Elbeau

Agreed...can't argue with that.

Quite true. You have to isolate the water column and at some point drain from the top.

yes...yes...yes...all true. BUT............it's only true because you qualified your leak as a "small" leak. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to predict the future like that jk. Anyhow...let me throw this out and see if we can find some common ground. In my first reply to this post I said that it is safer to either syphon or to have drain holes drilled high in the back instead of low or underneath. I'll drop the syphon argument (not because I'm ever wrong...but because some mortals just have a hard time understanding my reality) and I'll just make the point about having drain holes drilled high in the tank instead of low. That way, it is still gravity fed (whew to all syphon critics) and it won't completely drain your tank if you have a slow, medium, fast, gushing, bubbling, or gurgling leak in your outlet, hose, sump, brain, or return lines, etc, etc. (whew to me)

Don't I wish....really. 2 1/2 months ago I moved here from Las Vegas. I vacated my Vegas home hoping it would sell even in the bad market there. What I didn't know is that I had a very slow water leak under my kitchen sink. My realtor found it two weeks later. My beautiful pergo floor was so wet some boards were curled 4" into the air :'( After extensive repairs to the drywall, counters, and floorboards of my entire downstairs...the flooring can finally get installed this week and I can try to salvage some money by renting out the place. The moral of this story is that a quick small leak would have been a million times more desirable than a slow undetected one (actually the moral of my sad story is to have someone checking on your home even when you think it's fine). But in any case. How much do you have invested in that tank? A little overflow from your sump is nothing compared to destroying your hard work and money that you have invested in your tank. And you don't really know how bad the leak would be. You can work with probabilities, but I'll still stick with the certainty that I don't have a way to drain my tank planned into my tank design. Anyways...enough rambling from me tonight...It's obvious that I'm way too tired for organized thinking right now. latre

I dunno guys. If I spill some water from a sump overflow my tank a little, then worst case I have to replace a little flooring (realistically most of us don't put our tanks on expensive flooring and a mop would clean it up)...and I'd much rather replace a pump than loose most or all of the water in my tank. Also, when (and I do mean WHEN) your gasket or whatever goes bad...you will definitely have a lot of water to clean up, so the burnt out pump is really the only argument here to me. IMHO of course. Siphon - MUCH better.

Predrilled holes are great...as long as they are predrilled high on the back of the tank. IMHO it is lunacy to assume that you will never in the future history of your tank have a leak as a result of the hole. If the hole is high in the back, you only loose the top portion of water when it happens. Because of this, I see no benefit to these pre-drilled holes compared to simply using an over-tank siphon hose. Sure, you will loose suction some day (still pretty rarely)...but when it happens, you won't wipe out your tank, you'll simply re-siphon. big deal.

I agree. It should be fine in the fuge...but there's nothing wrong with dropping a little rock in there for him to climb around. Peppermint and cleaner shrimp are remarkably hardy. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this...but I always buy a cleaner shrimp to help carry my tank through the cycle. He keeps the damsels/clownfish healthier during that horendous month of reef boredom...and I've never lost him. I did the same thing with a little pappermint guy this last time so that I could keep the upper hand on aptasias, and he did fine too. They seem to especially love frozen mysis.

I moved here from Las Vegas in July. Setting up two nano reefs was my first priority. They're cycled now and decently stocked. I think I've found most of the local stores. Can somebody give me a list of local resources. Also...does anybody want to trade scoops of refugium substrate...I love to diversify when I can.