at Waves the other day and he suggested a 1.5" bulkhead with a flat screen fitting over it that he had on one of his tanks coming out to a tee and down to the sump. It actually looked pretty awesome and I'd never seen it before. I'm so used to seeing the overflow boxes and big standpipes in the tank. I also like that fly guy overflow with the slit down the PVC that I've seen a few places, but I'm not sure. I've never built a plumbed tank before. I want the tank to be very quiet. I think that first I need to assess how much flow I will need in the tank. Then I can determine which type of plumbing will service that need, and then I can work on specific equipment. The tank would not be an SPS dominated bare bottom megaflow, as I personally really enjoy softies and LPS a bit more, though I'm not opposed to SPS. I was recommended the Snapper which is supposedly dead silent and runs 2500 GPH at 0'. That seems like a LOT to me, even if I keep it dialed down with a ball valve. I don't remember the flow drop at 3'-4', but at 2k GPH I'd be doing a 50x turnover, which seems high to me. I know that pipe size and layout and all that changes things, but what can I realistically expect here? I was originally thinking about an Eheim 1262 (900GPH). Suggestions/advice? Now I can only assume that with a gigantic 1.5" bulkhead on a 40 gallon that I'd have plenty of flow with just a single overflow. With only 16" of tank height, though, wouldn't that leave my waterlevel rather low in the display? If I drill in 2 returns... do they go above or below the overflow height (or does that matter at all with check valves and whatnot?) What size? Should I do 4? Is that going to make the back wall of the tank incredibly weak? Thanks in advance. I've got lots more ideas to toss around, but I'll try and limit it a bit.

Also, you're all very welcome. I never know what to say when people thank me for serving the country, but it sure is nice to know that people care.

So, I included a full shot of the tank with the stand and hood. It's been at my parents house and my mom somehow thinks that family pictures belong on top of the hood I made to match her oak cabinets. It's a reef tank mom! The pictures can go in a book, the tank gets to be displayed! I'm having a bit of trouble with the white balance but the colors are pretty close unless there's a lot of sand in the picture. The clarkii does host in the toadstools, which is pretty fun to watch, but its a clarkii afterall... she'd probably host in my hand if I left in the tank long enough. The whole tank is sitting on an old TV stand which is actually hand becuase the tank is small enough that I can very slowly roll it across the carpet if I need to get at the back side. However, as you can see from the shot of the HOB filter, there's not a lot back there. I've got my cables all routed nicely so I really dont need to do much to the tank. I've got an old auto topoff that I made in college but without a sump its just sitting there waiting for my new tank. I tried to rig it up the other day but I have way too much surface agitation. Thanks for looking!

Okay, so here's some more shots of the tank. I guess I need two posts for that so I'll explain in post 2.

Hey everyone. I posted on the old TRT web site that I was back in town and was referred to the new site. I see things have changed a lot in the last four years. Anyhow, my parents managed to keep my 20H alive for me while I was in the Army with basically just topoff water and fish food. Whenever I came home I did a big maintenance session, and in the last few weeks the tank is obviously looking a lot better. I had a few long hours of valonia picking with tweezers and whatnot, but overall the tank is doing well. I don't have an FTS at this point as the pictures were just me playing around with a new lens for my camera. Equipment: 20H tank. 150W heater Koralia 2 AquaClear 50 HOB filter (empty, just for flow and easy access for food, etc) Sand (no idea how much... 4+" that I put in over 6 years ago) Rock (also no real idea. Lots though) 2x32w 50/50 PC's. *I should really switch those to one act and one 10k Livestock: Lots of ricordia (that spread really far and killed most of my really cool zoos) 2 rather large toadstool leathers and 4 or 5 smaller babies. 1 Clarkii 1 cleaner shrimp hermits, various snails and an astrea that makes my turbo snails look small. xenia gsp various small zoo colonies green sinularia that I just picked up at waves pincushion leather (also new) lots of different shrooms (red, orange, blue, green, eleph. ears, etc) I'm in the midst of setting up a 40B with much better lighting, so we'll see where it goes from here.