Finnex 30g owners unite!

[burtbollinger]

I get water dripping noise from water dropping into the back chamber of the tank from the display area....the water enters where the output pipe exits the back wall,,,,this area is not at all water tight obviously....any ideas how to fix this? Is this normal?

[discgo]

I get water dripping noise from water dropping into the back chamber of the tank from the display area....the water enters where the output pipe exits the back wall,,,,this area is not at all water tight obviously....any ideas how to fix this? Is this normal?

I had to get the alignment just right in order to not have any dripping, I found the secret to be the have the lip on T-bar that leads into the refugium to be snug up against the glass. You get get some slight resistance that will make the pipe leading into the form a tight seal as it enters the tank. I had to play around with the plumbing, pipes, and skimmer quite a bit to get a tight set up.

 

Enjoy!

[Phixion]

I never had that issue with my tank, though I could see how it would happen...

[Sciman_SF]

I have a question regarding the 150w HQi lighting from Finnex. Are the lighting fixtures pretty reliable and do they fire-up right away? Also, what type and how many LED's does this fixture have built-in? Can you operate the LED's on a seperate timer? I have read that there is some rusting on the legs of the fixture and that kind of worries me. Has anyone tried hanging the lighting over the tank from the roof?

 

I am probably going with the Finnex M-30 but want to know if I should skip the lighting and look at alternatives such as Sunpod or Outer Orbit.

[burtbollinger]

I have a question regarding the 150w HQi lighting from Finnex. Are the lighting fixtures pretty reliable and do they fire-up right away? Also, what type and how many LED's does this fixture have built-in? Can you operate the LED's on a seperate timer? I have read that there is some rusting on the legs of the fixture and that kind of worries me. Has anyone tried hanging the lighting over the tank from the roof?

 

I am probably going with the Finnex M-30 but want to know if I should skip the lighting and look at alternatives such as Sunpod or Outer Orbit.

 

Ken at oceanReeflections is the man to ask....

 

sunpod would fit but you get no actintics...outer orbit is an inch wider than the tank display i heard....

 

I'd go with the Finnex version, its supposed to be a good light, has actinic supplimentation and comes with thr 14000k Pheonix bulb.

[Phixion]

I have the T5 fixture myself, so i can't tell you about the MH fixture. But I too have heard about the metal legs issue. There's several ways to "fix" this like putting tape over the part of the legs that touch the water. Other than that, I haven't heard anything bad about it.

[discgo]

Greetings fellow Finnex M-30 owners!

 

My micro bubble problem has drastically improved over the last few days. I removed the black box and replaced it with some filter floss. The floss is right on top of the gray sponge. Really helped out, I'm also going to put a bag of Chemipure or Purigen (or both) in that section as well.

 

It also helped quiet the tank down a bit, there was a loud gurgling sound from the water running around and over the black sponge box and that's gone now as well.

 

Everything is cycling nicely. The rock from premiumaquatics was unreal. Lots of color and plant life, haven't seen any hitchhikers yet though.

 

Cheers!

[Phixion]

Give the hitch hikers time, they can take up to and over a month to appear.

 

I'd just use Chemi-Pure, personally. And actually the Elite version at that. Good to hear your skimmer is breaking in!

[discgo]

Thought I'd tap the expert Finnex 30G M-tankers....

 

Where does everyone keep their water levels?

 

I've been keeping the main tank just below the black rim, about an 1" below the rear acrylic and 1.5" from the top of the rim. About half of the 2 rear grates are covered.

 

The main pump chamber is about 5-6" below the top, well above the minimum fill line. I've got the fuge valve at about 50%.

 

Now the skimmer chamber seems to be low, I get a "waterfall" from the overflow over my floss. I think I may need to keep the tank a little fuller so the floss gets fully covered with water. Either that or cut the sponge in half and lower the level of the floss.

 

Also, in my fuge pipe, I see a "tornado" of water, really powerful flow. I guess this is normal? I've got some chaeto in the bottom of the fuge on top a few pieces of rubble, doesn't seem to get much flow in the bottom of the fuge.

 

Cheers!

[Phixion]

The "tornado" in the fuge pipe IS normal.

 

My tank is unfortunately to the top, to the point of almost coming over the glass edge under the top trim. I wish my tank level would be lower (it used to be before I moved) but alas it always remains high... Lately I've been having skimmer issues that the water flows into the cup, I'm sure do to the recent rise in the water level for a reason I'm not quite sure of at the moment... =/ Otherwise the tank is doing just fine!!

[burtbollinger]

Thought I'd tap the expert Finnex 30G M-tankers....

 

Where does everyone keep their water levels?

 

I've been keeping the main tank just below the black rim, about an 1" below the rear acrylic and 1.5" from the top of the rim. About half of the 2 rear grates are covered.

 

The main pump chamber is about 5-6" below the top, well above the minimum fill line. I've got the fuge valve at about 50%.

 

Now the skimmer chamber seems to be low, I get a "waterfall" from the overflow over my floss. I think I may need to keep the tank a little fuller so the floss gets fully covered with water. Either that or cut the sponge in half and lower the level of the floss.

 

Also, in my fuge pipe, I see a "tornado" of water, really powerful flow. I guess this is normal? I've got some chaeto in the bottom of the fuge on top a few pieces of rubble, doesn't seem to get much flow in the bottom of the fuge.

 

Cheers!

 

water level above rim of TANK....mine seems exactly as yours does otherwise...i get that waterfall effect too, but good i think cause it acts as a surface skimmer of sorts....your tornado may mean too much power going to fuge, trim it back just a touch....i removed my black sponge fyi...

[discgo]

water level above rim of TANK....mine seems exactly as yours does otherwise...i get that waterfall effect too, but good i think cause it acts as a surface skimmer of sorts....your tornado may mean too much power going to fuge, trim it back just a touch....i removed my black sponge fyi...

thanks, I'm adjusting the fuge flow now to tone it down a bit, still want my chaeto to get enough flow

 

thinking of ditching the sponge as well.

[discgo]

After days of tweaking the skimmer and not being able to get , I decided to take it off and run skimmerless for the time being. After further inspection, there were a few cracks in debris strainer and where the silencer connection is which I'm sure didn't help. The skimmer chamber was like a just opened bottle of seltzer, with a little improvement but then right back to the fizz.

 

I'm not concerned about it now as I'm only cycling and plan to slowly introduce fish & corals.

 

I am going to plumb the return pump so water flows into the sponge chamber. Eventually I might get a Tunze or the Aqua-C.

 

Any other good skimmers that would work on this tank?

 

Cheers!

[Phixion]

Keep in mine that a lot of bubbles means it's working hard, which it what it will probably do when cycling anyways. I've heard it's best not to run when cycling...

 

As for the fuge, the way I have mine set-up is I slowly increased the flow on it from fully off, till I could physically see the water flowing through the grate into the display. It's not at all too fast, but enough that I know it's circulating through good.

[discgo]

Keep in mine that a lot of bubbles means it's working hard, which it what it will probably do when cycling anyways. I've heard it's best not to run when cycling...

 

As for the fuge, the way I have mine set-up is I slowly increased the flow on it from fully off, till I could physically see the water flowing through the grate into the display. It's not at all too fast, but enough that I know it's circulating through good.

 

I think you're right about not running it during cycling. The seltzer like effect that I didn't like was in the tank chamber where the skimmer goes. I would also get vary variable skimming, some days a little bit of dark liquid and some days the cup would fill up half way with a light green liquid. I may revisit it when I have a bioload in the tank or get another skimmer.

 

Thanks as always, Phixion!

[mrhat]

any of you guys running a tunze osmolator with the glass covers still on the tank? i'm thinking about getting one but wondering how i would go about mounting it being that the glass covers all the way to the tank edge

[ryboyd]

Could someone take a measurement of their 30 M tank please?

 

I read on Finnex's site that from the front of the tank to the back of the tank is 18".

 

Is this with the Skimmer area or w/ out.

 

The measurement I would like is how many inches is that skimmer area from front to back?

 

Thanks,

 

ryboyd

[erickrm]

the skimmer area is about 3.5-4" from the back glass to the false wall..... HTH

[burtbollinger]

a while back, the metal legs of the MH fixture touching water was discussed....prompting a rust concern....

 

I am happy to report that the legs appear to have been redesigned, so no portion of the metal touches the water...

 

will post pix soon. I'm loving my finnex, btw!

 

Does anyone have any experience with the finnex cooling fan, btw?

[ryboyd]

Thanks for the measurements.

[burtbollinger]

This is the my new Finnex 30...been set up for a month with established LR from my other tank....just got the MH late last week, I added a few zoas and a pair of black and white percs...

 

running an aqua c remora nano, a chaeto fuge, a korelia 2 and a korelia nano...

 

Anyway, tell me what you think...thanks for all the advice, especially Phixion and Ken from OceanReeflections...and a big thank you to BigByrd for his amazing tank, which inspired me to put this together.

 

[mrhat]

lookin good Burt!

[discgo]

Great looking tank, Burt! I'm still nowhere close to yours after a month in as well.

 

Does anyone run the Aqua C Remora skimmer with the prefilter box on a Finnex 30G M-tank? Not the nano version but the regular Remora.

 

I recall seeing a post where someone mentioned the Remora prefilter box wouldn't fit with the Finnex 30G M-tank, now I can't find that post, D'oh! Maybe I'm imagining things, but thought I would check with the experts.

 

I might go with the Remora Nano, but like the prefilter/surface skimmer feature of the regular Remora.

 

Cheers!

 

PS - I'm posting pics as soon as I get my new camera (and underwater housing for my upcoming scuba trip to Cozumel.....the world's largest reef tank!)

[burtbollinger]

I took some new pix a few minutes ago...this is the tank at 2 months or so...the idea is grw the zoas thick, and then fill in the top layers with a few nice sps or something...

 

 

 

 

 

 

above you can see my two clowns, Delonda and Weebay

 

Circled is my fourline wrasse in his cave...

 

this is my quarantine tank, an old 24g nanocube....the idea here is no skimmer, chaeto fuge, and super easy, fast spreading stuff like anthelia and gsp....

 

 

here's a crappy shot of both tanks....

[chvynva916]

Just to give credit where it might be due, I've been having a very positive experience with the Finnex 30g stock skimmer. Within a day of filing my tank with quasi-cured rock (had been out of water for about 30 hours), the skimmer cup was half full with really dark green skimmate. Don't know why my Finnex skimmer is performing well while others have not (or whether it will continue to do so, but I thought I'd share my positive experience.