Hello all,
Thanks for all of the responses! Sorry I didn't reply earlier I must have accidentally unsubscribed from RC or tapatalk and didn't get notification of any emails about receiving replies until today. Now to address the questions...
first29gallon: does it come with lights?
No but I currently have a gen 1 Radion on my tank so I should be good...unless I get a wider tank then I need more lights. The big dream would go from cube to a long tank but the cost of more lights is a restricting factor.
bpb: Planet makes awesome stuff.
What is better about a planet aquarium versus other glass aquariums in your opinion? My current one has a rim and a glass lid (jawfish) and certainly isn't anything fancy.
nereefpat: have you considered drilling your current setup?
Yes! I've literally dreamed about drilling my tank and/or replacing it with a different setup. My hesitation on drilling is (1) I can't do it myself, so cost to drill (2) I'd have to drain the entire tank and empty it. So (2a) the costs of giant 55 gallon containers for rocks/sand and lastly, (3) the cost of replumbing the entire thing because currently it uses a combo of PVC and flexible PVC that I'm guessing wouldn't work if I drilled it. It just seems like it would be cheaper to snag a good deal.
Also my current sump is a ~20 gallon long (haven't measured so can't be accurate) that obviously doesn't fit under the cube...so ugh. Access the sump from the back is the work of a contortionist with small hands.
on the spot: what is your current HOB system?
Disclaimer: I'm garbage at explaining this plumbing stuff with my reef. I'm not the best at plumbing the house or plumbing the reef. I bought this setup used and it has been running 2 years so far. What I have is a hang on the back overflow where the overflow box in the rear has 3 chambers. The u-pipe goes in the middle chamber and each chamber on the side has a short piece of PVC. The previous owner put a cap on these with a short piece of air tube sticking out of it (honestly never sure why but then I think maybe it was supposed to reduce noise?). The side chambers' each have PVC with a valve that halfway becomes flexible PVC and feeds into the sump. Obviously there is a pump that pumps water back into the tank with again a pipe that bends over the top of the tank and feeds back into the tank via a powerhead.
Hope that helps explain the system. I can include pics but they would be terrible right now at night (bad lighting) I can try in the AM if necessary but may not be the best pics in the world due to difficulty accessing the back.
Oh yes and the spilled water was from GHA clogging one of the side chambers' PVC's holes. There are those holes drilled around the circumference of the PVC. I have a ridiculous amount of GHA because I need to do more water changes. It is embarrassing. But the pods like it. So the overflow was definitely a user error problem. The guy I know selling this tank was saying that I can certainly try different things to reduce the amount of noise coming from the tank (sometimes the u-pipe siphon makes this irritating sucking noise but that hasn't happened in a while.) I personally hate restarting the siphon when I do a massive water change (which needs to happen more often than I do it) because it is a hassle to shove a tube up there and get the air out.
I guess I've just been trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to improve my setup.
(1) Drilling current setup
(2) getting a new setup --either this one if it is economical or another
(3) sucking it up and using this one as is
(4) making some minor changes to the plumbing on the back of my tank that I am capable of doing on my own without losing my mind or the flooring
PS got a bit long sorry I tried to be to the point