Steve175

http://reeflopumps.com/ Go with a Reeflo. I use 7. See their site for flow v. Head charts. Above blowhole might be perfect for what you need. I have always used a dart on my sw mixing 150 and a 2nd dart on my 150 FW. Super reliable. The SW dart runs 24/7

As Alan said, get the appropriate-sized diamond drill bit and either do it (is not that hard/run water from a hose while drilling/avoid having the cutout fall and crack the opposite wall) or bring to to the fragfest: might be a nice tutorial as Alan mentioned in a separate thread. I have drilled 15-20 glass BH over the years without issue, although the first one results in a genuine pucker-factor :-). I actually have a few slabs of glass that I can bring to the fragfest for you to practice on [glass top to my frag tank which I do not use]/PM me if you want it.

DC Pumps are expensive (and therefore make the skimmer expensive) but are super, super reliable. Way less malfunction and way less maintenance. Much less prone to stalling IMO. Plus the ability to regulate the output gives another variable in really fine-tuning the skimmer and finding the sweet spot. Also an advantage, when the skimmer is overflowing (reliably whenever I use epoxy), I can crank down the rate for a bit [without otherwise changing any of the otherwise perfect tuning) to avoid it overflowing crap back into the tank and then return it back to the original flow when the epoxy-effect is settled. I, too, thought DC pumps were a waste for skimmers. . . and then I owned one. I will never go back. I "downgraded" from a Deltec AP 1004. My BK 300 deluxe outperforms the Deltec x 4 at < 1/4 the energy consumptions, < 1.5 the down time, and < 1/6 the maintenance. My $0.02..

You have zero chance against that grand daughter: she is too cute/you are toast, my friend :-) And looking at that picture, $50 for 200G of fake salt water is pretty darn cheap lol

FYI: Someone listed a used BK250 deluxe [their top-of-the-line] in the For Sale section. Perfectly sized for a 250 plus sump IMO.

See the skimmer thread above and then use a sandbed.

I have to feed extra to keep up with my BK. It is 200x more reliable than the Deltec (that cost $1500 more) that it replaced.

If you are actively setting it up, consider converting to a sump. Then nothing will be in the tank. The advantage of several small heaters vs. 1-2 large heaters is that if one gets stuck on, the former will not nuke the tank.

I doubt that you will keep the room that the tank is in this warm during mid-winter. You will almost certainly need a heater then. Until then, a heater (which kicks on rarely) will keep your temperature flux tighter. $0.02.). If you have a return pump then you have a sump in which to hide it, I would think. Can't see a reason not to add one.

LMAO. The footer reminds me to check my apex more than once a month lol.

Nice! Water all the way to the top! Baby steps :-) As always, happy fish and healthy corals are a testament to the core health of this tank as it approaches its Golden anniversary. . . gotta go and use my red then green then blue laser beam to triple check my temp and salinity. . . :-)

Keep reading here and on reefcentral or maybe hire someone for a bit. Typical water changes are weekly: remove 10% then add 10% of total volume (so you will need 20-30G mixing tank/container if your overall system is in the 200-300G range). It is OK to pull it from the sump, but many use the opportunity to siphon dead crap from the sand and corners of their tank]. Mine are 150G per week, so I have a pipe plumbed directly to the sewer. There are many ways to do a water change: regardless, you remove waste and replace necessary components (calcium carbonate, magnesium, etc.) Make sure that new water is filtered (google RODI) and matched for both salinity and temp (you will need a heater in your mixing tank) and ideally the salt should be added more that 24h prior (with some sort of pump mixing it in - with a bit of effort, the mixing pump can also be plumbed to then pump the volume into your sump). Whoever prepared that list/QT'd with copper seems to know what they are doing and probably owes you some instruction as part of the deal. But specific questions here will be answered ["such as how much water changes and from where do I remove it"]

I have one as well. Use it only once a month if the club's is tied up.

I met the (somewhat sheepish looking) UPS driver on my driveway, opened one of the 2 boxes and the first bag was purpotedly 20 mexican turbos. Thankfully it was labeled as the dark brown opaque fluid would have allowed no such direct ID. Imagine, if you will, an entire army wiped out completely from dysentery rotting in the open field with festering, unwiped butts: it smelled exactly like that. . . through the bag. . . They were toast. All of them. I checked. Despite the festering butts. . . Also lost an urchin and 2 stars. 84h was too long for all but 1 of the inverts (a 2nd urchin). Similarly, the 4 fish were very stressed with NH3 above 10 [i never hope to see that color again] and pH 7.6-7.7. Thankfully S.G. my of QT was almost exact at 1.025 and pH was 7.9 in absence of kalk stirrer. The powder blue was swimming upside down in the bag and the magnificant rabbitfish was dazed and confused and I am pretty sure was trying to do that new floss dance. Thankfully, after a float for T equilization and a careful scoop (avoiding adding any of the stanky, stanky water) all 4 reverted upright, stopped seizing, hid for a while and are now eating. Actually the black and purple tanks actually seemed quite underwhelmed by it all and wanted to know the lunch menu. Overall it could have been a lot worse. Regardless, a lesson leanred the hard way. And I am pretty sure I need to add $1K of therapy for my 8yo (introduced at an early age to the smell of dysentery) to my LA bill.

Showing my East Coast ignorance (CA boy): Springfield in what state? Turns out there is one in Md, Va, and WV according to Siri lol. There is a lot of knowledge here: pictures and more specific questions would be helpful.