AlanM

I know lots here have acrylic tanks. How hard are they to keep really clean? Seems like it would be difficult to really get up under the perimeter brace to clean the top seam. Also, seems like any little scratch would cause a line of uncleanable algae to form along that scratch. Do they have a limited lifespan because eventually they build up so many little flaws that they look junky? How high do most people run the water line? I would like to not put a hood over mine if I got one, so I'd like to keep it very clear and clean with a water line as close to the perimeter brace as possible and as close to a rimless glass look as possible but without the possible rimless annoyances of jumpers or snails or splashing or needing to put an window screen on the top of your new pretty rimless tank because of things getting out (or kids tossing Transformers or Stomp Rockets in). What I really want is rimless glass, but it just seems like it's possibly more trouble than it's worth, so I'm trying to see if a similar but different sets of trouble exists for acrylic.

Not quite a qt how to, but there are a few on the reef central fish disease forums. It's one is what I plan to use. Tank transfer method: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1996525&highlight=tank+transfer

I was one of the ones interested. Would have felt guilty taking such a nice aquarium from someone. Glad you're setting it up.

I thought tuning of the Bean overflow was not done with the return pump, but with the gate valve leading out of the main drain pipe which should be operating at a full siphon. I thought you turn the return pump on basically full blast, open the main overflow drain full with the valve, and start closing it until you get it closed just beyond what it could handle coming from the return pump alone and then your "margin of error" or variation or what you're actually tuning is the second drain pipe and a minute amount of water that should always be sheeting down the sides of that pipe without making a transition to "slug" flow which sounds like a toilet flushing over and over. Is your return pump too big for the size of your main drain? Or maybe the weir is too low in the tank and if you want the water level a bit higher Adam could fabricate a piece of acrylic across the edge inside the tank with some slots on the ends and some plastic screws to hold it on so that the level is adjustable and less coupled to flow out the overflow drains.

Rob, I see lots of people advising no crabs in a reef aquarium. Normally because they eat the shrimps and snails (and maybe small fish?) and they eventually start picking on that one coral you wish they didn't. Do you just like them and feel the good outweighs the bad or view their predation as a natural balance or just haven't had any of those problems? Also, Quantum Reefs has on their new stocklist a conch that they say is a cyano buster. Have you ever tried one of those? Marc, I think your reef looks great. The dunes are cool. The rocks look **** and span to me in those pics you posted. The back and overflows and powerheads are the grungy parts and you could clean those without taking out all your hard work and risking huge loss. 8)

Here's what Tom at glassreef.com did with his smooth overflow. Maybe you could get Adam to make an L shaped piece of acrylic to clamp onto the back of the eurobrace to hold some gutter guard like this. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17655111&postcount=557

You have a lid? Maybe on the floor behind the cabinet?

Is that a little white spot I see on it's fin? Hope it doesn't have ich. 8)

Bet that low ammonia reading you got is due to the dead fish, not the cause of the dead fish. Nitrates going up after dead fish and a small increase in ammonia also seems reasonable since you didn't do any water changes before you took the reading. Sorry so many died. Will be cool to have a big school of fish for the kids to watch, so I hope you sort out what happened and try again. Maybe put a webcam on it after your next introduction and take an overnight movie.

Sheesh, the sump pit is so close. If you're willing to put saltwater out in the yard you could easily hammer a drain into the middle of the room and lead it to the sump pit if the squeegee gets tiresome and you splash a lot. I was picturing it all the way across the basement like mine is for some reason. Of course, if the room doesn't slope down to the drain you just put into the middle, you're kind of back where you started of needing to squeegee it towards the drain, heh.

Here's a few suggestions from what I'd been planning to do. Install this on the walls adjacent to the finished part. It's what the glassreef.com guy put up: http://www.homedepot.com/Lumber-Composites-Paneling-Fiberglass-Reinforced-Plastic-Panels/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbqo3/R-100389836/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UJLckYZ1NCM Then do like others suggested here to caulk around the floor and stuff to prevent water getting in to the finished part and make a pan to catch it in event of spills. Then what if you elevated the aquarium sump about 2 feet off the ground instead of putting it on the floor and plumbed in some PVC drain pipe along the walls leading to drain into the sump at about knee height. You can have a P trap at the very end and water changes could come out of the sump and into that P trap (not a vapor trap, just a convenient way to turn the angle up to vertical). Or were you planning on using the sump just to catch emergencies? If that's the case, then I'd get a big shallow tub or two, maybe from the storage section of KMart or something, push them under the aquarium sump tank and put a couple of garden hose bulkheads in them and run a hose across the utility part of the basement and to the sump pit. Would get the water there and prevent a flood at least.

I'm about to get one and install it in my basement. I plumbed in a dedicated line off the PEX manifold for the RODI to use, but for the waste I was considering using it to fill the washing machine. Does anyone have any experience doing that to have kind of a float valve to shut off the waste water or something? Was thinking maybe I could pop the top of the washer and drill a hole in the tub and put in a little John Guest fitting so that if it overflowed it would overflow into the utility sink next to it. Or maybe it would be simpler to just put up a shelf with a waste water holding tank near the washer and have that overflow into the utility sink and just tap off that to fill the washer when we do a load.

The bust-up will be simple. It probably came with a chisel type head and a pointed head? The point worked fine when I was putting in two basement bathrooms (mine and my neighbor's), but you might as well try them both. Put on your eye and ear protection, keep your toes out of the way, set it on the concrete and pull the trigger. You don't even have to push. It will work it's way in. If you let it go too far in one spot you'll have a heck of a time pulling it back out because it will work it's way down into a hole. Hardest part will be schlepping away the broken stuff, but if you cut it into small enough pieces maybe you can use them as base to support your new pour if you want to buy less CR-6 aggregate. 8)

You probably don't really want to dump saltwater into your sump anyway. If you put in enough for the sump to kick on, then it will pump it into the yard. Do that too much and you'll kill your grass. A jackhammer and adding a floor drain to your house drain is a great idea, but not to the sump pump, especially if someone is offering to help you do it. You can rent a 35 pound electric Makita for $50 for 24 hours. You could open up the entire basement floor with that in 24 hours. It goes in like it's cutting butter, and it's fun to use. Then it's a matter of digging out the dirt under the slab along the path to the main drain pipe, cutting that cast iron pipe with a sawzall to put in a PVC Tee with some armored Fernco no-hub couplers, running a PVC line to where you want the drain, ending it in a trap, bury it all with the dirt you saved from the digging out, and cover it up with the cement you would have had to use to level the floor.

Check out this WAMAS member's tanks. DIY LED for years. He is selling SPS from his tank at this moment in Buy/Sell forum: http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/52680-sps-frags-fs/

What did you do around the overflow and locline area? You must have cut it out, but I don't really see where it would be cut. Kind of looks like the locline is actually on top of the screen from the pic.

Looks good. It's called a toggle bolt if it has two wings with a spring that spreads them open when you push it through the hole.

I'm a total newb, but thought I'd chime in. Do you really want to not like the look of your tank for a year just in the name of slightly faster growth in a tank you apparently are going to have to move in a few months anyway? Sounds like folks are saying that any of the options you're looking at will grow SPS just fine including the 20k bulb, and it sounds like long-term you want to use the 20k bulb, so if it were me I'd just start off with the 20k bulb or one of the inbetweens that people like. I'd knock the 10k one totally out of the running. You're not in a race with someone to grow brown corals or planning to make money selling them, so pick something that you'll like for the next year instead of something you won't. If my memory of previous reading of your threads is correct you're moving soon, and will end up somewhere else with a different layout for putting the ideal tank. You might even end up with a totally different tank to fit the perfect spot in your new place. Go with what you like now and what you can afford now while saving for a down payment and pray that the move goes well with the colorful SPS you've grown before the move under your 400W light. 8)

It's really nice. I think your point is, lots of red/green in this tank with no real red/green lights, which is demonstrated for sure. Are those anemones reaching for the powerhead in picture 2? Looks like they can almost reach it, heh.

Really pretty. Are the shadows in the pictures really that stark or is the camera doing that? Seems like the coral that was half in shadow would grow half as much, but yours look uniform.

Chip, looks like now you know who to talk to about that cup coral. Dave, We will definitely go every couple of months to check the place out. Does that huge octopus come out to the front of the glass much? We could just see a couple of big tentacles and a body moving around in the back. The seahorses were neat to spot too, hard to find in the tank, and the docent said that there were 15 more in quarantine waiting to go out, so that will be really cool too to see so many H. Reidi if you're putting the same ones in there to match the three in the tank now. Was cool to see some truly huge anemones as well. Changing signage seems like it would be a huge pain, but sometimes it's hard to tell what's natural and what's artificial in some of the tanks. Next to the planted tank there was a sign saying that it's all real plants (with what looks like a serious case of hair algae 8) ), maybe next to the WAMAS tank there could be one that says it's all real coral or something (if the plan is to do all real coral). Maybe the Ecotech guys would donate some of their fancy new Radions. Must be fun to be in charge of a place like that after being a hobbyist. You suddenly got way way more volume and some seriously cool tanks to play with. Best basement fish room ever. And now I know what to donate to on my CFC form this year.

Forgot that place. Wil give them a call. Will also try the other two mentioned.

My son broke my DIY co2 reactor for my freshwater planted tank. Tried gluing it, but I think I used too much PVC cement and now it's all gummy (it's a skinny piece of hard tubing glued into a hole drilled in a PVC end cap). Not sure it will hold pressure. Does anyone know a local fish store that would carry a decent diffuser I can drop in the tank until I redo the reactor? Maybe a store with planted tank section? My local couple of stores don't have much for planted tanks.

Hmm. Maybe we work at the same place.

Enter on 14th street, half block south of Pennsylvania. 3 blocks from 13th street exit from metro center. $8 admission I think. I'm a commerce employee, so got in free.