chimera

how do you know the droppings are from the blenny? from the pic, it looks more like brown algae or even close to cyano in some bits.

ok bro, not overly interesting but i took a heap of plumbing pics for ya. something here may help, perhaps not. very simple setup, pipe goes down, pipes goes up. pipe goes down, pipe goes up... plumbing down. coming outta the main tank, through a ball valve then down through the floor... through the floor then a 90 degree heading across the house... another 90 into the sump room... across the sump room and into the refugium... Plumbing back up. Outta the Iwaki into pressure piping, a couple of 45's then straight up... into another couple of 45's to get around the floor joist... and back upstairs to the main tank... and you've seen the pic's into the sea-swirl. My mate (a builder) got me some polystyrene sheets today. They will line the walls around the sump room. I will then cover the outside "wall" (which is actually under the house so not directly exposed to "mother nature") with sheets of cheap thin ply or similar. This will cover up all the electrical work (as seen in the 3rd and last photo above). My sparky mate has given me shit and said he wont sign his work off til I do it!!! The skimmer is an in-sump skimmer and sits in the left hand side of the sump just prior to water going over/under/over 3 baffles. The calcium reactor currently sits in a separate tank (tank essentially sitting on the floor) Water flows from the fuge into the reactor then dripped into the sump right next to the skimmer (recommended into the skimmer so any excess co2 is skimmed out or something?) Still have to do the plumbing between fuge and sump properly. There will be a 3 way ball valve between the two which directs flow either from fuge to sump or fuge to sink for water changes.

your mate may find something cheap now,... but if you cant source continuous replacements then its not worth your while in the long run IMO.

only the one worm? hopefully you'll have heaps more soon to turn over your substrate. got any before pics?

yeah might see what i can do myself im sure i've got a diamond cutter somewhere... if i screw it up i'll take the whole bit of glass out and replace with acrylic.

im assuming he means glass cleaning magnets.

either hold it to the side of your tank with your cleaning magnet or clip it to a plastic peg and hang in the water (make sure no metal spring on peg )

yeah, no worries - luckily for ball valves for easy removal huh?! my static head is fairly close to that of pies i believe - his a little higher though i think. pies, have you actually measured it all out? i'll post more pic's of my plumbing system later tonight, not alot to it really, very simple. lots of glue and as few bends as possible. any bends needed use 45's as opposed to 90's. ha haaaa, thats some funny sh@#%!!! :lol: not quite a donor car, but if I dont fix it up soon it will be. does anyone have any contacts to get a 2nd hand honda vtec gearbox or work at a gearbox reconditioning factory I can get my gearbox fixed cheap? bearings are shot in it :-? pies, see if you can get a discount on the magnets - thats way expensive but im keen on one or two at a good price! personally no offence taken - quite funny in fact. even funnier though, the disclaimer = moderators back off BTW, you might want to use the electric window motor with a worm gear to drive your lighting system up/down. Window motor drives the "worm" and the large cog drive a pulley system to lift hood up and down.

12v transformers are cheap from ya local electronic store anyways, < $30. i'll let you test it out pies - if it works, let me know (post some pics too) and i'll do the same for mine!!!

maybe i'll go 10mm or even 20mm then... and add a comb like steve suggests?

add some vodka to the water ... i was kidding, dont! (well, not directly in large quantities anyways )

what was the damage to get that done steve? it would save me the dollars on buying all the tools to do it - hopefully its not too expensive?!

i dont need to turn my pumps off to do a water change, in fact i dont do it now without the above setup. was just stating that i still dont need too do it even if i went with the new setup. i've read a few articles about refugium flow rates, one article will contradict the other. some say 3 to 15 times per hour, some say the same as your main tank, 15+ or more. i necessarily want to do it if it achieves no added benefit. just putting the question up for debate. cheers.

is anyone using this instead of caluerpa? every article i've read says this is a preferred macro algae for nutrient export than caluerpa. can we get his here? if so, where?

apparently the fuge is supposed to have lesser flow. i could even separate it 50/50. just need a figure that is recommended for my setup. the overall flow will remain the same (its all dependant on the rate of the return pump), it just means the water in the main tank is turned over at a higher rate because a greater percentage bypasses the fuge and goes straight to the sump and back up. it should be relatively easy to do all this as the only difference is tapping into the current "downpipe" and t'ing it off. i can pretty much do that last once the other plumbing is changed over.

here's a modification to my sump room i will be doing soon. basically the bits painted in red are new. currently all water goes into the refugium then from fuge to sump and back up to the main tank. the new design (which should be easy to do) will T (or Y) the water off into two paths, most of it will go straight through the sump and a smaller portion via the refugium. both exits will go through a 3-way ball valve which i can turn to empty water out when doing water changes (without the need to turn off pumps etc) let me know what you think. the 80%/20% is a guesstimate, what would be recommended here?

pies cant pick up brian's dry sense of humour :lol: i know when the fish "go to sleep" at night, they like to find a cave or a still part of the tank to hover in.

reef rack is looking mint bro. i like the million holes cut in the legs, good thinking! i only did about half a doz, not nearly enough! re: iwaki swap, no can do as I sold it to RnB. however, your 30RLT would do a better job than my old 40RXT as the L is pressure rated. the 40RXT would do better at zero head, but you've gotta pump up quite a decent height! The 40RLXT from Marine Depot costs $435 landed (including shipping and GST) Slightly discounted price if I buy two. I've just enquired about a price on two 30RXT's and a comparitive price on two 40RXT's (the circulation pumps, not the pressure rated ones) Will post the price as soon as I get a response.

or fly up to auckland and cut my overflow for me? :lol: :lol: :lol:

I believe there is a minimum turnover rate for the sump, everything else is in the tank. Recommended minimum's are 5 times for fish only and 10 times for reef. Some people even have up to 50 times turnover for their reef tank. Im aiming at about 20-30. Not sure how happy the fish will be about that though 8)

hell NO!!!

Still not an in-wall, but still looking way sharp!! Im gonna leave my rock formation on the right side of my tank out til i source two decent pumps for the closed loops. Something like a eheim 1262 or better (better meaning another RELIABLE brand pump such as eheim that does 3,400l/hr or higher). I am seriously considering getting two Iwaki 30RXT's instead as these do 3,600l/hr and are perhaps more reliable - plus the price isnt too bad if bringing in from the US, works out about the same price as two new 1262's locally. From what I've seen, 1262's go for around the $250 each? The 30RXT's should be around NZL$330 each - thats landed and including GST. But then I also want some streams... damn this is getting expensive!

thats cool dude!

and i bet it'll never die either

the question is not the good they do (which is usually easy to prove), its the side-effects that could ultimately cause problems. often side-effects are rarely tested or hard to test, even in an uncontrolled environment, due to the slight differences in each and every tank. not saying vodka dosing or zeovit have bad side-effects, just food for thought.