lgreen's 58g SPS Reef Project

[lgreen]

Thanks Bob.

 

you have made a lot of helpful comments!

 

PM said they will have my aqua medic 2x150w HQI+ 2x39w T5 hood in about 2 weeks.

 

yes I am very anxious to get done w/ school for the year and have 3 months off to get this thing going!!

 

I am going to have lots of newbie mistake garbage for sale here in about a month, so everyone watch out for my online garage sale. ha ha

[Tigahboy]

Originally posted by lgreen

(asm g1x) huh huh huh...you know what this skimmer needs? more power!

 

we'll see.  i might as well get the biggest one i can afford though.

 

I still haven't ruled out doing a euro-reef.

 

yah, i still dont know about the rio.  i might do a quiet one instead.  i have heard mags are a little noizy though.

 

thanks scarletknight

Actually it seems a bit excessive to get a skimmer that is rated for well above and beyond the size of your tank, but more prudent to use that money and get a more reliable return pump. I only got the quiet ones b/c I got a hard to pass up deal and I needed them asap. But I would've opted for a better return pump if I could do it all over again.

 

but either way, you'll still be in good shape. so not a big deal. =)

[lgreen]

Tigahboy,

 

So what pump would you recommend?

 

The problem is that the tank is going to be like right next to my bed, so it has to be freakin quiet.

 

I know it won't be silent, but rio's and from what i hear quiet ones are pretty quiet.

 

if you know of something quiet, and of higher quality, let me know and i will check it out.

 

thanks!

[The Speez]

lgreen,

I have a quiteone 4000 as a return in my 29 and it is DEAD SILENT. I mean you can't hear it 5 inches away. My Mag 7 I could hear across the house plus the quiteone 4000 pushes way more water. I would definitely reccomend it!

[lgreen]

thank you speez,

 

that is exactly what everyone has been telling me.

 

I don't think i really want to spend like over 70 bucks on a return pump.

 

I am not really happy about even paying 50 each for those seio 1100's.

 

In my opinion, pumps and powerheads are somewhat disposable and wont last forever. I would rather spend good money on lighting and a protein skimmer, and then go for a pump that is high quality, but on the cheaper end.

 

I will probably just stick w/ quiet one, as i have heard nothing but good stuff about them both noise and quality wise.

[The Speez]

definitely a good choice...you wont be disapointed!

[The Speez]

I also have seio 620 pushing water against the SCWD returns and thats a phenominal powerhead as well. The current is really moving and in the last 2 weeks my SPS growth has shot through the roof!

 

I'd do 2 seio 1100 as well and your tank will be kicking some ass!!!

[lgreen]

speez,

 

yep. 2 x 1100 is the plan.

 

glad to hear that about your tank. If that is the case, which i completely believe you, then it will be worth every dime! I am pretty impressed with the seios. We have a few on our reef tanks at my work. Good stuff! not bad for being made by the same comp as rio...

 

thanks

[lgreen]

hey speez,

 

I just looked at your gallery. How much did that tunze water level controller cost you/where'd u get it? That is nice!

 

thanks

[Tigahboy]

problem I have w/ quiet one is head pressure. if you have minimal head pressure, then it could be fine. but they aren't equipped to handle it like a good pressure rated pump (eg. blueline/pan world).

 

mine actually has problems starting up sometimes due to the head pressure.

 

or at least get the quiet one High Head 4000 pump since that seems to handle head loss much better.

[lgreen]

hmm....

 

it has to go up about 3-4 feet.

 

thanks for the warning.

 

marinedepot is freakin expensive sometimes!

 

(sorry edited this post)

[Tigahboy]

marinedepot actually charges the most for those pumps for some reason. check dr.fosters or ebay. much cheaper.

[lgreen]

tigahboy,

 

if it is always going though, no restarts, then should that be a problem, even if it takes a while to get going the first time (or every time it has to be restarted service wise)

[Tigahboy]

well I do turn off my pump sometimes when I need to do maintenance and such. and when I would try to start it back up, it simply wouldn't go. not talkin about taking awhile to start, it just didnt start at all.

 

I had to use a ball valve right above the output and adjust it to reduce the head pressure....THEN turn on the pump. if I adjusted it JUST right, then it would kick back on and then I twisted the ball valve to the completely open position. If I didnt do the adjusting of the ball valve, it simply wouldnt start up at all.

[The Speez]

The tunze water level controller is from Marine Depot. I cant remember what is cost but it works great and it is much safer mechanism than a float switch becuase it doesn't have parts that can get stuck in the ON position.

 

I agree with Tigah, go with the quiteone high head 4000. But I dont think sump turnover is your real goal here. The real water movement is coming from the seios and the sump is esentially for a heat/skimmer/refugium or whatever else. Therefore a large volume of water doesn't necessarily have to flow through the sump and head pressure loss isn't really as major an issue as it would be if you were depending on it for the majority of your water movement.

[lgreen]

cool. dr.fosters/smith have the 4000 for 69.99.

 

meh...i guess there is always a trade off. For me, having it be quiet it the most important, so if it is a pain to get going, then i guess that will just have to be.

 

the price is right too.

 

thanks for the warning though tigahboy, at least now i know what to do.

 

has anyone else had this problem with the quiet one?

[Cloudy]

The quiteone is a nice pump... really quite. Heh... sounds like the project is really coming along.

-S

[lgreen]

cloudy,

 

yes ha ha, as my visa statement would testify to.

[Cloudy]

Hey Igreen,

What're you planing to do in terms of calcium supplementation...

Kalk? Reactor... old fashioned dosing? Maybe a glass of milk every morning?

 

Oh man... I was looking at electronic calcium monitors on Marine-depot, I wish those were more accurate and less expensive...

 

oh well...

-S

[lgreen]

yumm..milk.

 

yes, i was thinking of keeping a small dairy cow in my closet.

 

no j/k.

 

I am going to use ESV B-Ionic two part calcium buffer system and reef pure kalkwasser.

 

I dont know the first thing about calcium reactors. They look to complicated for me.

 

luckly calculations such as stoichiometry, pH, buffers and titration assays are still pretty fresh in my mind since i am taking chemistry, so i will probably just do the calculations and dose accordingly.

[lgreen]

ps... "Lgreen", as in lower case L (l) not "Igreen"

 

ha ha.

[Cloudy]

haha... gotcha

 

Those reacotrs look complicated. Okay, sorry about the name.

-S

[Stanley]

So what's going on? This is Cloudy... wanted to use my actual name on the forums, so now here I am: Stanley.

 

Did you settle on the Quite-one 4K high head? My friend has one running submerged and it is amazingly quite, he told me that he was originally running it externally and he wasn't happy with the amount of noise it made...

 

So if you havn't gotten the in stand set-up all set in stone you might want to get it submerged.

 

This tank is going to be sweet.

-Stanley

[lgreen]

hey stanley

 

yep, i think i will do the quiet one 4000, but i dont know if i will do the high head or not.

 

it will be submirged anyway, as i dont want to drill the sump to make it external anyway.

 

other update:

 

screw maple, i decided to go black, like all my other tanks have been. i am also going to do a more basic stand and not something so fancy. I saw a cool stand on that site where tigahboy got his tank, and i will probably build it.

[Stanley]

Yea... I think that full wood stands and Canopies don't look so good. Unless the grain looks really fine and dark, so that you can almost ignore the wood texture.

 

Post info on the Stand as it comes togather. I forget... are you going to use a canopy?

-Stanley