FearTheTerps

Thank you Matt, it was great hearing your speeches, I think we have a few more breeders now because of you.

Yes its possible, Ive seen pics on RC with people asking about it

Thanks to all the sponsers that support our club, not only today with items donated to the raffle, but for all that they do for our club and it's members throughout the entire year. Thank you to Matt Pedersen for his very informative speech he gave at the meeting today. I dont know how any one wouldnt want to breed fish after listening to his speech. ( I did want to hear more about the Lightning Maroon though ) A big Thank You to the club officers who dont get the credit they deserve for running the club. This was the first meeting that I came to, and I was very impressed. Im probably hooked and will even make it to the meetings all the way down in VA.

Sounds like your fish may have spawned, after searching google I found a few other people that described the same sort of happenings with their firefish. With the firefish hiding alot and not coming out much for food. Are the fish still in that tank? When was the last you saw the 'missing' one? Did you attend the meeting today??? If I recall correctly I think Matt Pedersen said the firefish were one of the more challenging fish to breed( maybe someone with a better memory will know for sure). But it sounds like you got them to spawn at least, raising the fry would be the next part (the challenging bit).

They changed the picture on the article, the first picture showed a woman standing with flip flops on ontop of a large domed shaped coral colony, not sure what species it actually was.

I think their reasoning behind this is that if the reefs are already damaged or stressed from the higher temps it would help the reefs if they werent frequented by tourist that dont know to properly behave themselves when diving. See picture in article

Rob it's problem with the website, Brian Ward is looking to fix it. There's a thread in the website issues forum.

Sad to see the little guy go, I always looked forward to your updates about him Paul.

Maybe Justin and Dan are just having trouble thinking of a new clever name for the reactor

That piece of plumbing is hard to see at first, I thought it was just the base where the iwaki is sitting. I think that would keep your water levels in check. Are you plumbing that piece with ridged or flex plumbing???

With having 2 drains and 2 returns, I think you may run into some problems with the water levels in the fuge, and with a top-off if you plan on installing one. How do you plan on keeping a constant water level in the fuge? If you restrict the drain into the fuge to match the Mag 7 return that may work for awhile, but I would think over time it would need to be adjusted alot. You run the risk of overflowing the the fuge if the drain rate is too high, or you also will have problems if the drain rate is too slow and you run the pump dry. As for adding a top off to the current configuration you have 2 returns areas where the water levels will drop due to evaporation. That means you would need to place 2 sensors for the top-off, which just leads to more equipment and more points of failure. I think you would better off connecting the fuge to the sump. Remove the Mag 7 return( this gives you more useable space in the fuge, a bonus), raise the water level in the fuge so that it is higher then the MAX water level in you sump return area, then plumb the fuge so that it drains into the return area of the sump. This set up would eliminate all the problems mentioned above, and give you better peace of mind not worring about a potenional problem.

Back in September I moved and had to tear down my tank. I found about 200, yes 200, in my tank. I would always find them floating around on the water, and alot would get sucked into the powerheads. I pulled alot out every other day or so, but didnt realize how many were getting in behind my rock wall where there were dead spots. That was kinda disgusted when I pulled all my rock and found them, I scooped them all up and put them in the toilet, there were enough to completely cover the surface of the toilet bowl. With that said, I didnt notice much of a difference with them in there, I didnt have alot of corals, mostly fish.

+1 for the Westerners, although I think Im all alone over here in Hagerstown. Welcome Back

Did you take pics?

Collonistas???? WET WEB MEDIA

Welcome to WAMAS by the way!!!

I say drill it yourself, One of the best things about this hobby is learning, and you can take satisfaction that you did it. If you are worried at all about it, practice first. Find a cheap 10 gallon and cut a few holes in it before you cut the 40. Some people say to tilt the saw when u first cut, but I found if you make a simple template out of cardboard that works better. Just use the bit to cut the cardboard, then use the template in your water dam. The cardboard wont fall apart when being submerged in the water.

Your plans look ok, I know you are limited somewhat because of the output of skimmer needing to be a water level. The biggest concern that I see is the size of the return area. With the measurements listed, and the width of the sump is 12.5 inches right?... that makes the volume of the return area to be 4.9 gallons. That size should be fine if you are running a Top Off. If you arent, then you will be toping off by hand alot to make sure the water level doesnt drop too low. With the foot print of the return area, if u evap 1 gallon per day, the level in the return area will drop by 2.75 inches.

Is there a decimal point on the meter? Thats where some of the confussion is, I've never seen a TDS meter with decimal points. So when you are saying 0.02ppm we are thinking 2ppm. 0.02ppm would be 20 parts per billion, I dont think its that accurate. I dont thinking using your water mixed up at 6 ppm would cause any damage since you are only doing it once, just make sure to get new filters before you make any more water.

Welcome To WAMAS. This has to be the best noob build thread Ive ever seen. You are off to a great start, seems like you did do alot of research beforehand, and it shows that all that research paid off. Great Job!!! Quick question, is the stand for your pump attached to the sump's stand? I ask because I would worry about the pump being bumped into or moved, especially with that doorway being there. With the hard plumbing and the weight of the pump, I dont think the glass on the sump would stand a chance and cause a horrible failure. Are you using GFI's? I see one by the sink, but the return pump doesnt have one. Looking forward to seeing more progress, now the cycle awaits.

When I read that, the first thought that popped into my head was Homer Simpson. I can only imagine what it would be like if the Simpsons got a SW tank. ZAP!!! Its not the return pump ZAP!!! Its not the skimmer ZAP!!! Its not the powerheads It was the heater!!!

Forgot about the fuge part, What are you planning on putting in the fuge? Just some cheato? or a DSB? Planning ahead helps to prevent the need to change anything in the future.

The silicone wont bond with acrylic like it does glass. You can use the acrylic just make sure to put the silicone on pretty thick, that will help brace it in place. The best thing to do is to use glass tho, it might even be cheaper then buying the same size piece of acrylic. The best place to get it is at a local hardware store. Take your measurements and they will cut it for you, be sure to shorten your measurement by 1/16 or so that you get a proper fit. Its better to have the piece a little bit short then too long. If its too long the baffle wont go in square, but if its too short the silicone will fill in the small gap. Also if they can have them nip off the bottom corners of the glass, this helps with the gap at the bottom edge of the baffle. If you dont nip the corners the baffle wont sit as close as it can to the bottom of the sump, or the corners of the baffles can cut into the sumps silicone compromising it. And most importantly make sure to use aquarium safe silicone. You might have already know most of that, but I was bored, and its 4 am.

I have the DM-1 meter that Tom mentioned above, if its reading 002 that means 2 ppm. You should see the "ppm" in small letters to the right of the 2. When are you getting the reading? Sometimes my meter will read 1 when I first turn on my unit. I always flush the membrane for a few minutes before I collect any water. After a few mintues the meter then reads back down to zero. As far as set up, I went the facuet adapter route at first too. That was until the adapter got stuck on my faucet and I was trying so hard to get it off that I broke the entire faucet off the sink. When I went to buy the new faucet I also bought all the plumbing parts to hard plumb my unit under the sink. If you have flexible tubing under your sink its a pretty easy installation. About 10-15 bucks worth of parts, 20 minutes of your time and you will never have to use the faucet adapter ever again.

Nice Pics, Looks like that Dummies Book was put to good use.