prof

Alright...The vote is over. 'Nemo' is on the way!

Hurry up and get your votes in! I need to get this ordered.

We found one like that in a bucket of bait shrimp last time we were at the coast. Cool creature!

FISH SOCK Epic Reef will donate one if everyone can pick one. Someone start a poll...

I like the blue glittery rocks from PetsMart... But seriously, any version of crushed coral is probably your best choice. Depends on what you want to keep. You will want a finer sand for burrowing type creatures. Beyond that it is mostly a personal preference.

Has anyone tried photo stacking? It looks like you can make some really cool pictures. Here is a quick tutorial on how to stack with Combinezm. Digital Grin Here is a link to some photos done by cherrycorals and posted on MAAST. Link to MAAST

I downloaded webcamxp last night. Seems real easy to use. I set up a quick camera and it works ok. I will try to get something permanent up this weekend.

Looks great! Camera/lense?

The ehiem and mag are designed to allow external usage. I just don't trust the flimsy connections. Like Mike said, the plastic faces can break and create slow leaks. Iwaki/Supreme/etc. use PVC hard fittings and have feet to screw them down. Just a little peace of mind for me.

Water turnover is always debated. If you have 5+ times turnover in the tank you are greatly cutting down reaction time in your sump. Slow flow in your sump (slower in a refuguim) is a good thing. If you are depending on your return pump to provide flow in the main tank you have to give up the reaction time to move enough water. Hence the existence of closed loops, tunze, koralia, etc. Always research the pump to see if it is pressure rated. You don't want to try to throttle down powerheads or pumps like the mags.

Depends on how much flow you want through the sump. Iwaki, PanWorld, Supreme....all good pumps. I don't like running Mag drives or Ehiems external even though they are rated for it.

I like the idea. I would have to see a sketch of the plumbing. The 4 way manifold may be overcomplicated.

Be careful laying things under your stand. Plastic will keep water from going through to the floor but it will also trap water underneath. I prefer to be able to air out the underside of my stand if I get water on the floor. You can't air out plastic when it is on the floor. Condensation will occur as well. An open bottom stand is my preference.

A good coat of quality paint will handle the humidity. Plexi is not a bad idea but is probably overkill. In your planning stages make sure you have adequite room in your sump for any possible overflow. Laminates resist water just fine but you do not want to let water get in the joints. My old house flooded (pipe leak, not tank) and the flooring pulled apart and curled up. You want to dry it as fast as possible.

The smaller pumps are usually not pressure rated, meaning you can't throttle them back. I know that I have 2 Iwaki 40RLT pumps that are pressure rated.

I don't think I have a small enough pump that I would recommend. I do have some Iwaki pumps that would do the trick but the flow would be higher than I would like.

I don't think you want that much flow. <500gph would be much better for the growth of copepods. If your flow is too high than you will be blowing all of the pods out of the sump and not getting the breeding that you are after. I think you wouldn't want but 200-300gph flowing through your fuge area. That is 2-3x turnover in a 90g tank. As much as you don't want to shred the pods going to the tank you don't want so much flow that they all just cycle back to your skimmer/filtration.

Gravity feed is your best option. You can use an inline pump, like an iwaki, to cut down on the losses due to your pump shredding copepods. They use a vaned pump to push the motor and allow much more 'trash' through in one piece. Powerheads and in sump pumps use impellers that tend to chop everything up.

Don't forget that TDS is not a bad thing for our tanks. calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulfates Except for the last two, many reefers spend lots of money to add these trace elements to their systems. RO/DI water is just extra insurance against getting too many of any particular dissolved solid in your water. I think the biggest fear is getting heavy metals in your tank. These typically come from iron pipe which is not heavily used in most of Central Texas. I love my RO/DI and don't plan on giving it up but I have run many a successful tank on treated tap water. Leftover chlorine, chloramines, ammonias, etc that are used in water treatment are a bad thing but can easily be removed with a simple chemical treatment. It is easy to make an arguement for using tap water due to the high calcium levels that we have in the local water. All that being said....Melev and Buckeye both have good units for good prices.

Which Discount has the aquarium?

http://fishybusinesstx.com/

Just the pygmy goats

That is Stan.

Can't wait to see everyone. It will be fun. Bring the kids and let them run in the back yard. I am going to set up some water fun for the kids...