Aquariareview

I think I have my wife talked into letting me put this in our den. If I just keep the girls in it I think I can make it a fresh water tank and save a ton on the salt costs. Does anyone have a good link to order the "fresh water girls" shown in the pictures. My past experience shows that keeping girls has a higher maintaince cost the reef tank at seaworld.

Her is a link to an item on ebay that you should check out. 900 gal = $50,000

there are rotary timers that have small (15min) triggers that you pull out to set the time you want the power to be on. These timers are rated at 1200 watts. I am setting up a closed loop with two large pumps on two of these timers. After aiming the returns in opposit directions I set timer 1 for 1:00-1:15 then timer 2 for 1:15-1:30 and then repeating this cycle for the entire day I get a shifting current that keeps trash from becoming trapped, and keeps the system clean. I have done this before with 3 powerheads on each timer and it worked well. it seems to work better than the 15-30 second cycles that the wavemakers have.

What all the hassle about salt. I thought I was suppose to use mortons

Here is a site that's worth seeing 500 gallon german site If you need help with the German, just use Alta Vista's translator

You can get all of the connectors and boxes at Branch Electric (now called Rexell Electric and Datacon). They have several stores around the area. They have a large catalog (over 1000 pages) and if they don't have what you need in stock, they can get it overnight. A hint,,, fish places sell electric parts for about 3 times the price as going to a store like Branch.

I am doing it again. I have built more than a dozen plywood tanks in my life and I have decided that I want to build a new 350+ gallon show tank for my den. I want any advice from people who have made these types of tanks. Did you come up with a cool idea that you have not seen published anywhere. My plan is to build an 8 ft long 38 inch deep tank with a lot of room front to back. I intend to run all of the plumbing thru the ends and bottom so as to set it directly against the wall (1in or so). I want to add a closed loop so there no visible power heads in the system. I am building a sump/refuge from an old 180 gal that I own. It will have an 8in deep 8in wide tray that will be inside of the tank and will run the length (6ft) of the tank. It will be 9in off of the bottom and against the back of the tank. This will allow for the water to run thru a long path of mud and macro (lit with PCs running 24/7) before it drains into the bottom of the sump. In the bottom the water will go thru first a large 3ft section of mud (with top off and dosing coming in here) then a clean section with the skimmer and heaters and return pump. I am building a hood with MH lighting (is there really any other kind) and in the front, above the hinge that you open, I want to try to build an insulated area with a 2nd fuge of some kind. I have a 2nd fuge now above the tank and it really helps the systems zooplankton levels (see my 2nd refuge in the gallery) I may just build a place to hold a small tank or if I can figure out how to insulate it I might try to build an acrylic tank that is 6in high 6in deep and 6ft long and mount in right into the hood. This would have an 11gal volume and would be about 90lbs or so. I think I could design the support for it because of the distribution of the load over a 6 ft span. It would be driven with a power head so water would flow thru it end to end. By loading it with small macro and 1/2 in of mud, some feather dusters and a few shrimp and pods it would add a lot of life to the system. When complete the wood exterior will be finished like furniture and there will be a 7ft 6in X 30 in glass window in the front Ok that is the basic design I am still finishing the design plans and I will post them here as soon as they are done. Now why would I waste you time reading through all of this? I want input... I have done several large projects systems but I have never had a group of people (who had skill and experience that I respect) who could give me advice and ideas. I will keep this thread alive until I am done with this then I intend to turn this into a major DIY article on my site. So please check in with ideas and criticism, post links and suppliers. I need to find good sources for the front glass. Post ideas, sources, comments and naked pictures of you cat...I need input.. I look forward to you help

MORE PICs I need to start sleeping more

I have used both the frozen and the flake ,,,been using this stuff for a while,,, real good. Nathan

Iam in With my wife and I will bring you somthing for your tank.

One more pic This is my 2nd refugium. It is a 6 gal eclipse tank with 2 bulkheads in the back top corners. I removed the filter system and installed a small PC light. I have placed it on top of the hood, above the tank. It has 1 inch bed of Kent Bio-Sediment, 4 kinds of Macro, 2 Feather Dusters, A few shrimp and a lot of pods and little Stars I drive water to it with a small powerhead and a bulkhead overflow lets it flow back to the tank. This system has been in place for 4 months but I just added a bunch of different Macros that I got from Michael at the last Tape Viewing.

Thank you for the heads up on this Jamie..I wear surgical gloves when I frag to protect the coral from infection but I think It would be a good thing to recomend for all coral handling.

Thank you for the heads up on this Jamie..I wear surgical gloves when I frag to protect the coral from infection but I think It would be a good thing to recomend for all coral handling.

I was up late, New Batteries in the camara, You know how it is... One thing leads to another...Here is a few of the shots I took.

Here Is a Thread worth following in reef central. This guy is beta testing a new bulb that puts out MH kind of power without the heat or power use.. reef central new lighting

I have a 7 in (southdown) deep sand bed in the tank. 3 in deep mud in a 30 long refuge, and 2 in deep mud in a 6 gal above tank refuge. Both of the refuge tanks have wall to wall macro. The sand bed is full of worms and the refuge tanks are full of small sand critters. I have never noticed any clumping. I mix at a lower level of lime in all of my make up water. morning and eve. By adding at a higher dilution level and adding twice a day. there is less ph shock. also due to the large quanity of Macro, Co2 has been stripped from the system so I get very little precipitation.

Simple and low cost 4 hooks in the top corners of the hood 4 short chains attached to a board that hangs inside all lights are mounted on the board you raise and lower the board by moving the links on the hooks,, nothing complicated but it will last for years. M's idea for a stop is a good one (will be part of my next hood)

It works well... I have been doing it for 10 years.

There are new Leds that produce a wider range of spectrum including UV, The cost is higher and there is still some tuning that you must do with electronics.

I have had these crabs and some will eat the bubble algae and some won't. the smaller they are the more likely they are to eat it. As they grow they will eat all kinds of stuff I have had some even eat inverts when they get big. The good news is they grow slow and when they get large you can put them in a fish only system.

prevyet In answer to your statment You are right the spread is narrow, however the array you can build overcomes that issue. The intensity of these devices is getting stronger every day ( they already make a street light bulb that will replace a 1000 watt MH). Full spectrum is also getting there. One time cost will be high, however your need for a chiller will be gone and the saving in power bills will be huge. I dont know what they will cost retail. The building cost right now is large as the cost of the LED devices is around is around $3.50 per. A 125 Gal tank would requier at least 300 of them plus the cost of the electronics that would control them. Part cost will come down over the next 6 - 12 months. The aquarium supply companies will attempt to rape the tank owners like they do with everything (Pickleing Lime costs $1.50 a pound until Kent puts it in a 6oz jar and marks it up to $8). This item is going to be a DIYer's dream. It is so easy to build that anyone can do it. The parts will be easy to get. Stay tuned I want to make this so easy and so all over tha net that the lighting companies have to think about how they price the product. (you can't sell a clothesline for $50 whan rope costs a $1)

I agree The Reef Tank will order what you want what , be there for the delivery, put in a tank to get over the shock of shipping and hold it for a day or two until you can pick it up. I have found that if you take into account the cost of shipping and the cost of DOA shippments buying from the Good LFS is a bargain. If I add up all of the dead fish I have seen from Mail order I could supply a Long John Silvers with filets for the weekend. Also on the positive side you help support a local biz that is good for the hobby.

Has anyone heard about the new research being done in LED lighting. I know that Champion Lighting is working on it check this link Also I heard that AB aqualine is also working on it. My sources are saying late this year or early 2004. This is what Champion is saying: LED technology is expanding, brighter LEDs are currently being developed and will soon be able to provide the same intensity as Metal Halides,VHO or PC lamps. LEDs will last for up to 20 years of 12 hour cycles, with no change or deterioration of output. LEDs emit almost no heat. Compact design allows for smaller hoods and no bulky ballast. LEDs may cost more up front, but will pay for itself in energy savings and lamp replacement in no time. LEDs are digitally tuned and programmed to achieve required daylight and blue spectrum. Also, red for night viewing. LEDs can be dimmed to create solar and lunar cycles If you have seen the new LED flashlights you will believe that it's possible. they are so bright that they post a warning on them, not to look at the light. This could be the biggest equipment advance in the hobby in a long time. I will keep the group updated as I get more information. I am building a small simple system for a nano to test some of the new LED's. I dont have the circuts to control the spectrum like the finished products that will be for sale but I have found LED's that have a 8000k Color temp and 24 of them in array are so bright I think I can grow most coral. I am mixing them with 12 Leds that are near the actinic spectrum. I am going to try this on a 10 gal nano. I am going to try a few different types of coral frags to see what will grow. The Visual output (on a single led) looks very bright white as the light emission is more controled in its spectrum than other types of lights. There seems to be very little visible yellow in the output.

That is great article thanks for posting the link

I left a message with my contact at kent to get me an answer. If I had a tank full of sps and Clams I think I would run a reactor or drip kallawaser, but with a small amount of SPS, 1 clam and mostly lps/soft/xenia/anomene/etc. I have been fine for ca levels (410+) on this tank for 13 months. I do have a lot of substrate loss in the refuge (20% every 6 months). In my opinion even if I ran a high tech reactor/and every reef gadget there is I would run this as a stablizer for the system. I have owned in the past 15 years a 340gal sps tank, 3 seperate 140gal sps/lps tanks. 5 seperate 90gal mixed reef tanks and many 55gal mixed reef tanks. On most of them I have had a mud/macro refuge. I have never had a tank crash, I have taken in, orphan coral that was dying in other peoples tanks, they almost always recovered. I had a reactor on the 180 because I started the tank with 55 sps frags and I wanted to have strong growth. It broke down and because of cost I tried to run the tank without it for a while 8 months later ( when I had the $$$ to rstart the unit) the ca levels were still strong ( I had been using calc drip additive) but that is the only tank I have felt the need for a reactor. Do I think this is the only way to run a system, NO, this works if you do scheduled water changes (10-20% a month) and if you fuss around a little with getting the DSB loaded with the right critters. Contrary to Mr. Leng Sy. I have always run this kind of system in conjunction with a DSB in the main tank. My version of DSB is loaded with worms, burrowing starfish, snails & clams. I know I sound like an evangelist selling salvation. but I have had great luck with these kind of setups. Revival meetings are at my house