Eckreef

+1 on what mike said.

I have a 40 g breed with a 20 L sump that I built.

It was exactly the same as yours except I had a single divider between the skimmer and fuge section and the 3 pane (over, under, over) section before the return pump.

Check out Melev's site for good info on sumps.

I recently traded it out for a custom sump made by Shane at Fishy business and it is awesome. Recommend you check it out. very quiet..no salt creep and no microbubbles.

I had been dealing with microbubbles for several months that were driving me nuts.

They were probably from having too much flow thru my sump. I have an Eheim 1260 return which is rated around 600 gph. I had some of the return Tee'd off to my fug section but there was still too much flow. Aim for around 3-5x turnover thru your sump and you should be ok with the above design as long as you switch the baffles.

Also...if you drill your 40g tank then check out a hofer gurgle buster for your overflow. Works great and very quiet.

I have been dealing with microbubbles and loud tank noise for the last 3 months

I redid my sump which eliminated the microbubbles but the gurgling was even worse.

I could hear my tank which is located in a front office all the way in the back bedroom of the house.

I had a DIY durso with an air valve but could never get it fine tuned enough to be quiet.

I tried a HGB today since I figured I had nothing to lose but time. Spent less than $3 at Lowes.

OMG!!!

Took me less than 20 minutes to make and only minutes to fine tune.

My overflow is now SILENT!!!!

If you are struggling with a loud overflow then I strongly recommend you give the HGB a try.

http://home.everestkc.net/jrobertson57268/HGB/HGB_construction.html

Just an FYI but I have no affiliation with Hofer and received nothing for the above endorsement

I am also a PADI AOW diver.

My wife and I got certified on our honeymoon in Maui in 1994.

My favorite dive trip was when I was in Thailand in 2002. A buddy and I lived on a dive boat which was a restored old chinese sailing "junk".

4 dives a day for 5 days...exhausting but an incredible experience...definitely one of my top 3...behind my honeymoon of course

Would be interested in a dive trip as well depending on the timing and cost...

Oh and Dave...I have been following your blog. That is one of the other reasons I decided to treat my tank.

It is definitely flatworms. Interestly the skimmer has not been producing as much as usual the last few days but good suggestion...I will adjust it to skim wet for a while.

So here is my story.

About 6 weeks ago i got a frag and noticed a small red spot on the base when putting it into my tank. Didn't think much of it at the time until I noticed several more red spots a few days later and they were slowly moving. Low and behold they were red flatworms. I tried siphoning and a 6 line wrasse but after 6 weeks they were taking over the tank but thankfully not causing any damage. Due to this plague I have now "officially" learned my lesson on dipping corals.

I have been reluctant to use any medication on my reef but after reading multiple good reviews on Salifert's flatworm exit I reluctantly decided to give it a try.

I siphoned out as many flatworms as I could see and dosed the tank appropriately. Within minutes I had a flatworm snowstorm that was impressive. Literally thousands appeared from every nook and cranny. Based on my reading the medication is not harmful to the other reef inhabits but the toxin released from the dying flatworms is. I continued to siphon flatworms for the next hour and had a filter pad in the sump that caught a lot. I ran a TLF canister with GAC the whole time to try to remove the toxin. I have continued to run carbon and did a 20% water change after 5 hours.

Now for my problem...the medication seems to have worked great however my inhabitants are not happy.

The fish are fine.

All my SPS, Acans, favia, ricordea look ok with good color but have not had any polyp extension for 2 days.

My frogspawn really gave me a scare yesterday as it looked like it was melting. It released a slime that looked like white cotton candy (no the brown jelly thankfully).

I immediately placed it in a QT tank and siphoned off the slim. It still has tentacles though they have been severely retracted. I also did a 10% water change with the water I had on hand. I placed the frogspawn back in the DT today and it is looking like it will pull through but still very retracted.

I will do another 20% water change tonight.

All measurable parameters are fine (pH, S.G. Alk, Ca, Mg, and NH4, NO3, NO2 and phosphates are all zero)

Now what? I assume I just ride it out...was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions or similar experiences.

I have several cups of carbon in the reactor and it was new 2 days ago. Would replacing it make a difference?

Thanks,

John

Dimensions? May be intrested. Sorry if I step all over this thread.

Dave,

It is a standard 20 gallon long which I beleive is 30x12x12.

Southside has dibs but if it falls through then I will let you know.

John

I upgraded my sump recently and have a 20g long with baffles already installed.

It needs cleaning but works good.

The baffles are siliconed in place and can easily be removed or modified.

$30

Pm sent for montipora undata

+2 for Misti at Sea Clearly.

You can reach her at 512-600-4779

I used her recently when I was gone for a week of vacation.

I had a friend come feed the tank a couple of times and had her come midweek just to check on everything (an experienced eye) and ensure that everything was running properly.

My neighbor that comes and feeds the fish always points to some of my SPS and asks "now...is this really alive".

definitely a bristle worm. They are a good part the cleanup crew and benifical as long as they don't get terribly big.

Interested in zoos1

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5) 1 kilowatt hour is around .06 (I think, check your bill)

Alex,

Who is your electric service provider? I have been shopping this recently and the cheapest I could find was around 10 cents/KWh

What are most using to dip their acros before adding them to your display?

Great Pix!

What kind of camera setup are you using?

Eck,

Are you tryin to access the Apex from a system outside your network an/or smartphone?

Dave-

Yes.

i can access my apex at home just fine using both my computer's web browser and aquanotes on my iPhone.

I cannot access the apex from abroad. I need to setup "port forwarding" but need to figure out how to do this on a mac.

Eck

nice that you have the extra height.

My vortec is 3" from the surface but my tank is only 16" tall so it "kicks things up" at full power.

I run my in reef crest mode at about 50% (in a 40g breeder)

My tank has been running for 2 months now and my live rock is about 30% covered with coralline. It is really exploding now.

I was very conservative and only ran the actinics for a about 4 hours a day during the first month. Coraline will grow well with the actinics...I kept the full spectrum lights off to prevent algae bloom.

I had minor algae bloom which some Turbo snails took care of very quickly. I added them after about 3 weeks. Kept temp around 78.

I began adding some corals around week 6 and just started adding fish. So far I have been very pleased with the results.

You can pull the shrimp out when you add the mud as that will be plenty for the cycle.

There are a variety of ways to seed coraline.

I added a couple of small peices of coraline rock in a area of high current and scrapped some coraline off as well.

How is the sugar sized sand handling the vortecs? I used the Caribsea reef select sand which is coarser and it still gets moved around by my MP40.

I was skeptical but it is true.

i ordered 2 buckets of salt and the shipping was only $5.99 total.

Great deal!

Looks great Mitch!

I really like the open rockscape.

I used a half a shrimp and stability and my tank fully cycled in about 3 weeks. There are many different ways to do this though. You will also want to find you some small pieces of LR to seed your corraline algae.

great pix!

What is the coral in the first pic?

Have you been able to configure your Apex to allow you remote internet access?

I have had mine for a month and love it but this is my last hurdle to tackle....

Nice Vid!!!! There's a thread on RC about the initial set up and progression of this tank.

Can you please list the RC link?

Disclaimer: No animals were actually harmed in the making of this photo

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