Krish
RF STAFF
Yeah...Flow should be real easy to accomplish in there...I think your setup will rock!
C.C. to B.B. progress..
- Thread starter daytonaconnecti
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Yeah...Flow should be real easy to accomplish in there...I think your setup will rock!
fishermann
Well-known member
No I don't know how to post pics. yet, a friend is coming up from Seattle next mo. to see the tank and is going to show me how, when it comes to computors I don't always get along.
As for stacking the rock I would rather if hje needs to go vertical either keep the contact points to a minimum or use more egg crate on legs from the first eggcrate to build a higher shelf and the legs can be covered with the rock on the lower level. As for slope, he probably won't have to worry about that since his spray bar won't be that high anyway.
The pvc you have coming down the back wall you can color with the purple primer solvent for pvc, it helps to make it disappear and when purple coraline grows on it it blends together.
As for stacking the rock I would rather if hje needs to go vertical either keep the contact points to a minimum or use more egg crate on legs from the first eggcrate to build a higher shelf and the legs can be covered with the rock on the lower level. As for slope, he probably won't have to worry about that since his spray bar won't be that high anyway.
The pvc you have coming down the back wall you can color with the purple primer solvent for pvc, it helps to make it disappear and when purple coraline grows on it it blends together.
Krish
RF STAFF
Hey man if it works for you...It's good enough for me...
John, it's real simple and easy to do. You don't necessarily have to do it by "attachment" style. If you have a picture already taken and saved to your computer, just go to http://imageshack.us/ click on browse, find your file you want to attach, click open, and then click host. After about 3-5 seconds a new page will appear with your picture. The 4th link down will be labelled "hot link for forums (1)" Just highlight it, copy it, and then past it in your reply. It will show up as text in your reply until you post it. Afterwards you'd have a cool picture like this!
fishermann
Well-known member
Thats easy for you to say, you must speak greek. he-he.
Krish
RF STAFF
LOL..Try it sometime. It is straight forward when you go to the site...
daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
iam thinking of making a spray bar, and fill the tank with tap water to finish the cleaning, install the eggcrate, and test both, to see witch flows better, with my current setup i can itroduce air to the system,witch shows up as tons of air bubbles, and it lets me see the flow of the water.... also this one sounds crazy, but after i get the eggcrate set up, if any is showing,iam going to ues wood grain contact paper strip to hide the eggcrate from view...its going to be this View attachment 8967 or this View attachment 8966
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daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
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Krish
RF STAFF
Oh man!!! When did this happen??? Looks great! You can't draw worth crap, but you sure can cut up some eggcrate(LOL JK) That looks really nice. I don't know if this makes any sense because I use to do this when I had undergravel filters back in 1700 bc(LOL) but I would leave one tube coming up slightly above the undergravel filter with a cap on it, and periodically, I would remove the cap and push my siphoning tube down it when doing a water change sucking out anything that got trapped underneath. You shouldn't have that problem with good flow though, but I thought I'd throw that out there anyway incase someone else has done it before and it worked like a charm. I figured I would try that if ever I did a similar setup as yours. Just a thought...Great job so far!
daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
after reading ive decided to go with a nozzle pointed stright down to push the down and under eggcrate
fishermann
Well-known member
Bill it looks like the eggcrate comes all the way forward. You need to leave it back and trim it with LR sitting on the bottom, try to find rock that has points to set it on, the reason being you need to be able to siphon out detritus in an open area in front of the reef
and get under the egg crate just incase you need too, but mainly an area for detritus to lay to vac out. Did you put some tap water in the tank first and try the flow out? You know you don't want to have to do this again so go slow and check things out first. You can use some fine sand to check your flow pattern, then remove all. I really don't see how one down pipe is going to spread out the flow enough to keep everything under the reef clean. You say in you PM that you already have salt water in the tank, sure hope you checked the flow first.
and get under the egg crate just incase you need too, but mainly an area for detritus to lay to vac out. Did you put some tap water in the tank first and try the flow out? You know you don't want to have to do this again so go slow and check things out first. You can use some fine sand to check your flow pattern, then remove all. I really don't see how one down pipe is going to spread out the flow enough to keep everything under the reef clean. You say in you PM that you already have salt water in the tank, sure hope you checked the flow first.
fishermann
Well-known member
Bill you need to have that eggcrate back from the front atleast 6" if not a little more, I'm sure when you had a sand bed you didn't have your reef all the way out to the front. There well be heavy pieces of detritus that well have to be vac'd out.
reedman
Well-known member
Here's a couple of thoughts for you Bill.
1) I think the nozzle pointing stright down the back will work well to keep the detritus in suspension or out front where you can syphon it
2) On the rockwork: You need to decide what is visually appealing for you. In a tank like yours you might think about getting some zipties, some acrylic rod or small diameter PVC, and a masonry drill bit. With these simple tools you can stack your rock in a stable tower like structure while still maintaining an open rock structure and have a nice looking quasi-natural aquascape.
3) Once you determine how much of the bottom of the aquarium your rock work will physically touch, trim your eggcrate rack to be about the same shape. This will serve two purposes...(1) it will be more visually appealing, and (2) it will allow you to syphon out any detritus that is pushed forward and not swept into your skimmer.
4) What are your longer term plans for the tank? Softies, LPS, SPS, Clams, mixed reef. This really affects the aquascape, lighting, flow, and water quality necessary to be successful.
Your going down the right path now. We'll continue to guide you. Keep up the paitence and ask questions like you are. It will ensure your best chance at success.
1) I think the nozzle pointing stright down the back will work well to keep the detritus in suspension or out front where you can syphon it
2) On the rockwork: You need to decide what is visually appealing for you. In a tank like yours you might think about getting some zipties, some acrylic rod or small diameter PVC, and a masonry drill bit. With these simple tools you can stack your rock in a stable tower like structure while still maintaining an open rock structure and have a nice looking quasi-natural aquascape.
3) Once you determine how much of the bottom of the aquarium your rock work will physically touch, trim your eggcrate rack to be about the same shape. This will serve two purposes...(1) it will be more visually appealing, and (2) it will allow you to syphon out any detritus that is pushed forward and not swept into your skimmer.
4) What are your longer term plans for the tank? Softies, LPS, SPS, Clams, mixed reef. This really affects the aquascape, lighting, flow, and water quality necessary to be successful.
Your going down the right path now. We'll continue to guide you. Keep up the paitence and ask questions like you are. It will ensure your best chance at success.
Krish
RF STAFF
John makes some good points...Good thinking John! I think it would be a good idea push the eggcrate back a bit. What I suggested about the open tube to push a tube down to suck out detritus (like I said 1700bc technology) wouldn't be necessary if you do what John says. With the flow pushing detritus to the front of the tank, either it will stay there for you to remove it, or be lifted back up into the water column to be removed via mechanical filtration, skimming, by corals etc. You shouldn't have to, by no means, need to get to the back of your tank to clean it, because with the proper flow, nothing should settle there...Best of luck!
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daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
sence my tank is shaped like a diamond,do i need to keep the eggcrate back at least 6'' on the three front sides, what about the two back sides and at the back where it comes to a point?
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Krish
RF STAFF
I think that Reed had a good suggestion on tip #3, post #33 with how to trim the eggcrate. The way he describes it, sounds like the way to go IMO in terms of overall trimming of the eggcrate...
fishermann
Well-known member
Bill looking at your pics I would trim it back across the front which well trim it back on the front sides a littlle also. I still worry that just one pipe sticking straight down well not do the whole bottom. You need to have the pipe running down through a hole in the eggcrate and if it was me I would say maybe put a pvc cap on it and cut a say 1/8" or wider slot say 1/2 way through it just below the cap end so you get more of a flared flow coming out. Like I said before you need to test the flow pattern first. I wouldn't glue the cap to the end of the pipe until you are satisfied you have the flow you want.
fishermann
Well-known member
Also you need to trim the egg crate like Reed says if you are not going to build the reef all the way out to the glass you don't want eggcrate showing when you look in the tank.
daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
cool thanks,if i did build out that far, i was thinking of using a strip of woodgrain contact paper to match my stand and hide the edges of the eggcrate, what i did is to use two loc-line spreders to fan spray water, under the eggcrate, also think of building up the back and out to the middle with lr, i figure with the front three sides, or just the front cut back 5-6'' i can get to pretty much anywhere under the eggcrate for cleaning, does this sound ok? any one have any pics of a tank hex shape using eggcrate,
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reedman
Well-known member
This is a legitimate concern. I suggested to Bill putting an outlet pushing water straight down, as this is what I have found to work best in my 75 gallon. I have had outlets here, there, and everywhere and have seen people try to implement a spray bar and none have worked as well as a simple outlet pushing water straight down. The flow simply comes off the bottom and back glass and deflects in all directions.
