Integral9

I was wondering if he could get DirecTV on that thing....

I have one as well, the Xtreme Cone Mini S. It doesn't look like they make it any more, but it works like champion. But it looks like I might have to go 3rd party for any support. Ohhh wells. Which one do you have?

So I'm looking to find out what that thing is growing out of my snail that kinda looks like a satellite dish. The "Gonzo nose" thing I'm not concerned about. I have seen those before. But this "hat" like thing I have not. It appears to have some kind of dandy lion like seed things too.

this is pretty handy: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

+1

The circle of life. Algea uses up all the food, then starves and dies. The death then creates more food for the algea. The tang is probably upset that his all-you-can-eat-vegas-buffet was disappearing. Could the tang have knocked it into a euphylia patch or other aggressive coral that didn't appreciate being used as a landing pad? I'm assuming that since they have soft bodies, they are susceptible to the stings of corals.

dang, sorry for your loss. fwiw: Yes, there is a seam on their backs that goes from one hole to the other. They can also climb on the glass no problem, i've seen my other one do it all the time. Also, the pH swings in my tank are about the same as yours , but my pH is slightly higher at about 8.2 - 8.4, usually. Also, since you've had it a couple weeks, I don't think acclimation could have been the problem. Any nitrates or phosphates or ammonia? Also, they aren't the smartest of critters, mine likes to climb into my overflow and block a drain line. Other people talk about them getting sucked into powerheads alot. Did you find any other lacerations?

some nice looking corals. if you plan on bringing stuff back, we need talk about me getting some space in your cooler.

Have you ever used ozone to purify water instead of chlorine? I was watching 'The Colony' (1st season) and as their wood supply ran out (which they used to boil their water) their resident "mad scientist" (a physics professor i think) rigged up a tesla coil that he used to generate enough voltage to arc and then built a small chamber to house the arc in. He then used a peristaltic pump to pump air through the arc chamber into a bucket full of water from the LA River. The water was also filtered through a 50gal drum with sand and carbon (which they made from burning wood). The whole cast drank the water and it didn't make them sick. There were some comments made about tasting the ozone the first time they tried it. I'm assuming ozone will evaporate out, like chlorine. There are probably easier (but less fun) ways to get 10,000V and imho, everyone should have a Tesla coil.

Frag and pray. Also, if you have time, take some water to a LFS and get a second opinion on your water chemistry test. My ora blue tort STN'd when my alk was lower than I thought.

The "salt" is just a chemical that when mixed w/ RO water produces a solution similar to sea water. Just like apple pie, everyone and their mother has their own recipe. Some solutions result in a closer approximation to sea water than others in certain tests, but none are exact. It's generally a good idea to pick one and stick with it.

Have you tried a Sea Hare?

hmm.. Does the water level in the tank go above the bulkhead briefly and then suck back down? If so, you need to make your air hole larger. If it's the opposite, where the water just won't go above the bulkhead, then you need to close off your drain line slightly. But that might change when you get the overflow box on there. If the water is above the drain line and you are getting a vortex of air being sucked down, then you need to back off your return pump slightly.

I don't know about putting paint inside the tank. Seems like it would fail eventually and then you've have paint floating around in your tank. Doesn't your overflow box cover it? Or is this for your return line? I couldn't see this in your pics, but I'm assuming you have a cap on the top of your durso with a hole drilled in it. If not, you need to do that. I'd start with an 1/8" hole or smaller. But, it sounds like you might need to close off your drain a little bit. This might change when you add your overflow box.

I can't offer any real advice, but I blame Snorkel Bob...

ZOMG, another 135! Woot! I litterally have not seen or heard of another 135 since I bought my tank, 2 years ago. I have an Iwaki WMD-55 (1080gph) returning water and split over 4 returns on my 135. I also have 2 1400 gph (Koralia Evolution) powerheads in the tank.

I think Bob needs to stop using the industrial grade O2 in his scuba tanks. The excess sulfur is killing his brain. Based on these videos: There is only 1 kind of algae and all algae is the same. Yellow tangs are chickens; presumably because they are yellow? He is a cowboy because he's lived in Hawaii for 25 years...

When I'm leak testing, I start with the sump then work my way up. If the sump holds, then I will switch on the pump to fill / test the return lines. After that I will fill a jug of water up and pour it down the drains to check for leaks there. If that all holds, I fill up the tank to check the bulkheads. Only then will I empty the tap water out and fill it up with RO starting with the tank and letting it drain into the sump down the drains. Once the sump is full, I'll switch on the pumps and top off what I need to. usually the water will rise up about 1/4 inch+ over the drains in the tank when the pumps are on. I would keep the 5g bucket for the ATO and use the brute to fill the bucket when needed. This way, if your ATO goes crazy, you don't overfill your tank too much and cause a flood or tank crash due to reduced salinity. You might try Harbor Freight and Tractor Supply. Also, a 2x4, some dolly wheels, nails and elbow grease come pretty cheap.

Looks pretty good. Having the valve on the drain will make it easier to work in the sump with the pump off. I would extend the drain pipe down as far as you can but leaving a couple of inches of room below it. I did not glue my pipe in place, but only because I have to pull it out to change my filter socks. I could have probably come up with a better plan, had I thought more about it. Its a little unerving, but the long it runs, the better the pipe stays in the fitting. I'd move the ball valve closer to the union. Less water will pour out when you service the pump that way. also, since the returns are different distances from the pump, you need a valve to close off the shorter run, slightly, or the flow will be asymmetric from the returns. Sent from my HTC Aria

Well, I think I've figured it out. So I hooked it up to my PC4 to monitor the power consumption and didn't see anything weird. However, the sloshing also stopped so I'm guessing the problem was dirty power and the power controller cleaned that up. Also, the micro bubbles have gone down significantly. There are still many floating around, but I believe what I am seeing are coming from the skimmer now. I don't have a lot of light on that side of my sump and it's hard to see to be sure. But it's kind of neat to be able to see the flow and I haven't noticed any problems with them so I am not going to worry about it any more.

I use the purple primer and the low VOC glue, but only because I have a little one in the house. I think once the glue cures, it won't leach anything. Sometimes shortly after starting up some excess glue will detach from the plumbing and make its way into the tank. You'll want to catch that in a filter sock or sponge or net if you can. It will usually make it's way into the filter sock or sponges if you have them, otherwise get a net and go fishing. After your plumbing is tested, and I'm assuming you are going to have a sand bed and might possibly want a fish or invert that burrows, so you'll want to put down your rock first to prevent any undermining from burrowers. It is ok to just stack it, but take care to "lock" the peices into place so they won't fall down and create a landlside should a fish decide to give it a wack with it's tail or a heavy snail climb up it. I don't glue my rock together or use rods. After a few years you may need to use some epoxy to hold rocks down if the corals get large enough. Once you have the rock in and stacked the way you want it, you can add the sand and push it around to fill in around the rocks. However, I recommend you take your time and stack the rocks the way you want them stacked the first time before adding any sand. Re-aquascaping after a tank has been up for a while is difficult if not impossible w/out destruction due to corals growing over rocks and attaching them. Also, reefs don't change that much or often, so re-aquascaping upsets the balance in the tank which can cause aggression not to mention you can release deadly toxins by pulling up rocks out of the sand bed. I have never used the BRS rock or any artificial rock. It looks like it would lock together nicely though. Drilling into natural LR is like drilling into a gritty soap bar.

Interesting read. I was always been leaning towards the no night mode for the reasons listed above. So when I set up my tank, I set the "wave" function on my RKL to alternate between the powerheads every 15m, 24/7. So one side has a 15m surge, then the other side. I used to have it set shorter, about 5min per cycle, but I noticed that it took about 1-2 minutes for the flow to completely switch around once one powerhead shut off and the other one started. I also have a storm mode every monday w/ a 5 minute alternating cycle for 3 hours. With about 1000gph of flow from the return pump, the power heads each add additional 1400gpm when they are active. This is quite a surge and my fish seem to like it alot. Many of them (clowns, firefish, & assessor) will typically follow the surge around the tank. My goby and jawfish seem to come out of their holes more during the surge as well. I'm not sure if they are having fun or just looking for food or unlucky pods that get kicked up in the surge, but they seem to be happy. I have several corals that I moved from my smaller tanks, one with less flow and one with more flow as well as a couple that I bought recently that I can compare. The corals from the tank with more flow are montipora, zoas, acans, leptastria, duncans, favia and trumpets. I have not noticed any change in their polyp extension, however the polyps are visible and the corals are either growing rapidly or recovering nicely from the problems in the old tank. The corals from the tank with less flow include, hammer and zoas. The polyps on the hammers are not as extended as they used to be. I also have a couple of corals that I bought recently. I do not know what kind of tanks they came out of, only that they came from Vivid Aquarium. The tort I believe is adjusting to the lights so it's a little pale, but the polyps, which started out as non-existent seem to be coming out more. Aside from the color, it looks about like it does in the image on the website. The frogspawn I got is also a little pale, but the polyp extension is on par with my hammer and similar to other frogspawn images I've seen on the web.

I got most of my fittings from flexPVC.com; they have an incredible selection of fittings that is just unmatched. And if you can't find it on their website, chances are they have it, just give them a call. I don't know why reefers are using sched. 80 now. That's typically meant for high pressure situations. Perhaps there is a higher margin on sched. 80 fittings. It's a completely different mechanism. The gate valve, lowers a gate across the pipe to block the flow; like a portcullis. A ball valve, turns a ball to close off the flow; like a vault door. The gate valve has a much finer degree of adjustment than a ball valve and can reliably set back to where you had it should you change it setting. Ball valves typically can handle higher pressure and IME: leak less often than gate valves. My preference is to use a gate valve when I need to dial something back, and a ball valve when I need to be sure it's closed off. I don't have any gate valves. Assuming the threads are the same either fine or coarse, they just may not thread all the way in or the threads may need some loosening or they could simply be too long. It's more of an asthetic appeal to get them flush. I would just use some teflon tape to get a tight seal on the threads to prevent back siphoning from there should the power go out. I regret using the sanitary Tee as it seems to allow the air vortex to be easily redirected over to the tank side which causes the slurping. if I replumbed that part of my tank, I'd just use a regular Tee. The rest looks good though. If you have to dial back your drains, you might want the gate valve for the fine adjustment. when you plumb your system, put the valve handles towards the tank, so if you drop something, it's less likely to catch the valve handles and break them off. a bit of advice for the least amount of noise: don't go straight to a 1/4" hole in the caps to allow air in. Start small and work your way up. Also, and this is not related to noise, but I wouldn't glue the caps on as you may need to get into the drain lines one day; to poke some algae down or push a pipe cleaner down or try to rescue a lost fish. The down side is salt will creep out. That looks good to me. Yes you are. I probably spent over $100 on my fittings. The valves start to get expensive as the pipe side increases. I am using a BRS filter sock holder that I cut down with a hack saw to fit in my sump. The holder comes with 4" and 7" sock holders, so the bracket is 7" long to accomodate both. Hard to believe, but space is at a premium, even with almost 5 ft of sump / fuge.

Here is the pipe that leads into my sump, on right. I have dropping into a filter sock to the bubbles get captured and anything else larger than 200microns. Also, most of the hole are below the water line, so all you can see it the one. Same on the other side, far left. Looks like its time to clean this filter sock. edit: Oops, almost forgot, here are the double durso stand pipes behind the tank that lead to common drain line delivering water to my sump and fuge: You can't see it, it's out of frame, but there is ball valve, like on the other side that I have slightly closed off to control the flow into the fuge.