Anemone

BTW, there can't be any real purpose for that design other than to force us to buy from the manufacturer, can there? Seems ridiculous.

Probably not yet. You'd have to press them in, I guess?

Same here, it's honestly intended as a question. I was always told that the dumbest questions are the ones you don't ask. Anyone who has managed to keep out all hair algae spores, please share. Thanks!

Not trying to thread jack but it seems like 3D printing might be handy for this sort of thing...

Not trying to be snarky, but are "spores" avoidable in practice? E.g. algae turf scrubbers will grow hair algae whether or not there are visible hair algae in the system (or at least that is what I've read).

Looks like overkill... z. (Pardon the pun.) Is this going on a wood floor? Are you putting anything between the floor and stand for protection?

Seems like one of the many questions in the hobby where opinions differ quite a bit, without much helpful experimental evidence. Does UV mess up skimming? We know (I think) that skimmate is largely bacteria, so would killing the bacteria in the water make the skimmer less effective?

I meant the white paint inside the stand, is that a waterproof sealant of some kind?

Looking good, too bad about the delay. What did you use to seal the inside of the stand? Just curious.

Looks excellent. Too bad this stuff isn't easier to find in the US. Of course, depending on one's philosophy this could be seen as a massive nitrate factory. Definitely more common to see these on the freshwater side of things.

Most likely you would use an air lift for water movement. The Swiss Topicals guy sells precut sizes for common tanks and an integrated model with the air lift tube pre mounted.

Probably the most common usage is bio filtration for fry tanks. Big surface area lets you have a low flow velocity but still move a lot of water. Plus the fry graze on the sponge surface. It's a unique idea, basically you use a big piece as a tank divider right at one end of the tank, with the pump behind it to move some water over to the fry side. Probably that wasn't very clear, try an image search for Hamburg Mattenfilter.

Nuts, apparently I just missed a chance to be in a group buy with PVAS or meet the owner of Swiss Topicals at their last meeting. Small world.

Hi, Does anyone know of a local source of reticulated polyether foam for aquarium filtration? Like the European Poret foam that Swiss Topicals sells. http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/swisstropicals-poret-foam/ Thanks! :-)

Anyone tried cutting the glass themselves? Long ago I was the idiot high school kid working at the Meijer store and would get called over to cut glass if nobody else was around. The scoring setup there was almost idiot proof, but it seems like nothing you couldn't manage with a decent straight edge and a steady hand. The handheld scoring wheels look to start from $10 on Amazon. Even if they don't cut it for us, the local HD should at least sell sheets of quarter inch glass. Might be easier, especially since I'll be there picking up PVC, coming back for forgotten fittings, coming back again because I bought the wrong fittings, and again because I broke a fitting, etc.

Fairfax Glass on Lee Highway, perhaps. Anyone have experience to share?

Hopefully I do not have to go that far! Looks like 45 minutes each way from Falls Church. Related, do you have the glass place smooth down the sharp edges, or do that yourselves? For a sump I was assuming DIY smoothing to save money.

Hi, Just curious if anyone has a recommendation where to buy cut glass for a sump? Preferably near Falls Church? Lowe's is a bit out of the way. We have Home Depot nearby but it's hard to find help there, especially on the weekends. I would assume this isn't something people would mail order yet? Thanks for looking.

It doesn't seem intuitive that pods could survive well but if they can make it through our high-powered pumps then something with lower flow rates and less head should be fine. Thanks all.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I wanted to let you all know that the PVC conduit installation is going to go forward. The lucky thing is that there is enough room to use a 3" or 4" pipe. As Origami mentioned, in a normal wall there just is not enough room for PVC that big, and as DaveS illustrated, smaller pipes might not hold as many tubes as you would hope for. But in this case we are going through the wall into unused space under the stairs and that gives enough room for the PVC fittings to make the first turn. From there it is possible to run to the utility room without drilling through any joists or supports. We figured out a way to get over the beams and past the HVAC without drilling through anything and without making a lot of turns. A little drywall work will be needed to box off some open space that is high up over the bottom of the basement stairs, but it is out of the way and should be unobtrusive. The basement end comes down into the utility room and will just be open in the rafters pointed straight down, so I can string the tubes along the ceiling to wherever they need to go (one in the utility sink, one in the saltwater mixing bucket, and one over to the RO/DI). Plus the output it is close to the floor drain so any leaks should be reasonably contained. To test for possible friction problems, I was able to grab some 3" PVC out of the plumber's bin and build a mock-up. There is one sharp 90 degree bend just where we break through the wall behind the tank, and another gentle turn done with two 45 degree elbows (about the same turn radius as the sweeping elbows). I borrowed the soft (nylon? polypropylene?) tube off my trusty Python water changer and was able to push it all the way through from the top end (even without running some string to pull it through with). In real use there would also be a string or wire used to pull the leading end of the tube cluster through, and a helper to push in from the top end and feed the tubing in through the sharp turn. So I think it should work out well. Because of the big diameter there is plenty of room for the tubes I was wanting to run (one for siphon, one for salt water full, and one for RO/DI top off water). There's probably going to be room for a couple more tubes as well (maybe CO2? suggestions welcome). The top end of the PVC is going to butt into the back of a 2-gang electrical panel, which we'll cut the back off of so that the tubes will just pull out into the sump. That way it is very easy to keep this covered and nice looking before the tank is installed, or if we ever move it or take it down. The access hole will be about 2 feet off the ground which I think is a reasonably accessible height with the refugium in there. To be under the stairs that is as high as we can connect it. I'm very excited about this and wanted to share with my fellow enthusiasts (my wife for some reason is not as excited, though she is glad to see fewer hoses and maybe have fewer spills).

Jon, good point about sharing lines. Could do siphon and fill with a single line! RO/DI should probably be separate but it can be much smaller diameter. I found some threads about keeping a remote sump in the basement or garage, which needs much higher flow. For water changes the flow rate could be pretty modest and still be a big convenience. Good thought about lubricants too. Thanks!

DaveS, thanks for the pictures. I see what you meant. I'll have to see what is the diameter of the PVC that will fit and make sure my tubing fits. I could get by with a 1 inch and a 3/4 inch for the saltwater fill and the siphon, and then the top off water tube will take whatever room is left.

Thanks DaveS. I couldn't get the first link to work, is there any way you can repost? I'm having a hard time figuring out the issue about in wall space without seeing it. You've got me worried though. Friction is definitely another worry. I'm waiting to hear how many turns there will be in the run. Based on the layout of the house I'm guessing we will have either 1 bend or 3 bends (not counting the start and end). It should be possible to use "sweeper" bends internally for gentler turns. Let's say it winds up being 3. The regular (polypropylene?) tubing is pretty tacky and might refuse to pull through. Is there perhaps a lower friction tubing option that might salvage the plan? How about spa flex, or PEX? Besides being less tacky, they have some stiffness that might let us push as well as pulling. Or if I wet down the polypropylene, might it slip through more easily? Keep the thoughts coming. I'd like this to work out but don't want to waste the effort and money on an unworkable idea.

Any other tips or pitfalls from anyone about running plumbing through the walls and down to the basement? Final plans will be set on Saturday morning. Should I run my CO2 from the basement as well? For a 25 foot run maybe special CO2 tubing would be needed. (I seem to remember reading that normal air line tubing is a little bit CO2 permeable).

Great info, thanks. Also less messy than shooting water around to bathroom while trying to figure out how to attach a circulation pump to PVC. Let me hold off on giving more details until I've got something closer to a complete thought.