BeltwayBandit

Ok. 24 views and no comments? Am I crazy? Do you think it might work? Did I miss something? Does it not make sense? Will the Nats win the wildcard? Anyone?

Thanks for the info. I saw the thread on RC about the black ones. I am looking at the brown ORA ones. I was looking at some of the clown/anemone host charts with an eye towards which anemone's were easier to keep than others and I saw in one article that S. Haddoni was the normal host and was among the less difficult anemone's to keep. I have a 120 that has been running now for 2 years. Would it be best to introduce the anemone first and let it get established? Or fish first? (I am thinking anemone, but am not sure)

Well now. I have direct and specific experience with just this problem. I have a firefish and used to have a clown that would surf the overflows. Couple of options. First, you can try to bend the net so that you can actually get it into the overflow. Then use a "tickle stick" to gently herd the fish towards the top and attempt to scoop them out. This method is very slow, very stressful for the fish and the aquarist. It sometimes works. Another option, I'm assuming that you have a durso overflow. Take a plastic bag and place it over the drain, so the overflow fills up. If you only have 1 overflow you will have to shut off your pump once you have filled the overflow to the top. This gets the fish closer to you, and over some of the obstructions. With my firefish I just do this and then teast them to the top where they will then jump right back into the tank. You might not be so lucky with the clown, but it is much easier to scoop them with the overflow completely full than with it at its normal level. Just remember patience. Thirdly, you can wait till they surf to the sump, but this is also not the best option as the fish can get hurt by that trip as well. I have had fish live for over a month in my overflow when I couldn't get them out. Hope this helps. BB

Does anyone have experience with these fish? I am looking to get a pair of clownfish and am trying to decide on the species. I am not familiar with Saddlebacks and was wondering if anyone has kept them. Specifically: Are they relatively hardy (compared to Percula and Ocelaris)? Will they host in captivity? If so what species of anemone were successful hosts? Thanks. BB

I was one of those unfortunate ones who purchased a Berlin Turbo skimmer before I knew what I was doing. I dutifully tried to make the darn thing work, but to no avail. I removed the skimmer from my tank over a year ago and it has been sitting in my storage room. I recently started seriously thinking about a Kalk reactor and thought to myself, hrmmm why can't I make one out of that old skimmer. Well I looked at some designs for Kalk reactors and compared them to my skimmer and I think that I might have devised a way to make it work. For anyone not familiar with the Berlin turbo it has a series of tubes inside the skimmer that directs the water from the bottom up, then down then back up again, the so called triple pass, before it exits the skimmer. What I plan to do is remove the middle divider and cut the first tube in half. I will then use the former inlet to the skimmer as my suction for my mixing pump. This will pull clear water from the mid colum (through the first tube that I cut in half). I will drill a hole in the bottom of the outer tube for the return from the mixing pump. I will drill another hole at/near the bottom for the feed pump. Finally I will remove the foam collection cup and cap the end. Then the two outlets will be combined into 1 via a tee, which will then be reduced to 1/2 or 1/4 inch tubing for the run to my tank. Any thoughts on this setup? I realize it is probably hard to follow if you have never looked at one of these skimmers. But, if it works it will be a nice second life for a misspent $200. BB

I have attempted three times to send a request to have access to the photo gallery section of the boards. I have not had any response to my inquirys. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks, BB

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1465 Selling and trading is not allowed in this forum. BB

It doesn't have to be that large, a 1/8" hole should work fine. Just remember to check it periodically to make sure that it isn't plugged up. I have mine right at or near the water level so I can see the surface agitation from it to check it. Granted I had not done that in a while and thus my problem. Fortunately the butcher's bill for this little escapade was rather light. I did not lose any coral or fish. My only confirmed casualty was a snail. On another note, all of my inhabitants actually seem to be doing much better after changing close to 70% of the system volume during the course of the initial flood and the subsequent water changes post flood. BB

Yup. You can say its just not my week. Tonight I come home and smell burning plastic/rubber when I go to check my fishtank. So after some quick investigative work I find out that my wiring harness for my VHO's has shorted out and is starting to melt down. Fortunately I caught it before it could become a major hazard. In the process I found a major design flaw both in my installation and the manufacturer's design of the wiring harness. Moral of the story. Make sure ALL electrical wires have drip loops in them, and make sure that there is no exposed metal in the electrical wiring. Whats that you say, you didn't know that on the back side of those quick connect fittings that come on some VHO harnesses that there is exposed metal within the plastic housing? I didn't either, until I got some moisture in there and it shorted out and darn near started a fire. I will try to bring the crispy wiring to the next meeting. I will post pictures later. BB

Word to the wise. Go check your anti siphon devices on your tank now. I'll wait for you..... Ok good now let me tell you a story. I have had a fun filled night. Oh yes. About 9pm we hear a loud bang and then poof no power. No worries I say, my tank will be fine. I go looking to make sure that there is no fire from the transformer that just blew and got candles etc.. You know the usual when the power goes out. Then I go down to check to make sure that my tank is all hunky dory... Well it wasn't. You see my return line from the sump had turned into a siphon and about 1/3 of my 120 gallon system was now on my carpet. Plus my snails were about to mutiny because about half of them were high and dry. What happened? Well. My return line is a flex hose connected to a PVC U over the back of the tank. It then ends in a nozzle that I can direct to different parts of the tank. Now being a smart Reefer, I had wisely drilled a small hole right below the normal waterline of the tank that acted as an anti siphon for the return. Problem was I hadn't checked it in about a month and a half becuase life had just been too busy. Long story short, the anti siphon hole was plugged and I had just drained 1/3 of my system volume onto the living room floor. Fortunately my wife was less upset about it than I was. But here it is 1am and I am still working on getting the water out of the carpet. I am also making make up water to finish filling the last 5-10 gallons, because again as Mr. Murphy dictates I only had about 20 gallons of RO water made at the time. So far no immediate deaths to report. Time and massive water changes over the next week or so will tell what the final butcher's bill will be from this little escapade. So in case you didn't do it before, please go and check your anti siphon devices. And remember to check them weekly. It only seems mundane and stupid till you forget to do it and have the resultant flood to deal with. I'm squishily yours, Beltway Bandit

On another note. I was going down memory lane to my fluids class in college trying to remember how to do manual piping calculations, I'm an engineer I actually enjoy that sorta thing (I know I'm weird so don't tell me). And I came across some interesting stuff. First off your mag 12 is overkill. A SCWD at 720 GPH switches in 4 seconds. The website for them says you can push up to 1400 GPH through but it switches very fast, just something to consider. Another option would be to plumb the scwd in on a closed loop and use the mag 12 for your circulation through the sump and refugium.

Sounds good. The U shaped thing is called a P trap. It keeps water in it to provide a vapor barrier. This keeps sewage gasses from seeping back into the house through the open pipe. All of your plumbing fixtures have them.

Thats it. Helps reduce the noise.

Ok, I looked at your drawing and have a couple of comments. Don't tie the two drains to the skimmer section togeather. Just dump em both into the skimmer chamber. Add at least 1 (actually 2 cause you can't do just 1) 90 in all of your drain lines. This will help quiet the drains, I made the mistake of straight piping mine the first time and it sounded like niagara falls. (You might be doing that already and just don't show it on the line diagram, if so ignore this comment) You also might consider putting external Durso's on your overflows. This will also greatly help in reducing the noise generated by the falling water. For getting the water back into the tank you can just build a hang on bracket out of pvc. For mine I used 3 90's and ended it with a hose fitting that acts like a nozzle. When you make it it should be just big enough to fit over the top frame of the aquarium. Then it just hangs in place and works great. The good thing is it is also very easy to change the position and direction of the flow. You just don't glue the bottom 90 on and you can rotate it 180 degrees to achieve the flow you want. The only downside is if you are pushing too much in the way of your return pump you might not be able to get away with this little trick and would have to glue the bottom 90 in place. You just have to play with it some and see what works. (If you don't like the stark white color you can "paint" it with purple primer and it will blend right in with the corraline algae. ___ | . | <--- Schedule 40 PVC | . |_ | . T <--- Hose connection BB

for the drain line, the way you have it drawn it might cause you some problems. It appears to be a gravity drain. In order for that to work properly you need to have a drop of about 1-2" per 5' of pipe at a minimum to ensure that water will flow easily. To achieve this you might consider moving the drain line up higher on the return line. This is even more crucial since you want to go into an existing sewer drain. Ideally you would want to have an air gap in the system to absolutely prevent backflow, absent that a check valve should work. I am not familiar with pvc check valves to know how much pressure it takes to open them. For plumbing into the drain, simply remove the P trap on the bottom and insert a wye fitting. This will give you a place to tap into. If you don't want to go the check valve route you could cap the open outlet on the wye, and end your discharge line with a hose connection that you can screw into the wye when needed, that way you can eliminate the need for backflow prevention. Hopefully this makes some sense. I will look at the rest of your layout and offer any other comments I can think of. BB

From the picture on CNN it appeared to be a type of plecostamus.

I have a 25 Tall that you are more than welcome to have. Dimensions are 24x12x20 (I think). As for stocking it, I have some zenia if you want it :D

Ok. Confession time.. After extoling the virtues of grounding probes I must confess I was zapped by my tank tonight. Everything is on a GFCI but I don't have a grounding probe. That will be rectified tomorrow. The culprit was a faulty powerhead. GFCI never tripped, but I sure as s*** was popped. BB

I'll be a tentative yes. Must seek permission from SWMBO.

I have a female true Perc that you can have. Her buddy decided to play kiss the powerhead intake about 6 months ago and I am thinking I want to try a different type of clown. BB

Yes, thank you Eddi. Your tanks are amazing, even the milk tank! Craig

Tagging along. I have one right in the middle of the front panel on my 120.

That is an excellent suggestion. It also makes isolating the problem much easier.

Not necessarily. Without an alternate path to ground there is no current flowing in the tank. The tank is only at a higher potential. The GFI will do nothing in that situation. Until an alternate ground is introduced the only path back to ground is through the GFI on the neutral leg of the circuit, and to the GFI everything is hunky dory. It is only through the introduction of a ground that you provide that "leaking" current an alternate path that the GFI can then see the loss of current across the circuit. If the equipement is grounded (i.e. it has a 3 prong plug) it is likely that a short in this equipment will trip the GFI. If equipment on a 2 prong plug is shorting there is not alternate path and the GFI will do nothing, until a ground is introduced to the tank (normally the aquarist).