SteveA

My sump is just an old 135L tank and, for the last 10 years, this has been perfectly adequate to support a 1600L reef plus, up till recently, a second 250L tank. Now I have more space I will probably build a bigger one, and put a section of rock in it, but I don't really need to.

In theory, since a taller skimmer will have greater pressure at the depth where the air is sucked into the venturies, and this would increase the effort required to suck in sufficient air, height might prevent sufficient air from being sucked in. This all assumes that the venturies are only just able to suck in sufficient air at zero head. If they are capable of sucking in more than sufficient air at zero head there is no reason to assume they could not suck in sufficient air at normal operating head. As an experiment, I have tried boosting the air going into the skimmer with an air pump. Now that produced big bubbles, possibly because the air pump was too powerful. On the other hand, a taller skimmer significantly increased dwell time and since I only pass water through it at about 3 tank volumes per hour I each molecule of water must spend a lot of time in there. As it operates, I consider the bubbles it produces to be adequately numerous and adequately small and have, on various occasions after making a mess in the tank, been forced to turn off one foaming pump to reduce the quantum of bubbles temporarily. As to bubble size, define large (and small for that matter).

I have used one of the tall 5000s on my tank for many years and I would not consider it to suffer from either of these issues. Still, it would not be big enough for Pies, I think he would need the 20,000 to be truely satisfied.

Two Eheim 1060 for 5000 l/h less losses due to head and pipe resistance. They feed water to skimmer which then drains to tank.

Not eaten any fish then? I have had the blue one for about 8 years and it has been thru the wars before, having once gone over an overflow weir and got stuck in the output pipe. It was a bit of a mess after that excursion as well. I'll probably use that one for my clown tank, when I set it up. It may not be as bright as the geen one, but it has a history.

Try again

At some point the skimmer input size is going to act like a tap and restrict the flow. Even if you put a 10,000l/h pump on it you may not be able to get any more thru. You need to line up 25 200L drums and see if you can fill them all in 1 hour from the output of your skimmer. I'll come and watch as an unbiased witness. 8)

Why not just reduce the flow going thru it and see what happens? If it is part of your main circulation system and U use this to create current in your tank then compensate by increasing the internal circulation (Tunze thingys). The main reason for taking water out of the tank in the first place (i.e. the whole plumbing system to your basement) is to deliver water to the skimmer, so reducing its speed to test skimming efficiency should not cause any issues.

I have heard not to crush them, or set them adrift, but I got a yellow tang to eat them after I deliberately set a few adrift and it decided to have a taste. Prior to that it didn't even seem to know it was potential food, but it had demonstrated a liking for peas dropped into the tank – hence the idea to try. Something in my tank has eaten all that I had but I did not see any particular tang doing the deed. Mind you, I also don’t know what eats all the Aiptasia.

From the thread on RC you find that at least some of them do get out and 'mix it' with the rest of the inhabitants and can even become the boss of the tank as they get bigger.

There is a very long, and interesting, thread on RC about Regals and one of the contributors referred to a captive pair that were spawning. Apparently the male has significantly longer spines on its gills that the female. From the pictures in that thread I was able to determine that mine is probably a male. I seem to have at least 5 fish that eat like your tang. I frequently get bitten by my clown as is charges in for food. Even my little flame hawk comes up and joins the mêlée to get to food out of my hand. More have and are joining in as time progresses so I will probably have to consider my Regal to be truly settled the first time I get bitten by it during feeding. Steve

My last tank had a circulation system that returned water down the back of the reef and, apart from producing a general end to end current flow, played no part in internal tank circulation. Since this worked well, I opted for the same design on the new tank and this has proved most beneficial for feeding a shy Regal angel. The Regal arrived fat, healthy and clearly with an appetite as it was pecking at rocks within less than an hour of going in the tank. It has, however, proved rather shy, partly because of harassment by other fish (only medium level and slowly decreasing) but also because it only sees a big lumbering human once a day. This has produced a bit of a feeding dilemma as to throw huge quantities of food in so that some would get behind the reef worked to a degree, was hugely popular with the rest of the fish but was not going to do the tank any long term good. The answer came from the circulation system as I was able to put some of the thawed out frozen food and broken up freeze dried food in at the outlet of the skimmer very easily. Within seconds this is wafting round behind the reef and being eagerly hoovered up by the Regal. So now he (I believe it is a male) can get over his shyness in his own time without any worry about not getting enough food. A further interesting development that may be just coincidental but I suspect is due to the Regal exploring the underside of the reef rather more thoroughly than any previous fish, has been the appearance, on a more or less daily basis, of one of my two cardinal shrimps in a position where it can actually be seen. I have had these for at least 3 years and apart from the very occasional late night glimpse (using a torch) early on in the old tank and then discovering, much to my surprise, that they were still both alive, when I moved tanks I have not really seen them until now. Steve

That reflector is designed to be on a high ceiling/warehouse roof. It would not have a very wide distribution pattern. Steve

Children are like that too. Steve

Quite normal. Don't panic yet. Steve

Actually the figure is $4.8736, but I might be wrong.

I am guessing that on the current power charges it will work out at about $4.90 over a full year. Steve

So far the tank is consuming about $4.75 power per average winter day but over a period of 1.5 days, when we had a very cold southerly front come thru, it climbed to just over $6 per day. Including this spike, the everage is $5.22. In the 24 hour period to 7:25 this morning the heaters had only been on for 8.5 hours but must have been on for a lot longer during that cold spell. All this data is going to make an intersting graph one day. Steve

I like the picture on page 8 where the woman is holding up some fish food to let the shark get an idea of the treat is has in store for when it gets a bit bigger. Steve

I am prepared for the possibility that the Regal may have to be removed to its own tank if it starts eating my SPS or my MPS (favites etc) corals. Currently I have no clams (as I had a big wrasse until my recent tank move) and only two LPS corals which I would move elsewhere before I moved the fish. So far the Regal has contented itself with pecking morcels off the underside of the reef, but I shall watch its behaviour. The regal will have to grow to about 3 times its current size before it even comes close to being the biggest fish in the tank. I have a very large blue tang which, while it does not bother any other fish, does not take any crap from anybody either. I suspect the Regal may well end up eating out of my hand as I currently have a flame hawk, several damsels, a clown fish, the blue tang and occasionally a royal gramma that do this. Steve

I think with an overflow design like that you would want to install a float switch on your floor and connect is to a device to send you a text massage WHEN the tank let go. You might at least get home in time to save some of your corals that way. Steve PS: I have also had a center brace let go on my last tank. New one uses Pies' steel rods.

My last bulbs were radium blues and I did use them for a good year. They did dim slightly and change colour a bit towards the end but the corals didn't care. I would have no hesitation using them again (will have to if I persue my 2 x 1000W idea). Steve

Not me. Would use exactly the same design. Even if I were to make it bigger, I would not change the basic design. Mind you , it has taken a few tank builds, over the years, to get there. Steve

Well, things went pretty much as predicted except that a large Javanese damsel proved to be the 2nd largest fish by half a fin. This, plus the Purple Tang as predicted, gave the Regal a bit of a hard time, or at least attempted to, but were fended off and no damage was done. The only injuries occurred to a smaller damsel who decided that the arrival of a bunch of new fish was a good reason to pick a fight, most of which he lost, with every other fish in the tank. The Regal was nibbling at rocks after 1 hour and after about 4 hours weathering his welcome retired to the back of the tank and has been there for the last two days where it has been observed on several occasions apparently happily pecking its way along under the reef. So, apart from not coming out the front for two days it is looking to have settled in reasonably well. The Yellow Tang that went in at the same time looks far more harassed, and is by the purple, which now seems to ignore the Regal. Steve

Years ago a friend of mine told me a story about when he was in primary school and painted some white mice with black stripes. He then managed to sell them to some old sole down the road from his place as ‘zebra mice’. Apparently all was well for a few days then a policeman (apparently trying very hard not to laugh) arrived on the doorstep and had a wee talk to his dad. My friend was advised by his father that he ‘should’ refund the money and take back the mice. Nothing much has changed. Steve