rooroo

My best advice is go slow, get the largest tank you can afford and fit in your place, and get an ro/di. It really seems that the larger the tank, the more stable the conditions, and the easier it is for it to recover from new hobbiest errors. Also there will be lots of errors, so don't take it too hard if you mess up a bit. Research your equipment. Often the more expensive equipment is more expensive because it really is better. Check out the for sale section here and at RC, you can get lots of great equipment at a great price, and most equipment is just as good used as it is new. And welcome to the hobby/obsession!

Sounds good to me. Though just a personal thing, I don't really like yellow tangs. They seem overly agressive/territorial. Maybe think about another tang? I don't have much experience with sohals so I don't know how the two would get along. You can also get reflective egg crate. Check out a plastics shop. Might still reduce your light some but I would think it would be better than white egg crate. FWIW, I use eggcrate on my tank and I don't even have any fish that are likely to jump. I just like having something protective over the tank.

I'd be calling up the LFSs. That's your best bet. If they sell that pump theres a 50% chance they'll sell a replacement impeller and have one in stock. Otherwise you might go buy a new pump, order the impeller online, and sell the old pump here or on RC.

Actually, the blade guard has grippers that keep the wood from kicking back. so if he had it installed he would have been fine. But I'll tell hubby he should look into a couple of those. He was being quite safe, using a push stick and kept the blade just above the piece of wood he was ripping. Had he not kept the blade low he would have cut his fingers off. But thanks for the suggestions. He's very good with power tools and has had lots of experience with them so after he cut up his fingers he was more mad at himself for making a stupid mistake than anything else. Dave, he plays guitar too and is right now trying to play it upside down. Its not working too well for him.

I used tap water for a year and found that using an ro/di significantly affected the inhabitants positively. If you can afford it and have the place to store the filtered water, its well worth the investment. If you do go with tap water, you should always treat your water for both chlorine and chloramine. You can use either Seachem Prime or Tetra Aquasafe as both treat for both chlorine and chloramine. There are others out there that work too, just be sure to read the lable and be sure it treats for both.

Wow, that sounds a bit worse than hubbys injury. But I can't help but chuckle a little.

[Public Service Announement] Please be careful with your power tools. Read all the saftey instructions and install all blade guards and keep them on there! My hubby chewed up the tip of two fingers pretty good on Thursday afternoon after trying to rip too small a piece of wood with his new table saw with no blade guard installed. A trip to the emergency room, 10 stitches and lots of blood later he's doing fine but is a bit humbled and angry that he made a pretty simple mistake. He's lucky and won't loose any of his fingers. So please be safe and cautious and think about the worst case scenario before you turn on the saw. [/Public Service Announcement] Worst part is he was working on a project for my tank! Installing new T5s and he needed a piece of wood to mount the endcaps to.

Thats cool how camoflauged he gets. I don't have any answers for you other than he may feel threatened by something in the tank.

If you can put the aquapod lower than the 120 but higher than the sump, you can gavity feed from the display to the aquapod, then gravity feed from the aquapod to the sump.

I have a bi-color in my tank. He nips a bit at the torch and frogspawn I have, but it doesn't seem to affect them at all. He pretty much ignors all my zoos. Only when he gets hungry does he nip at anything. I was trying to feed the tank once a day but noticed he started nipping much more so I went back to twice a day. He mostly nips at the rocks near the zoos trying to get the algae and disrupts the polyps, but otherwise he's been a perfect gentleman in my tank. He's probably my favorite fish so far. I'm sure others have had different experiences, but he really seems most interested in algae, though he won't eat chaeto or nori. BTW, love the tank! Would like to see pics of the stand.

I stopped by a few days ago to check out the coral room... not much has changed since a month ago when I saw it. I asked the one guy thats there all the time when he though it would be done, he shrugged. So who knows. I hope they get it finished up soon.

Looking great and welcome to the club!

Layman's terms is always good! Alright, updated design.

I haven't purchased the acrylic yet. I'll probably get a good sized sheet from Piedmont Plastics Friday. Or just stop by Home Depot some day next week and get their el cheapo plexiglass. Friday is a slow day in the office so I can probably run out and get it. As far as the tools, they belong to my hubby, but there's a good chance he'd be ok with us cutting some extra acrylic. I'll be home all next week, which is when I plan on doing the sump. Shoot me a PM if you're available during the day next Tuesday and we can see about building the sumps together. If not that day I'm sure we can figure out another time. So I should do like Melev's F style design and have fuge on right, skimmer on left, and return in middle? Or just run the water fuge -> skimmer -> return?

I think he's kinda purty, but I bawk at spending $50 on a fish.

There was lots of debate on RC about supplementing iodine/iodide, and the general consensus was that its impossible to properly test for iodine, so if you cannot accurately test for it you should not add it. My mom added it to her tank for years with no adverse affects, and as soon as she stopped dosing it she didn't notice a difference in her corals. One experiment, but its enough to convince me that its not needed. I do use Lugol's Solution as a dip for zoos, but that is outside the tank.

Haha, with how quiet the office is right now it would anger everyone. We've got a router table too so it wouldn't take too long. I just hope we have a bit that will work. What kind of bit should I use?

What if I raise the outside baffles and drop the inside one to the bottom? Trying to get as much space in the refugium as possible, but if I have to add one more no big deal. Dandy, good idea with drilling holes in the divider from refugium to pump section. I actually have some egg crate laying around, maybe that would work with a 5" piece of acrylic on the bottom? Also, I don't think a 29 will fit as the opening for the stand isn't as big as the footprint of it. It's got 4" supports on both sides, and I want to be able to get the sump out without dismantling the tank. Can I use acrylic to make the baffles? I know silicon doesn't stick to acrylic but will it hold the baffles in place? Or am I better off to use glass? I'll be able to cut the acrylic myself with hubby's router.

Very pretty!

I'm bored here at work this week, so I've been doing lots of planning for my tank. Here's my sump design. Any recommendations? Things to watch out for? This is the first time I've designed a sump and I went with one of Melev's designs that worked best for the tank size I have. Side view. Top down view.

Oh, just wanted to say to dhoch, I still have the frags I got from you but my camera isn't good enough to get a good pic of them. All three are doing great. The leather finally attached and all the zoos open up and are getting bigger.

Took some photos of some 3 week old additions to the tank, and some older inhabitants. I'm using an older Cannon Elf SD so the pics aren't great but with a little photoshoping and shrinking they look decent. Enjoy! Blue Zoos mixed in with green zoos. Green and orange zoos. More Green and orange zoos. Big blue mushrooms. And some old inhabitants. A hitchhiker plate coral that started out the size of a pinhead and is now the size of a silver dollar. And some ricordia. This pic was kind of fuzzy to begin with and the colors are a little psychadelic as a result of noise reduction and sharpening.

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. I think I'm gonna move to the submersible pump though. But good to know theres another reefer in the New Market area.

Ok, I decided to get a Mag 7. With the head loss it'll be around 500 gph, which my overflow will handle just fine. No drilling required now. And easier installation.

I have one now. It's roughly 18 gallon sump, holds 10 gallons of water, and I want to say drains maybe 3 gallons of water off the tank. The sump is usually 1/2 full and turning the pump off fills it to 2/3 full. Thats with the external overflows still, as when I swap out the sump I'll be swapping out the main tank with the internal overflow since its all new plumbing, I might as well do it at the same time. I would still guess the drain off would be 3-5 gallons at most. Here's a pic of the sump setup now.