Rainer's 55!

thats what i was thinking...what i was thinking on that idea was...could i somehow rig the canister to fill my sump/fuge? overflows seem to be expensive for what they do...

my canister has a flow reducer, could i turn that down to simulate an overflow or will my return pump keep things evened out..

or is this just a dumb idea?
 
you're prolly right....

ok on a side note, i was reading the carpenter wrasse thread (which i want) and it made me think of the fact that i have no cover for my tank. I looked at a couple different things, like 24" glass lids from drsfosters or trying to find some clear eggcrate...

any suggestions?
 
I have some white egg crate.I tried glass tops but it heated the water to much and I'm pretty lazy when it comes to cleaning them.There maybe some kind of plastic screening from Lowes or HD that might work.If you find something besides eggrate PM me,I'm still looking.

I not a fan of eggcrate or glass so eventually my tank will have a canopy with cooling fans enclosed.
 
ok another small update. I got the 50lbs of base rock in today and got it all laid out (temporarily)

baserockbox.jpg


baserock4.jpg


baserock3.jpg


I ordered 22lbs of Fiji Ultra, 10lbs of Fiji Ultra Display grade, and 10 lbs of Tonga Red branch from Reefermadness. Hopefully the site Biff talking about on her build site does me right. Hopefully this will fill my tank up a little more and wont start another cycle, since its all pre-cured. Course its not like my cycle is done now anyway lol.:shock:

on a side note , my cheap little base rock came with quite a few little crabs and feather dusters!:^:
 
Looks great! Even pre-cured rock will have a little bit of die off during shipping, but it will probably not be enough to kill anything in your tank.
 
well my tank is still empty, just has sand and rocks, i hate wasting money so patience is key..

anyone gonna have some frags to donate here in a couple months ? :)
 
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Ive been eyeing carpenter wrasse as a first fish, with the plan of getting a harem of them (whatever that means lol) Is this unrealistic for my 55g?
 
A through the back wall bulkhead is cheaper and more dependable than any and all overflows, bar none. Even with the purchase of bit, bulkhead and all piping and fittings you will have less money invested than just the cost of a fair, not good, siphon overflow. And an overflow with pump assist costs even more. Glass holes really are easy to drill! Really. Hell, you could put in two back wall overflows and still have less money invested and I have never heard of two separate bulkhead overflows getting clogged up at the same time. Have some guts people, drill holes, like professionals, quit being so amateurish! Take a chance. Win a prize. Like a good dependable overflow!
 
but, but im skeered :shock:


i promise ill do it when i upgrade! actually ill prolly buy one predrilled or with built in overflows...
 
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AGA, Oceanic and other major tank manafacturers are chronic at putting in under sized overflows which are rated at twice the flow at which they preform. I have drilled 74 hole in 11 tanks in the last two weeks. My 120 Gallon AGA tank has 10 holes in it, not counting the factory bottom glass holes which were to little to give enough flow to sump (I cut out the overflow towers and plug the factory little holes. Opened up a lot of wasted space in the tank. Glass holes really are easy. Please take the time to look at the site: glass-holes.com You will see that things really are easy and relatively cheap. You can even get an in tank overflow box, plus hole saw, bulkhead(s) and fitting(s) for less or about the same as a good quality siphon overflow boxes. The glass-holes boxes are hand made and use 1/4" thick black plastic. I use their largest box on my 120 gallon along with two custom (Alaskan) inlet boxes for closed loop circulation pumps. My largest pump circulates 3100 gph and has a 2" inlet and a 2" return pipe branched out too four 3/4" LocLine nozzles on a closed loop. A second pump returns about 1100 gph from the sump through two 3/4" Locline nozzles and a third pump is a backup on a closed loop which can circulate about 1150 gph also through 3/4" Locline nozzles.I like lots of circulation. And yes I do make money on the side drilling tanks. It is easy and pays well, and only took four store advertisements to set me up with more work than I wanted during my school break.
 
well its really not that i dont think its a good idea or that im scared to do it. My reason is because I have no desire to empty my tank and move it away from the wall.


on a side note, the octopus 300 HoB I ordered from aquacave.com was still on backorder today, so in light of my new sump/fuge designs i canceled it. Now Im going to look around for an in sump skimmer, possible the super skimmer i see everyone talk about.

on another side note, reefermadness is looking pretty awesome at the moment. I ordered rock from them late last night and got a call just a bit ago saying it was shipping now and would be here tomorrow! My live base rock I ordered from reef topia took a little over a week to get here.
 
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The top selling skimmers now are needle wheel skimmers. Turboflotor, Octopus, Red Sea, Corallife, Euro-Reef and nearly all other major manufacturers have needle wheel designs. I have a Turboflotor which is a good skimmer but has quite a large footprint 7 1/4" x 16" meaning it has to run length wise in most sumps, meaning no real room for bubble baffles in 20 gallon standard tanks. They are quite, relatively short and heavy produces of skimmate. But I do not recall the Super Skimmer, chances are good though that it is also a needle wheel type skimmer. Look at the Tampa Bay Live Rock site for the best tank cycling / live rock curing methods. It does involve water changes but assures you keep the highest ratio of your life forms alive that come with and on/in your live rock.
 
you may be disappointed.....I have foregone making a typical sump. I couldnt find a good skimmer that would leave me the amount of room i want for a refugium, so im sticking with the HoB octopus i have backordered from aquacave.

However once my return pump comes in i can complete the plumbing job and my baffles are glued into the 10g so ill get some pics once i get it running.


its too late to paint the back of my tank, so i think im gonna just paint some cardboard black and stick it back there to cover stuff up. Unless someone has a better idea
 

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