Joe's 190g 60x36x20 SLOW Mixed Reef Build.......

Sorry, I was just getting caught up. I ahve been a little busy of late :p I read that you were thinking of cutting your center brace. Please do not do that. I do not want to see your little dog covered in Saltwater.

I have a 48" maristar fixture currently which I love the colors that I can get it. SLS makes a great product.

Over time you will regret not going 250 as golors will not meet you expectations, bulb choices and colors are not the same and if your corals grow a little faster with 250's, you could always sell frags locally to off set the $9 a month.

Looks good so far. I locked in now.
 
Lol Muffin the mermaid dog!

Yeah, I mean $9 a month isnt anything. I could go 3 days without energy drinks and offset that lol. Now I just gotta find a way to budget everything where I can get quality equipment within my limits.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12105541#post12105541 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jflip2002
I dont plan on running a chiller. The AC will be set accordingly. Lets hope thats how it stays! lol. Where do you buy the ATI fixtures you have?

Im under the impression a watt is a watt. If you use 500 watts of T5s, and 500 watts of halides, its going to be the same amount of heat. I just plan on having the system well ventilated.

I think I wont be so flip flop when I get the actual number of dollars I have to spend initially. Right now I keep going back and forth, and its all just to drive me crazy lol. Id love to have the octo 250 pro skimmer, but if I cant afford that, I will have to settle for the 200. Same with lighting. Id love to have 250w Lumenarc IIIs, with some T5s, or the Giesemann fixture, but who knows what I can afford initially.

The only thing that bothers me about the Giesemann fixture is it only has 2 T5 lamps. I mean you leave your Halides running for 8 hours a day? That means the rest of the time youre stuck running just pure actinics, and I think thats ugly. The only other option is running a 15k bulb, and a daylight and actinic T5, but then it affects the PAR.

The downside about the lumenarcs is the building of a canopy. That along with the potential for raised tank temps.

The lighting really drives me crazy. I pretty much know my flow and skimmer will be one of a couple things. The whole lighting thing makes me go nuts though lol.
Click to expand...

You should run one of these as a chiller. :) Mine cost $20 off Amazon and can drop the tank temp about 7 degrees in my 125. (so now you can't make fun of me for always suggesting primo equipment - I just don't see the need for a chiller)

honeywell_ht800e_fan.jpg
 
Yep, thats pretty much what I have now lol. I have one of those huge Vortech (see quality name lol) ones you get from Costco in a 2 pack. The only crappy thing its digital, so it doesnt turn off and on with the halides. Rather its on 24/7. That seems to work for me too!

I was looking online, and those Vortech MP40w 2 packs are cheap if you look in the right spot. $750 or so for a pair. that sure beats the $950 of the Tunzes. And no need for a battery back up since I live in Ca, and never have bad weather (knock on wood lol). I may go that route.
 
Where do you see the 2-packs for $750? Thats a sweet price. You can let me be the guinea pig since I'll be using it in my tank, same footprint. I'll letcha know.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12114807#post12114807 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jflip2002
And no need for a battery back up since I live in Ca, and never have bad weather (knock on wood lol). I may go that route.
Click to expand...

you might want to check if Fresno has rolling blackouts during the summer months. We do up in NCAL sometimes
 
We didnt have em when I lived there. The worst we had were the once a year brown outs. but in that case, I do have a deep cycle battery with an inverter already anyhow =)
 
I dont have a real picture update of my tank. but little muffin was just dying to have a pic taken of her on our pigs bed (yes, we have a frickin pig lol)

<a href="http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m151/jflip2002/?action=view&current=007-3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m151/jflip2002/007-3.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
Im going to have to search for used stuff I think. I gotta scale down my budget according to Rachy Roo lol.
 
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now you do too. lol. Hopefully that skimmer works out. Now just to eventually find some used lighting and powerheads.
 
Im getting very antsy. And I know I shouldnt start investing time and money into my tank until we move. The last thing I want to do is kill a bunch of coral and fish.

So on my tank, I have those two overflows. Well for some reason, only one (the back left) is drilled lol. the other one has a couple outputs, like there should be some sort of flow coming out of there. Think itd be worth it to try drilling this thing? Im not very handy, and Id have to go buy the tools lol. Or would I be fine with just that one overflow? The last thing I want is my flow to be great, but nowhere for the waste to overflow to.
 
HAHA you have a pet pig? Let's see the picture!

Go for two functional overflows. Drilling acrylic is really easy. You can use hole saw bits meant for wood. Basically you just need to take it slow near the end of the drilling so you don't chip the other side too much. Placing wood there helps a lot.
 
Acrylic is really easy to drill. If you have a drill, a hole saw attachment should do the trick. I'd make a post over in the DIY section just to double check the basics of drilling acrylic, but I'm pretty sure thats all you need. If you have the overflow you might as well use it. If you aren't going to use it, Id try to saw it out of there so you have more real estate for your fish and corals.
 
Yeah, thats what I was thinking. If I didnt need to use it, I was going to take that overflow out. Id like to use only one overflow.

1) I wouldnt have to drill it, and potentially drill it cockeyed, so the bulkheads dont seal

2) I dont wanna have to run PVC from two overflows, to the sump.
 
If the bulkhead drilled, can handle a good 800 gph, enough to generally match a skimmer, wouldnt that be enough? I could have the return in the opposite corner blowing the water that needs to be sent to the overflow, sent.
 
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