chrisfowler99

hehe

You can always choke down the return pump to have less water going down the open channel. It shouldn't be much more than a trickle.

You mean when you turn the open channel into a siphon? Otherwise it is going to have air... It also looks like your outlets are low. They should be just a bit below the surface of the water. Otherwise the siphon can have a harder time getting going fully. (speaking from the voice of no experience, but lots of reading. )

So you never found 1 1/4" sanitary tees I take it? That can be a source of a little bit of extra noise on the open channel...the 90 degree elbows at the bottom might be too...

Oddly...the "standard" drawings he has use 1" for "drain" and 1.5" for the rest of it. It's definitely based on the durso. The only difference between the main siphon and a typical durso is that it's meant to be a full siphon at all times, which should make it dead silent. The second line is a true durso, but the amount of water flowing through it should be very minimal, which should result in it being silent as well. The more water you have going through it the more noise it's going to make. The third line...yeah, probably overkill. It's for the "failsafe" claim which, if you have enough room in your tank to hold the volume of water that you can pump out of your sump, you should, technically, never need. (I know you harp on this one Mike. ) I have a regular durso standpipe in my 75g right now. It's not completely silent, but it's not terribly noisy. The main thing I don't like is that I've never managed to get the return pump and the drain completely matched. About once a day it flushes. More often if I don't keep the hole on top cleaned out. If I was 100% sure I will never want to do a wave I'd definitely be going with this setup. It's not that difficult to setup on a new tank and should be pretty much dead silent, setup correctly. But...with the thoughts about a wave I may end up with something different.

I've been through the thread on RC several times. Most of the opinions on waves are "maybe." Seems to pretty much depend on the wave size. Too large and you run the risk of breaking the siphon during the trough between the peaks. I'll be plumbing a 180ish gallon tank with it, so I may need to go a little larger. It does look like the sanitary tee will be the hardest part to find, but I really haven't hunted yet. I think 1.25" parts are hard to find overall. I'm thinking 1.5". I can choke the siphon down if needed, but it gives me a wide range on the flow.

Yeah...the system doesn't need the siphon tube to run. It's just a part of the failsafe mechanism to cause a secondary siphon to start up if the water level gets too high. Looks great. Pretty sure that's what I'm going to go with in my new setup. The only thing giving me pause is the thoughts of possibly wanting a wave. Not sure how the siphon would handle that.

Looks like you went BeanAnimal with your overflow. Like it? I'm not seeing the siphon tube on the open channel drain, though. Am I just missing it?

I've got one spot that appeared the other day. Gonna grab a few peppermints on my way home today. We'll see if anything thinks they're a snack.

I did the same thing...refroze and it has been fine.

If you want an AC III, I'll have one for sale very soon. Replacing it with an Apex that just arrived. Send me a PM. Should be back from vacation late tomorrow. Probably change it out on Sunday.

I'm slightly freaked over the idea if changing tanks voluntarily. I can't imagine going through an emergency upgrade...and documenting the whole thing.

That "guy" who went with him was his wife...and she was free diving too. It wasn't a single shot, though it was made to look like one. Dean's Blue Hole is actually deeper than any free-diver has ever gone. Not sure exactly how they pulled the whole thing off, but it all comes out to a really cool video.

Weird...looks small for 1200 gallons. This is a 1000 gallon tank in Thailand that looks larger:

Looks so clean!

5' is all the room I have. Plus my light rig is a custom built (by me) setup that's at 48" right now. I might have to rerig it to 5', but that's just more aluminum angle bars and pop rivets.

Good point. At 5', I think I'm still ok in the rimless area with 1/2" glass...at least that's what the calculators seem to say. Glass cages, however, only builds a 5x2x2 tank (non-custom order) with what appears to be eurobracing on the front and sides and a cross-brace. They don't list a 5x2x2 rimless. I'm definitely going to have to visit some knowledgeable people at the end of this month.

Eurobracing... Seems like it would make maintenance a pain in the ***... You'd have to reach around it anytime you're in the tank, cleaning salt, etc... Is it done for no other reason than allowing thinner glass with no trim? Long run is it better to go thicker glass and rimless?

Wow...you aren't kidding when you say pricey!

That's kind of what I gathered. That you get a solid aquarium, but seals are ugly. I will be doing a hood, so the top won't be a big deal. But the front left corner will definitely be visible for me and I'd like it to be "decent".

I priced Glass Cages, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of having to clean up the silicone. I figure at some point I'll visit Kingfish and ask them about AGE. I haven't heard of Elos. I figure I'll have to get **** lucky to find exactly what I want already built.

Our anniversary is in about a week and a half, and Father's Day is a few weeks after that. Today I said, "Unless you have something specific you want to get me I'd rather have forgiveness for what I spend to upgrade my tank." And she didn't bat an eye... Thinking about upgrading from my 75g to a 5x2x2 150g...ish... I just might be picky enough to have to custom order. Dream setup at the moment would be: No center brace (might settle for a really small one) Front and left side Starfire (right side isn't in a very viewable space, but I figure most will come with that side starfire too) External Calfo overflow (to maximize tank space and flow) What else should be on my list? Of course, this will mean building a new stand...and having to build/buy a new sump. Debating the idea of starting over with dead rock so I can aquascape exactly as I'd like. Currently in dream/planning stages. After some vacations this summer these will become more concrete. Of course, I'll also be keeping my eyes open for someone selling something that's close or adaptable to what I'm looking for.

I didn't realize PM was a local company.

Might want to mention that the new button doesn't show up until you move the mouse over the area. I thought it was missing, but I moved the mouse there and it faded in. Very

looking awesome!