Recent content by preston_brown

Refugium pic:

I also placed the refugium I bought into the fish room. Any "best practices" or other tips on plumbing it in this sort of location (i.e. same level as the sump) to minimize energy consumption? I considered some sort of loop incorporating the chiller and maybe an optional UV sterilizer? -- Preston

It was my birthday today, so my wife sent me to the fish store with my oldest daughter. Got some hardy fish just to give some movement to the tank, and I'm in no way opposed to a bunch of cheap fish that form a nice school. I got 10 green chromis and a yellow-tail blue damsel...for sentimental...

Tank is settled out but I definitely have some aquascaping to do -- right now I have that "pile of rocks" look. Last time I had the tank set up I had larger pieces of live rock. I put the largest ones on the bottom this time to form a wide base, plus the largest pieces were the least "good"...

Yes, both intake and exhaust are on the ceiling, but at opposite sides of the room. Might be the issue, but hot air should be rising and accumulating at the top, right? Tank is looking much nicer this morning now that things have settled out. And, no hot weather expected for at least a week...

I am going to add a separate external refugium I bought from a fellow reefkeeper in town who was breaking down a 180 gallon tank.

I opened up my exhaust fan port to take a look at what I have. It's a 1.5 Sone, 150 CFM version from Braun. Clearly with all the intake ducting it is not going to be sufficient on hot summer days. It is working fine today, but it is only 50 degrees outside... I ordered this Panasonic to...

Well, my Critters arrived this morning from Bob Sullivan. Very helpful guy who sent me a lot of interesting stuff. I got a couple of very nice coraline algae live rocks, about 5-6 inches round. Another live rock w/a bunch of Caulerpo Prolifera -- really meant for a sump or refugium but that...

The problem is, I'm not sure how many CFM the exhaust fan is moving, and I'm not sure what got installed. But it isn't very much. Humidity is not a problem, the exhaust fan is taking care of that. The fresh air intake I would have to go measure. The transfer duct is a standard flexible HVAC...

Well, I did some arranging of the rock tonight because I have a bunch of critters arriving in the morning (snails and sandbed dwellers). When piled up in two lumps, the rock does appear to take up more volume, but I'll definitely need more. Probably at least 50 lbs more. I'd take a picture...

I'll put some siphon-break holes in the tube, that should work and I should have thought of that. Yes, that's all 150 pounds of rock. 200 gallon tanks are big...more rock will come in time, but I do like to have open areas. I'll build two reef structures, one on the left, one on the right...

My original plan was to have a light rack. However, two things caused me to go this route: 1. I had to use heavy-duty toggle bolts on two of the hangers because I wasn't able to get them into a stud and put them over the portion of the tank that was desired. I suppose I could mount a long 2x4...

The center brace is fully repaired. The new starfire glass is very clear and looks good. Today, I spent a good chunk of my time mounting my metal halides over the tank. They are mounted on spring-tension pulleys from an on-line hydroponic/indoor garden shop that let me move the lights up and...

The jack is holding the glass lightly against the plastic support rim at the top of the tank, which is insuring that everything cures up nice and level. If you look at the front edge of the tank, notice that the plastic rim extends a little bit to the inside. The glass sits underneath this.

OK! The center brace was repaired today. I've been worrying more about getting my car working (my other hobby): http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=330349 Also, I've been taking care of curing the live rock rather than getting this done, but today was the day. I was...