So you got a new fish tank Newbie (Continuation) - Page 4

WaterKeeper · #76 07/21/2006, 09:04 AM

Hi Monkey,

I think I'd go with the 72". I like long tanks and having a few inches less height helps reduce the lighting needs as you guessed. However, if you plan to use it as a dining table then you may want the deeper tank.

Fun,

As long as the Chaeto remains wet it will be fine. For me, keeping the bulk of the pods in the fuge was always a better solution as I would catch them to feed the Mandarin in the 30 gallon seahorse tank. Since the 130 is down I moved the fuge to the 30 so it might be smarter to place an elbow on the outlet to go deeper into the tank. You can always drill a small hole in the elbow to break the siphon if the pump shuts down to prevent an overflow in the display.

MancMonkey · #77 07/27/2006, 05:22 AM

Cheers WK, went for the 72x24x24, those puppies are heavy

I will be aquiring the rest of my gear over the coming weeks, i just have a quick question on circulation. The water turnover rate should be at least 10x that of the volume of the tank, i assume i dont want 10x 180g whizzing through my 40g sump hourly as this will prevent appropriate skimming etc?
In which case i would have to include closed loop circulation of some kind, powerheads maybe (am i on the money still??), the problem is i havent really found any sufficient information anywhere that explains how to do this or the equipment required, plumbing etc, i assume it be a pump and some form of directional head (the search function is playing silly buggers), do you have any informative threads i might set my beady eyes upon?

Shooter7 · #78 07/27/2006, 05:35 AM

Depending on what you're keeping, 10x the volume is pretty light. My 120 gal has over 30x the volume and I'm thinking of increasing that. You are correct that you don't want that much water going through your sump as you would most likely be asking for a lot of bubbles going into your display that way. For water flow in the tank, a couple of the more well known options are Tunze pumps - $$$ but deemed to be well made, reliable, and most are controllable, and Seio pumps - less money, considered to be less well made and some have had issues with not restarting very well after being turned off, but they can move alot of water for a much lower price. I have Seios in my tank and am happy at 6 months in so far with no probs. I have not used a closed loop, so can't help you with that. Checking in the equipment forum can help you in regards to reading up on these pumps and other ideas.

MancMonkey · #79 07/27/2006, 06:07 AM

Cheers Dave, question though, if you have water circulation of 30x volume and youre not running that volume through the sump, how are you doing it?

Had a look round the equipment area but drawn a blank so far, will try going further back.

Dave

Shooter7 · #80 07/27/2006, 06:18 AM

It's being pushed by the pumps. I have two Seio 1500's in my tank, rated at 1500 gph each. I also have some other pumps in there, along with my return pump, but the Seios are the big guns in there. Basically, it is getting the flow in the display from something other than your sump return pump. And if you incorporate a refugium in your sump area, you don't want water flying through there anyway, so many people advocate going somewhat lighter on the sump flow and getting your display flow through other means, as you alluded to in your previous post asking about pumps and closed loops.

If you're having trouble with the search function, go to the top of this page, click on "Home". On the home page, look at the upper left hand column and you will see a selection called "Search tools", click on that and it will send you to the Google search for RC.

MancMonkey · #81 07/27/2006, 06:22 AM

So are taking water frm the display by overflow and then returning it with your two Seios to get the required water turnover or are you pumping out of the display straight back in (which is my understanding of a closed loop)?

Sorry for all the questions and i appreciate you taking the time to answer them.

Dave

Shooter7 · #82 07/27/2006, 06:36 AM

No, the Seios are pumps/powerheads that are mounted IN the display tank itself. The water is pushed by them in the display and the water does not leave the display at any time while using them. I still have overflows that go to my sump and is fed back to the tank via my Mag 12 return pump, but all the other flow is provided by pumps/powerheads that are in the display itself. Here is a link to the Seios I have:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...egory_Code=RIO

Shooter7 · #83 07/27/2006, 06:39 AM

And this is a pic of one of them in my tank:

MancMonkey · #84 07/27/2006, 06:58 AM

Ahhh, now it becomes clear, good man. I was visualising the pumps being external to the display and not in a unit with the powerhead so assumed for some reason that water turnover was related to the volume removed/returned to the tank and not the circulation within the display itself.

So basically those two you have rated at 1500 gph based on my 180g would turnover about 17x the tank volume + maybe 5x going through the sump would give me roughly 20x display volume turnover.

Looks like my tank may remain empty for a couple more months, seems i don't know what i thought i knew

Cheers for the help though.

Shooter7 · #85 07/27/2006, 07:06 AM

Believe me, getting your setup clear in your mind BEFORE you put water in is worth the wait. Too many people plop in water, salt, rocks, fish...THEN ask how they should be doing this or that with their equipment. Far easier to plan it out ahead of time. Took me a year to get water into my 120g.

MancMonkey · #86 07/27/2006, 07:43 AM

Yes that was my plan.

My lighting plan is almost there, filtration is LR/LS sump and skimmer (may retro fit a fuge eventually). Electrics are half way there as a mate of mine is designing me an in built fuse/switch box and as the circulation is now clear i think some research into powerheads is in order. I havent looked into specific models of equipment but know the requirement i have for each so this is probably my next step.

Thanks for the advice Dave.

techreef · #87 07/27/2006, 08:14 AM

I agree w/ Shooter 110%. If you thought your 180G tank was heavy carrying it in when it was empty, you can forget about moving it an inch even when it's only 1/4 full of water. I just started adding water to my 90G two nights ago, after getting into this hobby back in Sept. '05. It was really hard to not toss water in right away, but i had to move the tank/stand several times while setting it up to do stuff like attach egg crate to the open back of the stand (dumb cats!) and run all of my closed loop plumbing back there. Shoot, I don't even know if I could budge an EMPTY 180 sitting on a stand!

Great to have you here on RC. Enjoy the planning and building. I'm finding it to be half the fun. And of course, document everything photographically for the picture hounds here on RC!

MancMonkey · #88 07/27/2006, 09:07 AM

I agree, the planning is half the fun and as eager as i am to start arranging rockwork and the like i want to get everything on paper first. I also have to factor in the cat situation as my girlfriend has two and both have developed decent fishing skills (much to the detriment of a neighbours pond!).

Yes it was heavy enough empty, built into a cabinet and it took myself and two other big blokes to move it safely. Calculated about 1000kg (2200lb) when full!

Shooter7 · #89 07/27/2006, 09:19 AM

If you're doing a FOWLR setup, a nice big Queen Trigger would probably cure the cats of their "fishing" habit.

MancMonkey · #90 07/27/2006, 09:28 AM

Hehe, now that would be interesting!

funloven · #91 07/27/2006, 10:27 PM

Shooter - I am always checking out everyone's pics to get an idea of what kind of PH they have and where they place them in their tanks. Great picture - thanks!

I was wondering why you took the directional snout off? and it looks like the PH is sitting on something - what is it?

goda · #92 07/27/2006, 11:18 PM

WK i just got a cool coral.. it isnt all slimy like the others. its bright white and has alot of branches.. the lfs said it was a acro or somthing like that

what type of light should i place it under?

Cuby2k · #93 07/28/2006, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by techreef
I agree w/ Shooter 110%. If you thought your 180G tank was heavy carrying it in when it was empty, you can forget about moving it an inch even when it's only 1/4 full of water. . . . .

True Story; My 14 YO son and I lifted my 180 out of the bed of my lifted Dodge ram with 33" tires (the truck not the tank) onto a wagon (regular small pneumatic tires) then into my garage. Later my sweet wife helped me lift the tank from the wagon onto a 36" high stand in my office. When I took the tank from the LFS to the glass guy to cut the holes it took FIVE men to lift it from the truck using those suction cup handles on the sides!

Now I would never recommend this to anyone and in fact looking back it was a stupid thing to do but we did it. I think I was so excited to get it from the truck onto the stand I developed this super human strength. I also noted that during that time I think I could see through walls. Not 100% sure about that but pretty close. No one attempted shooting me to determine if the bullets would bounce off and I guess that was probably for the best.

Yes the excitement can get to ya.

Shooter7 · #94 07/28/2006, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by funloven
Shooter - I am always checking out everyone's pics to get an idea of what kind of PH they have and where they place them in their tanks. Great picture - thanks!

I was wondering why you took the directional snout off? and it looks like the PH is sitting on something - what is it?

The pumps look like they do because of a mounting mod I did when I first set things up. There is a mod thread in the equipment forum on how to hang these things mounted sort of like a Tunze setup, and I did mine like this. Basically, the mounting bracket was hanging on the back wall of the tank with the powerheads pointed angled towards the opposite corners.

I ran into problems with this arrangement because I got annoying sand dunes forming in front of my rock as the pumps would push the sand around if I opened their flow up hardly at all. So I was not getting the full benefit of these pumps. I made the decision to buy one of the recently available Sure Grip magnet mounts and that's what you see my pump sitting on in that picture. Actually took those pics for the purpose of showing folks in my local forum what they looked like and how well the pump sits on it. The current location of the pump is a bit experimental, as I still do not have a Sure Grip for the other side. However, in this position I can run this pump full open. Once I get a magnet mount for the other side, I'll be able to adjust things more.

And as far as powerhead positioning, I'll also toss in that I decided when setting this tank up to make my rock piles pretty open inside and mounted maxijets behind each pile blowing into the rock formation. The hope is to help keep junk from collecting between and under the rock piles by creating good current through them. Hopefully this is working.

techreef · #95 07/28/2006, 06:41 AM

Cuby2k, i'm right with you on that one. I'm pretty certain that my wife was just guiding the tank up into the stand when we lifted my 90G up. Same thing getting it out of the truck, into the elevator, down the hallway, into the apartment... haha!

but i screwed up and didn't fly/run around the world fast enough to stop time while I had super powers (so I could work on the tank and not work)

WaterKeeper · #96 07/28/2006, 02:02 PM

Now that's what I like to see. You Noobs putting your heads together and solving your problems as a team.

And you are picking a very good time to do it as the Ole WaterKeeper is messed up pretty bad. I had a comminuted compound fracture of my lower right leg, Tibia and Fibula on Sunday night and just got out of the hospital Wednesday. I haven't been on the board too much and will likely be intermittent for some time.

But please, feel free to add to this thread and I hope people like Shooter will help field the questions. I'll bop in, I think I mean hop in,

from time to time and tackle unanswered posts.

Goda,

Do a search on Acropora both on RC and the web and find out what type it is. In general they like very bright light and medium to high flow rates. Don't hit them with all the light at once and gradually acclimate them to it. They exist many on photosynthetic residuals but plankton feeding helps.

PatMayo · #97 07/28/2006, 03:12 PM

I am very sorry to hear of your accident. I hope and pray that you will heal quickly and resume your "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation."

Heal quickly Tom.

Regards,

Pat

Shooter7 · #98 07/28/2006, 04:46 PM

What Tom failed to tell you newbies is that he acquired that fracture while kicking some newbie keester!!

Tom, don't know what you did, but hope you do well getting better. Did they give you some nice plates and screws with this repair?

Another war injury to sport! Seriously, get better soon as this board is not the same without you here. Take care.

IslandCrow · #99 07/28/2006, 08:38 PM

MancMonkey, if you're looking for some closed loop plans, check out this page: http://www.melevsreef.com/closedloop.html. It doesn't go into great detail, but I just built one, and it wasn't really that difficult. The only place I ran into some trouble was connecting flexible hose to PVC, which probably wouldn't have been all that necessary, except I have mine running through a chiller, and it just wasn't going to work out really well to use PVC for that. One modification I did to Melev's design was to add a ball valve to each side of the return piping so I could adjust the amount of flow I get out of either side as necessary. I'm not sure how well that would work with the wavemaker since I left that component out. I also had the PVC feed into a Loc-Line return U-tube instead of just having the PVC go straight into the tank. I just liked the look better, and it's nice to be able to adjust where the nozzles point in the tank. A good thing too, since my anemone did not appear to be very happy with my initial flow pattern.

goda · #**100** 07/28/2006, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Now that's what I like to see. You Noobs putting your heads together and solving your problems as a team.

And you are picking a very good time to do it as the Ole WaterKeeper is messed up pretty bad. I had a comminuted compound fracture of my lower right leg, Tibia and Fibula on Sunday night and just got out of the hospital Wednesday. I haven't been on the board too much and will likely be intermittent for some time.

But please, feel free to add to this thread and I hope people like Shooter will help field the questions. I'll bop in, I think I mean hop in, from time to time and tackle unanswered posts.

Goda,

Do a search on Acropora both on RC and the web and find out what type it is. In general they like very bright light and medium to high flow rates. Don't hit them with all the light at once and gradually acclimate them to it. They exist many on photosynthetic residuals but plankton feeding helps.

lmao i was trying to say i recieved a bleached coral ^^ was more of a bump then a post ment to be taken seriusly :P (i can tell healthy corals. but it would be good if we went over ways to pick out healthy corals and fish.. as it seems i am always pointing out to people that the coral they like isnt doing to hot ( i work at an lfs))