no prob! Charphy a few posts back you will find a link to my tank thread, there is some more pics there of the fish condo out of the water so you can see how I built it.

Great thanks...I didn't see it the first time. Your tank is awesome! I just bought the 30g finnex. Do you think that I need the extra flow (tunze) for a reef tank or is the pump enough?

For me, at one point I upgraded to a Rio 14HF pump for double the main return flow. That pump is rated at 840 gph. It uses a little more power so will run hotter, but dimensionally it's nearly identicle in shape and size to the stock Finnex pump. I stopped using it after when I moved my tank to my house I'm currently in, the pump didn't work anymore when I plugged it in when re setting my tank back up.

Also instead of the Tunze, a good cheaper alternative is the Koralia pumps. I run a K-2 rated at 600 gph in my tank right now. Great extra flow!

I have a koralia 1 and koralia nano right now, and I wish I had more flow since Ive started to keep more and more sps. Im thinking of upgrading to a vortech, do you guys think a mp10 would be enough flow for the finnex, or should I go a mp20?

From what I've seen, MP10 should be good enough. Have you tried out the Koralia flow mods that are being discussed recently on here? Somthing about cutting out pieces of the front guard allow for increased flow, especially with the Nano version. I have one I'm itching to try this on. I'd love a Vortech myself though!

Yes I recently modded my nano version, seemed to help some, nothing huge though.

So is it worth doing then??

Do any of you have any problems with flow through the back chambers when a bag of Chemipure Elite is added? I'm running the stock return pump and had lots of problems with the water level in the 3rd chamber, it was always low, and everytime I turned off the pumps to feed the water level would be different once I restarted it. I ended up having to remove it.

If you mean the 3rd chamber is on the left as you look at your at the back of the aquarium(where your return pump is), it can be low. It is where I keep my float for the ATO, so stays at the sensor level or water level. That level determines the height.

I've never had an issue, then again an ATO will prevent this from happening.

Yes I think it was worth it, took me all of 3 minutes to do. It does seem to push more flow now,the flow is more streamlined now instead of really spread like it was before, so maybe the flow is the same but the pattern in different now.....not sure.. but it feels like more flow. Gotta love cheap easy mods though

I have the 150 Watt MH fixture with the T5s and was wondering what the specific bulb models are, how frequently I should change each bulb and if anyone knew of any good places to find deals on these bulbs?

I a different fixture, so can't say anything for sure there. And I'm interested in hearing others' thoughts on frequency myself. But...

www.reefgeek.com was highly recommended when I was looking for bulbs and I've been very happy with their pricing/service. I've recently found a LFS that gets my bulb business, but that won't do you any good unless you live in the Minneapolis area

bump

150 is a 14k pheonix, t-5 is finnex brand, probably cheap chinese. When I change I'm gonna stick with the 14k pheonix, I like the bulb, lookwise and dollerwise. Gonna upgrade the t-5's. I have heard 8 months to a year for MH change and 12 to 15 months on the t-5's. Depends on your lighting cycle.

I would search the lighting forum and use the search function to see what others have been using with good success.

much thanks for the info..cheers!

Major update, so many things have changed on my finnex, it is now pretty much SPS dominated.
Current FTS:




left side:

right side:


Chill out tang police, its only temp until I get a bigger system going this year.

^^ That looks great, Kellerexpress!

thanks!

HELP!!!! Main pump just went out on my 30 gallon M-tank (2nd Gen)! I don't have time to wait and order a pump from finnex. Are there other pumps out there that are around the same GPH that will fit with the existing plumbing?

There is a place not too far from us that has a variety of pumps. But, I don't know what will fit with this tank.

It is called www.aquacave.com


Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!!!

Thanks

I replaced mine with a Maxijet 1800 utility pump a little over a year ago. It's a bit of a tight fit but it works great.

Didn't know there was a thread for these. My m-tank was purchased used for a little under 200 for tank and mh/t5combo fixture. I added an eshopps psk-75 hob to the first rear chamber, installed my float switch on top of the middle chamber to keep tank levels in check since this was the chamber that would suffer from evap then the plumbing tees off into the fuge section. That is the only thing I don't care for too much about these tanks is how the fuge is made of acrylic that is pressed right up the the rear glass leaving a gap between the glass and plastic to form lots of unwanted algea. Tank thread is in my sig if you want to check out how I have mine set up and running.