chimera

exactly

back pressure perhaps the wrong terminology (?) but trust me it wont work (or more to the point, it might work but there are reasons against doing it) you're pumping water from one pump into the inlet of another (force feeding it) you've got 2 things to worry about. 1, is the 2nd pump getting enough water from the first? if not the 2nd pump will be trying to suck water from the first, maybe causing cavitation? secondly, if the first is pumping more than the 2nd can take, that puts back pressure on the first pump causing wear and tear. then you have to account for pressure loss at the specific head height of the 2nd pump, not to mention cost of running two pumps - more things to go wrong etc. you are making things far too complex for yourself, you're doing a workaround for something that should easily be able to run with a single pump. design it right in the first place and save yourself the hassle long term.

again, download irfanview from http://www.irfanview.com its freeware and does exactly what you need

what? like 2 sumps with a pump from each? not going to happen. or do you mean the outlet of one pump directly feeds the inlet of the other? no way that will work either, these types of pumps dont work with back pressure (on the contrary, a peristaltic pump does) save yourself the hassle and get an iwaki. it'll last ages. from marine depot, i landed an md-rlt55 for about $580 (brand new, including shipping and including gst) they are $1,000+ here. it will last you AGES! or are you talking about a separate pump feeding the skimmer in like a "sump closed loop" fashion?

looks awesome! nice job!

:lol:

nice work, colours look much better in the 2nd batch of photos - amazing the difference a good camera makes!

nice work mate! getting there quicker than i am getting some calcium chloride tomorrow if you wanna split the 25kg sack halves like we did with the mg.

ummmm,... anyone with a degree in fluid dynamics?!!!

an 850 and 20,000lph?!!! holy cow... an 850 requires about 1,500lph water throughput. is the skimmer actually working?!!! ok so it's a 1/2" input so it wont squeeze that flow through it but i'd say it would still manage more than the required amount. will see if i can roughly work out maximum flow through a 1/2" pipe (excluding friction loss etc)

you seriously think you'll relax after it's done? hahahaaa, not. you'll ALWAYS find something that needs tweaking or a new toy to add

so was I!!!

my 2 cents worth... a laguna would be a better pump than 20,000lph pump - that is just insane and maybe too much flow - i think you will have an issue with skimmer dwell time (the amount of time the bubbles stay in the chamber) i would sell it and get something with a little slower turn over then, if you still want to use the 20klph pump, concentrate your efforts on getting it setup in a closed loop for water movement within the display tank. you running an AP902? recommended H20 throughput on this model is about 3,500lph so a laguna at 7klph would be ideal - assuming same sized piping at the T, 50% of water to the skimmer and 50% continuing from the T will take the remainder of the flow.

kevan - what you have suggested (2 x T5's at front, 2 x T5's at back) in conjunction with your current halides on that size tank will make a big difference. four 54W x T8's is another 216W's. its like adding another 150W'er (if you're including blue's too, they are more for aesthetic's than "choice of light" for corals) however you'll get better coverage of light. halides are the definate power house for sps, however T5's kick arse too. i underestimated them til i hooked them up. i have a 'tan' coloured sps in my tank that is a bit bigger than the size of my fist, the side that is near the T5 is starting to get really nice green tips, the side thats furtherest away from the T5 is still brown.

it really comes down to how much you want to spend. there are plenty of cheap skimmers around but they skim as good as their price. pay a bit more and get something that does the job properly. there are many brands available! i'd guesstimate you'd need to spend $250 minimum to get something half decent for that size tank

what beats me is people are bidding on what i would define as a pretty boring photo! as ya say, there are heaps more members tanks on this site that kick butt over that photo

and he wasnt exposed to the air at all? check your salinity before getting another shrimp!!! you can borrow my refractometer if you dont have one sorry man, i started getting desperate so have got the old man's mate to do it. a bit more expensive than you too :-? but thats what happens when the wife orders new curtains and knows she cant hang them til the paintings done!

ugh!!! took me a bit to work that one out - should have labelled the pipes on your pic! i believe the problem is how you put your T in. it looks to be mounted horizontal, it needs to be on a 45 or even 90 degree angle pointing downwards. you need the bulk of the water flowing downwards to flow into the skimmer. water will naturally take the smoothest route down, and that looks to be straight ahead. by angling the T to your skimmer downwards, gravity will cause the bulk of the water to 'drop' into that pipe (and thus no air), anything excess will continue down the rest of the pipe.

i have just learnt more about water chemistry in the last 10 minutes reading the recommendations on the site above than i have in the last 2 years...

seen the new flash version of the calculator at the site above? was added about a week ago. the link redirects to this site (you need flash player) VERY cool...!!! http://reef.diesyst.com/

Take some 'prints' of your own tank, enlarge and sell on trademe? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Art/Prints/Oth ... 847061.htm

just coz he browses dont mean he's posting 8)

whats the forecast for this thursday the 25th? high tides at about 6pm. might head there half five if the weather holds out. havent done a water change since the 15th of april :-?

:lol:

i think he just failed to mention it to you jane :lol: