Entropy

I have a three to four inch bed in my current tank, but I usually go with 1-2 inches (in my last two tanks). I cheaped out on this one and used play sand so 100 pounds came out to more depth that I anticipated.

If you are using this in a movie application you don't need much for the rear channels. They do not provide much sound. The main sound producer is the center channel, and then the right and left front. The sides, rear (L+R), and R center just add highlights. I would just hook it up as is. I bet you will not notice the missing speaker that much for most movies.

Thanks for the stuff.

The 90g is actually the same foot print as the 75g and I would go for that over the 90g. The dimensions are much more beginner friendly. If you can swing it I would try for a 120g. But you can start much smaller. The best tanks IMO are equal or wider (front to back) than they are tall and have length in 2 foot increments. A 60g for instance (24x24x24) is a great tank and can be lit by a single halide. A 120g (which is two 60g's literally 48x24x24) is another excellent size and has basically double the requirements of the 60g. And then the 180g is triple (72x24x24).

Wow! Looks like a mutant hammer. I have never seen anything like it to be honest.

Well against my better judgement I tried running the skimmer off the drain line. It is to restrictive by itself (which is probably why water was running out the top of my tank ). I hooked up a ball valve to divert some of the water, but I don't think it is reliable enough to both push the skimmer and not overflow. I guess I will just go with the pump that is is supposed to have. I think I can get most of my $8 in fittings back from HD.

The pic is a little grainy, but it looks like you have nice hair algea growing, and what looks like a pretty healthy clump of macro algae. Maybe Halimeda?

The meeting at James house (Headless Donkey) started about 3pm with everyone rolling in over about 30 minutes time. For those of us coming from North Austin, both Mopac and I35 where bumper to bumper (SURPRISE!) so we got to sit in traffic. I guess we where not the only ones going somewhere on a Saturday afternoon.

Anyway after the crowd was assembled everyone spent about 30 minutes talking and making some introductions. James house was a nice setting since it has a tank of some kind in just about every room. We did not get to see the 500g super reef hidden in the “dog room”, but I guess everyone has to have their secrets. There were plenty of cold sodas and some yummy snacks to munch on and I have to give it to James and Jennifer for being excellent hosts.

As soon as everyone more or less settled in, James gave a presentation on supplements (mainly calcium and magnesium). John from Kingfish Aquariums also added some useful information on magnesium and I think we all came away with a better idea of the importance of the main elements needed for a healthy reef. The video is in the meeting archive section. I am also pretty sure several people came away with a magnesium complex.

This conversation was actually an excellent lead into the next presentation, which was given by John from Kingfish Aquariums on calcium reactors. Unfortunately for me the presentation was given in Latin, which I failed in high school. Looking around the room, everyone else seemed to understand it though, so either Austinites as a whole are fluent in Latin or I am just a noob! John fielded a bunch of questions and I was glad I was not the one standing up there athough after watching the video (again in the meeting archives) it turns out my ugly mug was in the shot the entire time.

Next Coral Reef Bazaar (Fredrick) showed us the next evolution of the Lumenarc (or the Lumen something or another). It was pretty awesome and I think it will sell very well once it hits the market.

After this we took a short break and I tried to walk off with the reflector. I had it about half way to my car before I was tackled by security. I had no idea that ARC had the budget to bring in security, but note to self for next time.

The next event was the coveted door prize give away (and no that is not the only reason I showed up). We had several nice offerings including a huge test kit of some kind from Austin Aquatic Innovations (again in Latin ) that a lot of people were drooling over, a Koralia 4 powerhead from Deep Blue Aquariums, an awesome little nano tank complete with accessories and several supplement goodies from River City Aquariums, several gift certificates from Aquatek, and some other goodies. I scored the Koralia pump (yes I rigged the drawing).

Shortly after the door prize giveaway we moved on to an informal auction to benefit Steve at Horizon Aquatics. The amount and quality of frags was pretty impressive and I think Kat summed it up best when she said, “obviously Austin Reefers (and a few of San Antonio finest too) are made of a higher grade”. It was hilarious to seem some of the bidders significant others cringe at the amount of newly won frags piling up as the event went on. Needless to say there are some very generous (and wealthy?) people in our club. I believe Kat said ARC raised over $1000, which seems incredible to me.

That was pretty much the highlights of the meeting. After the auction things started to wrap up and the people started shuffling out.

I would like to add that I personally had a great time and it was nice to meet a bunch of new people. I didn’t catch anywhere near enough names, and I wish I had recorded the meeting a bit better. It was my first meeting and I was more or less just soaking everything in. If I made any mistakes above (especially with the names) please forgive me and I know for sure I left out at least two people (Captain Bob for one). I would like to do a better job next time and hopefully get a roll sheet or something along with better exposure for our generous local business who donated either time or prizes (or both).

It is spray injection. The feed powers the whole skimmer. I looked at it when I got home and ran into another issue, so it is on hold for now. My sump is not tall enough to contain the skimmer exhaust port. It is about 14 inches up and my sump is only 12 inches tall. I am not ready to deal with random splashing yet. I want to get a bigger sump anyway, so I guess that is my next task.

I am going to try it tonight. The only problem is I am not 100% sure how much flow I am returning to the tank. I have a Rio 2100 and I am estimating roughly 300gph which would be perfect but it might be a bit more or less. The skimmer is designed to use a Maxijet 1200 which is 292gph. The other thing I am worried about is running all the drain through the skimmer. If it where to get clogged somehow it might get nasty. I guess I will have to protect the durso mouth somehow. Right now I am not worried (two fish), but down the road when I add snails and critters it might become an issue.

Depends how established your sand is. The longer you sand has been in there, the more stuff you will stir up and the more bacteria you will remove.

Also black sand really shows detrius, rock chips, food, and just about everything else floating around in the tank. It is a PITA to keep clean.

Is anyone feeding their skimmers from the tank drain? I picked up a simple AquaC Urchin to use on my tank and was thinking of feeding it from my drain line instead of a MJ1200. I am using a Rio2100 for return so I figure the return is around 300gph which is what the MJ1200 is rated for. I would only be saving 10 watts of power, but it would be one less pump to fail, and no additional heat. I think I might try it tonight after work. Anyone see any issues?

Yeah that is why I am going with a zoo tank. Can you PM me some prices? Maybe for your lesser known name brand stuff. Even small frags (a couple of polyps) would work to start. I am taking it pretty slow on this tank.

Dimensions on the 30R?

Have you guys seen my red checkboard longnose mystery wrasse? I am told it is super rare!!!!

Come on guys my camera sucks and I only have two fish (It was the hawkfish or the clown).

Marc I hope your not disappointed.

Even the 29g seahorse tank you pictured is 10 times nicer than my current setup.

I wouldn't mind joining in if there is room. My silly truck only seats two, but I am pretty good at tailgating.

I only have 25" on the front opening. Sorry. Free bump though. Good luck!

What are the dimensions on the 30L? I am looking for a bigger sump and that might just fit perfect.

Do you have any inexpesive zoos? My tank is only about 3 weeks old and I don't have my skimmer setup yet, so I don't want to spend much on something I might kill.

Welcome Chris! I just browsed through your site and read about your tank. I too would love to see pictures.

IMO they will be fine, but if you are concerned you can leave the lights on. Maybe reduce the time. Even reefs have storms where the sun doesn't shine for a couple of days, and everything you have in your tank was more than likely transported for at least two-three days in a bag/box in complete darkness. The only danger is that the bta may move, but that is a danger regardless of what you do.

Welcome to the world of worrying about your tank while you are gone. I have been a member for four years now.

I will if you want me too. I have been with RC for a long time and post whore there quite frequently. I would love to advertise our club as much as possible. I think we have a large pool of people to work with, we just need to get the bodies involved.

I am not sure about the rest of you, but I was pretty impressed with the people that showed up to the last meeting. My old club was about at the same stage as this one and we didn't have that kind of attendence from local stores, and industry people. Austin is a pretty cool city and I can see us hosting a MACNA or something down the road. I never had the opportunity in my old club because we where a small group in a small community.

I am just rambling now...

I would be more concerned with evap as well. Turn off anything that isn't vital to the tank (lights). The fish can go days without food (assuming they are not fish that need to be fed serveral times daily). All the common fishies can go a week if they are well fed to begin with (IMO).

No Prob. I figure we can at least post all the meeting dates and gatherings on there. Austin has 600k people and I know some of them probably visit RC and not ARC. I know it brought some traffic to my old club.