Saying "Hi" to MR - new arrival
- Thread starter techreef
- Start date
- Location
- NY
Welcome aboard. Looks like you've got a great start on everything.
swimmer
swimmer
- Location
- Flushing NY 11355
Wow, your setup is so neat and tidy. I love it. The stand is unbelievably well finished. It's so sexy yet elegant
- Location
- Forest Hills
is that sand in your tank? hmmm.. it sure looks like something else:biggrin:
that must be very fine sand.
that must be very fine sand.
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Thanks for the kind words and suggestions everyone. Great ideas. At this point, my patience is beginning to wear out, as I'd like to actually see some wet stuff in my tank, but obviously there are a lot of improvements and tinkering that can still happen here. I have yet to see what the heat situation will end up being like once the system has water in it, but I can tell you from experience that it's hot working under the stand, so I can imagine that I will need at least a fan blowing through the stand and 1-2 fan(s) blowing down the length of my canopy to cool down the T5's, especially since 4 of the 6 bulbs are being overdriven by the IC 660 ballast.
cali reef, i had originally wanted an Eheim pump, but had trouble finding a vendor with stock of the size I needed, so i went w/ the Mag 7. I was surprised to see that they used metal screws for it when I unpacked the thing too. I thought to myself, "wait a minute, doesn't saltwater corrode metal..."
After spending so much time on it, I am completely chicken about trying to drill my sump for a 1" bulkhead. If I cracked the sump, I would have a breakdown right then and there. I know it's the better way to do it, but this is going to have to suffice for my first run at things as a newbie! I nearly had a heart attack when I scuffed the inside wall of the sump w/ a cutting bit of my Dremel last weekend while I was squaring off a PVC pipe leading to the skimmer. The Dremel hadn't quite stopped spinning by the time I bumped the glass wall with it. The whole bit dissintegrated into a thousand little pieces, but thank God it didn't break the sump wall.
After spending so much time on it, I am completely chicken about trying to drill my sump for a 1" bulkhead. If I cracked the sump, I would have a breakdown right then and there. I know it's the better way to do it, but this is going to have to suffice for my first run at things as a newbie! I nearly had a heart attack when I scuffed the inside wall of the sump w/ a cutting bit of my Dremel last weekend while I was squaring off a PVC pipe leading to the skimmer. The Dremel hadn't quite stopped spinning by the time I bumped the glass wall with it. The whole bit dissintegrated into a thousand little pieces, but thank God it didn't break the sump wall.
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Welcome To M.r!
- Location
- Clifton, NJ
Welcome to MR.
This board has a collection of the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met.
This board has a collection of the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met.
- Location
- Westchester, NY
Very nice, Welcome
Thanks Leslie, but all the credit for that design comes from Marc over at his website Melev's Reef. (www.melevsreef.com) If you never visited before, it's a treasure trove of DIY info, build diaries, and general information for saltwater enthusiasts. The one fish that I really want to have is a green mandarin, and they require a steady supply of copepods, so a good refugium design was super important to me.
How is your tank rolling along?
How is your tank rolling along?
Well, I have water :flirt: , but there are lots of things that I would have done differently. You are definitely going about it the right way - good self control!
If it is ever in the budget, I would add a chiller to your set up. Mine runs all the time, and it is a big relief to not worry about how the temp in the apartment is impacting the tank. That is one of things I did right to balance out my wrongs
Also, I am sure you already know this, but when you add your rock, make sure it sits firmly on the bottom of the tank, not the sand. Critters may shift the sand and displace your rocks.
You have done such a great job on your setup, I cannot wait to see what happens when you start putting things in the tank!
what do chillers cost? and how big are they? without some custom shelving, i'm mostly out of room in my stand, which stinks because I'd like to have an auto top-off system. honestly, i haven't considered getting a chiller, kalk doser, etc. because this hobby is so ungodly expensive already. i'd like to see what my temp swings are like once the tank is up and running before I go get a chiller, but thanks for the endorsement of the technology. i'll keep it in the back of my mind as an option!
techreef, welcome to manhattan reefs.
when one of the mods had time we can help change /split your welcome thread into a new tank thread.
Chillers are not cheap, but if you keep looking at the for sale section here you can pick one up for probably half the price of a new one. you would need at least a 1/3 hp chiller around $700-$900 new, maybe $300-$500 used.
oh. also you don't put the chiller under the stand, they create hot air, the farther away from the tank the better.
mine is eight feet away in a fireplace
when one of the mods had time we can help change /split your welcome thread into a new tank thread.
Chillers are not cheap, but if you keep looking at the for sale section here you can pick one up for probably half the price of a new one. you would need at least a 1/3 hp chiller around $700-$900 new, maybe $300-$500 used.
oh. also you don't put the chiller under the stand, they create hot air, the farther away from the tank the better.
mine is eight feet away in a fireplace
what's the noise level on chillers? i see hp, even 1/3 hp, and I think of a little engine like on a weed whacker. not so sure, strike that, i'm POSITIVE my better half doesn't want a noisy engine in our living room. i'm a bit nervous about firing up the Marlin external pump for my CL and hearing how loud that turns out being. I had bought an Iwaki 100RLT pump w/ the Japanese motor, but (stupid me) read reviews on it after i got it that said things like "Thank God it's down in the basement" and "Sounds like a Jacuzzi at full blast". That was one of my dumber mistakes so far on this journey called reefing.
- Location
- 11756
Just came accross those pictures...Makes me jealous, looks great tho!!
nanoreefer22 said:
yes take notes Kris on how to install baffles properly
The new chillers are not that loud at all. The good ones are pretty quiet now.
Without a chiller your going to have to use a whole bunch of fans in the sump, and keep the room ac on all the time.
Since we are getting into the hieght of summer the chiller issue is something your going to have to figure out before any livestock goes in the tank.
you could do a test run with the tank filled with water and all the lights and pumps on to see how hot it gets.
In my tank I have 3x250 MH, 4 140w vho tubes, an external return pump, 2 tunzes in the main tank, and 2 aquabees on the skimmer in the sump.
there are also 3 fans in the hood.
If the ambient room temp is under 77 the tank will stay at 78, when the room temp hits 80 that's when the tank temp goes to 82 and the chiller kicks on.
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