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Yeah it's nice to finally see the rock. Doug not a problem let my know when you have time. Chris

Tank update, The hair is almost gone. I added my Chaeto tumbler and a Bulk Reef Reator with GFO. The cleanup crew has done a great job. The back wall took a hit but it still looks great.

I had issues with phos and no3 for a couple of weeks from the nasties left inside the rock. but it worked fine.

My thought on this is to match my return with my skimmer. I have a Mag 9.5 feeding the skimmer so I keep my return at about 1000 Gph. This way must of the water returning from the tank goes through the skimmer before it gets to the sump. I use powerheads and closed loop to create the 10X flow in the tanks.

Same here mine are under water and there has never been an issue. You're ok as long as you have enough room in the sump to hold the water that drains from the tank after power goes out. This includes the water from the return before it breaks the syphon. Chris

LOL!! Dizzy pods are easier for the fish to catch. The Chaeto is now golf ball sized I want to see how long it takes to get soccer ball sized. Chris

It was my understanding that tumbling chaeto grows more dense and is more productive since all sides are getting light. I had chaeto in my old fuge and the bottom would always yellow and capture vast amounts of junk from the water. Tumbling solves both these issues. I was planing to try and keep a softball size tumbling all the time. I used the Mag 5 because it's the one I had laying around and the return from the tanks go to the skimmer 1st. Chris

The CF Light gives off very little heat. The reflector is cold where it meets the bucket. the light is also clamped to a safety rope so if it falls off it will not fall into the sump. Chris

I just took a salt bucket and hooked it to a Mag 5. I used a 3/4 inch line from the Mag 5 pointed down in the bucket, then 2 x 3/4 outlets back to the sump. Throw a drop light on top with a 15W florescent light and you done. My ball of Chaeto is just spinning away inside the bucket. I will let you know how it grows. My little ball of chaeto spinning around. Chris

Well I found out that you get a false positive with pure RO/DI water. I tested my salt water container and it tested 0. Off to look for other problems. Can a sea hare nuke the system? Chris

Maxcap is brand new less then 300 gallons through it. I am currently running 2 phosban reactors with phosar on the main setup but man I have a problem even before the water enters the system... Can I run GFO on my makup water.. uuuggg Chris

Well go figure.. I purchased my Phos kit today and my makeup water has a reading of .5. This would explain why I have and had an algae problem. Here is my problem I had phos comming out of my old RO system so I purchased a Spectrapure Maxcap DI. TDS is 154 going into the 1st stage and 0 out of the 1st stage. SO as expected 0 out of the final stage. So it looks like the phos is still getting through. Any thoughts on how to stop this? Chris

AAAHhhh I see I have some of that on my older rock. My critters seem to be eating it slowly and I hope to have my Cheato roller up sometime next week. Chris

Hair Algae is expected in a new tank. DO you have a Fuge or some other way to export the nutrients? The key is to have something else Cheato Macro algae in a fuge or phos reator to out compete the hair algae. Chris

I have the same situation here. I made sure all the plumbing was assessable from underneath the stand and wires I had to run could be dropped from the top and snagged from under the tank. I will be sorry if a bulkhead starts to leak. It does make it harder to do some things like place powerheads but I have no other choice. Chris

Looks Good... What kind of LEDs did you use and how did you hook them up?

Believe me is I could catch him he would be there. I see some rock on the other tank so the dark and cleaners are starting to do their job. Chris

Yeah go figure the Hippo is in the other tank... And no algae in that one.. Since I grow algae so well I decided to add some more. Here are da pics. Chris

I moved a 75 setup from Germantown to Lovettsville, about 40 miles. I put all the water, rock, fish, and coral were moved in brute trashcans with battery powered airstones. I then tries to keep the sandbed as intact as possible, but we did scoop some into buckets. Once the system was setup at the new location I kept the fish and corals on trachcans until the water cleared up in the display. Looks like I am close by if you need help let me know. Chris

The tank with the problem has 2 saddleback clowns, a bicolor angel and a cardinal. I only feed home made food of nori, ground up silversides, shrimp and mysis.. Chris

I have no glass in between. The lights are mounted 8 inches above the waterline with individual reflectors. I use the Icecap waterproof end caps and have 2 fans installed. Fan 1 pushes air in and fan 2 pulls it out. As for salt creep I keeps a low flow from the sump to the main tanks so there is no splashing of water. on my previous setup the VHO's were installed 4 inches off the water and I never had a problem with salt creep or water. If you go with Icecap the problem will be heat in a closed canopy. Plan on fans to cool the lights. Here's the best pic I have of the tank that shows the end caps. This was during my build.

Do we need seed algae or will the turf algae will just grow? Chris

The 75 is 18 inches deep and the T5's are mounted 7 inches above the waterline. They are driven by Icecap 660's with Icecap reflectors which gives me 400W of light. I can say the tank had 2 175W MH with 220w VHO and it didn't look as bright as it does now. My setup All Geismann 2 Actinic Blue 2 Actinic Blue + 1 Midday Chris

Any Ideas where to get a turf screen.. I was looking to build one myself. Chris

Has anyone used the reactor that Bulk Reef Supply has. It looks like am RO filter unit but is setup to take GFO and Carbon. I was thinking about replacing my Phosban 150's with this one. Chris