chimera

everything in moderation

everyone get's trade these days, to pay retail is sheer stupidity. expect around 20-30% off at all trade stores, and if you give them some good lovin' and buy regularly get up to another 30% off that.

from "dont offer warranty" to "they can blow up". nice cant expect top quality for sweet f-all dollars.

tis ok, will get rowa through stevie wonder

Send a PM Pies, he'll let you know all the best spots Good to see a new face on the marine scene!

hi heather, here's some pic's of the stands I made. to add support you could have considered centre support and cross bracing as shown below. anyways hopefully these will help you out a bit or give you some ideas. best thing I did was add 3 layers of 12mm plywood to the main tank stand! expensive but it is solid AS. we demolised the kitchen with a sledge hammer after this was all in and not have a single ripple in the water! here's the stands in the sump room (main one in view is 4 foot/holds 320 litres, small one is 3 foot/holds 180 litres): i was testing water flow here with a temp container. note the support through the centre and cross bracing. here's the stand for the main tank in the lounge wall (5 foot/holds 540 litres): good to see you have put bracing along the floor - i hope the timber is tanalised (sp?) or it will rot overtime. i did this for my main tank to disperse the weight more evenly across the floor. i would recommend putting down that black rubber type of stuff (not sure what its called) under the legs.

ira, try steve for seio's - he'll cut you a better deal than you would be able to import i'd imagine

yeah, that thread my last question was "what stores here sell rowaphos?". no answer. so if anyone is doing a purchase from http://www.eaquanature.com/store/default.php (singapore) please let me know. alternately if anyone wants some BIG seio's (or anything else) let me know and I'll order it, you pay me incidentally these 6080 streams are a pretty good price... http://www.eaquanature.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=48&products_id=377

if anyone's doing a purchase from eAquaNature, let me know coz i want some rowaphos (share on shipping costs) - unless anyone knows where to buy locally?

just dump the water and stir up the substrate time to time

cheaper product plus you have a smaller tank

basing that advice (1" gaps) on a web site i read about a guy who makes sumps. it's more a general figure than anything else. i'll see if i can find the site... pretty sure many of you would have seen it before... in addition to above - it depends on where those microbubbles are being formed. in other words, are the microbubbles formed in the sump causing a negative effect on the performance of the pump OR are microbubbles being formed BECAUSE of cavitation (as described above) on the pump? either method will show microbubbles in the main tank. the first is caused because of a sump badly designed, the 2nd as pies says due to cavitation caused by the pump itself.

if the pump has only been on 24 hours, i'd tend to wait. it might settle down. if you do baffles, have 1" gap between them. pies, i DID have microbubbles prior to the baffles - millions of them. baffles made a world of difference as did the height of the water in the last baffle (too low water drops creating more microbubbles) to be precise, cavitation is the rapid formation and collapse of bubbles (vapour pockets) due to sudden increase in pressure. causes wear and tear on the impellor.

baffles and a bigger sump should fix it - the baffles certainly fixed mine! my input is the same as the output, no micro bubbles.

exactly how i do it. 802 powerhead in a BIG drum (220 litres i think?) on timer to run 2 hours prior to dosing for half an hour

yeah it looks ok, I think it would do wonders for a shallow tank. not sure how well it would do on deeper tanks though.

well to be a little different, the clowns are called "manu". only because my daughter couldnt say nemo! it was her first word after mummy and daddy - scary!!! not to worry - wouldnt have any reservations if she became a marine biologist when she's grows up

here's a close up of my dude has had white spot only ONCE since i've had him and that was only after I moved him to the new tank!

i love tangs/surgeonfish - mine is such a character and not scared of ANYTHING! he is so friendly and certainly the best addition to my tank so far. of course, ours is called 'dory' otherwise my daughter gets confused :lol:

very few manufacturers will ever say 'water proof'. otherwise if they do, it will cost you as the consumer heaps more to buy. the manufacturer has to spend the extra $$$ in R&D and parts/manufacturing etc to ensure it's fully leak proof - plus cover their arse on warranties

a very popular pump in the states i believe

...not just because i own one, but because it works - i rate the OM 10/10. you seriously wont believe how well it provides random water movement (simply because of the drum alternating outlets) in the tank. i find it hard to feed flake in the mornings coz it gets thrown all around the place! i chuck it hard up in one corner which seems to do the trick. combined with a sea-swirl im most impressed with my new washing machine

return on investment is calculated by considering the benefit divided by the investment amount (and typically shown as a percentage) although i am also bearing in mind that he only has a 4 foot tank. i've used the term loosely here so if you are being pedantic and want to change it for a better term, then use 'in my opinion, the extra cost versus the benefit it will return for a 4 foot tank is not justified if you are also considering having a separate closed loop'. put that money towards an OM device and have insane circulation within your main tank rather than from your return. ok, so this adds even more to the cost of the return. not that im disagreeing with the theory, im trying to help justify to brian (and problably to his wife as well) every cent he spends and the benefits or disadvantages he will receive from his investment. btw you must have a faulty Iwaki. other than a faint whirrr, my 55rlt is quiet as - the only noise is the vibration of the timber it's screwed onto.

Quite simple really (and as per usual, this is IMO): Single Sea-Swirl with Iwaki 30RXT at 4 foot head = 4300lph. Maximum flow a 1" Sea Swirl will allow is 4350lph. Cost of one 1" SeaSwirl landed = $380. Two Sea-Swirls with Iwaki 30RXT at 4 foot head still = 4300lph or 2150lph per sea-swirl. Maximum flow a 3/4" Sea Swirl will allow is 3200lph. Cost of two 3/4" SeaSwirls landed = $550. Bearing in mind that the tank is only 4 foot, pumping 4300lph across a 4 foot tank is quite considerable return flow and will easily reach the opposite corner of the tank. Also bear in mind that if he is looking at an OM setup and already has Seio's, this will provide more than sufficient and random water flow/cross currents against the return. IMO, a single larger sea-swirl pumping massive flow oscillated 90 degrees across the tank is better than two for the extra cost. I disagree. (The smaller) Iwaki's are extremely quiet pumps. Pies I hope you are not talking about your Iwaki 100RLT... wouldnt be surprised as it's basically a small motorbike engine. Disagree. Silicon is as strong as glass. As Pies says above, benefits outweigh the disadvantages. So long as all holes have ball valves to shut off for maintenance, all threads are wound with teflon tape and all plumbing is sealed with pressure-rated glue, there will be no problems.

again, keep ocean motion separate from the return. for that size (just over 4 foot?) i would only get a single sea swirl, two is overkill and not a good ROI. an om squirt would probably be suitable (and cheaper) i'd look at probably 2 x iwaki 30rxt's. one for return and one for closed loop. thats around about 7,000lph combined from memory. add the 2 x seio flow (9000lph) and you'd have pretty good (random) water movement for the size. see http://www.oceansmotions.com/ for more details.