hypertech

A circuit can generally handle 15A, which at 120V is 1800W. Now, you don't really want to run it near capacity and that is everything on the circuit, not just your tank. You'll need to figure out what else is on the circuit. You'll have a hard time using that much power on a small tank keeping in mind that everything likely isn't running at once (for example, my heater never runs when the lights are on). The other reason to run special wiring is on a large tank to have separate circuits to split the load. This way, if one goes for some reason, the whole tank doesn't shut down.

It will be mailed to you in a week or two.

The idea isn't that you overload it, but say a heater flakes out and shorts and trips the breaker.

As long as you are building, you might want to put the system on two circuits. That way if one blows for some reason, the whole system doesn't go down. For example, put the return on one circuit and the powerheads on the other.

The only way lighting for a 20g double your power bill is if you didn't have house lighting before. More likely is that it is your ac starting up causing the price difference. Running the lights you have can't cost more than a couple bucks a month. Plus, at the rate you've been running through equipment, you'll never see those long term savings from bulb changes because you'll be on to something else. And that's assuming your led fixture lasts. Most do not seem to be lasting near as long as they claim. Just run what you have on that tank. If and when you do a different tank and have a good reason to be looking at a new lighting system, see what's available then.

You need the edge to be perfectly smooth to make a good bond between the pieces. I thought it had to be routed, but I've not done it myself. I could be wrong. Naga built my top off container.

I'm not exactly sure where that is. I'm in Alexandria and have a table saw with an 80 tooth blade I have used for acrylic in the past. I do need to get it out again for a project of my own. For a water tight container, I think you need to route the edges before assembling. That I can't help you with.

It could make a mess out of your acrylic if it has a rough blade on it. Where are you and how much cutting are you talking about?

You can get adhesive compound to use instead of the epoxy. The trick there is pretty much all of it is conductive so you have to e real careful with it and make sure you are using an LED where the backplate is not connected to one of the terminals. Drilling and screwing with something like Ceramique thermal compound is going to be the neatest solution. I don't know if I would do it for a fish tank, but I've been known to use a thermal compound and then just a drop of regular epoxy over the edge to hold it down.

If by join you mean made an account, you need to join as a member and pay the membership fee to get full access. If you did the latter, give them a day or two to get everything sorted with your account. I don't know if changing your account to a member account is automatic or if someone has to do it manually.

No it really isn't. You put the valve on the drain. Thats the only way to setup the constant siphon unless you have very small plumbing and a very large return pump. Then you have the backup drain in case something gets in it, etc. Research the herbie system. There are many thousands of people running silent tanks this way.

Good luck, and I really mean that. They are great fish. I had one that ate great right from the beginning. Seemed to be fat, active, and as far as I could tell as healthy as could be. But then, one day around 4 or 6 months or so - dead, stuck to the powerhead. I had watched it swim around and eat the night before looking as good as could be. Then - bam - dead.

That's why the herbie system has the extra emergency drain.

If it's easy to do remove them. If not, they'll be fine.

The molts can be very convincing. Unless you cracked it open and saw meat, I wouldn't count him out just yet.

I've never seen them there. Remember you want the ones with all plastic parts - no brass valves. Some fish stores carry them. I get mine from BRS. I don't know what size you are looking for, but I have a spare 1" one that I need to sell eventually - for cheap. I cut it out thinking it was the problem in my setup and replaced it, but that wasn't it. So there is nothing wrong with it and I wasted my money replacing it.

You don't need any of that stuff on the top of the emergency drain. And, use a gate valve not a ball valve. But otherwise, yep, that's it. In the sump, I cut the emergency drain short so it makes all kinds of noise if there is water in the pipe. That way I know somethings up and I need to check it out or adjust something.

With one overflow, the 1262 might be too much. The drain will handle it, but the water might shoot through the teeth in the overflow so fast it makes noise there. A 1260 may end up being a better fit. Whatever you do, don't use ball valves. Use a gate valve. Also, look into the herbie system. Use one drain with a gate valve and one emergency drain. Run the return over the top. A durso can be quiet. But, a herbie is virtually guaranteed to be quiet.

Here's one thread that showed up on a quick search and has pics. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t97974.html

You can build a 70W MH out of a cheap shop light, a cheap bulb and a cheap ballast from ballastwise. I've seen it done for less than $40. Works fine if all you have is a small tank and you need it to work and not be pretty.

nooooooooooo! Don't do that. Humidity in the air, differences in lots, all sorts of things can mess with your salt mix. Refractometers need to be calibrated, but once they are set, they pretty much stay set. Just get the solution. I think it costs all of $1.

It can be several points off if you calibrate it to 0 with RODI. Don't do that. Get the solution.

I went to Bud's bar supply. They filled while I was waiting.

Why not just use the 0-10V output? It would be a lot easier. You could also essentially send different commands to your LED using different voltage levels, etc.

I've got one about month old now and it does similar things. It eats fine and swims around, but if you do something traumatic, like use the magnet cleaner, it suddenly becomes a leopard print fox face and jams its nose in a hole. Never mind the rest of it is sticking out, its nose is apparently safe. It is slowly getting accustomed to aquarium life and comes out with the other fish to great me at the corner of the tank when it is feeding time now. Give it some time.