PK3

Tom, absolutely beautiful tank. You should show it off more often!

Sorry if I missed it, but what exactly are we trying to guess? The color?

Like most everyone has said in this thread, I would ditch the check valves altogether. A closed loop is a great idea that would provide additional flow and so that the holes don't go without use.

My advice is to drill the back of the 75g tank and install an internal overflow while it's empty. The u-tube/siphon over-the-top overflows work, but there is a risk of the siphon breaking, which would likely result in a flood. This is why I highly suggest going with a Herbie (2 drains/holes) or Bean Animal (3 drains/holes) overflow system for 2 primary reasons: completely silent and fail-safe (if designed/implemented properly). A lot of people here have experience with drilling their tanks and it is surprisingly a lot easier than you would think. The sump you picked up from DCReefer is very nice and would do very well under your 75g. You will need to determine the flow rate you want through the sump (I believe the general rule of thumb is 3-5x display volume, which would be 225-375gph), although you could go with more. Find a return pump that will deliver that amount of flow into your tank (after accounting for head loss), and plumb it into your system. You will probably want to reach out for more help once you get to this point; however, I would recommend reading through some of the build threads on WAMAS and reading up on the herbie and bean animal overflows to help understand how it works.

I don't have this light, but after visiting Quantum Reefs and seeing their 93 Marineland cube display tank, I'm highly considering it for my new build. It's between the Maxspect 120w 16k and a Kessil a350w/a360w. I feel like the color mixing (less disco ball) and shimmer are better with the Kessil, but I like the built-in controller with the Maxspect.

So it sounds like the 120 optics helped get rid of the disco ball effect?

Do you have no disco ball effect because of how high the lights are hung or because you have the 120 degree optics on it that BowieReefer was talking about?

Any update on this?

Did anyone that picked up a couple buckets of sand have an extra bucket left over? Mr.703, do you have any extra? Thanks.

What degree optics do you have on those IT 2080's? I'm surprised by the amount of shadowing in the middle and outer parts of the tank, especially considering how high they are hanging over the tank. Not saying the look is bad, as some people like to have dark spots, but I would have thought the brightness would be more uniform considering the fixture is only 2" shorter than the tank on each end [(36" half-length of tank - 32" fixture) / 2]. Do you find that the amount of spread is lacking on these fixtures in any way?

And try to slap the surface of the water around. Anything to get some more oxygen in there. Oxygen depletion is probably a bigger concern than temperature dropping a few degrees.

I think this is the best course of action. Once you do a few, you will see how truly easy it is and will wonder why you were so scared of doing it in the first place.

I would think you would want to remove the tank off the stand/plywood before drilling these holes. You will need water surrounding the holes to keep the bit cool and you will probably want to keep the plywood dry. Regarding your last statement, there are many people with a lot of experience drilling holes, but I don't think anyone can give you absolute assurances that something won't or can't happen. There is always some risk in drilling the tank, no matter how small. As Alan said, I think you should do it yourself and have someone coach you along. I'm saying this because what if something does happen to the tank? Is the person drilling the hole liable?

Wow, that sump looks really nice. Nice work.

Welcome. Perfect opportunity to turn that tank into a saltwater tank!

Welcome. +1 on joining the club. You will make that $20 back many times over.

Would this fit on a 10" miter saw? If so, could you keep me in mind when you are finished with another one? Thanks.

The natural sunlight discussion reminds me of one of my all time favorite tanks. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-12/totm/

Potentially good suggestion, although I actually preferred not painting the tube so that I can see inside it to check on any bubbles or algae build up, which allowed me to detect if something may not be right.

Nice job. I remember back when I first started reefing, this mod was the cool new thing to do. Well done.

I am no clownfish expert by any means, but my experience with many pairs of ocellaris and percula clownfish is that the smaller male does the twitching when the larger female charges or comes near. I've never seen the larger female twitch. With that in mind, I find it odd that the larger "Nemo" of yours is the one twitching and the smaller one is just swimming around. Does anyone have any other experience with the twitching? In any case, keep an eye on them for aggression.

I also ran a u-tube overflow for several years without any problems, even through several power outages. I believe it can be successfully used if well thought out and properly employed. The keys with the overflow box itself are the following: 1. The end of the u-tube in the external box must be lower than the top of the drain pipe. 2. The top of the drain pipe in the external box must be higher than the bottom of the u-tube in the internal box (because the water level in the internal box is determined by the height of the drain pipe in the external box). If the overflow box is set up this way, you should never lose siphon with periodic maintenance (I.e. cleaning out algae, making sure no micro bubbles start accumulating, etc).