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Eric, I don't think I'm super-close, but you're welcome to drop by. I just installed one a couple of months ago. Jon

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/for/1352905938.html

Rob, That's an unpleasant surprise, but at least now you know what's going on with the system. You may want to be cautious of shocking your corals with a sudden intensity change. thanks again for stopping by and taking the readings! Jon

I used a check valve on my Mag 5 return. I never tested how it affected flow, but I didn't think it was significant. I did read however, that check values always ultimately fail, and when I recently did some maintenance on my pump (about a month ago), I did notice that the check value wasn't closing and took it off the line. I bought and installed the check valve in Jan 07. In your scenario, its probably a nice to have if you don't want to your water level to rise too much over the fuge. I don't think I would trust one to stop water if your sump did NOT have enough volume to handle the drain back. Jon

I had a bluejaw that I lost to a jumping incident earlier this year. Eggcrate would be a fine lid, but it would affected the amount of light that would reach your corals. No incidents with invertebrates during my brief run. A great fish with lots of personality. Highly recommend. Best, Jon

Disaster averted! It turned out to be a thermostat problem. We are having some work done to the kitchen and the thermostat and had been removed and rewired incorrectly. Thanks Boret, Chip, and Dave for the advice! All good suggestions that I'll file away for future use. I had a fan blowing on the tank and we hadn't yet reached the hot part of the day, so the tank never crossed 82. The fish are thankful for the help, as am I! Jon

The AC went out in my house last night (its always in the dead of summer!). I have fans blowing and we are trying to diagnose the issue. But in case I have a prolonged outage, does anyone chiller that I can borrow? I have a few frags I can share. Thanks, Jon

I run a Tsnuami Top off with a small rio pump. I bought it back in 2005 from Marine Scene for $90+, but I found it here on aquacave for $60 (http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=254). You'll have to buy a pump separately, but that still puts you around or under $100. I haven't had one single issue with it in five years, and have done zero maintenance. It runs well, and is accurate. All I could ask for from a top-off device. Jon

Eric, Its hard to gauge how much water is going to run back down into the sump in the event of an outage (or cutting off the pumps). There will be some flow down as the water level falls below the teeth of the overflow box. That is usually minimal (if you have a right sized overflow for your pump). However, there is also going to be some flow back from the return pump pipe. If you don't have holes punched to break the reverse siphon, its going to drain backwards until the water level drops below the outlet. You can negate this by punching a hole somewhere near the top of the pipe (so that air will break the siphon), or you can use check values in the line (not completely dependable). You also need to account for water in the skimmer dropping down into the sump until the water level equalizes. Most folks just run a test and watch the water to get a good sense. For what its worth, I have a 15 gallon sump on my 90, it runs only half full, I use check valves, and the water level rises almost to the top (without overflowing) on outages. Jon

Thanks for the offer, Rob. I used my ghetto tools over the weekend to hack a hole in it. Next time! Jon

That makes sense. And you're exactly right, I'm installing in a woody canopy. Here's a pic. I guess I'll just try to wrap the grounded wire around a bolt.

I purchased a cooling fan kit for my canopy that had a grounded powercord and terminal connections to the fan. I connected the black and white wires to the terminal connections, but wasn't sure what to do with the grounded wire. Can I just wrap it up? Also, how do I safely secure the terminal connections. Is electrical tape enough? Thanks, Jon

I don't run actinic bulbs, but I do run blue+. This was taken with the full lights on. I don't edit photos, so this is what came out when I took the pic. It was a top-down. Jon

I'm a huge fan of favias. Here's one I inherited from a reefer back in '04. It was on the underside of a rock clinging to life and grew out nicely. I keep it in medium light/medium flow and feed it crushed flakes a few times a week. Jon

What bulb configuration do you run? Jon

Good question. Sorry, my last post wasn't that helpful for lack of detail. When I said "limits", I meant that I have limited placement options, and even then, higher light requirement SPSs don't seem color up the way they look in high lit tanks. Corals still grow, they just look brown. Jon

If you are doing X number of T5s + 2 T12s, I imagine that using 6 bulbs is going to give you tremendous flexibility. 6 T5s over a 90 is a pretty standard recommendation for those who want to do SPS as well as LPS and softies. I only use 4 T5s over my 90, and while it doesn't maximize colors and has limits with SPS, I have been pretty happy. You can see some pics in the link in my signature. Jon

I change my T5s after 9-10 months. Jon

I purchased the RKL(lvl1) to specifically address my temperature issues after adding a canopy. I wasn't intending for it to automate the entire setup, and it fit my budget. Out of the box, it was as expected based on what I had read - easy to setup, worked on start up, and the manual was not comprehensive. The temperature probe was accurate and the event triggers seemed to work in the small test time that I worked with it. I was sent the wrong sized fan, so I won't be able to get it fully set for another week or so.

I should be getting my RKL (lvl1) today, and was wondering if anyone had any experiences or lessons learned they could share. Is anyone else using one of these? I found surprisingly little practical experiences in the few searches that I did. Jon

Looks great! I think the single mass rock structure has lots of pros from an aesthetic and practical maintenance standpoint. Thanks for sharing, I'd like to undertake something similar one day. Jon

Last weekend, I built a small, simple canopy to fit over my Tek Light. I did this to prevent jumpers (which I recently lost my bluejaw to), to minimize splashing from my white-cheek, who learned to splash water out of the tank to get attention, and to reduce the spill over of light that distracted away from the tank. The canopy fits right over the teklight, which is screwed into it, and sits right on the frame of the tank. There is a "guide" that fits over the center brace to prevent left or right sliding. I opted for just a simple, hinged front to allow for feeding and minor activities inside of the tank. Of course, with every "solution" comes another problem. So my tank, which normally runs 80-82, hit 83 yesterday with the enclosed canopy (and I had yet to put the plastic backing on the back end). I went ahead and ordered a fan and a RKL to make sure things remained stable (that will be my next post). I guess I can no longer classify my setup as minimalist, but hey, that's half the fun. Jon

Just to put a final ending on this experience... I found my blue-jaw inside of the stand last week. He HAD indeed jumped at one point and fallen into a place that I just hadn't checked. I hadn't read anywhere that this species was a "jumper", but I guess any fish can get spooked. I am in the process of building a canopy to prevent this from happening in the future. Jon

Thank you. I can post again! Jon

Both blennies I had (starry and lawnmower) have nipped. Jon