roni

Yeah, I just went back and read some of my ramblings...can you see how frazzled I am by the move and everything else I think Bruce's method definitely allows more control and his results speak for themselves. One of my problems in the past has been fluctuating levels due to variable evaporation. By running discrete lines, you avoid that to an extent. However, it does add an extra pump into the equation. It would be 2 lines for water change, 2 lines for ca reactor, 1 for ro feed with float switch, 1 for feed from kalk reactor...good thing I put in that extra line Are you still finding benefit for the reactor? I'm thinking of just going to a still reservoir.

Tom, Much appreciated. Forgot to list. Plan to likely do an MTC dual chamber fed using a Aquarium Plants regulator. I'll probably further regulated effluent via a peristaltic pump I picked up from Avast. I'll likely use 2 of the lines to keep the calcium reactor in the unfinished and keep more space under the tank.

Had a little change of plans...Was set to set this tank up and then ended up trading my tank for another system so new equipment list. Mods, can you switch this to 100 gallon Reef Savvy build? In terms of the actual build, still waiting on the house to be finished but did get in before the dry wall went up and ran 6 1/4" lines with the help of @jon lazar. Unfortunately despite ordering more then I think I needed, I ended up being a few feet short, so will have to get some connectors and extend. Thankfully, the end that's short is in my unfinished basement and easily accessible. Looking at possibly getting the avast barrel tender...any feedback from those that have used it? Knowing the Avast folks, I'm sure it's rock solid and amazing but always good to get practical feedback. Otherwise, going through the sad but inevitable breakdown of the 270 this weekend and then moving a few of the fish/corals into a temporary home while the house gets prepped for the move.

looking good Can't wait to see how this looks

Maureen, you're way more then that but it is pretty impressive what you both have accomplished Looking forward to seeing it get wet soon. Let me know if I can help.

Jon, where did you get the stand for your water barrels? I need to pick your brain about how to do water for my setup. Will definitely be interested in the barrel tender. New basement doesn't have a drain so definitely have to figure out a solution for the floods I've had previously. The setup looks very clean and well organized! Can't wait to see it in person. Obviously a lot of thought went into everything.

Following along, interested to see the Avast barrel tender in action. First I've heard of it though been off the boards for a few months. Very nice build and attention to detail so far!

Looks fantastic! How is your ca reactor setup? Direct drip into sump or perstaltic pump feeding effluent?

looking good. you using a rectangular hole in the floor that fits a register for the piping?

Man, that looks great! How long did the assembly take?

Jon, I think I'm gonna go with a 6 pack or 2 of some high quality beer and see if I can bribe someone I think if I run 6 ro lines ziptied together that should suffice. 1 line - top off from spectrapure 1 line - waste water from sump to sink 1 line - new salt water from reservoir 1 line - possible ca reactor feed in from sump 1 line - possible ca reactor feed out from sump 1 line - extra I am debating whether to run my ro line into a still reservoir and then have another pump dose the kalk into my sump or do my kalk reactor. In the fish room, the kalkreactor sat on top of the sump and worked great. I don't think I'll have that space but I think I can just put the kalk reactor in the sump. On the other hand, having a still reservoir that is sitting by my stand (or in a small cabinet) will probably be a little neater and preserve precious sump space for the rowa reactor and live rock. I think the still reservoir without mixing actually gives a higher ca/alk yield compared to stirring...and has the benefit of leaving precipitated hard metals and phosphate out. I'm still debating the calcium replacement. I think my initial plan is to do kalk for all top off and see if that can suffice. I'm leaning towards a separate calcium reactor if I can do the remote lines. If not, I'll probably do 3 part. I like the idea of automation with a calcium reactor and the ability to set and forget for a few months at a time and think that probably fits my time/personality better. any thoughts?

Dip, looks fantastic. looks like you need to get a bigger tank soon though how is the fat head dendro colony from macna doing?

Jon, You're thinking the same way I am about tank placement. I think I've got my wife convinced....I think I actually convinced you of the same thing a couple years ago when you were trying to figure out where the 320 was going to go in the old house I should follow my own advice So, doing major dry wall work/etc on the new house is not something I want to do. My thought was that if I could easily run the 1/4" neoprene tubing from something like a litermeter 3 with the remote pump module. I can feed from the ro reservoir to the kalk reactor. I could then use the remote pump modules to 1) draw water from the sump to the utility sink in the unfinished basement (pump mounted under the tank) 2) draw water from the salt water reservoir to the sump. (pump located in unfinshed) 3) main litermeter pump (in basement). I think this would basically only require 3 of those tubes to be run. The question is would I be able to somehow run the tubing back through the wall and then along the floor or if I'd have to go through the floor completely and run it along the ceiling to the unfinished (much less desirable). Unfortunately, the builder isn't the most flexible so they won't let me run anything before the dry wall goes up, which would be optimal. The genesis renew is an option but I feel like if I'm not able to run the lines under the floor, it'll be much more noticable (I think it used 1/2" tubing). I'm open to other options but I have to locate the water and sink in that area in the unfinished.

Thanks, glad to have you along. Isaac, it's funny you should mention that...I was actually looking through his most recent build and that's one of the reasons why I was reconsidering where I was going to put the tank. My wife would not be okay with putting the reservoir on our deck...and honestly, it's a walkout basement so not sure I'd want to put a 150 gallon salt water reservoir on the deck. Thankfully, I have an expert in @zygote2k helping me out with that. I think if I set up the renew under the tank, the drain to the sink and the input line to the new water reservoir can run under the floor and exit out near the sink. The other pump to supply tank water to waste will sit in the sump. Another option is to use the Litermeter with remote pumps and/or a Neptune DOS (since the water change volume will be so low).

One of the questions I'm trying to figure out is how to do the water reservoir/top off. Basically, the optimum place for the tank is along a wall near the kitchen. However, that's across the house from the unfinished basement...see the pics below. I think I can have the LItermeter feed the topoff from the basement but I'd like to be be able to setup a good water change system and was hoping to use the genesis renew. Here are some pics showing the tank placement (blue rectangle) and unfinished with utility sink (pardon the crude diagraming)

Haha Eric....okay, just a few things that came in today... The skimmer that'll run the system: synergy overflow: It's too cold to go to the garage to take a pic of the tank and sump but soon

So, have an upcoming move and with that, will be downsizing from my 270. A little sad to sell it (anyone want an awesome system ) However, it is an opportunity to do a new build. Still in the planning stages but have most things already already. Tank: 100 gallon Reef Savvy tank (48x24x20). Stand: Reef Savvy custom stand Light: 8 x 54 powermodule (possible reefbrite added later) Flow: 2 MP40s Skimmer: BK 160, swabbie, reef locker Sump: Synergy custom sump with custom ATO box Control: Neptune Apex Ca/topoff: Litermeter feeding kalk (still reservoir). MTC dual chamber fed using a Aquarium Plants regulator. I'll probably further regulate effluent via a peristaltic pump I picked up from Avast Water Change: Litermeter3 with remote pump module(rpm), water exchange module(wxm), and top off module (tcm), remote saltwater and freshwater reservoirs with Avast Barrel Tender Anyway, this will be a slow build but hopefully this will serve as a good start...

All, thanks for the input. I'm leaning towards just capping the center and installing a synergy in the corner. I think it will ultimately lead to the quietest, least worrisome solution. I do think the single would have been fine but Murphy's law and all. John, let me know how that solution works for you (reverse durso).

Best wishes a speedy and full recovery.

Great pic and great ideas Jon. So, I've got a couple thoughts. I looked at the overflow that the tank came with and it looks very, very unlikely to allow a snail to get in to block. I'm also thinking about just not doing many snails in the new setup. They don't do that much imo, especially with tangs present and mature aquascape. My thought was to either leave alone or possibly drill the back in one of the corners with a small bulkhead ending with a 90 up with the top above the expected level of the overflow. This would be a straight shot down to my sump and would serve as the emergency drain. Then I could submerge the other "main" drain from the overflow and use a gate valve and the controllable DC to get a full siphon (or near full siphon). Between this and a nice bubble trap prior to the filter sock in the sump, I think I'd probably have a handle on the noise. I don't think one extra 1' bulkhead in the corner would detract too much from the overall look of the tank.. thoughts?

yeah, unfortunately. Honestly, if it weren't there I'd just drill it for the shadow overflow. It was up for about 2 years and I think it would probably be fine, but I'm gone a fair amount and with Murphy's law, it would have a snail lodge in there when I wasn't there :(

Hi, I've got an upcoming move and downsize coming. I picked up a really nice 105 rimless a while back and have decided to go with that in the new build. The problem I'm trying to solve is what to do about the plumbing. My previous tank was basement plumbed with a internal bean animal overflow, which I loved. The current tank has a single 1.5" bulkhead in the center draining down with a nice low profile black overflow box on the tank side. The center of this hole is 5" below the top of the tank. Ideally, I'd love to do a synergy shadow overflow (basically a modified herbie/bean overflow). However, that requires 2 drilled holes centered at about 3.5-4" below the tank top like this pdf: http://www.synergyreef.com/Manuals/Synergy_Reef_Drilling_Template_16_Shadow.pdf The back is not tempered and my options are 1) Use the single drain Problems I see are: a) noise - I bought a really nice aquabox sump which has a great bubble trap/muffler. I think by partially submerging the return and dialing the flow from my return pump back (DC pump), I should be able to minimize this. It's in a place that doesn't require absolute silence so I think I can get past this b) lack of an emergency drain - this really worries me. The tank is going over new hardwood and I may be sleeping in the garage if I flood the room. The overflow is well designed to avoid an intruder from getting in but you never know. 2) Drill for the external overflow. Problem I need to overcome centered hole now. Capping the bulkhead would still make it too wide to install the overflow. I'd have to figure out a way to close the hole to allow the overflow to get flush or put the overflow off center (which I think would look terrible and also not surface skim everything efficiently. One option would be to narrow the bulkhead and use it as the return from the sump (reduce the size) and then have the new overflow slightly off center. Not sure how that would look. I'd love to have the silence and redundancy of the external but not sure how to do it... Any ideas?

Have you found that your onyx didn't hold color when hosting? my last clown (which was a nice photon but not a true onyx) kept color fairly well. so far this one has been great. thanks! your new tank looks like it's coming along well. are you going to do a carpet?

Only reefkeepers get excited by skimmate

thanks, it's a slow process but thankfully coming along. Took down 2 smaller tanks which has made time easier to come by. thanks, the purple is definitey the boss..and the only tang that seems to recognize nori as a food.