Sean, could you post more pictures of your sump. I really need to get a new one built and am looking or ideas.

here are some pictures of my sump:
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/sump/fullsump.jpg
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/sump/skimmercontrol.jpg
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/sump/sumpsocks.jpg

I'm going to try a sqwd for my return and see how that goes. It will use filter (3rd picture. sumps not in the picture yet).

Albert designed the "adjustable water level" chamber for the skimmer. I don't know how often it will have to be tuned. If it's often I'll just run it at maximum level (fully closed). (2nd picture).

The sump will stick out the back of the stand by 6". I wanted as much water volume in it as possible because 45g of tank water isn't much room for chemistry. The sump will hold 30g if kept completely full to the top of the middle divider.

I'm going to try running the sump with my mag 7. The filter socks are supposed to help with microbubbles. I don't know the maximum water flow through the 1.5" overflow pipe. I'd like to run a higher flow pump for the sqwd.

I picked up the majority of my lights today. 250W galexy ballast and a lumenmax 3 reflector. No bulb yet. I'm thinking of running it with a geisseman 13k bulb. I actually like that "shallow water" look. I'm thinking of painting the back white and running a very shallow sand bed *gasp sand!* lol.

I've grown into really liking the look of white glass from working at the store. It makes it much easier to clean because you see everything right away and it'll help keep the temperature down (vs black glass getting hot under the lights).

I think my current 150W aquaconnect is a little too blue for my tastes. I had a 150W geisseman before and man was it bright!

If I need to I can add t5 actinics down the road but I'd have plenty of par from a 250W 10k even if it's an electronic ballast.

so yeah, 250W halide for an 18" tall tank woot! :mrgreen:

I have the stand finally. Now I just need some 3/4" plywood (for under the tank and sump) and the plumbing then it's a tank! I'm starting to lean towards and xm 10k bulb because of the PAR. If I want more colour I can add actinic T5's down the road. I'm going for growth initially.

oh yah and I gotta paint the back and bottom. so many things to do before it's done.

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/onstand.jpg
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/light.jpg

i like your dimensions,,,and starfire glass too, nice tank sean

so my temporary 33g tank has had some pretty serious neglect because I didn't plan on the new system taking this long to get together and I didn't plan on school getting so busy.

I wasn't running the DIY zeovit reactor and I wasn't dosing calcium, only doing 5% water changes weekly. I decided to put the new 1.5L reactor directly in the 33g tank and when I rearranged the rock to do so TONS of sediment was stirred up. The 20 fairy crabs have been doing an awesome job keeping hair algae off the rock but man I've never seen that much sediment in such a small tank.

My calcium fell all the way down to 340ppm. Also I was only running a koralia 1 and a single MJ1200 for the tank (again because I thought it was only going to be like 2 weeks). I hooked up the other 3 maxijets along with the wavemaker. Dosed 250 mL of randy's 2 part. Got out a new calendar and marked my zeovit schedule for the next month.

Word from experience now: don't put a tank on the floor in a corner you don't frequent often. I ended up neglecting it because it wasn't really a part of my daily ritual any more.

painted the tank today. and I'm posting a picture of the "temp" tank. i took the light off the temp tank for the picture. plumbing parts are on the way. speares gate valve for the herbie and the skimmer level control along with speares unions and speares everything else. my mom works at a plumbing wholesaler :biggrin:

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/paintedback.jpg
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/temptank.jpg

Looks really good love your dimensions and overflow first class all the way but I have to ask it might just be me but are you sure you got Starphire glass it just does not look like that in the pictures. Starphire glass has a real blue tint to it as opposed to the green tint. I don't mean to cause anything or offend you it might be your pictures. I just want to make sure you got what you paid for. Either way it looks great.

I'm not sure if it's starfire myself. I got much more than what I paid for so don't worry ;).

looking at the tank with my own eyes it has a slight green tinge to it. It's 6mm glass though so it doesn't really NEED to be starfire at that thickness. There's good quality non-starfire glass out there anyways. My 120g frequently had people asking "wow is that starfire!?" then I surprised them when i told them it wasn't.

and yeah I like the overflow too. problem I've found is just trying to FIND krylon fusion so I can paint inside the overflow box so that it's hidden from sight.

I got the light hung on a stud. I'm using a pair of sunlight supply light hangers that let you adjust the light quite easily. I like them actually. And the sunlight supply lumenmax 3 gives REAL nice light distribution. it's absolutely perfect for the 2'x2' area and you still get some real nice glitter lines. Very stunning reflector; it's a satisfying product.

It's an xm 10k bulb. I just filled it part way as a leak test. I get the plumbing tomorrow or saturday (including the speares gate valves woot!)

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/lighthung.jpg
that overflow is going to be a ***** to clean I just know it. I'm not looking forward to it