fry_school101

Short pieces of PVC work well to roll the thank as well. Use three pieces so you always have two under it or it will teeter when is goes past the center... I drained my 180 and had my SO help me lift the edge of the stand and then rolled the first piece under with my foot. Happy to help too if you are close by.

It's a little unnerving. The first time we saw one of our mandarins do it we thought it was dead. Most all of our other fish change at night, but the mandarins in particular look startlingly different.

+1 There is no focal point on the new one.

So exciting! I was wondering how much longer it was going to take before they caught some more. We need more high rollers in the US so some of those rare high-dollar fish can come here instead of disappearing in Japan! Group buy anyone?

Yes, they would be if it is framed in three parts. Is this a freestanding "house" or is your unit part of a larger structure?

With no other references, I would guess that it will be framed in three parts. It is more economical to build with repetitive units. You have three more or less equal 12' spans across three sections and all the walls stop against the edges of those divisions. (The joists are running in the East - West direction) So spanning multiple joists would say put the tank in location 2. Edit: Also, you won't have a shear wall in the middle of a room because it makes floors hard to finish. As the building moves they would crack or deform noticably so you put those areas in a doorway or in a wall. 99% sure it is E-W

I'm pretty sure they use a standard pool type o-ring. I have an MRC skimmer with about the same size ring. Google popped up this site and they have a number of 6" o-rings. http://usapoolpros.c...it=all&q=O-ring You might try a pool place.

Just be be clear, I am advocating for two pipes - just like the standard tank has. I have a "standard" 180 with two built in overflows with two holes in each. The small hole is a full siphon and has a gate valve on it. The large one is wide open and only gets the barest trickle of water unless something gets plugged. A lot of the noise does come from the sump, we agree there, but most people first respond the the gurgles and sucking noises they hear before they deal with the plumbing below. Granted, that is part of the problem and just making sure the ends of the pipes are under the water line in the sump will help tremendously. That last 10% may not be an issue when the tank is in an office or possibly even a living room, but if there is noise in your bedroom or media room it makes a big difference. Tank manufacturers don't need to do anything different because two pipes are sufficient. We agree that three pipes are overkill if things are set up correctly. Saying that they do it because the megaflows or whatever they package it with are perfect is silly. If they were as silent as they are supposed to be no one would have gone to find something different and almost everyone has looked for something they could do to quiet their tank down. Durso setups work okay, but some people need better than that. Adding a gate valve takes one extra part and you can eliminate the durso's air valve so we can call the number of parts a wash. You don't have to change any of your plumbing; just add a gate valve. Eliminating the bubbles flowing through the pipes gets you that last 10% which takes you from quiet to completely silent.

Maybe, but would you like to be one of those two people who had to pay to replace expensive hardwood floors and the ceiling of the room below? Besides, the two pipe method is for making it silent. Even if it didn't do anything for redundancy. It can't be beat for that. The third pipe in the bean animal version is overkill in my mind because as long as the second pipe is the same size or larger it can drain just as much as the first - which is necked down to begin with. Those look interesting, but that is only good for 1/2 a cube of fish food a day. Are you only going to have one tiny fish? Those forums have a lot of good and interesting information, but 1/2 cube a day seems like a token gesture and not really practical for anything. If you want an ATS, you may as well have one large enough to make some kind of a difference.

This is not safe. You have two drains necking down into one pipe. What happens if the pipe blocks where they come together? Also, the valve dialing them down is reducing the capacity of both drains. You want two drains capable of handling the FULL amount of overflow independently. You need to dial back the lower pipe so it just barely fills to the upper one. It will be silent then. No air bubbles or special caps to fight with. The diagram in my other post is not relevant. That was for a question about not using an internal overflow. The picture of my QT tank is what I was referring to.

The bag is kinda silly IMHO. All they are trying to do is reduce splash over the overflow which could be accomplished by raising the top of the drain pipe to be closer to the top of the overflow. He has a 6" drop to the top of his pipes. 2 pipes with a gate valve is the safest and only way I have found to make an overflow COMPLETELY silent. I sleep in the same room as my tanks, so I have done a lot of experimenting. +1 about the pumps though. Your pumps will make a big difference. I like Eheim pumps. They are the quietest I have found.

This is good advice. Only one pipe is a time bomb waiting to go off. I posted this a couple days ago responding a similar question. You can do a completely silent setup with two drains. If you have holes that are two different sizes, the SMALL hole is your primary drain and is used for the siphon. The large hole gets the overflow box or upturned elbow. The third hole for the return or over the top is up to your personal preference. Also, use a gate valve instead of a ball valve.The extra control is worth the couple of dollars extra it will cost. Here is a link to my other post with pictures. http://wamas.org/forums/topic/54969-beananimal-setup/#entry466093

Lol! Fins n Feathers, Petland, BRK, Roozens and Incredible Corals have all been great. Thanks!

I have two (separate tanks), both eat frozen with no trouble. I'd take a picture, but every time I get close to the tank they think it is feeding time and stop paying attention to the other fish

I can help on the 22nd. Shoot me your address and phone number.

State Farm added a waterbed rider to my renter's policy. It was the closest thing they had for dumping a couple hundred gallons on the floor.

Following too! Loved your old tanks and can't wait to see this one up and running.

I got anthias with the same problem a while back. All started with a brown spot that developed into your picture. Also thought it was bacterial of fungal. Tried m. green and m. blue and bifuran+ as well as prazi thinking it might have been started by some kind of parasite. None of the affected ones I got survived. I was thinking of just trying to smear it with neosporin if anything ever got it again (Pure conjecture on my part. This may be a very bad idea). The chemicals pouring through their gills didn't seem to help them any - particularly the bifuran +. Also, FWIW Seachem said not to use anything with copper on an open wound when I asked them about it. Let us know if you find something that works!

Yes, that is correct. It is one of these guys: http://dx.com/p/30w-2400lm-led-emitter-metal-plate-warm-white-16-18v-47262?item=8 It is rated for 30w

It is one of those big led chips the have 100 or so diodes on them. The spec for the driver says 30w 16-18v. The chips are running 16v so I should only be able to run one, right? How is it that 4 will light then? Could I be taking measurements at the wrong points?

I'm playing with some Chinese LEDs and drivers and I need someone to straighten me out. Supposedly I have a 30w driver which delivers 2A at 16-18v. When I run one led it measures 15.9-16.1v of drop and 2A of current. If I understand correctly 15v * 2A gives me my 30W right? I can hook up four LEDs in parallel and my voltage drops to around 15.0V but the current still says 2A. Am I measuring something wrong or is this possible? Does it just mean that the driver is capable of more than the 30w since everything is still running? How can my voltage drop a little with each additional LED and still have everything running at 2A? Is it possible to test the actual output capability of a driver?

I just picked up an arduino as well. Following along. . .

Has anyone else here used reds or warm yellows (whites)? I haven't put together my last purchase yet, but my first one had zero color pop on the red and yellow corals / fish. It looks very washed out and bland. I went with cool white and royal blues on that one, but I'm going to need to mix it up a little.

Hey all. I have one that can be used too. I'm probably going to be placing an order from heatsink usa in the next week or two as well if anyone needs anything.

Hmmm. I thought it looked like tempered glass when I looked it up, but according to all the RC threads the Mr Aqua tanks are not made with tempered glass anymore and the bottoms were the only part tempered on older versions. Looks like we need to do some triple checking. Thanks for the heads-up.