New 75 Reef - Frag Outpost Forums - Coral Propagation and Reef Aquarium Forums

Teeka01 · 05-05-2006, 04:55 PM

That is looking great.

FragOutpost · 05-05-2006, 10:18 PM

The tank is looking great so far. Can't wait to see it when you get some rockwork established. How many overflows are you going to have? 1100gph return pump seems like a lot. You will need to ensure that your overflow(s) can handle that much flow. Most people will agree that you really don't need tons of flow going through the sump/fuge. The flow through my fuge is pretty light at around 550 gph, but I have a tunze 6060, a Seio 1100, a maxijet, and a rio 600 in my tank for increased flow and I have a 75 gallon. Personally I would use a smaller return pump and slow down the flow through the fuge and use a closed loop or efficient powerheads (like tunze streams or seios) for extra flow in the tank. 1100 gph on the retun pump will overpower a 1" pvc return line easily. Is there any reason that you plan on running 46.5" Vho's instead of T5HO's? VHO's last around 6 months whereas T5's will last around 1 year or longer and the bulbs are roughly the same price. T5's also use half the electricity as VHO's (54 watts compared to 110 watts) and produce far less heat. Plus you can fit more T5's over your tank than you can VHO's. Before making the plunge into a VHO setup I would suggest that you do some research on T5's and get some opinions from other people that are using them. Personally I think that you will be much happier and get better results from the T5's.

Anyways, Thanks for sharing your photos and please keep us updated on your progress. It is always great to see progression photos that start from the initial setup.

Symbiosis · 05-05-2006, 10:38 PM

Im pretty sure the overflow will be able to handle the input, which after head loss will should be about 900gph, but the size of the bulkead does have me worried. When I took it in to get it drilled I specified a 2" bulkhead. Unfortunately for whatever reason, I recieved a 1" bulkhead. I didn't have time to discuss the situation when I got the tank back, so I am going to have to call them tomorrow. More than slightly irritated the more I look into my situation. Just glad im in no hurry to get any of this up and running. After I talk with the LFS about what can be done, my pump situation my change. If he doesn't want to re-drill it, im going to try and get store credit to help reduce the cost of buying two pumps, one for return at a lower gph and one for a closed loop manifold.
As for T5HO's, I haven't looked into these that much and I should. I'll probably go over it tonight and compare costs for complete setups, etc.
On another subject, just read an article about the pro's and con's on activated carbon in a back issue of TFH magazine. I had heard many of the same agruments to why people don't use it and why people due. Iv'e come to the conclusion through my own experience that carbon is good stuff to run all the time. Just did a 10% water change on my 20 gal and decided it was time to replace the carbon thats running in the filter as it had been in there for about 4 weeks. Had slacked a bit on up-keep so the tank wasn't so clear and needed a good cleaning/scraping to remove some algae and pesky worms that insist on blocking my view. Anyways, after changing the carbon, the water is crystal clear and looks better than ever. I'll be sure to run it in any tank I keep.

FragOutpost · 05-05-2006, 10:48 PM

IMO - The key to carbon is to run small amounts of it and to change it frequently. There are probably as many different opinions on the use of carbon as there are types of carbon, so find what works best for you and stick with it. Personally I don't run it all of the time but when I do use it I use about a cup and change it after a week to prevent anyhting from leaching back into the water. I usually will drop in some carbon if I notice my water starting to yellow and needs some "polishing".

Symbiosis · 05-06-2006, 12:15 PM

I usually change mine every 3-4 weeks. Not really because I think the carbon is 'full' but more because the filter pad is saturated with gunk.

Symbiosis · 05-07-2006, 04:34 PM

Called my the guy at the shop yesterday and he had me bring my tank back in so they could re-drill it with a 2" bulkhead. A slight annoyance, but at least he's fixing it. Anyways, I looked into T5HO's and the price is quite a bit more for about the same amount of output. Also I think the VHO's will be easier to make the transition to HQI's later where I will be running 2 HQI's and two Actinic VHO's. But seeing as this is all the planning stages and will be for several months, anything can happen.

Symbiosis · 05-09-2006, 07:17 PM

Went to pick up my tank today with the 2" bulkhead installed. Got it all the way home and was looking at it when it was on the stand and decided that a scratch on the back paint was really a crack in the glass.

So I got out my flashlight and had a look. Sure enough, on either side of the bulkhead, 2 opaque lines were running opposite each other. So what did I do? Filled it up and said to hell with it all! Jk. Called the guy.... and he had me bring it back in. Normally they don't guarantee drilling, but since he hadn't told me that or put it on my invoice, he said he would either replace the glass panel, or order a new tank and re-drill it.

For review purposes, I've made 6 trips to this store in the process of having TFH (tank from hell) drilled. It's a 30-40 minute round trip each time. This equates to about 3-4 hours in drive time alone this tank has cost me, not to mention the 3 times I've loaded, and unloaded it into a Jetta, which is no fun btw. Hopefully I will have my repaired/new tank in about a week. But then the next weekend I go on vacation so I won't be able to buy anything for it or tinker. Oh well.