AlanM

Dunno. I'm not the expert, but I'd say not really safe since its presence at all indicates one of a few choices. One would be that you're getting an errant reading on the test, one would be that there's something dead in there which keeps generating ammonia as it rots, one would be that the bacteria that is supposed to be processing it isn't doing it's job for whatever reason. If the ammonia is really sticking around with nothing in the tank it almost seems like it's not cycled.

I've read that Prime binds ammonia and will "detoxify" it, but it doesn't really remove it, so it will show up on a test. Seems like Stability should get rid of it, though, since it's bacteria, right?

I know you have a foam wall. What do you think my chances would be of making a nice slim one on the back of that skinny tank to stick some xenia, leather, torch, frogspawn, zoa/paly, with some rock on the bottom for shy guys and for some GSP to grow on? How do you keep the behind parts from turning into a nitrate factory? I saw in your thread that your bristleworms live back there, so maybe that's how. If I was keeping the tank for myself I'd foam the left wall and the back and drill the top of the left wall for an internal overflow box and then hide it in the foam and rock up along that wall. Would be hard to fit a sump/skimmer beneath a 12" tank, though, heh. I have my eye set on a Deep Blue Edge 75 for my living room, though. I think the colors on a royal gramma or a dottyback (purple/yellow) are more striking than even a Bartlett's Anthias, but one of those could be good too. I guess I was thinking I could only have maybe 2-3 fish total in that tank. It looks huge to me at 3foot by 2foot, but it's so skinny. You think a clown (maybe 2?), anthias, royal gramma, couple pajama cardinals, watchman goby, and firefish would do ok in there? Seems like a lotta fish. I'll look up the toby puffer. The kids would get a kick out of one of those. It's funny, I don't care about reef-safe, so that should open up lots of possibilities, but given the tank size most of the non-reef-safe ones are too big for the tank.

Right, so maybe nemo, yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp, royal gramma, pajama cardinal or sixline wrasse or firefish, cleaner shrimp, and a pile of crabs and snails, some Xenia, some frogspawn, some hammer, some zoas up top. Does that sound like a plan? Is it too much in the 45? What do you think of the foam wall with ledges or structures to make more sand available? Maybe with foam wall I'd put in some LEDs in the front of the hood tilted towards the wall to try to illuminate it enter and grow more stuff on it. Sorry, lots of questions.

Ah, makes sense. Thanks. Didn't look at max size on cowfish. The kids eat frozen fish sticks, I'm sure. Isn't that about the same thing?

Btw, Why do cowfish need such a big tank? Live aquaria says 125 gallon. Seems like they can hardly swim so wouldn't need much room.

Any neat fish you'd recommend in addition to clowns and goby given the size? Thought about checking into something weird like an angler or something. Apparently they don't require big tanks. Would have to be fed separate from an auto feeder which would do flakes and pellets, mostly. Any other non reef safe fish for small tanks that parents and kids would like?

Would also put in some koralia nanos for flow, btw.

Right, I probably wouldn't ever get a nem in there because of the size, lights, and skimmer, but maybe the kids and parents would think a nice big frogspawn was anemone enough and some clowns would be confused and live in it too. Probably no tangs or other nemo crew other than clowns and cleaner in the 45 gallon either.

I bought a pile of saltwater stuff from Davelin's friend (and former wamas member) Karl a few weeks ago. Among the stuff were some gems like an ATC refractometer, a lot of powerheads, maxi jet 1200, 600, small quiet one pump, aquac remora, a bucket of D&D H2Ocean Pro salt, a 45 gallon 36x12x24 tank, stand and hood with a 2x 96W power compact retrofitting it as well as some nice old rock and sand. I'd like to use the tank, skimmer, stand, lights as a tank for the daycare center that my kids attend and where I'm on the board. I would do bi weekly 5 gallon water changes. What can go in a tank that size with the listed skimmer and lights that the kids would enjoy watching? No hard corals, obviously. Maybe some Xenia and other softies? If I put the rocks in there's almost no beach with the 12 inch depth, so I am almost considering a foam wall to stick some ledges on for softies to leave some of the sand freer. Was thinking lots of crabs and snails, urchin, starfish, shrimp, couple clowns, maybe shrimp/goby pair, but I don't have salt experience. What do you think could be fun for the kids?

It's really close to the water line on the top. Wonder if a simple U shaped piece of stainless sheet would be enough to extend it a fraction and cover it. You could screw it in from the back. Or nail on a small piece of facing trim to the edge if its really close.

Thanks. I will have a reeflo blowhole 1450 as the return. Maybe in the basement if I work out issues with bean overflows and horizontal runs (which BeanAnimal disclaims as ruining the concept) I would run it full out and it should do fine with 15 horizontal feet and 10 vertical feet, but under the tank I will select a lower speed. If you're running the eheim and getting like 1k of flow through your 1 inch at 75 percent closed, though, I'll have to run mine at around 90 percent closed or put an orifice on the end that's easy to clean when it clogs or something if I use 1" pipe.

haha, yep, we were posting at the same time. That's where I got my number from. I'm interested in practical considerations to running a half inch drain. I know it will flow at the right rate.

I've seen that chart, but those rates are not vertical full siphon. That chart shows the minimum flow you can expect in that pipe size. Quote from the page: Also, they assume 6 ft/s full velocity. Acceleration of gravity says that things increase in speed 32 ft/s per second they spend falling. So in 3.5 feet of drop the water is moving way faster than 6 feet/sec. Full siphon can be calculated pretty easily and then subtractions are made for friction with the equations and convenient calculator on this page: http://www.beananimal.com/articles/hydraulics-for-the-aquarist.aspx So that's the theory on the page and where I got the 873gph for 44 inches of drop on a 1/2" PVC. I guess I know it can handle the flow I need, what I'm curious about is anyone's experience running a half inch drain to see if it's just too small to be practical on a day to day basis. Like it's the perfect size to trap a snail and overflow, or it's too skinny once you get a film of protein and gunk on the walls and the flow rate drops dramatically, or it's too flimsy to use and you'll crack a bulkhead by accident, or stuff like that.

I'm researching setting up a 75 gallon non reef ready tank and drilling the bottom for bulkheads (it's not tempered) and to install an internal acrylic overflow. I'd put 3 drains and two returns in there to do a bean type overflow. So five holes drilled in the bottom of the tank. On ridetheducati's current build thread there was a discussion about just how much flow a 1/2" schedule 40 PVC at full siphon can handle. Turns out it's a lot. I'd only want about 5x turnover because I'm putting in an Avast CS1 which I seem to remember that they say works well at about 350 gph, so that's 375 gph that I'm aiming for. I should have about 44 inches of drop to the water surface in the sump which BeanAnimal's calculator tells me should give me 873 gph minus friction and fitting losses. So it seems like 1/2" would work just fine, but the folks on RC seem to always want much larger pipes for their Bean overflows. I can't find exactly why that is in the 200 page thread. I could go with larger 1" pipe on the open channel and emergency because they're supposed to get film flow down the outsides of the pipes, which is hard to maintain with small pipes. Does that sound like a good plan? 1/2" for main siphon, 1" for emergency and open channel and maybe 3/4" for the returns or just split the difference and do 3/4" everywhere so I don't have to buy 3 drill bits. Or maybe it would be simpler to do all 1" bulkheads and use reducers to get 1/2" pipe for the main siphon and 3/4" for the returns so I'd only have to buy one bit and one bulkhead size?

Is it wise to get a rider or special endorsement on your house insurance policy before setting up a bit tank, or is it typically covered by insurance already? I remember I had to get one for a waterbed when I was renting a long time ago.

Well, that's genius. Sheesh. You've already heated it up going into the RO/DI, so it would have not lost that much heat by the time it makes it to the bucket. Would a copper immersion chiller from my brewing days work? Seems like most would avoid doing copper pipe in the bucket, but it's not like all the cold water hasn't been moving through copper pipe to get to the RO/DI in the first place. Would transfer way more heat with way less pipe than a spool of 1/4" plastic.

Could use an in-line Hydor heater too, I guess. http://www.amazon.com/Hydor-In-Line-Heater-300W-16mm/dp/B0002Z7VQE Would save me from keeping a bucket of water to get yucky and keeping a buncha hose in it.

Woke up and ordered cs1 with pump, swabbie, locker, MR5, and ATO deluxe. Various discounts really added up

Nice. Bought one of everything. I should just put an avast sticker on the tank I'm setting up.

Seems totally ideal to me. Screw it into the shower head and you even have temperature control of the input water so it will work faster I the winter. Maybe I should run a hot over to where I'm putting mine and install a mixing valve. Hmm

BRS 2part dosers are on a black Friday sale at the moment. Much cheaper than normal. But they only have 2 rollers. Seems like if the rollers stopped in a horizontal position they would let the liquid siphon past like what was being discussed in a recent thread. Does anyone use the BRS ones and do they leak?

Right. Sounds like a win. And it doesn't waste the salad vinegar.

Thanks for straightening out my math! Missed that square root in there and got some of the densities a bit wrong. If it's 25x stronger at a 1:100 dilution in terms of acidity is it also 25x stronger at dissolving the reef tank calcium precipitates and coralline algae (and live rock surfaces) we're interested in dissolving?

Yep, that and don't breathe the vapors. I had heard to dilute muriatic acid 1:10 for cleaning live rock at which concentration it will fizz like crazy for a while as it dissolves calcium off the outer parts of the rock, but thought it was maybe different for doing a tank and equipment.