XrayGuy

RICK - So I got the bulkheads and the coupler for our project, but Woody seems to think that the 1" bulkhead will make the water in the sump back up since my return pump is about 1000gph...he thinks that the bulkhead will only support about 300-400gph flow. What do you think about this? I explained that you had a similar setup and that it worked fine, but I didn't remember what size return pump you had. Anyways, I would like to try it still and worst case scenario, I guess I could get a small pump to help pump more water to the fuge. Thoughts?

Rick I sent you a PM

Oh and yes the more I think about it, I like the idea of the 2 tanks splitting the total volume as well as not having to buy another pump.

So for the bulkhead running directly between the tanks, where would it be placed? I think I just may not be understanding what this would look like. Would it be at the bottom of the sump/new fuge tank so that water just flowed through both? Also, my fuge would be the new tank still right but with the return pump in it? Yes my current sump is acrylic and no I do not have anyone to build my new addition yet...I have been waiting for the LFS to get back to me with a quote of what it would cost from his "acrylic guy", but this LFS is always VERY slow getting back to people on stuff. I really have no idea what this would cost, but I am hoping less than the cost of a the HOB fuge I was looking at ($140). If you can make this for me and maybe even help me do the hole cutting + bulkhead install (as I have never done anything like that), I would be very appreciative and pay you fairly. Please get back to me when you can. Thanks!

I think I like the drain hole idea and one pump just going to the fuge. Drilling the hole in the new tank won't be a problem oviously since it can be done while its being built, but how do I go about drilling the matching hole in my existing sump? Can it be done with the sump still running or do I need to completely drain it and take everything out etc. to do it? If I do have to take it all apart, how long does it take to do a drilling like this (so I know how long it will be shut down)? I would need someone to drill this for me too because I do not have the equipment or know-how to do it...(probably whoever makes the new tank for me).

Dang, you know I was just giving more thought to the overflowing sump thing...maybe it wouldn't since the only water going back into it from the fuge would be the overflow DUH.

So, I just got my first skimmer and it fit in my sump (barely) and I was using my sump as a refugium (all I have is caulerpa), but now there is not really any space and I think it will be best if I have a dedicated refugium. I have two options that I am going back and forth on... 1. Reef Octopus HOB refugium ($140 at BRS) - I like the idea of this being easy to set up, but it would be sandwiched between my tank and the wall and I would not be able to look into it without taking it off the back (to monitor growth for trimming etc.) which lead me to my 2nd option... 2. I have a 12" long x 10" wide x 16" high(the sump is 16" high) space in my stand next to my sump that I could add an additional acrylic box and make it my refugium. I would just need the acrylic box made and 2 pumps (one to send the water to the fuge and one back to the sump). And how would I want the inside of the box set up (baffles?)? What are your thoughts on these ideas? I think I like #2 best but I would like some input from OP experiences. If I was to go the route of #2, is there someone on here that could make me the acrylic box for cheaper than a LFS? I have not got any quotes from LFS yet, but I am sure they are spendy. Let me know what you guys and gals think. Thanks in advance!

Thank you everyone for their input. I really did like the caves in the original as well, but the thing really wasnt that sturdy and I felt like I had more limited places to add frags to, especially stuff that needs to go on the sand bed. My sand bed is at least double the open space as before and I think the fish have more open space for swimming, plus the "mountain" has quite a few caves from the way I positioned the rocks too. I will probably end up wanting to change it in another couple months anyways, so I will just leave it for now lol. I kind of get the feeling that with reefing, a tanks scape is never permanently done

I am kind of new to saltwater and my tank is only about 3 months old, so please excuse the lack of lots of corals. I needed to catch a couple of damsels to trade them to my LFS and decided that I might as well re-scape my tank at the same time. I was wanting to make it look a little more like a mountain/hill tapering down and also I wanted to make it so that there was no rock within 1.5" of my glass on the front and right side so I can keep it clean better. I also relocated the powerhead on the right side to the back. I moved the zoa frags off the sand b/c my dragon goby kept crop dusting them with sand, and my kenya tree I moved to the corner by the flower pot. What do you think? OLD scape NEW scape

Thank you for the offer, but if/when I upgrade to MH, I am going to get a fixture that has dual MH + 2 or 4 T5's...it will be a while before I can afford one though because they are pretty spendy.

So I went to Saltwater FantaSeas yesterday and they had only one of the 454's in stock, so when I got it home, I put it as my front bulb so my bulb order is as follows(back to front): - Geissman Pure Actinic 54w - UVL Actinic White 54w - UVL Actinic White 54w - UVL 454 54w I noticed a big difference in the colors of my zoas, especially when the daylight lights are off. Thanks for the advice again!

I will be picking a couple of these bulbs up this week to see the difference. I looked them up online and it looks like they peak higher, so yeah hopefully they do the trick. Thank you for the input ReeFit!

Yes I have them on timers for sunrise/sunset effect...2 bulbs on one and 2 on the other

I have a Sun System Teklight w/4 T5HO bulbs (2x Actinic White and 2x Super Actinic) and I am wanting to know if there is a better combination that would make the lighting similar to MH that would make the colors of my zoas stand out instead of them looking more or less dull. I will be upgrading to MH in the future, but it is a ways out due to $$. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Yeah im going to get the damsels out of there in the next few weeks and trade up for a couple clowns and maybe a couple bangaii or pajama (or both) cardinals.

nice. But those damsels will become problems later for you. Yeah I have noticed that my domino damsel chases everyone around and nips at me when my arm is in the tank lol. The others seem ok though. Here is what I have in there: - 6 Green Chromis - 1 Domino Damsel - 3 3 stripe Damsels - 1 Yellowtail Damsel - 1 Blue Devil Damsel (? all blue one..i think thats what its called) - 1 Dragon Goby (I love this guy but he gets sand EVERYWHERE) - 4 Nass snails - a few Cerith snails - a few turbo snails - a few hermits - 1 Brittle Starfish (with 3 full length legs and 2 half length from acclimation lol) - 1 Emerald crab (that just molted the other day and now is twice the size!) - And I just took the sponge crab that I had for two days over to Woody at Seahorse because I cought the bugger eating some zoas and a mushroom (learned my lesson about believing the girl at Alley Cat at the Vancouver mall...NO HE WAS NOT REEF SAFE!) - Kenya Tree - A number of different zoa/pally colonies that I dont know the name of (got them from Ocean in a box except for I got my first one from Saltwater FantaSeas) - Some assorted mushrooms - 75lbs live rock - 20 lbs of live sand - Softball size caulerpa glob on rock in sump (advised by Woody) I think that about covers what I've got in there right now.

Thank you guys!!

Hey there, I have a 55 gal reed tank( my first saltwater tank) that I set up a couple of months ago. I am looking to possibly find some fellow reefers in my area to be able to get together with once in a while so I can continue to learn and/or improve on the way I am doing things, trade frags, etc. I live in Vancouver, WA. So far, I LOVE this as a hobby and I find myself staring at my tank for at least 1-2 hours per day