Lets do this - 225+ reef bar

[mcliffy2]

oh wait are you talking about the one in the front left? that one is going to be sold...I've got a good sized frag of it I've placed where I want it, and am selling the rest. The other one Im talking about in the post above is in the 3rd pic down, bottom right of the side shot.

 

[Jflip2002]

Hey Mike, I dont know if this helps at all...

You can barely see it. But I have the outlet from that mag, connected to a Tee, with a ball valve, and at the end of the pipe going to the water recirculating to the sump, I have a 90 degree angle. I angle it upwards, and water falls downwards, over the edge of the PVC piping. Another thought is, you can make a sort of "slide" for the water to fall down.

As for that aquascaping, I really like that a lot. It makes me want to reaquascape mine. I cant believe you have the same footprint as mine, minus the overflow. I would put that monti cap on the right rock formation, but on the left side of that right formation. That way you will have like a Monti overhang for fish to swim under, just an idea.

 

[cbui2]

yeah the one was was talking about is all the way to bottom left side.

 

[mcliffy2]

jflip - good idea on the slide, I'll try rigging something up tomorrow.

cbui2 - yea the one on the left could probably use some more light, but I think it will be fine for a day or so til the guy who is supposed to buy it picks it up.

 

[Jflip2002]

What do you have in there, 150 lbs of sand?

 

[chrissreef]

wow, the aquascaping is excellent! How many lbs is that roughly? I just ordered 350# to make some tall "cliffs" but the openess you have is better for the fish, current and growth of the sps. I wouldn't worry about the color of everything... give it 1-2 months tops.

So the bulkhead, what was the issue? I just put in 5 Savko bulkheads this weekend and every time I tightened the 1" ones, the gaskit would "roll" or pinch outward to the point of not making a seal. I ended up covering all in plumbers silicone grease and hand tightening them instead. I'm filling up the tank now and crossing my fingers that "hand" tightening was enough.

 

[Jflip2002]

I dont see why a snug hand tightening wouldnt be enough. I did mine like an oil filter. Turned it til it was pretty snug, then gave it another 1/4 turn. I havent had one leak =)

 

[mcliffy2]

jflip - good guess - 160 lbs.

chrissreef - IMO I would do 200-250 lbs in your display tops, and put the rest in your sump - I probably have about 160-180 or so lbs in my display and another 30 lbs or so in my fuge. I'll probably add another 50-60 lbs in the sump for bio filtration. I think people have a tendency to view their aquascape as a finished product and pack too much in, when in reality, its just the canvas for your corals to paint the picture on the bulkheads, i think it was a bit warped...savko is sending me a new gasket and I will replace once I get it. I used the silicon grease on all my bulkheads for exactly the reason you mentioned (Mike from Reef Specialty aka plumbing master, recommended this to me).

 

[Jflip2002]

I like the sand depth, looks like Im gonna have to get 150-160. I thought I could go cheap and get away with 50 lbs lol. Guess not.

 

[chrissreef]

we'll see how dense the rock is and how much I need... I might be selling some nice $5lb show size rock for $2 soon lol

For all the headache (and dang plumbing is $$) Mike told me I should have flown him out to plumb it for me! (which I'll consider "if" I ever go larger... probably if we decide not to have kids lol) I ended up going with hoses/barbs instead of spa flex... I just don't trust my glueing! I'll be posting pictures tomorrow.

Also - I bought 1 extra bulkhead of each type in my tank and 1 additional gasket for like $1 each incase I need one in an emergency. The bulkheads were incase one cracks by me being stupid and tightening one like a hero =)

 

[ataylo13]

Nice pics Mike. Are you going to stick with the lights from the ceiling or is that temporary?

 

[mcliffy2]

Not sure yet on the lights...I really like it, but I have a little different perspective than you do Karma also might have a different perspective that I'm a little worried about...

 

[mcliffy2]

chrissreef - having extra plumbing parts is always a good thing, you can always return them if they go unused. Mike is awesome like that, he told me the same thing, and altho he cant post for policy reasons, i get a call from him whenever I post a problem on here, and he usually knows the solution. I feel bad asking for so much of him tho...I may have to take him up on the offer to figure out whats up with the snapper...

 

[Dudester]

Looking great! You may have mentioned it but I can't remember ... what lamps are you running in your Stealth?

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12591647#post12591647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dudester
Looking great! You may have mentioned it but I can't remember ... what lamps are you running in your Stealth?

I have a smorgasboard in there now. I'd like it to be a little more blue...I thought the aquascience duos and aquascience specials (15k) would be more blue, but both are a very crisp white. I can't remember the exact order, but I have 2 sfiligoi actinics, 2 fiji purples, 1 uv aquasun, 2 ATI Specials (12k), 2 Aquascience Special (15k) and 3 Aquascience Duo (17k). I want to yank out 1 special and 1 duo and replace them with ATI blue plus bulbs to get a bit bluer look.

 

[Rickyrooz1]

Very nice, is it hard to reach the bottom of the back glass from the front of the tank? I was thinking about a 84"x48"x24" tank that can only be reached from the front but the 48" width may be too far for me to reach with a algae scrapper.

 

[mcliffy2]

Yes, reaching the back from the front is very difficult and actually impossible in most places...I have front and back access for this reason. You'll definitely want access from both front and back for a 48" tank.

 

[chrissreef]

I agree... mine is 60x36x30 with access from 3 sides and there's no way i can reach the back from the front alone. Heck, I can't even reach the bottom of the front from the front! Maybe my arms are stubby?

 

[JRaquatics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12589923#post12589923 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
jflip - reeeeeallllly LOUD.

Another question - now that I've got the Reeflo tuned, there is a significant amount of water going through it, and I was told that I shouldnt submerse the output because of the back pressure it would create, but the water crashing is pretty loud, any suggestions for quieting this down?

Place a tee at the end of the outlet with a 8-10inch pipe out the top and then you can run the return directly into the water.

 

[ReefEnabler]

lol you guys are scaring me. my tank is 72x24x30 and is arrriving in 3.5 hours. I got a 30" kent scraper though, maybe it will work out, in spite of my undoubtfully stubby arms.