ScooterTDI

If your reject water is 40 ppm, you'll probably be just fine with discus and rams. You shouldn't need Prime for a dechlorinator since the RO prefilters remove chlorine/chloramine. It's possible for ammonia to be produced as a breakdown product of chloramine, but I didn't use Prime when raising GBR fry and I was doing 50% water changes twice a day so they were exposed to lots of untreated RO waste.

I've used reject water with 200+ ppm TDS to raise a couple hundred German blue rams (which generally prefer soft water). I think you will be fine using it in a freshwater aquarium unless you are keeping maybe discus or caridina shrimp.

I am using a Current Orbit IC. I really just wanted a fixture with minimal light spill because I usually sit on the couch right behind the tank. For such a shallow tank, I think it will be more than powerful enough. The Loop controller is pretty nice. Not as much programming flexibility as a Radion or AI fixture, but you can have sunset/sunrise/daytime/moonlight intervals with adjustable durations and color balances and it does integrate with pumps.

Well, the Icecap k2-50 that has been back-ordered since Black Friday was supposed to be shipped out in January. I reached out to the retailer to get a more precise shipping date and they then told me it wouldn't ship until 2/14 at the earliest now. I just cancelled my order and bought it through Amazon (fulfilled by champion lighting) and had it on my doorstep 1 day later. It hasn't really pulled much, but all I have is a CUC right now. My biggest complaints with it are that 1) the gate valve port isn't glued to the body so it tends to want to pull out of the body when you adjust it, and 2) it was missing a screw to attach the silencer to the lid. I toyed around with the overflow some more and solved most of my noise problems by removing the loose acrylic "guide" held on by zipties, leaving the white sloping weir, and putting a taller open drain in the external box. I didn't like having the acrylic piece in the overflow because I worried about it blocking the drain if it ever came loose somehow. I can hear a very quiet trickle now, but it isn't obnoxious and kind of masks the hum from the return and skimmer pumps anyway. I also started to encounter problems with moisture in the cabinet. I knew it would be humid in there, but didn't realize how much condensation would form. I added a small 80 mm muffin fan to blow dry air into the cabinet and it seems to have solved the problem. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to clean up the tons of wire bundles that are basically just hanging around behind the powerstrip now? Space is pretty tight in there.

Do you still have any live rock? I only need 20 lbs or so.

Well, the Quiet One 1200 wasn't any quieter than the MJ1200. I'll just have to settle with that for now. I quieted down the overflow by installing a wide weir with a curved edge to raise the water level in the tank while creating a more laminar flow into the internal overflow box. I then took a small strip of acrylic and attached it loosely to the inside of the overflow so that it rested on the curved edge of the weir. Water exits between the acrylic strip and the weir in a smooth film that is silent. I didn't take pictures before installing but this is what it looks like (looking down into the internal overflow box): The white piece is the 3/4" wide weir made from PVC board and the acrylic sits loosely on top of it. I also found the perfect ATO reservoir for my space: Finally, the initial scape. A big Thanks goes out to Minamiee for the rock!

So, apparently the Marineland MJ1200 (that I am using as a return) is significantly louder than the MJ1200 made by other manufacturers when under any sort of back-pressure. I figured they would all be about the same. I'll swap it out with a quiet one 1200 tonight and hopefully it will be quieter. According to BRS: "This pump is not intended for use with a reactor or other back pressure situations as it will be significantly louder than in other operations. For reactors or other situations, BRS recommends the Cobalt Aquatics MJ1200."

What is your water level from the top rim? I assumed that I wouldn't push enough flow through the overflow to keep the water level high enough. On a tank that is only 9" high, water being 1" from the top looks kind of low. I think I need to drop it about a 1/4".

Yea, I have the gate valve on the full siphon drain and the herbie itself is dead silent. The noise is coming from the water splashing into the inner black box. I had added a piece of acrylic inside the inner black box to partially block the slotted teeth in order to raise the water level. I think I can rig something up with a second piece of acrylic to guide the water down and reduce the splashing. As a test, I draped a piece of Saran wrap over the inside of the black box and it quieter significantly.

Thanks! I looked through your build and it is pretty similar to what I had in mind for my tank. I just filled it up and it's a little noisier than I had hoped. First, the return pump (mj1200) is emitting a hum that is pretty audible even though the cabinet. It doesn't seem to be vibrating against anything, but it is suction cup mounted to the side. What return pump did you end up using? I am also using the eshopps small overflow. I have it set up as a Herbie, but the water overflowing into the inner black box is still pretty noisy. Any ideas how to raise the water level in the box to reduce the splashing sound?

I'm in the process of converting my TruAqua 12g long from a freshwater planted tank to a reef. The planted tank was a nice change of pace after maintaining a reef for many years, but reefs keep luring me back. After raising a couple hundred German blue rams and finally selling them off (most were actually donated), I decided to put the proceeds toward the conversion. Hopefully, I'll have enough water made by tonight to get it wet. I'm still waiting on the Icecap k2-50 which I ordered on Black Friday but I'm not totally sure that I'll be able to fit it in the cabinet.. Tank: TruAqua 12 gallon long Stand: Petco metal stand with custom top/cabinet Light: Current IC Orbit 36" Return pump: MJ1200 (or maybe quiet one 1200) Flow: Current eflux 660gph (another maybe added later) Skimmer: Icecap k2-50 (backordered) Ato: Icecap ATO Freshwater setup: Custom distressed oak top I made from some reclaimed wood: Cabinet before finishing: Cabinet after finishing: Tank & stand with cabinet: Inside cabinet (still some cleaning up to do) :