Pies

Sand maintenance? Whats that? I just leave mine, little crabs, snails and worms are working through it, and its covered in microbes (bugs) etc. I personally am just going to leave it. This is what I did with my other tank, no problems for 18 months, great coral growth and colours and cristal clear water always. You shouldn't have dead spots in the tank, these can cause nitrates and build up of 'poo'. Just get some circulation in there all the time, get it into the water colum and the skimmer should grab it. Most people agree that the sandbed provides food for corals. Layton - The articles about Hydrogen Sulfide said that the amount required to have a negitive effect on the water chemistry was so high it was incocievable that a home aquirum sand bed could generate enough to be a problem. So I am going with that If you want to read Eric Bournemans article its free on www.reefcentral.com link to reefkeeping online magizine (free from the good folks at RC). Pie

Sandbeds are where its 'at'. I have read more about sandbeds than any one man could, and my opnion on them has changed several times over the past few years. I am currently at the 'pro sandbed'. This is reinfoced by Eric Bournemans article currently published on reefkeeping online this month. Sand beds are in, sand-less is out. HOWEVER. Sandbeds without reasonable ciculation are bad. Go the sandbed. Also all the talk about 'noxious' gas release appears to be based on paranoia and little fact. There was a few interesting articles on advanced aquirist online about the effects of noxious gas in sandbeds (because when disterbed they can smell like rotton eggs). The testing done shows that its not doing any harm at all and shouldn't be something to be concerned with. I am using a 2" sandbed in my display, and a DSB in my sump. Keep in mind the sump is a 5 foot fishtank. Pie

RC will give you lots of information. Use good quality carbon as bad quality can leech phosphates. Don't use too much. Replace it regulary. I use one cup for about 5 days every 2-3 weeks. Clears the water, helps get rid of any toxins secerted by the corals. Pie

Thanks Suphew! Poped in and grabbed the bits from them, dediced to use Hansen Elbows too, about 50% the price of pressure pipe so works out a little cheaper. They had the right reducers in stock too, including the ones needed to convert the 25mm pump fittings to the 40mm pipe. So thats sweet, another hastle out of the way. I am hoping I don't need to buy any eggcrate (I have some, but may be a little short). So other than that have pretty much brought everything I need. YAY! All the running around takes up so much time. Will try and drill the holes through the floor this weekend. Things are comming together and the dates for putting water in are closing. Pie

A 1060? I am use 1262s and spray bars, which from my barrel tests seem to really pump through the water. A 1060 sittig in the tank would just be a hastle, and ugly. Pie

Off to Mico tommorow to get my 'odd bits' then to Bunnings to get some pipe. Maybee get it all drilled in this weekend. 2 holes in the floor, move the tank about 1cm further back and I am done. Ohhh and reef racks and spray bars need to be finished. Chimera - learn anything from your spray bars? Pie

Good, cheaper too Will try and organise plumbing tommorow. 40mm or 32mm? Looks like 40mm is going to win. Last chance to change my mind. Pie

So the question is, is it worth the hastle going with the Y or should I just use a T and be done with it? Pie

Reef - Digital ballast as opposed to Electronic ballast? Without getting into a semantic arguement, whats the guts? I am in the market for some electronic (digital??) ballasts 400w. Anyone got a source. Reef - did you stop using the CoralVue ones? What you running now? Got any adivice for me as I need to purchase lights soon! Ohhh and if you can't do a 8 foot tank for less than 20k there is something horribly wrong with the world. Pies

My bicolour blenny bites my arm and rips the hair off! I squeal so loud Jane comes running out assuming I have electricuted my self or worse Little son of a be'arch. Pie

RnB - Sorry man but what a load of 'cods wobble' The only thing you need to know about phosphates is you shouldn't have any. Knowing exactly how much you have is pretty irelivent. Why? Because your only course of action is to reduce them. Knowing you have .2 vs .1 vs 2.3245 is kind of pointless, if you detect them, do something about reducing them. The salifert test kit is so hard to read, but again the same maths as above applies. Who cares if you have .15 or .18 ? The bottom line is you want 0.00. The salifert test kit should read 'a blue tinge means you need to reduce phosphates, clear water means you don't'. Save the $100+ test kit and throw the money towards some phosphate removing technology salifert/rowa/zeovit/phosban or whatever you think works. Its kind of like knowing if your house is on fire. Knowing its on fire a lot or just a little doesn't really help end of pie rant

Heaps of debate on here about it. The keywords are NSW (Natural Sea Water) and ASW (Artificial Sea Water). My vote is on NSW, but there is divided opnion. Pie

As Wasp has said, many things to consider. From your description perhapps different lighting/more lighting/new bulbs will help with the algae. As will more water circulation. But water quality is paramount, and a challenge in smaller tanks. Still sounds like things are still going well for you so keep up the water changes, keep your hands out of the tank and good luck Pie Ohhh how about some pics?

Similar specs to mine, my sump is over 700 litres though. If you going to do the island thing (viewable from all 4 sides, AWESOME!). Its going to be hard to aquascape it (you don't want rock to close to the side glass as you won't be able to clean it). Drill holes and have the overflow in the center. Lots of links on RC about it. It can have a cool effect and 4 feet is certainly wide enough to create a great effect. AWESOME. Pics! Have you started yet? Pics! Pieman

Not bidding against myself, just looking for the reserve, i'll go a couple hungy for it, not much more I wouldn't think. I have an IWAKI30RLT which isn't much difference I don't think. Pie

Chimera thinks this would cost less than 1k landed to me from where he got his from. Thats a HUGE difference than 2k + GST.... Pie

Max 6M head, and only 47 litres a min, but might be OK until I can buy something better. Threw a few bids on it, looks like RnB is there too. Also only uses 1/2 inch (15mm) inlet/outlets. Will talk to Jane about it, but unlikley to suit my purposes for the long term, but seems to be a good price, will wait and see. Pie

I really think your tank will be fine in 10mm glass with a thicker base. Is that price for new or 2nd hand glass? Things to consider: Glass doesn't age (people may debate this, but it doesn't get brittle or anything silly like that), certainly not an issue for our liftime. So 2nd hand glass can greatly reduce the price. If you can't find good condition 2nd hand glass, remember typically setups are only seen from the front and both sides (1 side in my case). So you can use manky glass for the back, sides (maybee) and bottom. Insted of buying 15mm glass for the base (ouch!!!) I used 10mm and 12mm laminated together. I wanted 15mm+ base for the bottom, so it was far cheaper to lamiante to together than use 1 thicker base. Also much stronger and less prone to problems. Polished edges are nice, but why polish edges for glass you can't see (the bottom, back and rear). If you want polished edges, just get the edges you are going to see done. If its a reef tank you probably want holes drilled it in. Expect to pay $20+ for each hole. As for the price of my tank, I got a very good deal compared to the prices you have stated. Tank size. Before you rush off think about everything. Why 4 feet wide? Why not a little wider than 4 feet? That way you can run 4ft fluro bulbs front to back. My tank is just over 3 feet wide for this reason. Its going to be VERY difficult to get to the back of such a wide tank, and 2 feet is quite deep. You will need some sort of technology to reach into the back of it. Mine is pushing the limits of how much I can stretch my body from a step ladder as it is As I said, all of the glass shops I visited couldn't source iron free glass in thicker than 10mm, and its weaker, so far to dangerous for my purposes. Good luck, AWESOME project. Thats a LOT of water! Pies

Suphew - Can you give me the details of that place, I might try and get out there this afternoon if they have the hansen fittings in stock. Chimera - Whats your spreadsheet say on T vs Y. I assume if I use a Y, then I will need to use 2x 45s as well to get the right angle? You right about the tap restricting flow. So I need to convert 40mm to 20mm female (for the 20mm hansen tap fittings), and 25mm to 40mm for the Iwaki pump. I wounder what price they can do the Iwaki for... Thanks!

I wounder if I should go 40mm from the pump to the T, then 32mm from the T to the Sea Swirl? The only issue I have now is that I only have a limited space behind the tank to convert from 40mm -> 20mm. I will have to get an elbow with a threaded end then a reducer to 20mm for the 20mm hansen fitting to attach to. If I can get that done this week, it means I may be close to getting water in it the following week!!! Pie

Chimera - You may have redeemed yourself Thanks for that. Looks like the polls are in, 40mm from the IWAKI100 (which I still don't own) straight up to the sea swirls via a T junction (I don't think a Y is really going to make any difference). I am not sure what you mean? This pipe is on the outside behind the tank, so you won't see it either way. Pieman on a mission.

If I have taps (which I will) in both sections before the SeaSwirl I should be able to use that to ballance the flow (I think). There should be over 11,000 litres an hr of flow from the Closed Loops. An additional 36,000 litres an he of flow from the 3x Streams. So the 6,000 litre an hr (estimated) from the return plumbing will help, but ballance isn't that important, butif I am paying for the pump to run, I want to get the mostout of it as I can. Perhapps Chimera can run the numbers through his new found Spreadsheet and give me the low down? Pie

Well return plumbing (from the sump back to the tank) ramains as one of the last tasks to be done before I can begin to fill the tank. Pie size will be either 32mm or 40mm, and I am leaning towards 32mm. This needs to feed 2x Sea Swirls with 20mm connections. So pipe reduction is going to be nessessary. Here are my 2 ideas: The left hand shows the piping comming up from one end, and one long pipe feeding both sea swirls. The second shows the more traditional method of useinga T (or Y) to split the current at about the center. The center method should provide more consistant flow through the sea swirls but is be less desirable method because of plumbing reasons (tider in the first option). Your thoughts please. Pies

I went to 3 different glass people (Port Nicholoson Glass, Capital Glass & Wellington Glass Specialists), got the same story from each of them. Any idea what the cost is of the 12mm & 19mm m2? Pie

Yes I investigated it & found it. 3 problems: 1. Its VERY expensive (the cost of the glass at wholesale price *no markup* to do the front and one side was going to cost more than what I paid for the entire tank and cabinet) 2. Its only available up to 10mm here in NZ 3. 10mm Ironfree has the same saftey factor as 8mm float The price made it prohibitive for me anyway however even if I wanted it, because I was planing a large tank, the saftey factor would have been far to low. Shallow tanks and small tanks will be fine, but again, its VERY expensive when compared. I looked at Acrylic quite seriously too, but ultimatley a deep tank with a sandbed would never have worked out. Pies