JamesWebb

I'm shooting at having it between 6 and 9 inches above the water line but haven't made the brackets yet because I wanted to put it at the optimal height depending on the fixture

For those that have looked into it, do you like their reef spectrum or do you recommend building a custom one? I like theirs but thought I'd check with y'all. Also it's for a 20 gallon long so it's only 12 inches deep so I'm thinking a wide beam angle is ideal, 90 degree?

great meeting, thanks again for hosting us all at your house!

glad i went and checked it out, can't wait to order up a 2 foot fixture for my new build. Maybe going to buy two and get some serious BANG and get some higher light corals than I can keep in my nano cube.

i plan on being there

Getting a new system set up and going to order some base rock but thought I would check to see if anyone here had some left over from an order they were wanting to sell. Looking for 15 or so pounds

here ya go.

So after looking into a bunch of places and doing all the digging I could and finally having my plan together to get the acrylic pieces made, I found a guy who makes a kit. Yeah my DIY has become a DI with help from a kit. I couldn't pass up the price or the quality of the product. It ended up being cheaper and looking better than I could have hoped to have made. Met the guy on another forum, got his page, bought it. without further adieu http://www.badfishreefsystems.com/index.html had exactly what I was going to make, just better. In his he also has a really sweet acrylic light fixture rack, which I am going to try to convince him to make to fit the Build My LED fixture, this will give the tank a super clean look.

i just ordered two, one for my current nuvo cube and one for this. I also got the pump and tubing/plumbing ordered. I found a guy on another forum who built a system exactly like the one I am thinking. Did it on a CNC machine at his work, I'm going to see if he will sell me the pieces already cut the same way his were that way I can just silicone them together and be good to go. The plan is to use base rock to build a rockscape, have it all epoxy together and then seed with live rock rubble and let the tank cycle for a while. No rush on this one because I have my other tank up and running to keep me busy.

After looking into your recommendation it appears to be almost identical for half the price.

I am thinking spin stream just because I like the random style flow it gives without taking up really any space, I haven't looked into many other options than the spin stream and the traditional flare nozzle return.

finally got a good picture of the worm i was talking about previously. I have noticed two of them now but finally got a good picture when it came out during a feeding of shrimp for my clown. Anyone know what it is?

My little project is a 20 gallon long that I bought during petco's one dollar a gallon sale that I want to build into an all in one; with a single overflow built into the back wall and return via spin stream. I am planning on doing a basic under-over type divide in the return chamber, with some type of filtration similar to my nuvo cube, which will lead to a single large chamber that I will keep small pieces of life rock in and also house my return pump and ATO. I have a large sheet of 1/4 inch acrylic that was given to me by a buddy that I can use but after looking to cutting it I may just go to a glass shop and see what they would charge for the three pieces I need.

The plan is to build the tank into a mini peninsula style tank with the rock scape resembling an peninsula and the tank being viewed from three sides. I plan on housing mostly acan/lps corals and a few small reef fish/inverts. I will be getting a custom LED set up built by build my LED.

Questions:

1) for the return pump, how large ie how many gph should I be looking for to enable me to only use the spin stream for water movement? is this large enough? http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pumps/submersible-pumps/eheim-300-compact-aquarium-pump-40-80gph.html or would i be better off going with http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pumps/submersible-pumps/eheim-600-compact-aquarium-pump-40-160gph.html

2) for the overflow/return, how much lower should the return be drilled below the overflow or does it not make a difference? also will the size/number of slots cut into the overflow make a huge difference?

In the pics I had two overflows but decided to just go with one, so ignore the other one. I made templates from cardboard to get an idea of what I would be working with, that's what the pics are.

Thanks for any input/suggestions!

Great livestock from Pham I love the frags I got from him they are super bright and growing like mad

Great livestock from Pham I love the frags I got from him they are super bright and growing like mad

So I have gotten some new additions; got a nuclear green palys, a new little zoa frag and as of today three frags of acan aussie lord, three different color morphs. I also have three small snails. The tank is really starting to come together and the clown is settling in nicely. I have moved the Xenia off the main rock work and onto its own little rock away from everything else. It was growing crazy fast and I dont want a xenia tank or have to get rid of a bunch of my rock. Water levels have been stable, my only complaint thus far is I wish I had an auto top off, because keeping the salinity stable is a hassle in this little system.

What did you use to glue the overflow in place?

Welcome! If your looking at a DIY sump pet I is having its $1 a gallon sale and you can pick up a tank real cheap for the next two days.

Welcome to Austin

I'm looking for frags/small colonies of Duncan and long tentacle plate corals for my nano reef build. These will become the center piece of my build so I'm looking for the most colorful varieties I can find. Please shoot me a pm or reply in the thread.

Can't wait to learn more about the company sounds like a great idea

You guys know anyone or any LFS with some cool Duncan corals that they are fragging for sell?

Thinking I'm going to try and get a Duncan coral, a long tentacle plate coral and then fill the rest of my keys spots in with various zoas. If I get a real cool Duncan I'll move the Xenia down And off of the main rock work.

That's awesome! Can't wait to learn more

Everything I'm finding is saying that they are not bad as long as they aren't messing with my soft corals and are actually good at helping keep the tank clean. I'll keep an eye out for any damage but don't plan on doing anything to remove them yet.