Jimbo662

17 hours ago, Gig 'em @ NDstructible said:

This sounds incredibly similar to what I’m currently building. What lights are you thinking? My one big regret right now is 7’ long is a real difficult tank to light with bar style lighting. T5s don’t come in 3.5’ or 7’. Radions can make it work, but that’s a lot of Radions. I am plumbing in HVAC to the room to keep it cool in the summer and will probably have a dehumidifier in there as well.

Two 3ft aquatic life hybrids (or similar) and 4-5 XR15s?

OMG!!! I was just at RCA and saw your tank. That thing is amazing!!!  The pics of the stand don't convey the size of it very well.

How exciting! Also think about humidity control. Make sure not to use standard drywall around it. BRS recently did a video where they talked about their BRS 160 tank where they cut a hole in the wall to run the plumbing through from the external overflow box and how salt creep and splashing was a big problem with the drywall.

Edit: Just saw something in victoly's thread that I didn't do on mine...access from the front of the tank.

WOW, can't wait to see this thing come together.

Does anyone happen to have a spare pump that I can borrow? I noticed my pressure was only running about 40PSI. I bypassed the pump and hooked it straight to the faucet and got the same PSI...thinking maybe it's a goner.

I had issues with my Tideline overflow for quite a while. Jake even got me a 2nd pair of gaskets which I finally was able to get the leaking to stop. I had to get everything lined up perfectly centered. Right at about a year ago I bought the Exotic Marine overflow. Couldn't be happier. They're very well built. Not at all flimsy like others and they have a better design that prevents waterfall noise. On the Tideline the external box is lower than the internal so to get the water level up high enough on the internal side you have to set your emergency overflow pipes as high as possible. Water level in my external box was about 1/4" from the top. Also, the Exotic doesn't have weirs so the water isn't broken up which contributes to the waterfall noise. You're more than welcome to come by and check it out.

21 hours ago, Timfish said:

What I'll do to slow down any kind of algae growing on sand is siphon off just the surface layer, drain off as much of the saltwater as possible then dump in a pint bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3%) and let it sit for a day then rinse and dump it back in.   Just stirring the sand I've found doesn't kill a lot of the algae leaving it to grow back pretty quickly.  You also want to monitor your alkalinity as this process is breaking down the sand and there sometimes appears to be some dissolution once it's back in the tank.

That's a great idea!

6 minutes ago, jolt said:

Sometimes that green stuff on the sand can be amphidinium dinos, which are difficult to get rid of because they do not go into the water column ahence UV is ineffective on them.  I fought them for about 11 months.  They thrive if your phosphate is too low, which keeps other organisms from competing with them.  If you ever want to get an ID on that stuff bring me a sample and we'll throw it under the microscope.  

You know...now that you mention it...they had pretty much gone away when my phosphate were averaging in the .1 - .15 range. Because of all the other algae I'd reduced the feedings a little and when I tested yesterday it was at .03. I'll increase feeding just a bit and see what that does. To get rid of the stuff, because it attaches to the sand and is hard to siphon, I've been swirling the sand like crazy to get it to detach then use a python hose and drain it into a felt filter sock along with it going down the drain.

Well...I'm still battling the ugly algae that covers the rocks (the kind that you can blow off with a baster) and the bright green stuff that carpets the sand.

This was weekend before last. It only takes about a week to look like this after cleaning.

After a good cleaning it looks like this.

I've been prepping to introduce SPS again and have had new rock getting seeded in the 45g that's attached to the system. After cleaning everything on Monday I switched out all of the rock. Old rock into the 45g and new rock in here. I'm still getting the bright green on the sand. Might pick up a sand sifting goby to see if that'll help deter it from forming.

WOW what an ordeal. Hope it solves your issues!

Glad to see it survived. My first one went through an MP10 and didn't make it. Second one has been in tanks with foam covers on them.

Sorry to hear about the crash. Always a fear...and I'm getting ready to start trying SPS again.

A little advise on the tank. I've got the PA Crystaline 130 with the external overflow. They use the Tideline overflow. It's extremely difficult to keep it quite. The rear box is lower than the inner box so it's hard to get the water level in the outer box high enough to stop the waterfall noise. I had to raise my emergency drains so the water in the outer box was about 1/4" from the top. I finally ditched it after about a year and got an Exotic Marine overflow. It's dead silent. I just had another reefer come over to check it out. He's about to order a PA tank too. He's currently using the Reef Synergy Ghost overflow which is the same basic design as the Tideline and the noise in it is his main complaint.

PMd.

WOW that's some huge frogspawn colonies.

PMd

He's gone!

10 hours ago, Bmwaaron said:

Hey Jimbo 

I am thinking about getting the PA 150 and wanted to know more info on your overflow experience. Did you have the 16 or 20 inch version? Would you have had PA do anthing different as far as drilling the overflow holes or was exotic marine able to compensate for  the 1/4 inch difference?

Hi.  I think I had the 16" overflow. Exotic was great to work with. Not sure that you would need to tell PA anything about the holes. But, knowing that they can mis-drill I would take as many measurements as you can to send to Exotic. Taylor didn't charge me any extra for the templates. Or you may be able to get Exotic to send you a template that can be sent to PA.

Pending

58 minutes ago, Dogfish said:

here ya go. ;     Gardens at Teravista - Round Rock, TX

Oh yeah...seen those...a bit out of my budget.

As I was reading this I kept thinking "is this my future he's talking about?" I've been renting for the past several years and decided it's time to buy my own place again. I think my best option is a townhouse where there's no outside maintenance. I've been browsing the options out there and one thing I keep looking for is a floorplan with that open area under the stairs to hide all the equipment! 

11 hours ago, Woods said:

Li am on vacation until Monday, but if you will hold it I will send you PayPal payment.

Mike

Deal!

He's fat and healthy and is about 4" long. My female clown is constantly running him away from her corner which usually ends up in water being splashed everywhere. Other than that he doesn't bother anyone else in the tank. He's a little frantic in the video. I had the screen off the tank and she charged him and he jumped. He actually almost made it into the other tank but bounced off the side of the tank and luckily onto a towel.

You will need a hood or screen on your tank because he does jump when he's startled.

Glad to see more people than just ARC appreciating your work!

If not they can order them. I've had one of the stores order them for me.