realypk

Yea a deep cycle marine battery would actually be better than a truck battery of similar size, the bigger the better though!

Gotcha, yea in your situation keeping air and water moving in your tank is your best bet... Getting a big UPS (which is really just a fancy small car battery and small inverter) and just hooking your main pump so you can keep water flow going would do wonders. That being said for the same amount of money as a fancy UPC you could buy a really big truck battery, battery charger and small inverter. This would likely net you longer run time than a UPC and be cheaper per run time hour. You could even charge the battery with your car in an emergency and lug it up, having one charging and one running for long extended periods.... That would be a lot of work though and I think a return pump alone would run for quite a while on a fully charged truck battery. For this it's all about run time so I'd limit how much I run off it to just the return pump and decrease the inverter to something more efficient just enough to cover the pump. I'm not sure if the 500w or 1000w version energizer inverter would work better.... depends how beefy your return pump is... amazon has great return policy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VD3CCTX Truck battery (higher CCA = better/more juice)

@achansek Happy to share my experience! If you have questions just ask! Let us know how it goes. Also I agree using schedule 80, just know those suckers are stronger than the glass so go easy and slow on tightening as you'll break the glass way before you ever break the bulkhead!

Power outages can kill fish pretty quick, corals can survive longer.... I saw news reporting on california power utilities cutting power for multiple days and my first thought was... wow what are the prepared reef tank hobbyists doing??? All it takes is one bad branch falling on a power line to cause thousands of livestock damage. I got one of the battery powered airpumps for my recent move (dual output cobalt unit) and it seemed to have trouble pushing bubbles to the bottom of a 15gallon rubbermaid tote. So I have doubt to their ability to help out an entire tank..... They were handy for the move but thats about it. I looked into all sorts of options, battery backups are a few hour extension at best, I looked at generators and the upkeep needed and huge cost made me scoff.... then i found a super cool thing called an inverter!!!!! It converts power from the alternator/battery of your vehicle to usable energy while it is idling!!!!! Most standard US cars will have more than enough go to power not only your aquarium but also your fridge as long as you have gas/diesel (depending on the flavor of your car) Make sure to get one that has plenty of wattage but also check and see how much the max your engine can handle is before investing. Your car is a great generator that is generally well maintained and ready to go in a pinch!!!! Just get long enough extension coords and test the solution before its needed to make sure it works as intended. Mine runs my whole setup + fridge + freezer fine, to include my aquarium chiller. My diesel SUV can power the most powerful type of inverter capable of pushing as much as most whole home generators with 0 added maintenance just a very heavy pricey brick that waits and is ready when needed. This is an example of one.... https://www.amazon.com/ENERGIZER-Inverter-Outlets-Automotive-Converts/dp/B07CGNTDNP But others cheaper chicom variants can be found. If you do use Amazon make sure to purchase through Amazon Smile and add WAMAS as the beneficiary !!! Also these are super awesome for camping/road trips! If you have a small 4 cylinder car that cant handle a lot (most can handle round 2k watts though, V6 3k watts easy usually) Then I would prioritize water flow, skimmer and heat/cooling in that order. Lights are one of the biggest draws and your tank/corals will survive a few days easy without it. Even just turning on lights for a few minutes if you have the overhead will keep the corals alive for extended periods and be better than nothing. But if your going weeks without power you've got bigger issues!

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1977616 This might do the trick

Definitely get a good bit, and a good drill. I used an 18v Ridgid drill with diamond coated glass bit I got from BRS. I never drilled glass before and drilled my 75gallon with 3 holes successfully. Definitely use highest speed setting, use plenty of water (it will make a sloppy mess) and once you start going do not apply pressure let the weight of the drill do all the work. 1 Hole used about 75% of my 4amp hour battery. It will make a squealing noise like no other and that's normal, earplugs are not a bad idea. Also I built a wall fort out of playdough to contain the water so it would never get dry. Dry = heat and heat = bad. I also used a drill guide to keep it in place that i got on BRS (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/glass-drill-bit-guide-thk.html). It worked quite well. I built the playdough fort around it, play dough is cheap and easy, 2 standard tubs is what you'll need. Keep that drill steady and level at least that's how I did it, if the drill pushes water away from hole stop for a moment to let water come back or fill in more water. DONT EVER LET IT GET DRY. a little chipping arround the edges is ok thats what the gasket is for. I put a level block on the back of the drill to ensure I was going level. It took a long time to make that hole and the glass thickness is impressive. Note on tightening the overflow connector/bulkheads. Dont overdo it, get it nice and tight but don't fully tighten get it hand tight then use your wrench to go 1/4 a turn. If you see some water seepage thats ok, do a tenth of a turn. Dry it a few times and if it continues do another tenth turn. Keep doing till seeping stops, dry multiple times and wait a bit because you may just be seeing old residual seepage. A super slow trickle is not the end of the world... the salt will in many cases dry and form a seal.... had this happen in a 10gallon i drilled and I could not stop the super slow drip.... eventually it stopped on its own. Tightening bulkheads is the most dangerous part of this whole process.

Thats not a bad idea, getting stainles steel large guage mesh to adhere to plastic corners is pretty simple. May even be able to get the corner pieces to snap together to give it an even more solid hold!

What do you mean by this statement " I need the worms for the bacteria so this is a crucial part of my system. " How do they add beneficial bacteria to your system that otherwise would not be introduced via frozen foods? What kind of worms are they? Worms are not exactly normal food for marine life... do they provide the proper levels of nutrients or do you augment with other food too? I'd be willing to give worms a shot. Just never heard of it and a bit confused.

Yea probably so, does anyone know what size of threading i would need to fit the venturi thing on front cause my other DC pump has a very different thread from my antman ac pump. I would need to fit the venturi thing in front?

Gotcha wife hates noise so would you say more noisy than the Ant-Man equivalent or about the same? Wife would not stand for noisier lol it's in the living room so she's around it. Had to eliminate my eheim for a DC return pump and go fanless on my lights cause of her lol. She tolerates the sound of the Ant-Man but it's her max before she gets annoyed. I'm with you I'd rather have a workhorse... But alas compromise.... If noisier what DC equivalent from jaebo would fit if any?

Nice those do look pretty beefy! Do they run pretty silent/vibration proof? How about that issues?

Hey guys, I'm running an SCA 302 and my Antman PH2000 skimmer pump chewed through it's rubber bushing ting and now spins but no longer makes bubbles. Essentially 1 year of service and it died. Is there a DC varient that would be similar sized and fit? I'm not looking to go super expensive even would be ok with a chicom DC pump. I'm just looking for less noise/vibration and heat generation as the Antman was noisy and hot. If a similar sized DC does not exist any recommendation for a better made AC version? Thanks guys!

If you type WAMAS it's #3 on the list via pc using chrome

One of my fungia survived my recent issue.. as long as the mouth accepts food your ok. Keep parameters stable and ensure the mouth manages to eat and no CUC members take food out of mouth as this can damage that critical part. Once you feed every 2-3 days you should see skin start taking over the skeleton again, if you have no more mouth hope is lost.... My fungia went to 1/5th of flesh left and has recovered to maybe 1/4th at this point. The good sign is if they get bubbly and extend, if its not extending its not doing well. If it dies keep skeleton in the tank as it may sprout zombie babies.

For the vid monster. The tentacles are very fine/delicate and I doesn't really move seems to be a cluster of it and it horde detritus and eats it... pods live near it and don't seem bothered. It only does its thing at night. Here is a better pic of the new size wise probably 1.25 inch. Is it undesired because itll take over the tank? And if so what's best way to remove it without harming the rather delicate cluster duster?

Update I've removed the slugs eggs, the peppermint shrimp seem to have eaten all the white things/stuff off the sponge so they are no longer a concern. Unfortunate news on the sponge slug... it's cool, does it ever eat anything other than sponge if it gets hungry? Any chance of it surviving in someone else's system who has no sponges? I could bring it to the meet today if anyone is interested. As far as the anemone it's been in the tank on the same rocks where 4 peppermint shrimp live, as with all new frags they quickly went there to check it out but left the nem allone. The pic kinda doesn't do it justice, it's got white horizontal bands and orange splotches mixed in with the browns and tentacles even get slightly bubbly almost like a bta but not quite.... What about the tentacle monster in the last video? It basically puts its orang/reddish tentacles out and reels detritus back to its lair... very odd.... it's also in a super still part of the tank flow wise.

Hey guys i got these on a recent shipment. Anyone know what they are? So first off is this red what looks to be a strange slug.... found it on a red sponge i got, also some other strange oddities attached to said sponge! Good bad indifferent? Should I kill em or keep em? I almost glued the slug to a frag cause thought it was broken piece of sponge lol!!! Red Sponge Slug (after some research self identified as Rostanga rubra looks identical, and seems that ribbon of eggs is it's eggs... seems to feed on sponge, now I have a hard decision to make let it kill my sponges and enjoy it as its such a cool critter or flush How quickly will one of these eat sponge? If I eliminate the eggs will it be able to make more? Could one feasably eat all my sponge or can sponge survive one?) : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ksAgA4jV0vTccxFAgMW014S3yIdtMjEw https://drive.google.com/open?id=1w4bhdKy-DXq4IKuZ2xabjMolMAobITqw Eggs? (Rostanga rubra egg ribbon) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_nx1ML4_JFeJv7TXQR75BBuhUB0Lu9Kc https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BrOo1h94BxXXxLPZl8ncwdwikmel8qCB https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LimhBHUpwr0P-WDZGtpzl--Ij3uL2H9O White thing on sponge https://drive.google.com/open?id=1spCd1CtZ_rTCRGu34zS_3SURB_mW61zk https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ndj5Kcxe31rwAzcfT4KKuDdi_5YnreVn This anemone came in on a piece of hard feather duster cluster! Is it a pest? looks kinda cool.... https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VxBkg-j-L1eFPVXnXXoTpONans_xU6lV https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wHIhZ-8B2YBK6TdzAkwCcbXlUfyxBMC9 Creepy tentacle monster living in a hole... (the green stuff seems to be cyano from the sump it grabbed and dragged in, it seems to grab detritus and pull it in, shrooms near it have died but that may be coincidence? My video skills kinda stink sorry!) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uSy10zwNm3mvqtYSIitzeWWPVb22jB2s As always your help in ID is appreciated!

Thank you for the advice in dips :-) Ive got quite a bit of various colors of corraline that is growing pretty well in the tank. One thing that i noticed helped was upping my alkalinity and PH slowly and feeding less. So far everything has gotten to be stable ie no regression, i think a bit of improvement on some fronts. Ive added more tank pics to the share folder, should be ordered oldest to latest. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1-EKlUYvzGSDLaFUojExixUjGGmwsNT_p

Did another round of tests today, so far 1 20% water change complete and have been feeding less by far. This is since my last reading I'm seeing my dendro slowly re-encrust its skeletons, my monti has not gotten worse and has gotten pinker in surviving areas. Akro has neither gotten worse nor gotten better. One of my fungia has gotten 20% worse but flesh loss seems to have stalled at that point

Fyi, on my next custom build im going SCA hands down. I got one of their skimmers and my gosh they have amazing customer service, they really go above and beyond and thats just on a skimmer i bet they stand behind their tanks even better. I asked what size drain hose the unit uses, they just sent me what i needed to my addy for free, ask them for reccomendations on a dc pump for my skimmer they hook me up with a darn good deal on one. And they always respond quickly. Id personally lean on the side of caution and go with embracing on a large tank. Top bracing allows in my opinion best of both worlds, can take glass top off when you wanna look and put it back on for piece of mind. My dream rimless I'd just lid it when I'm not home, and take it off in a nice lid storage enclosure when I'm in the room with it so if a jumper does its thing i can take care of it.

Do these exist for faucets or inline?

Seconded, I've chosen you guys for many of my purchases because of this allong with your rewards program, freebies and general awesome customer service!

Gotcha thanks ah always loves those series! So your rodi stores pretty much indefinitely? I guess i can try a small 300gph pump and see if it has enough power for my water change needs!

So I've started doing larger water changes and am finding it to be a serious pita to do so via 5 gallon home depot buckets.... Sooo I'm thinking of making myself a mixing setup. I was thinking 2x 55 gallon brute trashcans knowing that I wont likely need 55 gallons but its also nice in case i ever do and price/size difference is not that vast between those and the 44/34's. Also my phyto farm pod farm chews through water pretty good. Anyways: Question 1: Rubbermaide Brute 55gallon https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Products-Brute-55-Gal-Gray-Round-Vented-Trash-Can-with-Lid-2076193/306360661 good? Question 2: What about water storage... if I have 2 barrels, 1 for rodi and one for salt. Can I store unmixed RODI Just fine? My TDS is 0 and will be for a bit, would having a tds of 2 or 3 change that? How long this assuming kept in garage temps and lid closed. Question 3: What about keeping mixed salt water stored? How long if at all? Question 4: Whats the best way to mix saltwater in the 55g tub? A small pump? Or should I get a big pump with 2 way valve (mix/fill) and a super long tubing for easy filling of my tank? My tank is on second floor of house, garage 1st floor... what kind of pump rating would you suggest to handle that sort of back pressure?