kinnadian

I've bought drift wood in the past because it is bog wood and specifically heavier than water, so will always sink. Saves waiting 3+ months for it to get waterlogged

I assume it was second hand? How much did you pay for it?

Will the top be braced?

Night lights or moon lights are typically used for human use ONLY, to allow viewing tanks in low light conditions and to simulate moon lights for our aesthetic pleasure. Moon lights are usually made up of royal blue only. Unfortunately fish can still see blue, so even though it is dim for us it is brighter for fish. Having moon/night lights on all night will generally prevent fish from being able to sleep properly, unless there are some dim caves to hide in. You could have them on for an hour or two after your lights turn off, so that you won't really extend your lighting schedule by much (as the lighting is low) but can still see fish movement. If you want a light to be able to view the fish while they are sleeping, red is part of the spectrum that generally can't be viewed by fish eyes. Moon lights provide no benefit to your fish except for very specific fish that require moon lights for spawning, but if you are going to go down this route you need to do A LOT of research first. If you want moon lights, you can build some relatively cheaply from DIY electronics (less than $30 for up to a 4 foot tank). If you are interested let me know. Otherwise you can buy moonlight bulbs.

My bad, I misread his comment and thought he was using the internal pump (or canister) for water movement, not return from his sump. Jebao "DC" range on fish-street are cheap sump pumps, like http://www.fish-street.com/jebao_dc3000_water_return_pump or http://www.fish-street.com/jebao_dc_water_return_pump. Don't really know long term reliability of these units, but they have a reasonable reputation on the overseas forums. My flatmate has had a DC3000 for around 4 months, no issues. It's really quiet once it settles down and if you put a foam mat under it.

That trip switch is typically a 10A trip. That's a lot of current but not impossible for that load, 1500W will nominally draw a little over 6 but as another person pointed out it might be over-drawing on start up. I would just use two multiboards rather than one. Problem should be solved.

What Size? WP or RW range (RW are newer, better flow dispersion) on Fish-street.com are cheap and effective, and also the quietest power heads I've ever used. Flow is greater than many people need, WP-10 or RW-4 is good for up to like 120L ish tanks, then WP-25 or RW-8 for up to 300L tanks (I have 2 RW-8 in my 240L and only have them at 3 out of 10 power).

That bioload in that size tank shouldn't be a problem. Is your skimmer removing good thick skimmate? Do you clean it fortnightly? You could try cutting back on your lighting, or using reduced lighting for a period of the day. Are your lights too bright? Is there a lot of leftover food? Are you vacuuming up excess detritus? (food and fish poo) Are you using RODI water? If so, have you tested the TDS of your RODI water? Where were the rocks from that you have in the tank? Did you cure them beforehand? Snails eat algae, but they are really there to remove small amounts here and there, if you are overrun with algae they won't make a dent. Plus, since the snails are adding their own waste to the water, you're not getting rid of the problem, just reducing it slightly.

Brown algae is always apparent after cycles, until you develop denitrifying bacteria (nitrate to nitrogen gas), and even then it depends on bioload. How big is your tank? What fish do you have? How much do you feed and how often? Do you have a skimmer or a GFO reactor? How long is your lighting cycle? What kind of lights do you have? Do you vacuum detritus (leftover food/fish poo/etc) out of the rockwork/sand?

The external motor is IP protected, I think even the Chinese who are "protected" by poor IP infringement laws in China fear the repercussions of copying the Vortechs.

Jebao pumps are of reasonable quality and very cheap. Two RW-4's would probably be enough flow for african cichlids (http://www.fish-street.com/jebao_rw-4_wave_maker?search_string=rw-4&search_category_id=0). I was unable to find dark grey sand when I was looking. You may have to import some? I asked all the fish shops and nothing. The best I could get was a dirty light grey one, which was just builders sand from Mitre10. You can vac sand, you just need a REALLY large diameter vac which will pick up light detritus but not light sand; the sand will recirculate inside of the vac but not a lot goes out the top. I don't think that will be quite enough lighting, if you like it bright.

You're really overstating the effect of increased backpressure in the spray bar itself, and overstating how much that backpressure will affect the flow rate of the pump. It might be up to 5% increased pressure for 3-5% overall decreased flow rate. And that's all beside the fact that ANY spraybar will induce backpressure on the pump and reduce flow rate, a single return outlet pipe will create the most flow. In a high pressure system I would tend to agree, but when the differential pressure over the outlet holes are so small and the pressure from the pump is relatively low the overall reduction is minor. If he is that pedantic about 3-5% extra flow rate, he should try to reduce all unnecessary bends and corners, try to have as minimal head pressure as possible (eg mount canister just below spray bar) and use an appropriate sized pipe diameter. Number and spacing of holes will also optimise flow, if you want to get pedantic, as well as changing hole size as it gets further away from the return pipe connection and also spray bar diameter. The total area of all holes combined (eg [Number of Holes] x 3.14/4*[Hole Diameter]) should be equal to the area of the return pipe of your pump (3.14/4*[Pipe Diameter]). If he is using standard 16mm ID return piping, and has say 30 holes, then he should have the holes about 3mm (2.92 to be exact). 50 holes would be 2.26mm. 6mm holes are very big. Regardless, redracer I recommend starting small at 3mm and spacing them out, see what velocity and flow you get (flow it into a bucket at the same height up as your tank will be), then if you want to increase, then increase the hole size.

Yeah sketchup is quite good and easy to use, and free. You can download models off the net, eg pumps or rocks, and modify them as necessary.

Smaller holes = better velocity = less deadspots on the opposite end of the tank. You may want to start ay smaller holes than 6mm, depending on what your velocity requirements are for this spray bar (eg do you have extra powerheads in the tank?) Smaller holes shouldn't put less total volume out, unless you go so small that you are introducing flow restrictions. If your pump is putting out a constant flow rate and pressure, smaller hole (ie less cross sectional area) will just result in greater velocity. Flow = Velocity x Area. That is until the point where you excessively drop the discharge pressure of the spray bar, due to the venturi effect, because the holes are introducing choked flow due to your velocity being sonic. It will be hard to achieve this with the flow rates we experience from return pumps/canisters.

You can only remove phosphates with water changes, a skimmer or GFO/purigen. But they are pretty much a given and there won't be much you can do with it, just let it be for a couple months.

Any sun at all seems to cause high levels of algae. I would block out all sun, if not move it to another room. Empty all the water, scrub everything down.

How big of a mussel did you put in? It all depends on that... If you are really worried about it, put it in a bucket with the same water and a small powerhead. It will cycle just the same that way.

How big was the mussel? I wouldn't use any more biomass than the size of your little pinky nail for a tank your size. Cloudiness is indicative of high concentrations of ammonia. I would take it out and only put a very small amount back in.

Some driftwood takes a REALLY long time to become water logged. Months. Some driftwood can never be waterlogged, particularly stuff on the beach. Next you are introducing unknown parasites/bacteria/etc that has been present on that piece of driftwood. It could be fine, it could be disastrous. Also the likelyhood of introducing extra nuisance algae is probably quite high. Using stuff from the beach will be full of minerals from the sea, so you have to ask yourself if you are comfortable introducing those into your tank. Personally I wouldn't use driftwood from the beach OR rivers, unless you have baked and cured that piece of wood for a few months in the sun, then soaked for a month or so.

Yep.

Since it's been dragged up, my internal eheim filter had the impeller hitting the internal plastic base every time it rotated, because the shaft was too low. The rubber end cap on the bottom of the shaft wasn't raising the impeller shaft high enough. I put a 5mm slice of silicon tube on the bottom of the shaft to raise it up slightly and it then became silent.

Again, I've been through this before with you in this thread. If you need a more detailed explanation, google will have some very scientific explanations!

T5HO wouldn't be any cheaper than LED from fish-street, the K5 90cm or Coralbox 90cm. 2x http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/detail/view/aqua-zonic-t5-90cm-39w-double/m/2977/ = $356 4x bulbs, about $45 each, $180 With shipping total about $570

This is a really good guide for making stands. I would use more front-to-back pieces ("blue" pieces) for the top, as well as more for the bottom if using a sump. He recons 2x6 for a 6 foot tank. I agree that the top middle doors will sag. Out of interest, what is the benefit to having a refugium in a fresh water setup with such a large display tank? Just so you can use soil substrate and keep a larger range of plants? 6mm seems awfully thin for a 4 foot tank. My rimless 4 foot tank is 1200x450x450 and I put 12mm glass on, I wouldn't go for any less than 10mm personally!

There is no way the 60cm lights will be bright enough for a 1m tank, unless you put wide optics on, and then you will lose intensity. For that budget your only options for somewhat decent lights will be DIY. If you skimp on lights your corals simply won't grow, and will look crappy. Decent lights is the single most important purchase for your tank. There is a common saying "buy cheap buy twice", and it really IS true. If you try to buy real budget lights you will either get poor growth or give up, or end up buying better ones later anyways.