Silentone

Or go for something like Hailea HX-6540 - 3.1m ^2880 l/h which will be about $161 from a lfs

Well best of luck, I did say that this method does restart after a power outage.. Let me know how you go.

The point in the backup is to pickup the flow that the full siphon doesn't, Also over time you will find you will get a gunk buildup inside the pipes and can effect the flow rate. So the backup is there to pickup the slack from the full siphon. Its also good to have incase one blocks that your tank should remain functioning etc. The siphon is all automatic, I always test my tank every few weeks by unplugging my return pump and plugging it back in and it works perfect everytime :happy1: I had a feeling you may ask about the glass box, The glass box makes the water overflow into it and is then taken out by the siphon and theres a couple reasons for doing it.. One being that its a large surface to intake from.. rather than just a corner. and you can sometimes get a thin fim on the other end of the tank. Another is so fish/anemeones cannot easily get caught into the return system. In my old tank i just had one hole in the back left hand corner and i lost a fish down it and i had my lta move into it. Yes bigger is always better Make sure your refugum section divider sits a bit higher so the water has to overflow and then drop into the return section. -- Just a side note, I'd run the full siphon down into the skimmer and have the backup running into the ref. Because with having the gate valve on both lines you can turn the full siphon down to like 80% and have a guaranteed 20% overflowing down the backup into the ref. -- I wouldn't bother with that second as your loosing good pressure from your return pump and having it into the ref, I'd run the backup pipe as per above. :thup:

Yup i sure did, No problemos I used a diamond bit, wood template (which is a MUST to ensure a good cut), running hose on the cut and a steady speed. :nilly:

Thanks :happy1: I didn't go for three purly because the way my sumps designed is that the compartment would run dry before it overflow the display incase two got blocked.

Yeah the one pointed down is the full siphon and one facing up is the backup. I ended up moving the gate valves from the original design to just above the sump due to my tank being lower on the ground, I do have a slight issue with the airlock with my tank being low to the ground and my sump being just a bit lower but i actually just tilted my full siphon just upright so the air is forced out at the weakest point which is the angle upwards. Its SUPER silent, Only thing is when you have a power cut it gurgles for a few seconds when the siphon starts and the backup slows down and sometimes when moving rock around in the tank you get a wee gurgle but thats nothing really :thup: If i upgrade again i'll be doing the same method.

Can't ever get overkill in marine i don't think? :nilly:

There are many types of overflows which you can use, some are better than others.. but some will recomend what they use because its what they are use to. In mine i built an overflow box with two holes in the back of the tank. One which is running full siphon and the other just trickles down and is the backup incase the full siphon breaks or clogs up. Another good failsafe is to have a second compartment in your sump that the water overflows into. So if both blocked for some reason then no water is overflowing into the pump compartment it would run dry rather than overflow the display which i like. Same deal with the overflow, If no water is getting up the siphon would stop and tank level wouldn't drop. Here are some photos of mine.. Look for an all in one unit if possible for lights, I run 2x 54W Actinic which give the blue, and then 2x 14k mh bulbs which is plenty. I didn't bother looking at LED because its quite new and people are having mixed results so i stuck with what i know works.

Im using that method, however i did do things a bit differently As i didn't need a third as its not possible for my sump to overflow my main tank with the way i've designed it. The one pointed down is always running full siphon and the other is the backup which just trickles

Yeah adding to what spoon said, RO/DI is Reverse Osmosis De-ionization, Basically it strips everything out of tap water and leaves nothing behind. As there are unwanted things in our tap water such as silicates which cause algae etc. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=384192166 Thats what i've got, with the RI resin.. Those units are wicked! You will NEED a RO/DI unit if you are going to be mixing ASW to ensure your water is top quality. Also come back to the lights at a later stage if you decided you want to keep more needing corals, Maybe MH or LED. :happy2:

You can pickup "dead" coral rock which will be cheaper, what i would do is get 80% dead rock and then cycle the tank till you have your ammonia spike and then the tank settles. then get 20% pre-seeded live rock.. As if you brought live rock from the start the cycle can kill everything on the live rock making it useless. But when buying live rock see if there are any algaes, small brown anemone looking things (aiptasia which are a pest). I'd also consider upgrading the factory lighting on the tank incase you do want to get into corals which require the better light or anemones. Wish you the best of luck! :nilly: You know where to find me if i can be of anymore help, I don't normally check this forum much as use others

It doesn't have to but always good to, As i have a reasonable water volume when the lights go out on the display some corals stop photosynthesizing and can cause a bit of a ph swing so i run the lights in reverse. I'm just using some crappy T5 bulbs which just keep the coraline algae growing and light for anything living in there. You get all sorts growing in the sump..i get bristle worms, copepods, amphipods, starfish, limpits, snails. Sitting back and looking at all the life in there is just amazing! Yeah its all personal preference, thats whats good about the hobby.. all doing the same thing but differently. Frags are fragments of corals, like taking a clipping off a tree and growing it.

I'll post on your other topic rather than this one :thup:

Red Sea Coral Salt Pro is avaliable through most petshops, As it comes from Petware (whos the supplier) If you have a sump i wouldn't bother with a canister filter, as sometimes canister filters can cause a few problems with nitrates whereas your sump can allow all sorts of good critters to grow (they won't grow in a canister filter as some are pressurized and dark) Normally have 1kg of live rock to very 10 litres, but it comes down to how you want the tank to look and how much you want to stock in it. As more rock is more surface area for bacteria/critters/worms to grow and live. Yeah thats a 620T with a deep sand bed that failed ahaha.. At one point it was just a deep sand bed and had frags all up the walls but when i gave the frags away i just put rock in it to cycle it for other locals to take when starting out a new tank. I've got two big islands so id say maybe 45-60kg?? I've also got sand which helps with the surface area for things to live in. Go with a sump if you can, Its good for increasing your total volume, hides all the heaters and bits and pieces

Heres my Rio 400 tank Heres my rio 400.. Not looking the best at the moment.. bulbs i brought are crap and causing bad algae but new bulbs here soon :thup: display: 350l sump (not a good example of cable management :nilly: Skimmers come in all shapes and sizes, but the skimmer is what you don't want to go on the cheap about. Always try to get a skimmer which is rated for 2-3x your tank volume as some skimmer makers always upsell there skimmer to how much it can handle. Try and go for about 30-40kg of live rock, Are you going to buy the live rock or buy the coral rock and cycle it yourself? The sump can be whatever size you want, Most go for something that will hold heaters, skimmer, a bit of rock, filter etc. Go as big as you can. You can pickup salt from most LFS and RedSea coral salt pro is pretty good. But if you are a clean source of NSW you can just use that (Thats what i do, along with other reefers) Ideally the stock rio 400 lighting isnt great as its got 2x t8 tubes so would be fine to keep fish and a few corals such as muchrooms, zoas etc. You can go two ways if you want to keep hard corals, anemones or maximise growth.. LED or MH, MH has been around for ages where as LED is quite new so some people are un-decided about LED but they are improving daily. I personally have 2x 250W MH, and 2x 54W blue tubes in my tank and its plenty of light and i keep 2 anemones, and a few SPS. Flick me a pm if i can be of anymore help or just reply back here.. Goodluck!

One thing that can effect is the price, is what are you wanting to keep? ie Fish only, fish with corals (soft corals/hard corals) Are you near a clean source of natural seawater?

Yeah reef that looks pretty cheap

You were exactly the same when i started out, you were so rude and it was putting me off the hobby.

Honestly reef :an!gry Stop trying to put people off the hobby :facepalm:

Heres my rio 400.. Not looking the best at the moment.. bulbs i brought are crap and causing bad algae but new bulbs here soon :thup:

Woo more mariners!!!! Average fish isn't $150, Prices are dropping so hopefully equipment will too..