chimera

this would make sense as (and more predominantely in a large tank) the largest impact on water temperature would be the lighting system (ie: hallides!). in a smaller tank, the room temperature would "heat" the tank up faster due to the small volume of water. i have around 1000 litres which i would find hard to believe (specifically with my design - ie: down to the sump room under the house which is quite cool) that a day of sun would heat that much water up substantially (as opposed to say a 100 litre tank) is that theory right or wrong?

it got to 30 degree's up on the hibiscus coast (north/north shore) today. am glad i was in an airconditioned office and not rennovating my house! (paying my builder mate and bro-in-law to do it!) anyways, the ambient temperature in the room the main tank is in was 32 degrees. im quite happy at my tanks water temperature as it only got up to 27.4 degrees and that was WITHOUT my chiller running (yeah, im lazy - or more so busy, havent had time to hook it up) when the main tank room is built, it will have two extraction fans hooked up to a "room" temperature controller and set to automatically come on when the room temp gets too high. now im wondering if (at 32 degrees room temp) the chiller is really necessary? its essentially $1k+ which i could put towards a set of streams. on the other hand, im too scared to sell incase i screw up and really do need it!... ...it's a money thing! can someone provide an answer to my little dilema? sell it or keep it?!

cool! get some pics to share with all of us!

Heheheee!!! :lol:

:lol:

or you could always buy a bigger tank...

Ii Ll

quite easy brian - just carefully tip it in and it sinks to the bottom and it's lduncan as in layton duncan, not iayton duncan - just for the record :lol: :lol: :lol:

irrelevant to filtration techniques, i agree with pies, BB is UGLY. IMO, one of the largest reasons of owning a reef tank is aesthetics - to make your tank look as close to that in a natural environment as possible - i've never seen the ocean floor made of glass

yeah ok, as layton says its the javascript,... but we knew that. my post was for others to follow as a workaround to see your tank larger - incase they didnt know how.

not sure day one but i would assume they would not change too much as they grow larger? check this out: http://www.bcclowns.com/breeding.html

do as i said in my post - it works for me and shows the pic in full size when opened as a pic in a new window (and click the 'scale' button)

thanks pies that does help and there certainly is a visible difference. your web browser is rescaling the pic's to fit on the screen. if you actually click on the link to your pic's below (and maximise the window): http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/pies250105allwhitebluetankfront.jpg http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/pies250105allbluetankfront.jpg which will open them up in a separate window, you will find it will be scaled to the screen better. if you then hover (assuming you have latest version of internet explorer) your mouse over the pic in the new window, a small square scaling box will popup in the bottom right corner of the pic. click on it and it will show full size.

aye

Pies - can you put some pic's of your lighting system up? 3 m/h's makes sense so i wouldnt mind adding another m/h to the system to cover the middle - perhaps even 250W's on the outside and 400W in the middle to give it a slightly blurred out effect?! the centre brace is only about 4 inches wide so should be ok (and the extra wattage will help in the middle through the brace). i've put most corals in such a location that those that need most light are directly below the centre of the m/h's anyway.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

i was including holes drilled for closed loops. saves on piping running down into your tank. of course an overflow box uses up space, but if its built around or integrated with your aquascaping then its hardly noticeable. they can be built quite small too. my overflow box is about 120mm square on a 5 foot tank, takes up next to no space at all (or 1.6% of the tanks area to be precise) too many risks (over and above drilled) with up and over idea.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

IMO, disagree and disagree! you would be surprised how drilling in the right spot and aquascaping around it will actually improve on space. i also dont see any risk in causing damage to the tank if drilled - if the right glass thickness is chosen in the first place i dont believe a few holes will make it that much weaker (so long as they are not drilled to close to the edge) it makes plumbing easier rather than having piping going over the top of the tank. having a pre-drilled tank myself, i would never change it. alone is enough to select a drilled tank. cons in my opinion is once drilled, cant be changed. proper planning and design prior will stop this from becoming an issue (learn from others mistakes where the best place to drill is!)

where did you end up getting your lights from? did you do diy styles, get them made up or purchase new/2nd hand? i only have 2 x 250W M/H's on the tank and feel like I need one more in the middle (whether that be 250W or 400W) to cover the entire tank nicely. also what sort of $$$'s if you dont mind me asking?

personally i think it's a great idea. so many options to aquascape the tank and a good diverse range of animals

i dont think reef was having a dig at aquamedic/aqua c - simply an opinion that these model skimmers are an average skimmer on the market. aquamedic may appear to work well - but you really wont know unless you put a bigger/better skimmer on your tank.

hmmm, hard to tell from your picture pies - you can see a very subtle difference - probably need to see it in person to make a honest judgement. however personally i tend to like a blue more than a white in water (more "oceanic" ) aside from that i trust and value your judgement (that the radiums look better - and perhaps more so on a larger tank) so will probably go with those.

funny i was thinking the same thing... 4cm max, but whose counting