Finnex 30g owners unite!

[vwcdave]

It's more about the volume of rock, than the weight, right? I think that rock looks pretty good in there. It doesn't seem like you'd have too much room to add much more, but maybe that's just the angle.

[burtbollinger]

not sure what u are saying about 4 legs on your MH....also, I used eggcrate painted black after glass broke...also use a remora nano...

 

 

 

 

and I run fuge light from around 11 am to 1 am....too much light leakage to run 24/7

[dovla]

It's more about the volume of rock, than the weight, right? I think that rock looks pretty good in there. It doesn't seem like you'd have too much room to add much more, but maybe that's just the angle.

Yea, it would be too crowded, which means I will have to butcher off some of the corals that are glued and loose most of bristleworms, stars and spoonworms. I will probably remove one of the new (base) rocks.

 

 

 

burtbollinger, see I didn’t get those V shaped legs but 4 straight ones, hopefully Finnex will send me right legs, although I was planning to put mesh cover to prevent carpet surfing, I like your black eggcrate.

You run fuge light only partially on reverse light schedule (for 2 hours or more)? Why not in AM instead when pH is lowest? What are you growing inside the fuge?

 

 

With fuge-light like this who needs moonlight?

[burtbollinger]

11 in the morning until 1 at night...I have a bit of sand, a few small pieces of rubble and chaeto. If I had it to do over again, I'd just to a ball of chaeto and leave the rock and sand out.

[dovla]

burtbollinger, I realized 11 AM after I already posted my question, then I tried to recover but you were faster )

Thanks

 

 

Remember reading on RC how fuge staff is escaping into display area, so I tried putting some chaeto into fuge (temporally as my rocks only started cycling), and sure thing - it is escaping because of flow coming from the below and I had valve only partially open. Now I have to do chaeto fishing. Did you tie yours or did something to gates to prevent this?

[burtbollinger]

nothing to tie it down...every once and a while something will come out but i dont worry....I def. dont have chaeto in the main display or anything as a result...sometimes a strand or two will begin wiggling out, and yeah, astehtically its annoying and I have to pluck it, but in the whole scheme of things, its not a big deal at all.

 

bottom line, after messing with chaeto, yes, stuff is gonna come out...but give it about 10 min....stuff will settle and nothing more will escape....especially with a nice tight ball of chaeto....and yeah, you want some flow going on back there in the fuge, I had pblms with chato growing until I increased the flow.

[KJoFan]

Do I get to join now that I have one?

[burtbollinger]

i think you just did...welcome!

 

[dovla]

You could have joined even before having one I liked your 20L. Did you removed that overflow yet?

 

Now, I took out the black sponge that goes under the try (black box), but waterfall sound was too loud for me so I put it back.

 

Instead of sponge, some of you put filter media bag there, did you tied it? I mean, what is preventing your media bag to simply dive under the fuge?

 

Also, if you still keep that sponge, how often do you clean it? Weekly? What about that floss inside the try?

 

Thanks

[KJoFan]

You could have joined even before having one I liked your 20L. Did you removed that overflow yet?

 

No, I ended up just siliconing around the inside of the top rim, instead of removing the overflow and moving it down. I wanted to be able to keep the water level high and above the rim. It seems to be working great so far.

[KJoFan]

I know this is the 30g thread but does anyone have any experience with older model 22g rimless Finnex AIO?

[burtbollinger]

is putting a 10g sump on a 30g finnex a bad idea? Need advice. It already has a built in back area with a fuge....but was thinking about a sump....why, exactly, I don't know...

 

please let me know the benefits...if any...for this particular tank.

[masterbuilder]

Not a bad idea. I thought about it for a long time. The only reason I didn’t do it were the typical problems with u-tubes or overflows. In the end, I decided they were too finicky for me to mess with. Wish they could be drilled….problem solved.

[burtbollinger]

how would I even do this? where would the overflow even go?

[madimod]

I've had my tank up for a few months now and after a EXPLOSION of pods in the tank it is now very cloudy

and as for surface skimming not much seems to be happening a lot of debris on the water surface . has anyone else had this problem ? what did you do to fix it ?

[Phixion]

I've had my tank up for a few months now and after a EXPLOSION of pods in the tank it is now very cloudy

and as for surface skimming not much seems to be happening a lot of debris on the water surface . has anyone else had this problem ? what did you do to fix it ?

 

I don't seem to have that issue. My filtration and overall tank flow seemed to increase to a more desirable amount when I removed every other tooth from the intake grate at the top. Just the intake one, not the fuge return...

[madimod]

Think i'll give it a shot thank's

[burtbollinger]

I'd mess with different water levels....

[KJoFan]

Anyone have any issues with salt creep around the bottom of their tanks? I seem to always have salt buildup around the bottom, between the rim and the stand. I don't know if I've got a small leak somewhere or what. I bought the tank used so it's hard to say.

 

And on another note, I have the 150w MH, 2x24w T5 fixture, how does that compare with a 4x24w T5 fixture as far as amount of light?

[vg30et]

Anyone have any issues with salt creep around the bottom of their tanks? I seem to always have salt buildup around the bottom, between the rim and the stand. I don't know if I've got a small leak somewhere or what. I bought the tank used so it's hard to say.

 

I believe there is some seepage over the top trim of the tank that drips down the glass and into the bottom trim area. Some have siliconed off the trip to stop this from happening but I just keep my water level a little lower and it seems to work.

 

On another note, has anyone had issues with their Finnex MH ballasts failing? My 250W Phoenix 14k bulb quit firing today and it seems to be the ballast but I don't have a spare bulb or ballast to test any further. Will see if I can stop by the LFS tomorrow to test and see if Finnex replies to my inquiry.

[burtbollinger]

how old is the bulb....i had the exact pblm and it was the 150w bulb...it was 10 months old. id recommned you buy a replacment bulb and see...

[KJoFan]

I believe there is some seepage over the top trim of the tank that drips down the glass and into the bottom trim area. Some have siliconed off the trip to stop this from happening but I just keep my water level a little lower and it seems to work.

 

On another note, has anyone had issues with their Finnex MH ballasts failing? My 250W Phoenix 14k bulb quit firing today and it seems to be the ballast but I don't have a spare bulb or ballast to test any further. Will see if I can stop by the LFS tomorrow to test and see if Finnex replies to my inquiry.

 

I have had the seepage issue around the top frame and siliconed it to seal it off. Which seems to have worked for the most part, there are a couple spots I need to touch up I have noticed. The thing with that is that I don't see drips down the glass anymore which would lead me to believe that's been cured for the most part. So in theory I shouldn't be seeing the creep around the bottom anymore, but I suppose it could be residual from the top frame leaking.

 

As for your ballast failing. As far as I know, this is the original fixture and ballast. I have a 1st gen tank (with the fuge on the far right) and haven't had any issues with my MH firing. I have had my T5's flicker though, I replaced the bulbs and that seems to have fixed that. I'm sure others can give you more info on that though that have owned their Finnex's from the start.

[chvynva916]

I have both the salt creep issue and the MH bulb firing issue. Both of which I find disturbing.

 

Salt Creep

 

My first Finnex M-Tank straight up leaked out of the bottom after a few months. Big leak too. That caused the salt creep at first. My replacement tank (which Finnex sent for free) also has that same salt creep around the bottom rim and sometimes even has noticeable water underneath (although not enough to drip). I know about the problem with water leaking over the top rim, but I hardly ever see drips down the side of the glass (or salty residue to evidence such drips). I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the seal under the tank has minute leaks, which plug with dried salt, but which will open if disturbed.

 

MH bulb firing

 

I just replaced the bulb on my 250w hqi finnex hood with a 15k XM bulb, and it fires very erratically. As of now, every morning light just arcs across the middle of the tube and will continue like that all day without the bulb lighting up. To get it to light, every day I have to take apart the hood, unseat the bulb, reseat it and rescrew the sockets. I don't know how to fix this permanently yet.

[Phixion]

Mine gets the creep too, but ONLY when I have any sort of dripping or leaking from the top frame. I had a nice square ring around the perimeter of my tank when I took it down a few weeks ago when I moved. I'll be setting the tank back up this week though after I customize the T-pipe for better flow. With the Rio 14HF pump I'm using, I'm going to replace the standard straight up-pipe with a length of "1 O.D./"¾ I.D. black vinyl tubing and then connecting that to the T part of the pipe. I wanted to drill out the hole in the falsewall to accomidate a "1/2 bulkhead, but I don't have the means to drill it right now so I'll have to go with the standard "1/2 diameter factory drilled hole which is totally inadaquate for the pump I'm using and volume I need to push through it. On the upside, at least this is supposed to make the Rio pump run a bit quieter as the initial output from it won't be restricted by a "1/2 I.D. pipe...

[KJoFan]

What do you guys think? I have the opp. to buy a Finnex 22g rimless glass tank/stand, plumbing/pump, and PC lighting for $175. Should I do it? I don't know what I'd do with the tank for sure, maybe an anemone/clown tank? IDK.

 

Maybe my salt creep is just residual or ongoing due to the top rim leakage then. I know I still have a couple spots to shore up. Hopefully, once I do that it'll take care of the problem. It's just unsightly, that's my main concern. If it turns out to be a slow leak from the bottom I might opt to sell the tank/light combo and buy a new tank only and cover it with one of my 24" 4x24w T5 lights.