droyal1110

What else do you need with a JBJ other than a pump and hose? I'm unsure how it works I have only seen diagrams and the actual unit with the membranes on it and lcd screen, but other then that I don't really know how it works. Is it worth the money?

I was at BRK a couple of days ago and they have the JBJ ATO.

Thanks guys I appreciate it. It is the nikkor 60mm f/2.8 and its all manually focused and I use a D80 which I have had and disliked for two years now but it works. Like I said I manually focued, no tripod or bipod just breathing and stabilizing techniques, all tank light just controlling my settings. I found it easier to manually take shots rather than relying on programmed modes. Because I didn't have a tripod I was shooting higher ISOs, especially the ones with copepods.

Ok this is my first time photography my fish tank with an actual camera. Just to give you a little background on me, I did a wee bit of photography free lancing and for a friend at weddings. I did it as a hobby and like this hobby I pretty much taught myself and read on forums, no schooling, no books, just doin it =D Even though the title says go easy I always welcome criticism, good, bad, random, I can take a hit and I take no personal offense. So please enjoy. Also you can view the picture in high res by going to my flickr. These pictures are pretty much straight out of camera, I do minimal post processing, I reloaded my PC so I had to do any editing on flickr so it really wasn't much if any. Thanks and enjoy. *EDIT* I can't seem to get it to work on the forums so you'll have to follow the link. Its a slide show. http://flickr.com/photos/davinroyal/sets/7...788265515/show/

That can work, kind of like a remote refugium. I'm kind of confused on your setup though, it the 45 gallon tank with rock in it, your sump? The glass baffles are for not only separation but to stop bubbles from getting into your return section minimizing bubbles in your DT. Also with my return I cut a notch out of my overflow so I could run the black loc-line tube under the water level and low enough to put egg crate over the tank. What are you using for a return pump?

12 foot spider crab, no thanks. Nice find.

I considered it but I like having sand sifters and I like the look of sand. My real debacle is DSB or not.

I'd buy some.

Yea definitely let me know what you find as far as sand goes. Like I said I am in the market, I'm going to buy all dry aragonite and bug someone to give me a cup of seeded sand.

If you're lazy like I am I just bought joes juices and nuked 'em =D My peppermint eats what the fish miss, I only have one in my 55 gallon. Its my skunk cleaner shrimp that irritates me, eating out of my corals if he gets a chance.

Hello and welcome to the forums. I definitely suggest subscribing to WAMAS and pay the measly $20 yearly due fee to have access to hidden parts of the forums and to save money and become part of something big in this area. However I apologize I cannot answer your question because I do not have experience with this topic. Although I would think the emerald would tend to hide more and graze rather than be curious at possibly irritate others in the tank, mine is very peaceful.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Plumbing-and...oduct_info.html I'm sure your LFS could order you one as well. (BTW thats a good price too)

I personally bought my sand from the Cozy clownfish, I live in Manassas as well. However, I will either be ordering my sand online or probably going to blue ribbon koi since their price seemed rather reasonable (I'm setting up a bigger tank). As far as rock goes, my personal preference (especially since your cycling) is to do half base rock from www.bulkreefsupply.com (the more you buy the cheaper it is per lb) and try to find users selling rock. Get anything with purple on it because it will help contribute seeding the base rock. Also try to watch out for mojano and aiptasia on rocks, be sure to familiarize yourself with this. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=803632 If you have to buy rock from a LFS I know the Cozy clownfish keeps their rocks under lights and you can usually count on getting some hitchhikers because they are usually in tanks with snails, crabs, etc. The Marine Scene does not keep their rocks under lights so rarely do you find ones with really good color, BRK I believe has a vat as well but it doesn't necessarily mean you can't find a good colored piece there, Aqua CO. near the marine scene I believe has a vat as well that sits in the dark. There is nothing wrong with buying live rock with less color, I just prefer it to have more. Good luck! Also, definitely rinse any dry sand and dry rock. *EDIT* Oh and I apologize. I wrote this thinking you were new to the hobby, this was not intended to offend in any way. Please ignore anything you already know =D

Yea after thinking about it I agree. I'm thinking of saving up and paying for the JBJ ato. I'm not worried about a flood with my ATO but rather an electrical short in the water that could cook something else or kill some livestock (unlikely), but I'm also going to dose kalk in the top of reservoir which will be nice with the JBJ because I can set it to dose at certain times I believe.

Thats cool for you but I think most people have their return submerged. I don't want splashing water on the DT, maybe pointed towards the surface to break up the tension and help with gas diffusion but this is why most people have the durso. Unless you have a flapper or some sort of one way valve built into your return line you should still get the water that is currently in the return line (3 feet x 3/4" hose = volume, or whatever your dimensions are) will flow back into your sump, plus if it is submerged and you don't have a siphon break it will suck water from your DT until it sucks air. I have a reef ready tank and I am curious as to why yours is so special? Please post pictures and explain =D

Yea I think I got a grasp on the concept now. For some reason it is so simple yet it was hard to understand without doing it (I haven't done it yet). What I'm going to do is calculate the volume to area and account for a # of gallons from the back flow and from the ATO if it gets stuck open. According to reefcentral.com if the power goes out I will have about 6 gallons of water dumping back into the sump if the water is currently at 2" above the overflow... which it won't be its just a worst case scenario. On top of that I only need 12 gallons in the sump minimum for a rate of 600gph, which would be a maximum gph. Thus, I think I am going to do 7" baffles which will allow for about 10 gallons of space for any possible event or all events at once (ATO stuck and return pump failure).

I am curious about this topic as well but I think I'm going to do this http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html Melev is a smart dude, he knows whats up and while my sump is going to be able to handle a few gallons of top off water I still don't want to risk it.

Well from here on out you can go to your LFS, at least pick up some turbo snails and if they have it a sea hare. Those will eat the GHA, just move them to the thicker spots every time you pass by your tank, kind of pushing them to eat. Cut back your lights to 6 hours a day and feed every other day but only little bits at a time and only for a max of 5 minutes of total feeding time. If you need to, turn off your pumps so the food slowly floats down and gives your fish time to eat it. Whatever little critters you have should survive off of algae or detritus. If you don't want to buy thing to eat the GHA then go to melevsreef link I gave you and do the manual removal. Definitely do something before it gets more out of control. Cutting back on feed and cutting back on time will help over time because its cutting back the source, like I said if you don't have an anemone do the 3 days of no light. Its hard and it sucks but its definitely worth it. Also if its only one or two pieces of rock look into rock cooking.

I find that kind of unusual. Your tank has been fishless for 6+ weeks (I'm assuming) and unless you've been feeding copious amounts of food to your CUC you really shouldn't have GHA unless you were destined to have it. There are tons of ways to get rid of it depending on what your set up is. 1 - no lights for 3 days, cover up the tank so no light whatsoever gets in. Obviously you can only do this if you don't have an anemone. With this method be sure to have a good protein skimmer and do a big water change after the lights out period. Also bring back your lights slowly, make sure to turn your atinics on for a few hours on the 4th day, 5th day bring them on all day, 6th put on your daylight for a few hours, 7th fully on. 2 - http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html basically manual removal. 3 - Run GFO, get something to eat it (Sea hare, lawnmower blenny, rabbitfish, turbo snails, etc), cut back on lighting Either way you need to eliminate the source. If you use frozen foods make sure you are thawing them out in tank water and straining them because they can contain phosphates. Don't feed more than what your fish can eat in 3-5 minutes, I feed a good amount over a period of 5 minutes only putting a tiny amount at a time. If you added some new rock recently pull it out and cook it (not literally there is a method). I am personally running GFO, less lights, sea hare and turbos, and I am winning the battle. I don't know where you live but BRK has at least one more sea hare left, I bought one Wednesday and it went to town on the GHA. www.bulkreefsupply.com has good stuff on GFO and reactors, not too expensive or you can buy a cheapo reactor and order some GFO. You can win this.

Amazing and sickening... can't imagine how much money that costs. However, it also convinced me I am getting a foxface, I was scared I would get stung but after reading how he hand feeds them and they don't attack but rather it waits for something to attack it and essentially the attacker hurts itself. Sorry off topic.

Eureka I got it! Thanks for your help, thanks to everyone who has helped me with this. I went to BRK today and had it explained in person and it all makes sense now to me. I will hopefully be starting my tank build thread tomorrow =D

Haha thanks. For some reason most people are more wowed by the fact that I'm doing this all by myself and I'm only 20. At this point I'll definitely take anything I can get, thanks!

So will the height in the sump depend on what my tank puts in and what my return takes out? Should I fill everything up, no baffles in the sump, run the system, mark the line at operational level, put baffles in accordingly? Or can I just get 8" tall baffles, put them in, and the sump will balance itself out?

Oh another thing someone told me to do. Edit your location and include your setup in your signature so you don't have to keep typing it up. If you ever need help its probably the first thing they are going to ask for if it isn't supplied.

Oops I forgot to add that the skimmer will be run externally but the return pump will be in the sump (mag7 so yeah). I think I'm going to look into the flexible PVC. I don't think I'm going to mess with the DSB, I don't want to run into any potential problems with that. However, I do want/need a refugium. Will the baffles control the height of the overall water in the sump at any given time? When I start this up for the first time, everything is connected, do I need to add water to account for the sumps volume? Thanks.