1000 Gallon Build- Here we go- Lots of Pictures

CuzzA said:
However, eggcrate is 3/8" square as opposed to 1/4" netting. We can't make a blanket condemnation of eggcrate as its relative to the size of the smallest fish. And there aren't many fish that we keep that would fit through 3/8"...
Another excellent alternative to keep fish out of the overflow is plastic gutter guard commonly found at Ace Hardware.
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Almost ALL fairy and flasher wrasses, dartfish, dottybacks, blennies, gobies, etc will 'shoot' right thru eggcrate...even those that appear bigger than 3/8"

I agree with the use of gutter guard, and have often posted pics of my overflows that are 'sealed' with it... Not a single fish into overflow in over 5 years...
 

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Tank is scheduled to be delivered by June 15 barring any delays. The stucco is on on the house. All plaster and texturing is complete and paint starts next week. I'll get photos up after the weekend.
As I start to plan out equipment- any opinions on the following protein skinmers? My fish guy has access to Reef Dynamics, Tunze, My reef creations. Obviously I can get any brand but any opinions on the above 3?
 
The Tunze 9408 would be your only option from them. Reef Dynamics doesn't offer one big enough, unless you go external or recirculating. Which recirculating is, IMO, a poor design. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/skimmers/thoughts/ Most large builds on here use MRC. The MRC 7 looks like it would be a good fit. It's a nice tall skimmer. Taller is better, but since most of us don't have the room under the tank many skimmer are compensated elsewhere. Also, companies that actually take the time to do some R&D and balance the skimmers air and water intake will always outperform those that just slap a product together.

I don't have any experience with the ones you listed. Perhaps others will chime in.

ATB is another company to look at. Many people suggest they make the best skimmers in the world. They have a few models that would fit your tank.

Another good read. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/
 
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I have the Reef Dynamics XRC1500. They are one of the only companies that truly rates their skimmers correctly. If money is no object I would get a Reef Dynamics or a MRC
 
Very nice .. just finished reading and getting all caught up. My wife and I hope to have an addition to our home in the coming years. I'm planning a large system myself. Can't wait to see this completed!
 
Thank you for the feedback everyone. Im leaning towards the MRC Orca III. Will post an update next week after we get a bit more progress on the house. Cabinets are slated to start install June 1.
 
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sorry for the mess but as you can see the auto wash is disconected.... it sends a lot o water to the outside of the cup and my ATO replenishes that water with fresh water..... but man can this skimmer perform!!
 
Ok- I think you just saved me a grand. I'll get without the auto wash. I will have a sink right next to the skimmer so no big deal to wash out the cup every few days.
 
I've heard really good things about Lifereef's Skimmers. VS3-72 should do the trick. (they have a 6-9 month lead time)
 
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Wow, what a great thread, home, and future tank. Really interesting what I've seen thus far.

Saw you asking about skimmers, I was strongly considering the Orca II's on both my tanks, but I'm going with the LifeReef Skimmers, VR3-72 is at least worth considering for you. Email the company and Jeff will respond and talk your ear off and you will learn more about skimmers than you could hope to. I'm sold, I'm doing the slightly smaller 48, or 60 on mine.

edit-Just saw the notes above on wait time, I don't think that's accurate.
 
Thanks Kirk. I'll give em a call and find out more about the skimmers. 6-9 month wait did seem odd. Who is doing your sump? Im debating if I want to spend the money on the Mrc industrial sump or just go clear acrylic. I want my fish room to be as stunning as the tank itself.
 
the MRC is totally worth it!! you can you what I did... the return lines dump in the MRC sump with the 6 socks, then it conects to a clear sump that is simple ( and cheap!) that has the fuge and other stuff...
 
Socaltoaz said:
Thanks Kirk. I'll give em a call and find out more about the skimmers. 6-9 month wait did seem odd. Who is doing your sump? Im debating if I want to spend the money on the Mrc industrial sump or just go clear acrylic. I want my fish room to be as stunning as the tank itself.
Click to expand...

I just emailed Jeff, he is building skimmers this week, so if you are interested, I would email him ASAP, I think he only builds them intermittently, and only does the big ones as he needs them......no backstock.

Mark Parks and SouthWest Seas is doing my sumps as well as the tanks. A guy named Dominic has been building his stuff for 20 years. Dom has a great reputation here in the Valley, though you can't do direct to him.

Titan Aquatics (also local, though one of the largest builders in the country now) builds some pretty slick sumps. If you want something really cool, talk to Brian Harnish (owner) there, they are pretty innovative, I toured their facility. They also own a Skimmer company (drawing a blank on the company) that make some really nice high end skimmers.

I went with SW Seas, because on a project like this, I wanted a hands on expert to help me.....Mark Parks is fantastic
 
Jeff (Lifereef) I believe is a one man show. He builds all the large skimmers to order as mentioned above. Being a one man show, as orders come in he allows a few to pile up, then builds them all at once making it more cost efficient for himself. Same with the sumps he builds etc. So if you are ordering while he's building 10 sumps, you have to wait till he starts building skimmers again.
I have the VS3-48 on my tank and LOVE it. I got absolutely sick and tired of replacing pinwheels, ceramic shafts, overflowing skimmers etc. I never tried MRC skimmers so can't comment specifically on them.
Jeff is great to deal with and the build quality of his skimmers is awesome. The one thing I would like to see different on his skimmers is a tapered top to the collection cup.
The other thing I would suggest looking into is what I ended up doing. Jeff makes his skimmers to work in several ways.
Conventional
Counter-current
Re-Circulation/Co-current
Re-Circulation/Counter-Current

I run mine re-circulation/Conventional current but I bought 2 Mazzei venturi's and have my feed pump split into a wye and have one venturi on each feed into the skimmer. Holy Cow does this thing produce micro fine bubbles.
It's also something you can do later on as well. Another GREAT thing I like about Lifereef skimmers. Nothing is proprietary, you can use any pump you have an affinity to, there's nothing to clean, no moving parts, it's as simple as simple gets.
 
I bet Life Reef makes great products, but if it's a one man show, isn't anyone concerned that if the one man leaves the show by death or choice they won't be able to obtain replacement parts?
 
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