Recent content by Lark

I gotcha. I plan to top off frequently, but just wouldn't mind a little safety zone if I need to be gone for a weekend or something.

What does it mean that my SG would swing?

This make sense. Thanks Mark. I wonder whether I could just drill a hole in the side of the overflow box and put some kind of screen on it to make sure that the overflow stays flooded even with evaporation.

Ok, will do. Obviously, my concern if I add much more water and the overflow doesn't keep up is the water coming up to the top or over the tank. I'm pretty close to that point right now, but maybe I'm just not understanding. I don't really want to be in a position that every time there's a...

That doesn't seem to be working. Reducing the flow on the output side of my pump doesn't seem to make the water drain out of the overflow any less quickly. I'm actually not quite sure what people mean when they say not to restrict flow on the input side of my pump. The pump has a 3/4" inlet...

It's an iwaki 30 rlt. So, just to be clear, if I slightly close the ball valve that comes after my cannister filter, you think this would be ok? This raises the psi in my cannister filter, which is probably a good thing anyway.

So, I got a great tank for very little, even though the set up is not ideal. One of the loops (closed loop to cannister filter -- no sump) runs from a drain inside the built in overflow box to a return. The drain is a 1 1/4 bulkhead and the return is a 3/4. Anyway, the problem is that the...

Ok, thanks very much. I seem to be getting some brown algea. Anything I can do to keep this down during the cycling before I add clean up?

Chris -- this is very helpful. It's actually my situation right now. I've just started up an 80 gallon tank with 50 lbs of fully cured and established live rock. It's been in there for a little over a week, and I have had no measurable ammonia, nitrate, or nitrate. Should I assume there is...

Thanks Mr. X. I'm a bit nervous about an in-line on a closed loop. Seems like a flood in that circumstance could be a disaster. Not that a HOT is a piece of cake either, particularly if the pump is sitting on the bottom of the tank.

Mr. X -- thanks. Is there any HOT skimmer, other than the cheaper prizm, where the pump doesn't need to sit in the water? I'd love the pump to be external, but it doesn't look like there are too many where that can happen. The remora uses a mag or rio in the water, right?

Thanks. Which skimmers were you able to do this with? Some have hard acrylic shelves to go over the lip (like the remora) which seem like they'd be more difficult. The red sea berlin looks like it could be modified with simple extensions, but it's tough to tell without actually holding the...

No sump on this tank, I'm afraid. I wouldn't even know how to begin doing a DIY skimmer. Any place you could point me? I might be able to modify an existing skimmer myself, though.

Thanks all. It's a 90 FOWLR. Still in the planning stages, though. The funny part is that I have a brand new remora pro sitting in the garage (that has been there for 3 years) from an old project that never came to fruition. Not sure I want to put a pump in the tank, so I'm still not...

Does anyone know of a good skimmer that will hang on the back of an acrylic tank. The lip is pretty big between the back of the tank and the opening. Thanks in advance.