Pies

Test it out before you plumb it if you not sure. As for ball valves and Ts. You would be a kamakazi pilot not to build in a way to bleed of extra water flow and cope with the chiller failing or needing to be disconnected. You can use another pump, and I am sure that it will work fine. But it is wastfull, having all that energy from gravity wasted. In my setup I guesstimate approximatly 6000 litres an hr is pushed through my system via the return pump. Given that, I must be able to use 1200 litres of it to run a chiller. Worked for me so far. yes and no if I understand you question correctly. Leave the return plumbing alone, and plumb the chiller into the return from the tank. This is what I mean. You pump water up to the tank, it falls back down, then you use another pump to pump it up and through the chiller and it falls back down, why do this? You can achive the same thing with the 1 pump. You have a custom built and dedicated sump room. Pie

Yah I am happy to go with Fans, but the chiller is just such an expensive piece of kit. fingers crossed that fans will do it. Pie

Of course the flow would be restricted but gravity is doing exactly the same thing as a pump. e.g. my skimmer wants 3000 litres an hr, which is driven by gravity. My fludozed reactor for phosphate resin, same deal. If I have to buy a chiller (ack!) I certaily will be powering it by gravity. Gravity and a pump are doing exactly the same thing. It seems wastful to pump water all the way up, let it drop down, the pump it back up to the chiller then back down again? Work the IWAKI. Pie

2x DSBs in this months RC TOTM. WOW. If thats not reason enough to add a DSB I don't know what is. Pie

I will be happy if I can get the tank to stay under 30. However if I see it trigger 30, it will be time for a chiller, 29 I can live with. Pie

Its interesting, I don't belive my heaters have been on since I insulated the last wall in the sump room. I would be surprised if they have been on once. I have connected my extraction fan up to the 'chiller' part of the temprature controller, which comes on frequently. Good news for the power bill. Doesn't fare well for summer though I pray I don't have to buy a chiller. Pie

I evap 13 litres a day from approximatly 2500 litres of water. Pies

24 is not low, leave it alone. Pie

I think millions of years living in that environment means that is what they need/require. If you gut out an area with seaweed corals don't just pop-up. There is no doubt that algae can choke corals (florida for example) as the high nutrients (phosphates and nitrates from errosion of wet leands beacuse of beachfront property) are killing their reefs. No doubt. If a coral is supposed to be brown, then so be it. What you don't want to see is the blue acros brown because they are in poor environments. And remember, low nutrients doesn't mean low food. Pies

Sand beds/plenums, calurpa and o2 exchange can release phosphates. Sandbeds (live) also consume detritus with all the live animals etc living in them including bacterria. Not sure that a sandbed is dirty (I have no love for the mud, but have respect for its results). Lots and lots of tanks out there with SPS and sandbeds that are stunners. Again results speak volumes. SteveA - The low nutrient environment more closely resembes the natural environemnt for the SPS. As for colour only being for our benifit, not sure if thats true, but it mostly is. I want my corals to resemble how they look in the wild, which is not chocolate brown. Coral survival is easy, coral thriving is my goal. Pie

There are heaps around. Coral magizine seems to feature quite a lot. Kosh's tank on UR is, in my opnion a great tank. This guy has a great outlook on his tank, and he setup about the sametime as me. http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/inde ... =4&t=28872 Was it this months or last months RC that was skimmerless? And one of the recent TOTM on UR. Pie

I agree and disagree. I wouldn't consider doing it myself. I also think the skimmer tanks are far more likley to be successful. HOWEVER. There are just too many tanks out there without skimmers that are established and look awesome to discredited it. So its the results I am impressed with, but the thinking behind it does't compute for me. Proof is ultimatly in the pudding. Pie

EXPERIMENT TIME: I just counted out 10 glass shrimsp from my 'bucket of shrimp'. I picked the smallest ones I could find, most between 2-3cm long. I turned the tap down on the return pump so only about 1/4 the normal amout of water is setn upstairs. Note the pump still spins at the same revoultion, just less water is being pushed through. I dumped all 10 of them in my sump, in the last compartment when the return pump sends water to the display tank upstairs. I raced upstairs to count whatever is comming out. I counted 8 live shrimps shot out of the sea swirls, alive. It is possilbe that 9 came out as I thought I saw one shoot out but got distracted by anotehr one, but confirm 8. 2 MIA, presumed alive but unhappy. Of the 8 that entered the tank, Mr Hawkfish has already eaten 4, and I think a cleaner shrimp ate one (or perhapps cleaned it a little too well). So there you have my own experiment. Your results may vary. Piezola

From memory everything survived fine. There was a guy on the forum who sent a batch of clownfish fry (2 day, so still sac feeding) and said none suffered but it was not part of the study. Have you seen the inside of a pump? Plenty of room for pods of all sizes to fit in without getting squashed. No differed to being smacked by a wave or having a rock or something fall on you. Belive what you want in the end. I have a refugium bellow my tank, and I know it works fine. Proof is in the pudding. The top/hang on back jobbies are toys for smaller tanks when its impractical to anything else (e.g. tanks without sumps). i've seen a few tanks (angelreef being the most awesome example) who have both. But its from the 'reef nuts' who are obsessive in there setups. quoting random quotes from artciles found on-line doesn't carry much weight with me, the truth is you can search the internet to find information to support your arguement either way. However common sense is your most likley source of good advice. IMO. Pie

No experance with it my self, but there are lots of people who have run tanks without skimmers for years without problem. wouldn't do it myself, but people do, and do it well. Like I said before Cliff in duniden run his tank without a skimmer, and i've only seen photos but it looks pretty good from what I have seen. Its the MIRICLE in the MIRICLEMUD that makes it work. Pie

thereefweb did a test on ehmiem, OR, IWAKI, ViaAqua etc. The results were all the same, survival rate was almost 100%. Not the most scientific test in the world, but proved that most of the life gets through alive. Pie

Complete Crap. Most of the life, if not all of it, will survive the transition throught the return pump. Pie

You can only syphon down, not upwards. The reality is that these decvices are impractical for most of us. Get some powerheads and a wave maker or a SCWD and drill some closed loops. Pie

I have approximatly 15 brittle stars of different sizes up to large (bodies about the size of 4 50cent pieces! They eat snails, not had trouble with fish. I have read about green ones, and the green ones have a reputation as eating fish, the rest, as I understand it are fine. good luck Pie

Dissapointed, I thought that was a photo from your own tank Pie

I wouldn't use an airstone. Obvious sign of fish suffering from oxygen deprevation is that they will hand out near the surface (uncharacteristically). good luck Pie

Not for my SPS corals it won't Pies

Collected 250 litres of water last night for a water change (10%). Also re-treated for flatworm. What an awesome night, the water was crystal clear, was very warm and a great way to spend an hour. when I got the water home and did the water change it was LOADED with little critters, including some that looked like cockroachs! cool, fed em all straight into the tank, I don't expect them to have survived. Was good seeing the tank this morning, the feeding response from the corals was obvious. Great stuff. the skimmer experiment continues, although I am starting to favor the slower throughput through the skimmer, the actual about in volume of skimate removed is similar is both consistancy and colour and smell! All good from my perspective, have my eyes on my baby fungias, growing consistantly now, and getting larger. Hope to have them for sale/trade within the next3 months (be 5-10c piece size). Piemania

A freshwater dip eh. Its so crazy it may just work! Funny mini story in the Joyce 'clownfish book' about freshwater dips. When she started she was told to keep this fish in the freshwater for as long as the fish doesn't look distressed or up to 15 minutes. She sais she has clownfish in freshwater for over 45mins, and not bothered at all, and feeding! hahahaha, as if there was any doubt as to how stupid clowfish are... Pies

The media I am using comes from ZeovitNZ, its made by the Zeovit company. I use it at approx 15% of my reactor volume, it lasts about as long as the media. I've maintained 1300+ mg since I added my reactor, so about 2.5 years at a guess. My reactor is a large, it holds about 10 litres of media. The NSW down here measures about 1200. GT on UR runs its at 1480, he sais anything more than 1480 and he gets hair algae. he belives the higer mg helps corals grow much faster and hold their colour better. I believe the first statement, not sure about the 2nd. Pie