40g Breeder, Tank Build(s)

[Vandur]

Welcome!
Hello fellow reef keepers! It has been quite a while since I have participated in reef husbandry so please bare with me at the start of this project thread. I suspect the start of it will likely be just my rambling thoughts on equipment, husbandry, and the hobby in general in hopes that I can get some thoughts and comments on the project as I move along (tl;dr summary at the end).

The Tanks
I'll be working with two black-rimmed, glass, Aqueon 40g Breeders. Why these tanks? Honestly? They were a spur-of-the moment purchases as I was meandering through Petco. Petco was having their yearly $1/gallon sale, it was the last day, and it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, "Why not set up a reef tank?" (don't tell me you never ask yourselves that). This despite the fact I have probably a half-dozen unused tanks of varying sizes scattered about in my garage that have been devoid of saltwater for 8+ years (I did pause momentarily at the counter and considered using a prior-tank but the easiest to get to one is a 72g bowfront and I never liked the width or height of (made a great FOWLR, just not great for a reef)). So, umm, yeah, I ended up getting two (all they had) and then getting home and thinking, "Man, that was stupid, I’m about to start a remodel and this house doesn't really have any place for a reef tank atm.". !#$%ing impulse buy. I will persevere however and shove them into an unused corner or whatever it takes until post-remodel. (I’m hoping to have room for a much larger tank once the living room gets sorted.)

At this point, you might be thinking, "Wait, he bought two?". I'll get into that in a bit ...

Re-education
As I've been busy with non-saltwater related life for the last few years, I figured the first thing I should do after my impulse buy was to spend some time perusing various reef tank forums. A couple of weeks of lurking and I can safely say .. while there have been a number of interesting trends, there really hasn't been anything too ground-breaking. My major take-aways:

• all around improvements in power consumption and heat reduction (LED's and AC powerheads / pumps)
• large uptake in rimless tanks (always enjoyed ADA rimless tanks, so I'm glad to see so many vendors making larger rimless tanks now)
• general improvement in automated maintenance & monitoring solutions (woo, more tech stuff!)
• closed loops no longer cool unless your tanks are massive

On top of those, it looks like I've missed some interesting trends. The first one, and the one that surprised me the most, was the rise in popularity (and pricing) of mushrooms. I've always had a soft spot (pun intended) for them and you can't imagine my shock at seeing an item that went from a couple bucks a mouth (or even freebies) now to $100+ a mouth. I think some of the real enthusiasts in that category would be horrified with some of my old propagation methods (finely chopped and just thrown into a low-flow tank until they re-attach to rubble). It is interesting to see some of the popular mutations however. So +1 for improving the varieties that are available to hobbyist (even if they're a bit pricey atm).

The second was the hobby-level introduction of saltwater algae scrubbers. I love the concept, and from the sounds of it, it would appear to be an extremely effective method of removing excess nutrients but I would love to hear of some personal experiences with these (encouraging the growth of hair algae, even in a controlled situation, seems to be a somewhat scary thought). How does this compare to just a giant ball of chaetomorpha rolling around? If cheato actually makes it to the display, it's pretty easy to identify and pull out. If hair algae made it in, I could see it becoming a true pain to get out (though, in theory the growth rate in the scrubber should be far superior due to lighting, etc, so that would possibly limit the in-tank expansion).

If I missed anything major, give a shout!

Stands
Feeling a bit more confident in my knowledge, I moved onto the next part of getting my build sorted that being, the stands (they can't sit on my dinning room table forever). I'm not super-handy when it comes to carpentry but I have built a few, "can park a VW on it", 2x4 and plywood skinned stands. I can take pictures of the process if anyone is interested in how to make one, though don't expect them to be beauties (and I'm sure there are tons of guides out there that cover building these).

Sump? Refugium?
Prior experience has me hooked on the thought that, "More water volume provides a higher likelihood of long-term success.". When I switched from FOWLR only guy to a reef tank one I thought I should start small .. and chose a 20g tall reef tank (so many things wrong with that). While it was fun, it definitely takes a lot more work to be successful (more water volume means you typically won't see the drastic swings in water chemistry that you might in a smaller tank.). So, the systems will definitely have sumps off of them. Preferably with a refugium area for some macro algae or a space large enough to throw an algae scrubber in. As I have easy-access to at least one sump at the moment, so I will start off reusing it. It's old enough that it doesn't have "socks" or anything like that, but dedicated space for water to enter, room for heater or two, skimmer, and a small refugium section to boot. I'll have to measure it of course, but I'm pretty sure it's boarding on the the 25-30 mark on it's own, so this should be more then adequate for the tank it will need to support. The second tank will probably be plumbed to an extra glass tank from my garage until I decide what I'm really going to do sump wise.

I should also mention, I was thinking about throwing a couple MarinePure blocks into the low flow section of the refugium. I did see a number of folks remarking on the amount of Aluminum leaching from this material. While I currently don't plan on having leathers in either of the tanks, I have been a fan of Cabbage leathers in the past so if anyone has had experience with leathers + MarinePure, I'd love to hear about them.

Note: The original idea behind two takes was to plumb them in serial so that water flowed from one display tank into the other tank but due to the limitations in where these can be located I've abandoned this plan. Both tanks will be individually plumbed, and placed in different area's of the house.

Overflows?
I have at least two CBR HOB overflows that I've used on a number of prior tanks. They work, as long as the aqua lifter does, but the convenience of a drilled tank is worth the time, effort, and expense of drilling a tank. Doing this will also allow me to have a slightly wider weir (aka, more surface skimming). Through a bit of sleuthing it would appear some of the top hobbyist rated overflows are produced by Glass-Holes and Synergy Reef's. If anyone here at Reef Frontiers has experience with one, the other, or both of them, I'd love to hear about it (good or bad). At this point I might just buy one of each and try them out. If I do, expect me to do a lazy-reviewer style review of them. To me, the Threejole from Glass-Holes is slightly better seeming as it includes all of the parts required (including the drill bits and a bit o' candy?). It is however slightly larger in-tank then the Synergy Reef model (they also have a magnetic weir for easier cleaning).

Pumps & Power-heads
I'd love to say, "Oh, no need for power heads here, I'll just run everything through a closed loop system and a couple of sea-swirls" but that's not happening on this small of a build. I'm going to go with the flow (pun intended) here and skip the closed loop (less drilling, yay!), and instead start off using some of the new DC pumps that have become available. One tank, if not both, tanks will end up with dual Ecotech Marine Vortech MP10's. The other alternative I was considering was doing a single Maxspect Gyre XF130 mounted vertically in one of the corners. I like the fact that the Gyre has less exterior bulk but it seems like 2x VorTech's would give me a larger ability to direct where the flow goes, randomize the flow, and has (as expected for a product that has been out longer) a slightly larger community to support it.

Thoughts, opinions, or flag waving zealot advice is welcomed on this pick as I've never used either.

Sump return pumps will be EcoTech Vectra Marine M1's. Again, community support, company that's been a round the block a bit, and over-all feature list compared to the competition seems to make this the winning choice. On top of that, you get a low-energy consumption, highly adjustable pump that, if necessary can be used on a larger tank later down the line.

Sand: DSB, Bare-bottom, or "a bit"
Honestly, I'm surprised I can still find debates on these in most major reef tank forums. These tanks are small, so I'm skipping the DSB (who wants that hassle anyway) and while I don't mind the look of a bare-bottom tank, I am partial to Gobies and Nassarius Snails, so I will probably have a small bit of rather heavy sand in both tanks (if it gets blown around I might remove it but .. probably not).

Live Rock
After buying the tanks, the first thing I did was open up the garage and look around. Two Brute containers were "close enough" so they got dragged out into the back. After a quick trip to Home Depot, they were filled with water and then proceeded get a Muriatic Acid wash. Since their wash (and corresponding freshwater rinse), they've been sitting in recirculating salt water. I figure between the two cans I should have more then enough rock to build a formation that will make me happy. If I remember to hit Home Depot tonight, I'll pick up a couple of masonry bits and start to build/plan my aquascape.

Note: The rock had not been used in a number of years and while certainly "looking dead", god only knows how many tanks they had been in prior, so I figured it was best to start out "as fresh as possible" and do a dip.

Lighting
This topic is an interesting one to me (and really the main reason I'm starting the thread today). Currently, I have a number of IceCap HO/T5/VHO ballasts and probably at least two of every standard wattage MH light from 175w on up. Having said that, I've been thinking about going straight LED's this time around. It's something new to me (where reef tanks are concerned) and there are a number of interesting choices to be found. The only unfortunate part is, I picked 40g Breeders as my tanks (most LED's cover 24"x24" square, and these tanks are 36"x18"). Having said that, these are the lights I've been looking at. Again, if you have an opinion, preferably based off of personal experience, I'd love to hear it!

Aqua Illumination (AI): Hydra HD
EcoTech: Radion XR30
Kessil: 2x360w (or n?), AP 700
ReefBreeder: Photon 32-V2

Lighting requirements:

• Given the depth of the tank and inhabitants most of these will be serious over-kill and will need to be dialed back quite a bit on their intensities, so control-ability will be one of the key factors in selecting a light
• Getting a light that later be used to keep clams at a depth of 24" would be be awesome
• Ramp-up/down and general program-ability
• The ability to adequately cover the entire 36" span with moderate to high light (this can be done with two units if required)
• Be able to sync the lighting unit(s)

I have used Kessil A160WE Tuna Sun's on planted freshwater tanks, and I have to say, they performed spectacularly. So I am partial to the Kessil brand. I have read quite a few mixed reviews on their newer AP700 light so it looks like going with 2x A360NE Tuna Blue's might be a better plan. These are, fairly serious lights though and while "more light!" is awesome, I'm sure the inhabitants of my tanks wouldn't want to burn up. Has anyone used the Narrow's on a shallow (sub-20") tank? How did your coral's respond? Think the A360WE be a better choice? Or even something along the lines of their A160WE Tuna Blue. :S

And then there are the others in the list .. so many choices. :S

Occupant List
To help with the lightning decision, I thought I should probably let you know what I'd like to keep in the tanks. Currently, I'm thinking about splitting live stock into separate groups. Keep one tank as a higher-light SPS dominate tank and the second tank primarily an LPS and softies tank (another reason I abandoned the serial-plumbing idea).

Tank #1 (SPS)

• 2x Cleaner Shrimp
• 2x Peppermint Shrimp
• 1x Pistol Shrimp
• 1x Hi Fin Red Banded Goby
• 1x Damselfish
• 1x Six-line Wrasse *
• 1x Crocea Clam
• Misc. Cleaners
• Misc. Branching SPS (no real goals on this one, whatever I find at the LFS that looks nice)
• Probably a Fungia or Brain

*: Alternatively, I might go with multiple Damsel and just do a species dominate tank. They always tend to be little bastards to most inhabitants but have worked well together in the past when I've had them in larger quantities.

Tank #2 (LPS, Preferably Sweeper/Stinging)

• 2x Fire Shrimp
• 2x Peppermint Shrimp
• 1x Banded Coral Shrimp
• 1x Porcelian Crab
• 1x Misc. Blenny / Goby
• Misc. Cleaners
• Galaxea
• Frogspawn / Torch / Hammer
• Meat / Scolymia / Trachyphyllia / Lobophyllia (aka, brains)
• Fungia (plate, small tentacle)
• Misc. 'shrooms & Zoo's

I am very tempted to make this a species tank, hold off on the inverts, and find a Frogfish to live here. In addition, as with the other topics, I'm always looking for suggestions. If you know of a coral that might work well with either of these setups. Give a shout!

Other / Misc.
To help prep for the onslaught of live stock and misc. I've dug out a few smaller tanks to use as a basic quarantine and frag systems. I have a number of 10g's to use for fish and inverts storage/observation/acclimation and one that can be used as a dipping/medication tank. In addition to those, I've setup a 20g L with a frag rack and 175w MH (though, I suspect, even with it hung fairly high this is going to be quite a bit of light for most of the corals that will reside in it while the new main tanks get sorted).

Summary (tl;dr)
If you managed to read this far, congratulations, if you saw the tl;dr at the end note at the start and just zipped down here, I don't blame ya. In summary, I made an impulse buy that's seeing me get back into the hobby. In stead of doing it in a sane, controlled, manner I'm doing the "all in" approach and jumping feet first with two 40g Breeder reef setups (SPS and LPS). I'd love current views and opinions, suggestions, and thoughts on any/all of the equipment used in modern reef keeping to make my adventure a successful one.

Thanks for reading!

~V




Prior Saltwater Setups

Just in case you're curious, here's a quick list of some of the saltwater tanks I've had in the past.

• 55g show: Softies/FOWLR
• 20g tall: LPS/Softy
• 20g long: LPS/Softy
  
  (replacement for the prior tank as it experienced sudden "large dumb dog" syndrome)​
• 90g std: LPS/Softy ~> SPS
• 20g long: Zoanthid specific
• 72g bow: Mixed
• 3x 10g: Species specific's
  
  Mantis Shrimp​
  Pistol Shrimp & Goby​
  Sexy Shrimp/Porcelain Crab​
• 40g breeder: Banggai/Clown breeding setup
• 270g Peninsula: Primarily SPS
  
  Always enjoyed walking around Dang's tank at his restaurant, this was my "why not try a Peninsula" attempt​

Man, that looks a lot more "crazy reef tank addict" when I type it all out then how it felt at the time.

 

[Vandur]

Building The Stands

So, I spent the weekend building stands. Here are some important things to remember when you start your next stand project.

1. Measuring your tank & sump prior is always good.
2. If you're using a skimmer, make sure you place it in the sump (on it's stand if required) and then measure that height.

Prior to cutting, I went ahead and measured all of the tanks and the sump. I knew it was going to be a "close" fit (about .25" on each side as far as depth wise goes). What I forgot to do was step #2. Measuring my skimmer ...

When I first placed the sump under the stand I have to admit, I panic'd. I looked at the distance between sump top and the where the "bottom" was going to be and it looked way to close for comfort. Luckily, after I dug out the skimmer and placed it in there, I could see that there was enough room to remove the skimmer cup. Doing this however definitely changed the plan for the bottom of the stand. I had originally planned on putting bracing across the bottom of the stand and then adding a shelf in it (to keep the sump from sitting right on the floor). Due to space considerations If I decided to skip going this route. While it ended up being enough room to add/remove the skimmer cup, it would definitely be too close close for comfort (and lets face it, I know I'll forget to clean the thing at least once, so the more space the less skimmer gunk and salt creep I'll end up with on the tank bottom).

~V

 

[Vandur]

Project Update: Stand Status, Pumps, and Overflows

Project Update
It's been a couple of weeks since I updated this build thread (btw, if this is the wrong area for a build thread, feel free to move it), so here's the progress to date:

Stands: Built & Abandoned
As mentioned in the last post I went ahead and built a couple of 2"x4" stands that were more then capable of holding up the tanks up. They've sat around my living room for the past couple of weeks and I've come to a couple of conclusions:

• there is very little space under them
• having a partially blind dog is as bad as having a dog that "suddenly notices fish"

(I've lost one tank to a dog in the past. This time, since the tank wasn't filled, the stand and tank managed to just slide across the wood/laminate flooring. It was pretty iffy.)

So, out with the old (?) and in with the new I guess. The next stand iteration will be framed and skinned the same as the prior stands The only difference being a much more significant 68"x48" footprint (vs. 36"x18"). I'll also probably raise it an extra couple of inches off the floor so that I have a bit more breathing room with my skimmer. With a surface area this wide, not only will there be room for the two displays but I could throw my small frag tank and QT tank on the end (with room to spare). This will eat up a ton of room in my living room, but, what the heck, I hate having people over anyway.

A side benefit of this is, since I already have a stand, I can look at replacing an existing planted freshwater tank with a different size/shape tank (I have a much safer, "out of the running path" area to house it).


Pumps
I went and took a look at the Maxspect Gyre and I will say, I really like the look and how it moved the water ... at least in the forward direction. The limited reversing combine with a few folks complaining about early build quality make me a little leary at jumping on it at this point. That means the pumps are going to end up being EcoTech Marine's Vortech's (still not sure on MP40 vs MP10). Until they're ordered and delivered, I'm just going to continue to use some of the older pumps I had laying around (misc. Koralia's and maxi-jets). They cleaned up nicely and while they don't "need" to be replaced at this point, I really want to start off the new tanks as best as I can. (Honestly, with the sheer number of pumps I have still operational, this is going to be one of my two main luxury items for the tank, so I really hope they work out well.)


Overflows
There were a lot of good things to be read when it came to the new Synergy Reef overflow and the Glass-Holes overflows. In the end, the folks at Glass-Holes won me over with a cost-conscious product and quick email support. The fact that the order was shipped the next day really made me feel like I made the right choice.


Next up ... Lighting
My next big decision is lightning. I've narrowed it down to EcoTech's (Radion's) vs. Kessil's (A360we or AP700). I think they both put out a crazy amount of light for such shallow tanks but as they all allow some intensity leveling they should work until I move up into a larger tank. Until I decide on one or the other, I'll be using a set of old 150watt MH pendants with Ushio 20k's. The light coverage from the pendants I ahve is certainly not the best but if I'm really going to go LED, I don't want to go through the effort of making a canopy and putting in VHO/T5 to go alongside them.

~V

 

[NanaReefer]

Great read! IMO 2x MP10QD would be perfect. 2 MP40's a bit much. I'm running 1 Radion Gen3 with TIR lenses on my 40B. All corals are thriving! I like having the option of placing lower light needy corals off to the sides without compromising higher light needy corals. My T. Maxima is my center piece
I also went with Glass-Holes for my entire 700gph overflow & return kit. Love having everything in one basket.

 

[Vandur]

Project Update: Picture Flood & Tank Drilling

Project Update
It's been busy lately at work, so I feel like I'm falling a bit behind on the tank progress. So, to make up for it, here's a quick update and minor picture flood.

Stands
New stand is built but not yet skinned or painted. I expect to get to it this weekend assuming I finish all of the tank drilling.

Tank Drilling
Totally jinxed myself in Nana's thread. During the first drilling I had the bit-clear channel catch on the new opening (must not have been holding it level enough) and that produced the dreaded loud pop. Sure enough, cracked my first tank just off center. Tank two managed to go better as I managed to successfully drill both the overflow hole and a return hole (pictures below). So, minor victory there! (yay).

Now on to some fun stuff, here's a quick flood of pictures of progress so far (the good, bad, & the ugly).

Enjoy!

~V

Pictures!
Image descriptions can be found below the actual image.

Cleaning Up Old Items

Cleaning old pumps, a skimmer, some power-heads, and a bunch of odds-and-ends with vinegar and water. (I'm actually pretty amazed at how well they all turned out, basically look like new.) *cough* *cough* No drip loops, but it is off of a GFI breaker .. and if that fails I'm "sure" that power strip will trip...

Stand (abandoned style)

First round of tank stands were built like small tanks. Seriously. This is a picture of one of the stands pre-skinning (birch plywood) and painting.

I took some shots in between the first one and this one, mainly they were of me freaking out how tightly the one sump fit in it .. and then how close to the top the skimmer cup was. In the end, this (as well as Hammy plowing into one) made me change my mind on individual stands.

Tank Drilling

Getting everything out and preparing to drill the first tank.

[IMG}http://wirepatch.com/reef-tanks/build/tank-drilling-2.jpg[/IMG]
Prepping the drill-location with a nice guide board (Glass-holes makes an excellent kit.)

!@#$, note the large full-sheet crack. The the bits have cooling and drill material removal cut outs. When the bit finally broke through, it bit on one of these and .. POP. Cracked glass.

SUCCESS! One down .. a few more to go.

Rockscape & Tank Planning
I'm a bit anal retentive, I like to know what it will look like and what it'll hold before I even start a project. With reef tanks, this is generally determined by what rock I have available and/or what the tank will hold.

I cut out some contractor paper to the size of the tank so that I could plan the 'scape. The random 2x4 cut off has a line on it to indicate the top of the tank. Once I'm happy with the way it looks, I draw around the rocks to give me a basic "silhouette" and then take a number of pictures so that I can "hopefully" reproduce it in the tank itself. As the overflow and returns aren't in there, I didn't want to commit to epoxying them together at that point.

Transferred the plan from outside to in. (The odd orange rods are fiberglass rods that can be used to help strengthen rock forms.)

Finalized rockscape for the second tank. I wanted quite a bit of rock in this tank, doing this in a 40 is a bit limiting but I think I've left enough room for the overflow and to get a glass cleaner around without hitting the base rock. Lighting this island may be difficult, so, depending on what I end up with, this may change.

Hope you enjoyed the update. If anyone has recommendations on NOT doing center overflows let me know. I'm very tempted to do the last two tanks with a right (or left) side overflow so that the return can be farther away.

~V

 

[spieszak]

They are more expensive, but having lived with tanks with "normal size" overflows, I have to say, I personally would pay the excess for a ghost overflow. Even the Eshopps version of it, which is cheaper but the same concept. The space you save is totally worth it.
http://www.aquacave.com/eshopps-eclipse-internal-overflow-box-kit-large.html?fee=1&fep=5854&gclid=CJWYqsDMls4CFVKIfgodxu8Aog

 

[NanaReefer]

Oh no!! You shouldn't have read my "hole" thread-lol. Coming together nicely though.

 

[Vandur]

Oh no!! You shouldn't have read my "hole" thread-lol. Coming together nicely though.

LOL. I must say, if it had to happen, I wish it had happened waaaaay earlier in the drilling process. Took so long to grind through just to hear that pop. >.<

Ah well, at least the next series of holes went well.

Mini-update
Once the weekend's over with, I will should have time post additional photo's of the new stand/table and a couple of freshly painted tanks. In addition, I'll take a shot or two of my coral quarantine tank. It should give folks a quick chuckle as it has a super amazing DIY light stand (they get the job done, they just look .. well .. like I just spent $10 at Home Depot on some PVC .. 'cause I did.).

2-Sump or not 2-Sump
As, I apparently have "most" of a 40g breeder worth of glass to make a larger DIY sump if I wanted too, it begs the question ... do I stick with the two individual sumps I've cleaned up or DIY a larger single sump. That will definitely be a decision/project for another weekend however.

QT Lighting .. Issues
Speaking of lighting on the QT. Right now I'm using a small 10g tank (prior fry grow-out tank) as a coral quarantine tank. It's pretty basic egg-crate frag tank setup with a power-head and heater, lit by a 150w MH. As most of the corals in it have low-to-medium lighting requirements I've positioned the light half-over the tank. All of the corals inside the tank came from a single large, shallow tank lit using Radion's. Since I foolishly didn't ask how high the Radion's were turned up on the tank, I figured a 3hr period for such low-watt MH wouldn't be too much light for them ..

For the most part, that has proven true. I took extra precautions with a couple of "definitely low-light" frags just to make sure they weren't getting directly hit with the MH. For the others, I just sort of "guessed" at how much light they could take. Two of the corals I ended up guessing about, were Euphyllia species. Both corals had been located in a central part of the tank they came out in, so I thought they might been getting more direct light. This, was further reinforced by the fact that one of the two, a Euphyllia glabrescens (Torch), looked a bit bleached. I placed the Torch on the shadowed edge and a brown / very light green tinged polyp'd divisa (Frogspawn) closer towards the light (hoping to see the color pattern change up). Unfortunately, his color did change, just not in a way I was expecting. A couple days after having added it to the tank, I noticed it (right after lights-out) expel some zooxanthellae. So, he was immediately kicked to the back row next to my now, quite good looking, Torch specimen (seriously, in about 5 days it went from white-gray body Polyps with light green to a healthy purple/vivid green).

Ah well, not seriously worried about him as a couple days of shade has helped darken him up and I haven't seen any additional zooxanthellae being released (though it did surprise me / is why I mentioned it).

So, a quick question for those of you reading this:
If you use Radion's in your tank, what sort of lightning intensity do you use with it? Ramp/up/down with a set max? The controller software for them looks ... extremely tweak-able.

~V

 

[Vandur]

They are more expensive, but having lived with tanks with "normal size" overflows, I have to say, I personally would pay the excess for a ghost overflow. Even the Eshopps version of it, which is cheaper but the same concept. The space you save is totally worth it.
http://www.aquacave.com/eshopps-eclipse-internal-overflow-box-kit-large.html?fee=1&fep=5854&gclid=CJWYqsDMls4CFVKIfgodxu8Aog

Grr.. wish I had seen that option a couple weeks ago. I did end up going with Glass-Holes in the end (the Eshopps ghost-replica looks like a great little overflow and seems like a great deal for the $$).

Edit: I should say - so far, the Glass-Holes' folk and their kits have been awesome to work with. Hardest part of the experience so far was the post-office freaking me out by not delivering the packages to my house (post-man marked them for P.O. Box delivery instead) .. but even they were super cool and drove them out to me that evening.

 

[NanaReefer]

I know exactly how you feel ?

 

[spieszak]

yeah, no slight to the gl*******s folks at all
just space saving

 

[1guydude]

I went with glass holes.myself. before the ghost ones came out.
My current overflow is just a weir with some 1/2" spaces teeth on the front.

Go sump. You will regret or do it later. So might as well be now. Coral can be finicky. Lol. Dont forget to watch ur alk depending on ur stony or hard coral skeleton base bio load.
D

 

[1guydude]

Btw looking great
You can get some large zip ties...not cheap...
But they will hold ur rock in place till u cement it.
D

 

[Vandur]

Go sump. You will regret or do it later. So might as well be now. Coral can be finicky. Lol. Dont forget to watch ur alk depending on ur stony or hard coral skeleton base bio load.

It's more of a question of going individual dedicated sumps for the two tanks (as one will be mostly SPS and the other, more LPS/softies) or .. breaking down and setting up a larger sump. Since I've gone from individual stands to one large dedicated table/stand, I have .. a lot of room for activities under the stand. (Sadly, not enough to have a sump and a 150g rubbermade stock tank, or one would be under there in an instant. :S)

While, I can fully understand folks who choose to go no-sump (due to cost, space, or just because they are way more diligent about their tank then I am), I'd be hesitant to do any medium to large scale system without one any more. The extra water volume alone is worth it just for stability. Short of fry tanks all of my saltwater tanks will have sumps going forward. Plus .. I mean, I already dug out and cleaned a number of reactors, skimmers, etc. Would be a darn shame to waste the effort.

My local Petco (Lynnwood, WA) appears to be celebrating their remodel this weekend, not sure if its part of their re-opening or what, but they're offering the $1/gallon tank deal at the moment. It is very tempting to get a 50g just to fill with macro algae to add more water volume to the whole system (just bulkhead it on the ends to go straight back into the sump).

Side Note: If anyone takes them up on the $1/gallon deal, remember, they tax on the full non-discounted amount (usually). It always makes me wonder if they actually submit their taxes with the discount that way or as a traditional discount and just pocket the extra. :S

Also, this is just a quick shout out in case any of the Petco folks visit and see this -- they're almost always packed when I go in and yet I've always had pretty stellar service. As it seems this isn't the norm .. thanks! Now spend some time on your saltwater section .. it sometimes needs it.

~V

 

[Vandur]

You can get some large zip ties...not cheap...
But they will hold ur rock in place till u cement it.
D

Oh man, I have soooo many zip ties, and I'm not afraid to use them!

Btw looking great

ty ty! I had honestly expected to be farther along, but .. meh, like everything, my indecisiveness slows things down a bit. Luckily, I'm used to it and the project has no due dates so ... I can afford to slip the project a bit.

~V

 

[spieszak]

its an instant rebate. they charge you the full price. thats the reason behind the tax

 

[spieszak]

Harbor Freight usually has some pretty long zip ties in stock if you need....