Finnex 30g owners unite!

[deadfishy]

My biggest question is, is there any way to have an auto top off system on one of these tanks?

 

I use a Tunze Osmolator in mine, mounted in the corner of the return pump chamber. Works like a charm, has an optical level sensor and a float switch backup/failsafe mounted higher up. Fits perfectly.

[mikejae]

Just ordered one from Premium Aquatics, came out to 479.99 w/ the stand and shipping. Can't wait. Thanks everyone for the comments.

[Phixion]

I have the JBJ ATO in my tank, and it works and fits great in it! No complaints there yet. I also (if you read the last couple pages) upgraded the weak 475gph pump and swapped out for an 840gph Rio 14HF pump. Definitely made a much improved differance. Along with my Koralia 2 pump I'm now at around 48X turnover. Another member added the 12HF pump to their tank which also is a good improvement, though not as powerful as the 14HF of course. Either will work just as well though!

[sammyz]

Hey all...just joined the club! Had a question for ya'll though

 

I've just put together my 30g Finnex glass that I recieved, and was quite non plussed to find that the fuge light has miniature legs that look just like the legs on the regular tank light.

 

The glass covers for the tank seem to want to cover up the very front of the tank , and the back including the sump area. There is a cutout for the skimmer and a power cord on the right hand side. However, due to this cover, my fuge light looks like it just has to sit on top of the glass that covers the fuge. This seems rather not right, as the legs have stabilizing tabs that looked like they would sit on the fuge walls.

 

Overall the tank looks pretty good, but I had some trouble setting up the return/fuge plumbing and set up, and figuring out some other facets of the tank. Could have used some better instructions with the tank.

 

Also, does anyone know if it is ok to leak check your tank with regular tap water? Or will the chemicals impact the tank when good water is added?

[Draeg]

Overall the tank looks pretty good, but I had some trouble setting up the return/fuge plumbing and set up, and figuring out some other facets of the tank. Could have used some better instructions with the tank.

 

 

Anything specific you are having trouble with?

[Phixion]

In addition my other post on this in your other thread, the glass covers DO indeed sit at the far front and far back of the tank. The only open part is directly under the main lighting. The fuge light will have to sit on the glass of course if you use the covers, otherwise use the legs. Finnex instructions have never been the best unfortunately... The ones for the stand are horrible, lol!

[sammyz]

In addition my other post on this in your other thread, the glass covers DO indeed sit at the far front and far back of the tank. The only open part is directly under the main lighting. The fuge light will have to sit on the glass of course if you use the covers, otherwise use the legs. Finnex instructions have never been the best unfortunately... The ones for the stand are horrible, lol!

 

 

I think non existent might be a better description (;

 

I wish I had known to borrow a power drill from work so I didn't have to do the whole thing with just my leatherman!

[FISH_FREAK]

Hey Phixion, or anyone with a Finnex 30g, could you measure the distance from the front edge of the glass to the false wall for me?? Im trying to figure out some lighting plans.

Thanks

[Phixion]

Hey Phixion, or anyone with a Finnex 30g, could you measure the distance from the front edge of the glass to the false wall for me?? Im trying to figure out some lighting plans.

Thanks

 

Sure, I can do that when I get home from work.

[erickrm]

i beleive it is like 13" from the front to the false wall.... sorry i have not been in the forum for a short while... just got another Tunze 6055 so now i have 2 6055s plus return putting me at drum roll please..... over 106 turn over rate per HR!!! my SPS love me

[PL-Reef]

hey all! i just joined up! my Finnex tank was delivered yesterday. i ordered the 30M-tank with nothing else. for lighting i'll be using 4 DYI T5s with SLR reflectors and skimming this bad boy with a new Deltec MCE 600. i think i'll start building the new cabinet this weekend! i cant wait.

[Gvtv44]

Sounds like a sweet setup! Good Luck with it! Make sure you create a thread!

[vg30et]

Well I bit the bullet and just ordered a Finnex 30g glass with the 150W MH & 2x 24W Actinics. I swore that I'd never get another "large" tank again after getting rid of my last 30 gallon tank but I just couldn't resist. Inhabitants will likely consist of SPS, some nice acans & micros and perhaps a few rics/yumas. I was very tempted to go BB but I do have a nice pistol shrimp/goby pair that will be moving from the NC6 over so I'll need substrate for them. Hope I don't regret going with substrate later on down the road...

[Torpus]

I've been considering this tank for a while now and I have been wondering why people have added more flow to their sump area instead of adding powerheads in the display area.

Is it just to hide their pumps or is it because the sump needs more flow than its already getting?

 

thanks guys

[ttolliver]

Hey gang, I just ran across this thread mentioned in another post. It'll take me a bit to work through all 17

pages, but I'm sure there are some gems in there.

 

I have a first generation glass 30g Finnex that's been up since around Jan 1, 2007. No horror stories, no major mods. I did upgrade all pumps to larger capacity maxijets and I added an aux flow maxijet in the display area.

 

My only complaint is that the plumbing in the back is difficult to get to for cleaning purposes. I've had to tear down the plumbing in the back a couple times and it's a royal pain. The price you pay for having small systems I suppose.

 

I'm just now starting to get the itch for a larger tank. My original idea was that if I went off the deep end in this hobby the finnex would make an awesome quarantine system for whatever bigger system I graduated to. But now that I'm at that point I don't want to transfer my current fish into a bigger tank, I want another set of fish . Anyway, I'm starting to kick around ideas for putting together something based on an Oceanic in the 72 to 90 range.

[burtbollinger]

so, several posts back a guy said his lights were not fitting right and the stand legs were dipping INTO the water, is this something I'm going to have to deal with if I order a Finnex?

 

Fit and quality control issues like this are THE most important factor for me. If it doensnt fit right, I think I'll go with CADlights....please advise.

 

 

From the post...:

 

 

Gripes:

the mounting legs: I emailed finnex about this and they said I did recieve the correct ones... the legs I have are a powdercoated metal and are really too big for the tank. If i mount them the way they are supposed to be mounted, a lil bit of each inside leg is submerged (salt water and metal dont mix) I can place one edge of each leg on the inside lip, but that doesnt seem very stable... The only other option I have is the way I have it set up now]

[Phixion]

I've been considering this tank for a while now and I have been wondering why people have added more flow to their sump area instead of adding powerheads in the display area.

Is it just to hide their pumps or is it because the sump needs more flow than its already getting?

 

thanks guys

 

For me, I just wanted a more powerful main pump. Since the fuge flow is adjustable, adding a bigger pump to replace the stock with doesn't hurt the effectiveness of the fuge.

 

 

I can't speak for the MH lights since I have the T5's, but the legs to my fixture are PLASTIC and do dip about a millimeter ir two into the water, but it's not a problem again since they are plastic. That one post was the only complaint I've ever heard about the legs with the MH fixture...

 

ttolliver: Whhich model MJ pumps did you replace each pump in the tank with? I can't imagine downgrading the main return pump for something almost half as powerful... I went the opposite way and upgraded the main return to a Rio 14HF pump which is 840gph.

[ttolliver]

I'm not sure if I went 600 or 900 on the skimmer. But I put a 900 on the return and a 1200 as an aux pump on the back of the tank.

 

Whatever I put on the skimmer is golden.

 

I would like more output from the return, so may play with switching the return and aux flow pumps to see what a 1200 does on the return. An irritation I have on the return flow is garbage clogging the inlet screen. It's such a pain to get to that I don't clean it regularly. But whenever I notice my return flow getting sluggish I always know that screen is jammed up.

 

How often to others clean that screen? Or should I just remove it entirely?

 

I like the flow I get from the 1200 I have in the display area, but I suspect it's way too much and have to be VERY careful with how it is directed. It will move a lot of sand in a jiffy if it shifts. I used to have it mounted with the 3 suction cup mounts because it allowed me to place it low enough on the back to be behind the rock. But after a couple mishaps I switched it to the hanging mount.

 

One of the reasons I put up with the 1200 is that it creates enough flow to, "turn 2 corners". So that allows me to put it unobrusively on the back wall but still produce a very gentle flow across the front of the display area. And with it moving left to right along the back, it probably also helps draw circulation out of the little refugeum grill.

 

Oh yeah, and I have the plastic legs too -- and I think I know what's missing. My legs do stick into the water a bit, but my bigger issue is that the little plastic set screws do not engage with the light fixture. Instead, they just miss the light housing to the outside. I just figured it was an accident in manufacturing until a LFS put one of our tanks on display. They had two piece legs on the light fixture, the same plastic legs then a u-shaped piece of metal between the plastic leg and the light housing. Looking at their setup, my screws would perfectly enage the u-bracket, and the u-bracket fit the slot in the light housing.

 

So I wonder if I just missed out on getting the metal brackets? Although I don't recall if the light on the LFS model was HM or T5. I have T5 and, in hindsight, I wonder if MH needs additional height off the water and those metal brakcets were simply spacers. Whadayathink?

 

Thanks,

Tom

[Phixion]

That's odd, my legs don't have any screws. Just the 2 end brackets to hold the light over the tank, then a pair of I guess stablizers that snap into the legs and extend out to keep the light from tilting forward and back.

 

My intake screen used to clog all the time with green hair algae, but I haven't had to touch it in ages now though, not sure why. I'd always know when it was clogged though because flow to the back would greatly reduce and the pump chamber level (middle chamber on mine) would drop level to where I could hear the water pouring down over the drip tray.

 

With my tank I have a total turnover rate of about 48x between my main return pump and the Koralia 2 I have in the display. The Koralia isn't too much flow in the display, at least not with it being in the front corner and directed slightly down and towards the opposite back corner. I'd really like to redo the back plumbing though, so that the piping from the pump inthrough the backwall is slightly larger to accomidate more flow through it, and also so that the slow has a straight 90 degree only path, rather than up, to the left slightly, then back to the right to go out the false wall...

[LiveRock27]

I have been looking into the Finnex 30g tank, but I had a question. Any of yall that are running the lights with either the 150w HQI or 250w HQI have yall had to add a small chiller to your setup? I was looking at the light setup w/just the T5s, but would prefer to have atleast the 150w HQI so I can keep pretty much what ever corals/clams I want in the tank. Love the thread and I hope to soon be able to add my experience with the tank.

[scarfish]

I have been looking into the Finnex 30g tank, but I had a question. Any of yall that are running the lights with either the 150w HQI or 250w HQI have yall had to add a small chiller to your setup? I was looking at the light setup w/just the T5s, but would prefer to have atleast the 150w HQI so I can keep pretty much what ever corals/clams I want in the tank. Love the thread and I hope to soon be able to add my experience with the tank.

 

I have the 32 with 150HQI and the highest temp I ever saw was 80.6, its usually 80.1, my room temp is always on the cold side though about 65-68. I also do not use a fan over the tank.

[burtbollinger]

What is the best 150 W MH light to place above a 30-M Tank...if I am not going to use the Finnex brand?

 

I am looking at the $350 Outer Orbit 24 inch MH light at the moment....is this a bad investment? Is there a better brand I am totally overlooking? I like the Idea of supplimental actintic PCs with the MH....

[Phixion]

Outer Orbit or Sunpod should both work fine over the tank.

 

LiveRock, I have the T5 lights over my tank and still need a chiller for it. Then again I also run 4 pumps total on the tank instead of the 2 that normally come with it, but my temps always seem to rise anyways, which is mainly due to the ambient temp at my apartment usuanlly never being below 72F even in the winter. So you may or may not need a chiller. Get the tank and try it out. If it's heating up over 82F then you should get a chiller of course. Also if you outfit the T5 fixture with individual reflectors like I did with mine, then you chould be able to keep clams and most SPS with no problem. I have 4 clams in my tank and a few SPS pieces and all are doing well, I have had those all under the lighting for several months now too.

[vg30et]

I have been looking into the Finnex 30g tank, but I had a question. Any of yall that are running the lights with either the 150w HQI or 250w HQI have yall had to add a small chiller to your setup? I was looking at the light setup w/just the T5s, but would prefer to have atleast the 150w HQI so I can keep pretty much what ever corals/clams I want in the tank. Love the thread and I hope to soon be able to add my experience with the tank.

 

I am using the 150w HQI in my Finnex 30g and it does require additional cooling. Ambient in the house has been in the upper 70's and I have so far been able to keep temps between 79 and 80 with a small 70mm fan mounted between the legs in the light fixture. The fan is hooked up to a ranco controller so it does not stay on all the time.

 

By the way, mine came with the powerdercoated metal legs that do sit in the tank water and I have noticed some surface rust. Finnex said to try using tape over the legs but I went with aquarium safe silicone sealant and haven't had issues since.

[LiveRock27]

Thanks for the info on the tank temp. I keep my house at 65-68 during the winter, but during the summer it is around 75 degrees so I guess heat could be an issue than. I am leaning towards the MH because I really like the shimmer they give off.

My only other concern is with Finnex itself. I just had a 50w digital heater go out that was just over a month old and because it was due to the heater itself leaking that is not covered under their warranty. So I guess I am a little worried about the quality of their products as a whole and their lack of customer service.