chrisfowler99

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 know the level my tank settles at when I turn the pumps off. And I measured (by scooping out 1 gallon at a time) how far the drop is in the level to pull 10 gallons. So if I'm going to do a 10 gallon water change I siphon out to that level. I'm usually pretty close to 10 gallons, but I don't have to be precise. I mix up 30 gallons of water at a time and I use 10-15/change. The next time I just top off my saltwater mixing tank, add the right amount of salt to replace what I used in my last change and set another 30 gallons mixing.

I am currently plumbed from the garage to the tank for new saltwater for water changes. I'm hoping, when I upgrade, that I'll be able to plumb back out to the garage into the drain for the water softener (that isn't there) for disposal of old water. I currently siphon to a Brute trashcan on wheels and dump into my daughter's bathtub...and then promptly clean the bathtub...

I'm pretty sure mine was eaten before I had hermits...

mine didn't make it because something ate it's legs...no clue who the culprit is.

Glass would be difficult to find the exact right size just laying around. I had Russell Glass in Georgetown cut mine when I was doing baffles for my 29. The price was reasonable. I even accidentally gave them the wrong dimensions for one and they cut another one for me while I waited (I paid for both).

Now I just need to finish cleaning the office and get a couple more tank quotes back so I can get moving on finalizing tank plans so I know exactly how big the hole in the wall needs to be...and when it needs to be all "fixed up".

Mariah actually pulled off that texture at our old house after stripping wallpaper. I remember it being a pain in the butt for her.

They have spray-on texture that can pull off a knock-down finish?

Trying to picture my wife's face if I were to pull down all of the drywall on the office side of that wall. LOL I know what you mean about being easier to "blend" I'd I do more of the wall, though. If I pull all the way to the side walls I still shouldn't need more than two sheets (less than 4' on each side). As long as I don't pull all the way to the ceiling. Thinking about 4x8 sheets of drywall and the 9' ceilings in that room suddenly makes me feel sorry for the builders.

What's sad is that I'm not actually paranoid about pulling the drywall and putting new stuff up (though I've never done it). I just don't like the idea of having to put up a texture to match the existing knock-down texture. Boo!

It was all up inside it...must have smothered it or something. I managed to frag off a healthy section, so I didn't lose the whole thing, but I lost a lot...in just a few days. In that picture you can see where the SPS has encrusted the plug, except the spot where the sponge is...it's pulled away from it there. I was concerned that it might take that SPS over too. Glad it isn't something bad...

I'm starting to get a few spots of this. I think it killed off a good portion of my Kryptonite Candy Cane a while back, but thought it was limited to that. Obviously not. It's lime green and seems kinda spongy.

Ok...some updates: Front (hall) frame: Back (office) frame: Back (office) full wall: Man that's pulling a lot of extra drywall that will have to be replaced. The question is...will I need to actually pull past the next studs to secure the horizontal pieces in?

Pretty sure I know what you're saying. My original drawing had the horizontal boards going all the way to the next stud...and then I realized how much extra drywall I'd have to pull to do that and I was trying to avoid it. The 2x6 header I didn't know about...and that's pulling more drywall... Time to modify my drawing.

A hole in the wall is going to happen! Now I just have to figure out how...so...let the Sketchuping based questions begin... I did some measurements and located the approximate stud positions and then created a roughly framed opening in the position I'm planning on. From the hallway side: From the office side: Somewhat obviously, the RED pieces are the additions. Everything else would be as it was. Now...what I'm hoping to do is minimize the amount of drywall I have to cut away on each side. From the hallway side: From the office side: I plan to tie the tank stand into the studs in the wall, which does actually bring up another issue. The carpet in the office. I am allowed to put a hole in the wall. I am not allowed to cut away the carpet, which means I have fun leveling it front to back. It also means that I have to build the stand so it avoids the carpet tack strip near the wall. I'm reasonably certain that the tack strip is going to be close enough tot he studs that I will not be able to fit a full 2x4 in there at the ground. So...what I'm greatly in need of is: First, someone to explain to me why my framing is bad and what I really need to do. Second, someone to assure me that I'm pretty close on the amount of drywall I will need to remove. Third, someone to help me come up with some stand ideas (I do plan on enclosing it as a cabinet) that will attach cleanly to the wall. Jeremy? Mike (the caferacer one ), You guys are two of the "someone"s I'm thinking of.

I've stopped feeding mine directly, hoping it won't split again. It's about 10"x6" when it spreads out during the day. Last time it made it near this size it split. If it splits again I'll have another one up for sale.

I believe it's Aquamend

Doesn't look like the same thing. The Firefly is kinda teal with green spots and almost looks fuzzy...