well ive got plenty of eggcrate, so i think i will make it 10". id rather have more water volume too, more room for error every little bit counts.

anyone know of any good sites for DIY rock. i want a certain look in the tank, but i dont think i will find all the right piece of rock that i want. and BRS is all sold out.

Perhaps I should mention-make sure you have enough hieght to get the collection cup off the skimmer body after it is lifted.

i have more than enough, i probably could have 2 skimmers on top of each other. i wanted my stand to be a showcase tank, so that you dont have to bend over to look into the tank. its 40 " tall. ive got plently of room. thanks for the heads up though.

what colour should i paint the back? ive done white before and black, i liked both and both have their downsides. but im not sure if i want to go blue.

Splatter it with purple and pink. That way it already looks like its covered in coraline.:mrgreen:

Hahahaha thats A GREAT IDEA
like this right

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...943smaller.jpg

I think some of the best man made rock comes from GARF, here is a link to the how to http://www.garf.org/class.html#mold

thanks appreciate it

Well i thought i would get started on my manifold for the return, ive done some research on them, but still up in the air about which design works best for me.

Here is a picture of the ones i thought of.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...Manifold-1.jpg



The points sticking out are where the loclines would come out of. and the front view of the tank, is the back side with the holes for the CL and also the overflow.

The only problem with the right one is that the returns on the CL system is pretty close to the top and i dont really want the loclines touching each other. but the first design is that i will lose alot of space to be able to reach my arm in, i would have to reach over the manifold. any thoughts.

stay away from the 90 angles in the corners, go with the 45 in the corner s better flow. that that i would let you know less head loss

i thought you only get head loss on vertical pipes not the horizontal ones, and i cant really get away from them because this is going on the top of the tank.


edit: i guess i put 45's in and it would work, i just came from the rona and i bought more, now i have to go out again:cry:

a sudden turn in water flow will slow it down.. come on man you knew that.

lol:lol::lol::lol:

yeah i did, but it just makes it harder to sit on the top part of the eurobracing, well kinda but now i have to go out to get 4 more pieces i think i will wait till the rest of the plumbing comes in.

oh yeah i forgot, where can i get cheap glass, i went to speedy glass and they charge 10.75 sq/ft i ordered 4 pieces and it came to 75 bucks, so i said no thanks and left, but i really would like to get some glass cut for it. what is the minimum thickness i should get for the glass also.

Yup got another question.... lots of questions. ive got rona enamel black spray paint. the ingredients are as follows

Acetone, propane, xylene,aliphatic naphtha and isobutane.

i also have a empty can of krylon fusion paint and the ingredients are as follow

acetone, propane, toluene, butane, V.M.&P naptha, xylene, 2-butoxyethanol, methyl isobutyl ketone.

now to me and most people that doesnt mean much, but the label doesnt say anything about lead being in the rona one, like other ones do, so i was wondering would it be safe to use on the pipes in my overflow??

as far as I know spray paint is ok to use in fresh and saltwater as long as the paint is fully cured, try this spray your piping and let it dry for 2 days then soak the pipe in freshwater to wash any residue(shouldnt be any but just incase) and you should be sailin towards the sunset.

Btw love the new cube are you painting the back or using acrylic overlay?

i am painting the back black,though i am having a hard time getting it to stick all over. i will post pics when im done. i thought about it, and the bulkheads and loclines and manifold will all be black, so it is hidden, black kinda gives all the colours of corals pop, and it hides stuff better. its an external overflow, so i just put some eggcrate in the one spot , there is no way and fish are getting threw there, unless its a pipefish.

Or a small clown... Wouldn't be the first time a fish has gotten sucked threw eggcrate.. :wink:

you couldnt even get a dime through the opening, so how could a small clown get through? there is a picture of it up above, i have eurobracing so they cant get over the top of the eggcrate.

Mine got thru, fishytimes got thru (multiple times).... Trust me, small fish get thru. :wink:

Just don't buy small fish to avoid the problem I guess. haha!

We should probably say that both Josh's and my clowns are less that an inch long. My clown made the trip into the overflow literally every night for about a month. It was part of my morning routine to get up, put the coffee on, then rescue his dumba$$ from the overflow. He finally did get the hang of it. Since then a small candy cane goby and a carpenters flasher wrasse have been rescued as well as a shrimp or two. Stuff can get through. Dont glue or tape any plumbing parts inside your overflow, chances are you will need to take them out at some point. If not to rescue livestock, then to clean strainers etc.

i had no idea about not gluing anything. i will have to glue one thing but its in the middle so i think it will be ok. but the rest i wont glue.

Let me be clear. The plumbing parts that go inside your overflow do not need to be glued or taped(depending what fittings you have). All plumbing outside the tank will of course need to be either glued or taped. I didnt want the way I phrased things to cause you any problems:redface:

for the guys who said that little fish will fit through eggcrate that is correct!! however if you want to prevent gobies,pipefish and all other small dummies do the following....

Home depot sells gutter guard basically plastic mesh, 1st cut 2 pieces of gutter guard a little larger than the piece of eggcrate, 2nd lay 1 piece of gutter guard down on the eggcrate, 3rd lay the other piece of GG over the 1st piece of GG only this time staggering it so that the hole is so small that only a small piece of mysis can fit through. Hold all 3 pieces together with black zap straps and voila you got the alcatraz of overflows.

well i have to glue the return because it comes through the overflow, how else am i going to do it, the middle hole is for the return manifold and i cant have the water leaking

GENIUS, except i dont want a huge roll of gutter guard for such a little piece of eggcrate. but i think i will put that on my list of things to do.

So is this right?? i doubled it up. just want to make sure before i silicone it into place.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...wedding529.jpg

Looks ok.. but it will affect your GPH running thru the system... There is alot more surface area covering the eggcrate now.

i think the water level will just be higher now, i dont think it will effect my flow. you cant really tell but its 2 inch high, and 1 ft wide. im only running about 600gph through my sump anyways. and another 600 through CL. i hope thats enough if not i can always add a powerhead in the back later on down the line.

1200GPH is only going to give you about 15x turnover... I'm guessing this is softies tank?

well for sps you need 20X. and lps can run with that. probably wont get to many sps, never have yet. and if i do i will just put them near higher flow areas. sps prefer water quality over flow alone.

I've always been told 45-60x for SPS plus good water quality. This advise comes from people like Snappy (Coral Master) who have amazing SPS tanks. But if you not gonna have SPS it don't matter.. :smile:

nope im not, maybe one or 2 at the most, and if i need to, i can always upgrade my pumps later on down the road. or add a MP-40 :biggrin:

Wow dude you work fast!!

But yea you wont have any fish making it past that.

yeah its because im not working right now, so i have to keep busy and i really want to get this thing filled with water.

and now thinking about my pumps, i kinda wish i had a stronger pump for the return, my drains can handle the flow, so at least i know in the future i can always upgrade to 1500 gph if need be.

Here it is with the background done, im liking it, but really because its deeper than im used to, im not really looking at the background alot. i also finish most of my manifold too, just waiting for my bulkhead to line it all up.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...wedding552.jpg


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...wedding538.jpg



i wish i had a nice camera like alot of you, then i could actually show what the tank looks like in person all i have is a HP Photosmart hahah oh well.

not really sure what to do here, i was just thinking instead of putting my return through the manifold i could use the 2 holes in the tank. the only thing i would be worried about it 1. that the CL is no longer a CL due to running through a manifold and 2. unless i put the nozzles pointing to the surface i would get alot of drainage from them, never used locline and was wondering if it would still drain all the way to that level.

Anyone know how to create a good syphon break in the return, considering that my 2 returns are quite a bit lower than the overflow?