bph

Okay, still working on my AGA 125 tank. Has two 1.75 inch and two 1.5 inch holes pre-drilled overflows in the back. I have two 1.5 inch bulkheads for the feed to the sump and two 1 inch bulkheads for the returns. Question one: can I tee the two overflows together and have one pipe emptying into the sump? Should I use 1.5" pvc pipe the whole length or smaller/larger? I have a lot of room to work with. Question two: The tank's bottom is at 28 inches off the ground, but so is the wall of the sump (its behind the wall in another room). How does this work? I will be having the water come out the bottom of the tank, across about a foot or so horizontal length then go up to get into the sump.... that an issue? The top of the tank is at 51 inches above the floor(overflow is about 48 inches high), so gravity fed, there is a decent delta in height, but I am not a mechanical engineer and don't claim to know fluid dynamics or anything That is about all I can think of for now... hope the description makes sense. I appreciate any help Thanks in advance, Brian

So, placing the overflow pvc in the sand, and the outlets shooting up at a 45 degree angle is a good design? I was told that some corals/mushrooms that live near the bottom of tanks (due to lesser light) like less waterflow. I am currently not sure what I am going to be putting in my tank, but don't want to limit what I can do by the way I am setting it up...

Based off of water movement, is there a reason to have a closed loop at the top of an aquarium as opposed to being at the bottom of it? (Taking into account the various corals that one could have in the system. I haven't gotten that far in my thought process, so don't want to hamper my options at a later date by messing this up). How do you get the water into the closed loop system? Of course you have an intake, but do you just have a screened off opening that the water goes through? What about keeping snails/fish/etc. away from the intake? I assume that you have a lot of flow, so this intake would be sucking a LOT of water... right? Or do you have multiple intakes to cut the flow from one down? Should this intake be near the top/middle/bottom?

Is there a reason you did not go that route? I know it would certainly be easier for me to not have a closed loop... but if it is the right thing to do, then I don't mind working one into my setup before adding water to the tank (I have had my tank set up and empty since December )

Thanks for the responses guys! It is good to see it in photo form and an overall layout in the design. Certainly gives me some things to work with!

Hi all, I have a AGA 125G tank that I am setting up and was wondering how to integrate a closed recirculating loop. It has two overflows pre-drilled just shy of each corner in the back. The piping for the overflows go out the bottom of the tank, and I have the tank set up so I can drill thru the wall to a "fish room" behind it that will be holding my sump/refuge/etc. From what I have read, you shouldn't rely on the return pump from your sump to provide all your water movement in the main tank (takes too much electricity, etc. for the end results ). My question is how do you incorporate a closed loop for something like this? Do I just run another set of piping from the fish room to the aquarium and go up the back and over the top? I don't have a hood (yet, might never get one, still unsure) so having the white pvc around the top of the tank will detract from the overall "look" of the aquarium. Thanks in advance for any advice or ideas! Brian

Magnetic1, you ever find an answer to this? I was out of town for a while and just got back. I am still in the market to buy a new house, so am on hold on setting this tank up, but want all details I can get for when I am ready to start putting it in its final location.

I would love to take you up on your offer sometime. It is always good to see how others set things up. Do you also have a 125G? Thanks, Brian

Thanks for the info! I PMed Dandy7200 with my current stand specs and will wait his response! When I bought the 125, I went ahead and got the stand to go with it. I did not get a canopy. As to being strapped for cash. Yup :( One reason why it is taking me sooooo long to get even water in the dang thing! I have had it since December and it hasn't seen a drop of water yet. I still need the sump/refugium/skimmer and plumbing before doing the water. I haven't even bought all the plumbing for my durso stand yet. Just the 1" return pipe and 1.25" drain pipe.

Hello all, I got a 125 gallon AGA tank for x-mas and have been SLOWLY purchasing things to set it up. I expect to have it up and running sometime this summer , but was wondering about light fixtures. I am planning on doing my homework prior to purchasing anything, but wanted to know if anyone had any recommendations on where to start looking? 72" long... do I need to get one 72" long fixture or will a few fixtures work? I am also still trying to figure out which type of coral/fish combo I want, but I only want to purchase the lighting fixture once, so want to make sure that it is the best possible for anything (coral-wise) I finally decide to place into the tank... I am also looking at a sump/refugium and have been toying with the idea of getting Marc from melevsreef.com to make one... but the shipping & handling is a little high, but I will do it if this would be the best option. Are there local people that can make sump/refugiums? At BRK, they say that they would only recommend Deltec for skimmers (that's what they use at their store and at home), so I am waiting on the dough for one of those... I already have a 26gallon reef up and running. Been at it for about 9 months now. Love it! X-mas came around and Wally's was having that Aquarium sale so I bought the new tank. Now it is just sitting there big and empty. I am itching to get working on this guy, but know I have to take my time.... Anyways... thanks in advance for any feedback!! Brian

Ran into it again. I will keep trying. Oh, and another thing. It asks for a BB name. I am assuming it is referring to my forum name? My forum name is bph, but when I hit submit, it says that it needs to be at least 6 characters long. Is the BB name referring to something different? Thanks again, Brian

I want to join WAMAS, but when I fill out the join form at the following website: http://www.wamas.org/forms/join.htm I get the following error when I hit submit: Not Found The requested URL /_vti_bin/shtml.exe/forms/join.htm was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request Can anyone help me out? Thanks, Brian

Hello all, I got my nitrate test today and did a reading. It looked to be between 10-25ppm (again, this is pretty subjective... wife was thinking it was closer to the 25 reading). It is a Salifert test. I tried looking on the side (the low range test) and it was the same color as 100ppm, which you then divide by 10, but since this was the top of the scale, I am not sure how accurate that is Is there anyone else out there with this test that might be able to give me a hint on how to read this thing properly? Thanks again, Brian and Kristen P.S. It seems as if those copepods have disappeared.

So I moved the xenia to the bottom of the tank, and a little bit out of the direct current, but he still just seems to flop about. Certainly not as perky as he was when I first got him at BRK... :( Nitrate test hasn't arrived yet, so still waiting to test those numbers.

Good point. Didn't think about it and yes, I have been topping of with salt water. I had two jugs of salt and one jug of fresh just for that purpose, but then failed to think about what I was doing when I started just adding more salt water into it.

I live in Dale City. I have ammended my profile. Thanks again for your reply!!

Everyone, Thanks for the replies! I have ordered a Nitrate test. What is the best way to realign my parameters? I understand putting in less salty or fresh water would lower my salinity, but how do you affect the pH reading? Are there any particular mushrooms that you would recommend? Thanks again!

Yes, I am a total noob. I went to BRK last Tuesday and we bought a cleaner gobie (blue and black) and a wavy coral thingy (pulsating xenias?). The xenias is pink and has a lot of arms. At the end of the arms are fingers that open and close. Well, they used to open and close. Now they just wave around (with the water current). He is in some heavy current at times (I have a canister filter that fills up with water and ejects it into the tank at a cycle of about 2 minutes per. Should I move him? Why did he stop pulsating? He was in a heavy current at BRK when we purchased him. And the other things we have discovered in our tank. On the glass are these little (tiny tiny tiny) white (actually, kind of clear) ovals with a lot of legs on them. We don't have many of them, but just started noticing them. What are they? I just ran some tests and have the following results: pH 8.6 (this too high? how do I lower it if it is?) Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 HydroMeter 1.028 (yes, kind of high, will add pure RO water (without salt) on my next water change Calcium was around 460ish, test is a little subjective as it relies on you telling when it changes from purple to blue) I don't have a Nitrate test yet. Tank is about 8 months old. 26 gallon with 35 lbs of live rock and about 2-3" of live sand. My light is a Orbit brand 30" 2-Lamp 65watt 24 hour lightning system; one 65 watt sunpaq dual actinic [420NM + 460NM] and one 65 watt sunpaq dual daylight [6,700K + 10,000K], two lunar lights BakPak protein skimmer. Thanks in advance! Brian & Kristen

James, Thanks for the reply. I am closer to Manassas than Woodbridge and my wife loves to head to Manassas to do all her shopping (stay away from that Potomac Mills traffic nightmare). Also, are there any lfs that you or anyone else in the area would recommend? We have been going to Wally's Aquarium in Alexandria.