suphew

is it a water proof light fitting? if not it COULD get water in even if there is a bulb in place so it wont matter if you take the bulb right out. If you worried about water getting into your fitting buy an RCD (you should use one to be safe anyway) that way if there is a problem you wont get electricuted. Running fans during summer is pretty common, they don't cost too much to run and as you say you aren't having to heat the tank so your saving power there anyway.

I understand that they are noisy, plus would guess high evap and mess with all that water spraying round.

Yes new skimmer scan take a week or two to start working, some times they foam like mad other times produce nothing. It's partly to do with the skimmer needing to build up a coat of slime inside and also might be because new water has stuff in it that stops the foam. Bugger my mind has gone blank, but some one well remember what it is and what its for. Update your profile so we know where you are, makes live easier if you need some one to help you out, or swap frags, and just because I'm nosy

Sw 16-30% the rest 0-15%

Make sure you get Aqua-knead-it I'm not sure if the normal stuff is ok in water. It cure's under water to, and is safe to use with fish etc in there, it's commonly used in marine tanks to attach corals to rock. point to note from POMEREEF is that it isn't a glue, it sets rock hard but until it sets things can move round.

If it comes off a filter then it is a filter pump not a power head

Yep, that is the reason for the tube on the pump inlet, so you can move it round the tank to suck up stuff.

Use glued pressure pipe, it will cost a bit more but push fittings leak, come off in the middle on the night, salt creep. It's up to you, irrigation hose will work, but I like to sleep at night. Plus if your spending all that money on a marine setup, and expensive live stock why risk it all to save a few $ on nasty plumbing.

You can buy small powerheads for $15-$20 just attach hoses to each side and use it to pump the water out of your tank. I have had to do this with my sump a few times which is sitting on the ground.

Sorry you must be right, sales man speak on the net can't possibly be wrong. Wasted my time learning all that physic's should have asked a sales man for the real truth instead

The reactor guide is a good simple explaination, but I didn't see anything that supports your pressure idea?

lol, it's a LOOP a restriction just slows the flow down it doesnt make any difference were it is the pressure HAS to be equal on both sides because its a closed loop. ok try looking a it this way, do you agree that to have managed to created a high pressure on one side of the pump you would have ended up with low pressure on the other? So what is that low pressure side going to be doing? Its going to be trying really really hard to get back to normal pressure, there are only two ways it can do this, it will suck back on the pump making the pump work harder and pump less, therefore dropping the pressure on the other side. and it will suck harder on the restriction again lowering the pressure on the other side, this all happens in an instant.

I think lighting shops normally call them daylight tube's, pretty common and cheap, you should be able to get them for around $10 from an electral wholesaler.

might be difficult in expain to your insurance company, poly highly flamable, not a good idea to put near your fire.

Thanks IRA. The thing to remember is that you can't compress a liquid, you can't streach water or force more into a fixed size container, therefore the amount of water pressure on both sides of the pump have to be the same, you cant thin it out on one side and compress it on the other, it has to suck as hard as it blows. So in a closed loop reactor the faster you push the water in the faster it will be sucked out. If you restrict the water flow into the pump inlet you dont create any pressure because all your doing is slowing the water flow into the pump, therefore the flow out of the pump will be slower.

Think about it, how can it? It's a closed loop, the more pressure at the output the more at the input, same as a closed loop in your tank, is your tank water under pressure????? It will make the water move through the media faster but it is the same water going round and round, the faster it comes out of the pump the faster it sucks in.

The internal pump wont put it under pressure because it is running like a closed loop. The only way to add pressure is via the feed into it.

yeah? How do you feed yours, this is the only way to put it under pressure (that I know of anyway)

Maybe true, but most of them aren't or if they are very very low pressure. Mine is feed by syphon from the display tank via one of those thin air hoses (Pies has a similar setup, but far classier reactor ;-) ) so this is the only pressure ours are under. The seals in mine wouldn't hold any more pressure than this anyway.

You would be better to buy a 3 or 4 foot tank and put deviders in to it

I'll happierly help you out and take one off your hands! Would be pretty easy to turn one into a calcium reactor, just set the current input/output as a closed loop and add a extra couple of holes for the feed and output

I had a power cut on Tuesday morning and didn't notice I had lost the syphon feed to my reactor until last night. My KH dropped to around 5 and CA to around 300 in two days.

I used to do that on my fresh water tanks, end up being a real pain because water (and salt in marine) got between it and the glass making it look crap, plus the tape comes unstuck after a while. Go the paint.

Using the old media is a very good idea, the only reasons not would be if had been out of water/flow for a while in which case the bactria would be dead and polute the tank or if the pore in the media are really clogged and even then I would still use it then remove and clean it once the new media is up and going.

I have sent a PM to Brendon for some mag chips, hopefully he can still supply it. I only need a little bit if anyone else in Wellington needs some as well PM me and we can try saving some freight etc costs or split a pack.