Ira

DOesn't really need to be as quickly as possible, just before the sump fills up. My setup I have 2-3" before the spraybar stops siphoning, but that's enough of a safety margin.

My list is pretty sparse...But... Fish at the moment 1X Strawberry Basslet 1X Sebae clown Inverts a couple X wild glass shrimp 3X small toadstool corals 1X Some kinda tan finger leather 1X Some kinda brown finger leather 1X cabbage leather? 2X Xenia 1X Sebae anemone

Just put the return similar to how the return from a cannister filter would be if you're using a spraybar.

One of my Jurupari I noticed today had a big clump of fungus growing out of his head. I thought he'd recovered from that, he had it off and on for ages but has been clean for 6-9 months. Anyway, I caught him and thought I might as well see if I can pull it out and the clump of fluff practically fell out along with a lump of something leaving a big hole. I put some anti fungal stuff with meth blue on it with a cotton bud. Hopefully the hole will heal up. Anyway, I had to take a picture of course... The top bit is the fluffy portion, squished together where I grabbed it.

I guess that would have the advantage of having any of your cleaner shrimp give you nice haircut, but then you'd get hair gel in the water!

You could also instead of having the spray bar at the bottom put it at the top. If it's under the surface it will still siphon a bit of water, but you can adjust it upwards so it doesn't siphon enough to overfill the sump. Something like a sea swirl on the return would be ideal, but a spraybar should be fine. I'd consider putting a bigger sump if you can fit it and still have room for some shelves and stuff in the stand. Bigger the better, you have more room for equipment, refugium, etc. You can always come have a look at my tank if you're in the area, it's the same size. Pies' isn't really set up the same and I dunno about suphews...They're the only marine people I know of in Wellington.

Accepting wife Winning lotto ticket Roomy car to carry water.

Just for electricity the price difference between a 150 and a 250 will be about $7 each per month. So let's call it $15 per month for the pair. Depends on electricity prices, obviously. Electricity costs per month for... 2X150de=$20 2X250de=$33.50 2X400se=$53.60 Costs for bulbs(about, don't have exact prices) Replace every 9 months 2X 150de= $300=$33.33/mo 2X250de=$320=$35.55/mo 2X400se=$180=$20/mo So, total 2X150=$53.55/mo 2X250=$69.05/mo 2X400=$73.60/mo Cost/watt/month(Dunno how important this is given the differing efficiencies of DE and SE) 2X 150de= $0.1785 2X250de=$0.1381 2X400se=$0.092 I've seen info that says that 250 watt DE is up near the same intensity as 400 SEs, so I'd call 250 and 400 pretty much equal. Maybe still a slight advantage to the 400s, but not enough to make rule out personal preference as a deciding factor. Now, I've started seeing ads recently for 400W DEs, those would be massive for light.

] As close as I could tell, the same. Yeah, that's part of why I say the refractometer is easier to read.

oops, yeah, that's what I meant, with the lights. By the time the lights are out it's usually cool enough that the tank doesn't need any cooling and when the lights and fan are on it usually doesn't need any heating. I use a big(ish) box fan from the warehouse. I just run it on the lowest speed usually but turn it up a bit when it's really hot.

Would work great if you want to convert your whole house to 110V.

My refractometer and hydrometer both read approximately the same, but the refractometer is MUCH easier to read, at least for me.

One of several thousand reasons children are only good as bait for large animals...

Yeah, you are. Easy enough to keep water running on it though. Do it outside with the hose slowly running on it.

That reminds me, I need to check the tides for this weekend...Hmmm, 1:45...I'll have to try and have a look at whitereia park, might be better than where I've been getting water. According to Wises it's only a couple K difference in distance though.

I might be up for a temp controller in a month or two if they're $120ish. But, I don't consider them necessary. With a chiller I think most have their own thermostats? If they don't it would probably be necessary, otherwise if you just have a fan, leave the fan going. I leave mine on, helps keep the MHs cool too, otherwise my big pendant gets too hot to comfortably touch.

You could also buy yourself a dremel and the right bits and do it yourself. Seems pretty straightforward, just need to be slow and patient.

The pump stopping is not going to crack the tank. The pump failing is simply going to make the water a bit still. It's not critical. Ok, if it fails in my tank worst case it goes a little while unskimmed. Sure, having a heater in the main tank kinda goes against one of the reasons for a sump, but no big deal.

It's 1000LPH at 0 head. At 1.5m it would probably be more like 200 LPH. Have a look at the flow charts on them and see which one says it should do 1000 lph at 1.5

I have the a similar pump, but am having a bit of trouble with it, I think mine is faulty, though. It just seems to stop for no reason every few weeks. Turn it off then back on and it's fine. Going to see if I can get it replaced. It's not really a big deal though, just put a heater in the main tank.

That would probably be too weak, it wouldn't give you much more than a trickle. Maybe a minimum would be around 1000LPH actually at 1.5meters? Mine is rated at 5000(I think) Liters per hour at 1.5 meters. Of course, if you cut down on flow from the sump you'll want to increase any power heads in your tank a bit.

I agree, I think the skimmer can wait if you can't find a good second hand one. Just keep an eye out for one on trademe or here, it can wait.

I think you're better off with something like a laguna pond pump or a resun for a basic setup return pump especially if you can get them at a good price. Not going to beat them for flow per buck. You can also DIY a topoff for maybe $50+airpump and 25L jerry can, mine works well after I corrected a...Ummm...Manufacturing fault.

More flow through the overflows and sump=more noise. When I upgraded my return pump by about 2000 LPH the noise from overflow noticably increased. But I can't actually hear the sump bubbling because it's in the stand, mostly all I can hear is the hissing of the air valve on the durso and a little splashing. If you had a smaller return pump, say 2000lph and a similar setup to mine it would probably be practically silent.

If you pick up something like a 250DE mh with a remote ballast that might work pretty well. And I agree with Pomreef, I think you're better off with something like a cube than a hex.