maybe a piece of foam underneath?
I thought about that or a piece of MDF or something, but it would look like crap.
The other alternative would be to rip off the top, get more expensive wood that is not warped... I really don't want to go through all that work though.
The stand the previous owner had the tank on only supported the tank on each end and the entire middle section was unsupported so I was thinking maybe it will be ok...
Get a piece of trim and stain it to match and cover the foam and the black trim on the tank?
See if the board flattens out after a week or so. A similar thing happened on one of my tanks. The wood was originally flat and the weight of the water will flatten it out over a short time. Wet the wood if it doesnt happen fast enough.
One thing you might consider as you arrange your sump is a separate skimmer chamber or area with a constant height of water. It wouldn't vary with the up and downs of flow and evaporation. This will help you tune in the skimmer and prevent the skimmer cup from overflowing. Ideally the skimmer chamber would have the same water level when the main pump is off. This is hard to do but it prevents problems when the main put goes out or the power fails.
The main thing to think about is what will happen when one piece of your system fails? will the system crash or will it be able to keep going at a subsistence level for a while?
You might consider duplicate systems instead of single systems ie... 2 small heaters instead of one big one. 2 main pumps instead of one. 2 4 bulb T5 lights instead of 1 8 bulb unit.
Everything in your system will fail and its easy to repair a system like lights if you don't have to worry about the survival of the system
I was excited today when I got home, I got my skimmer in the mail today. Now I am just waiting for the glass shop to finish my baffles and the LED DIY lighting kit to come in the mail. I should be able to fill the tank up with RODI water and salt mix this weekend!!!!
Very nice, just picked me up the XP-2000 internal just last weekend. We need to share experiences Wiz
Did yours come with instructions? Do you have to use pvc cement on the intake and output pvc pipes? I have never had any experiences with a skimmer like this. It seems well made though...hopefully it performs well on my tank
Nice skimmer and setup.
Tank is looking good. How do you like the LEDs so far?