Actually, it turns out it was my Foxface that just turned "2" in the tank. The Achilles was added in May, 2007...so he's actually closer to "3", than "2".

Checking the records also tells me that my oldest fish is "Chuck" the (now) female clown who will be 4 years in April. Mostly, I still have young fish.

I'd love to go have a drink at your place

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1431.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1437.jpg
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That is a beauty Tank!! WOW

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1431.jpg

I must have missed this but can you explain how your water gets from sump 1 to sump 2. I know sump one is elevated but the pumbing to sump 2 goes in at the top, how is the water traveling up?

Superb work. What a beautiful display.

Sump 1 (my Water change Sump), is just slightly higher than Sump 2 (Main sump)..but only 1" or 2" higher. The water level in sump 1 however, is significantly higher than Sump 2.

This is achieved because the sumps are connected by a Herbie "overflow" system. Sump 1 is bulkheaded at the bottom and connected directly to sump 2. There is a gate valve on this connection. If the gate valve is wide open, then the two sumps settle out at the same operating water level. But since the gate valve is partly closed, it takes more pressure to push the water through and the water level in Sump 1 is higher.

As it is not advisable to run a standard Herbie system with a single pipe, there is a second overflow connection that would kick in only if the water level in Sump 1 ever got too high.

This is the most unusual of the 4 Herbie overflows in my system.

Thanks for the info, so when you do a water change you just close the valve to sump 2, empty sump 1 and fill again? So you don't have to shut return pumps or anything off?

Yup, that is exactly it.

As soon as I stop the flow between the sumps, sump 1 fills up capturing 50 gallons. As soon as it fills, I stop the flow INTO sump 1 and that sump is now completely isolated even as the return pump continues to run. (water just flows directly into sump 2 through the Herbie emergency drain).

I then dump sump 1, and refill it with new SW which is pumped in from the mixing tank. Then put the sump back into circulation. One advantage of this system is that I get to drain away any stuff that has settled in Sump 1 when I dump it. It is a good way to get rid of detritis.

Perfect, I am setting up a new tank and your thread has given me all kinds of ideas, thanks for sharing.

great tank and some great idears in this thread.

Bill

Is there any reason if I didn't have the same space you have that I couldn't bypass the sw mixing container and have that be sump #1. So I would just close sump 1, rinse and drain, add salt and ro water and then turn it back on? Love your setup, thanks for your help.

Yes, that would work. But it advisable to mix SW for 24hrs or more before you use it. This would leave that sump out of commission for that length of time. You would also have to design that sump to be a good "mixer" as well as a sump.

That sump would also tend to be clean since you would probably kill anything living in there each time you dumped FW into it. That would probably be a good thing.

Thanks for your help. Can I ask how tall your sumps are? One of my sumps is 60x24x24, 36" will be under my DT and 24" in my fishroom/closet, I was planning my stand 36" tall with a door on one end to access the part of the sump under the DT but if I use the 2x6 like you have on top I will not have alot of clearance, could I do the top frame in 2x4 for a 270g tank?

Did I ever tell you how nice your tank is...? :) Amazing!

I'm not an engineer, so I don't know for certain what you can and cannot do.

I believe it is the span of the top frame that drives the choice. In my case, that span was 4 feet and I used 2x6's on edge about 12" apart from each other. This turned out to be plenty of support. (overbuilt)

I don't know the dimensions of your 270 gallon tank, but I would guess that the width is less than 4 feet. So maybe you could use 2x4s. You could also use more of them..maybe every 6" or 8".

My stand is 40" high, btw.

Nice Photo...
 

I'm quite happy with how the tank is doing, but there are always things to deal with.

Last week, the CO2 solenoid stopped working. After purchasing an entire new solenoid, I discovered that the thing is removable and serviceable. It probably only needed a bit of grease. So, I guess I have a spare part now.

After that, I must not have sealed the regulator on the tank properly, because 3 days later I ran out of CO2 without warning. 500lbs one moment...0 the next. It is always something.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure. Here's Freckles doing what he does best..blocking the view into the aquarium. His tail streamers are really coming along now.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0729.jpg

Def looks like the tank has turned around again nice pic. Freckles is one stunning piece of fish! And did I read that right...you have a 500lb cylinder?!

How large is the hammer coral across?

My tank used to do that all the time to me. It would read 500 for the longest time, then be completely dead. I just figured it wasn't sensitive enough to read anything in the "redline" below 500.

Freckles is quite the photogenic fish :biggrin: How big is he now?

You might be right about the sensitivity of the regulator. I may not have had a leak at all.

...and for Lastlight....500lbs is bad shorthand for 500 "lbs per sq. inch...psi". It is only a 10lb tank. It lasts me at least 6 months.

It is hard to measure Freckles, even though he poses nicely. I tried to measure him the other day and I get maybe 15" or 16". He seems larger.

You can see the right side of the hammer coral in the previous photo (back left). It is larger than a basketball...smaller than an exercise ball. It is probably 1.5feet diameter. When I carve a hole in it, it fills back in pretty fast. It expands steadily outward maintaining its overall ball shape.

Meet Fang...the Sally Lightfoot
 

Fang is a little seen resident of the tank who is not very photogenic (shy). He's been in the tank now for about 2 years. I don't think he is getting any larger at this point.

I managed to get a reasonably complete moult out of the tank the other day, so this is a good shot of his hollow outsides. As you can see, he's a pretty fair size! Those of you who are keeners for detail will note that the back two legs are missing from this moult.

In the 2nd photo, you might be able to see why he is named Fang. (the moult retains all his unique colorations)

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0028.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0029.jpg

Das is a big crab!.....Great pics

WOW I see that you are battling red turf algae too, do you find that it goes away and comes back? Im sick of mine i find that if i beef up the phosban it goes away

Very cool pictures!

I wouldn't say I was battling it...In fact, I've not paid it any attention whatsoever. What you see there is about what is always there. It doesn't go away, or get worse. That's just how my tank is, I suppose. The orange firecoral seems to eliminate it, but that coral has it's own challenges.

I run some phosban, probably not enough. It is rare that I get any kind of reading on the Hanna LR phosphate photometer.

Wow! Fang is awesome :cool: I had no idea they got that big. I guess you don't have any small fish for him to catch. I had one about half his size when I started out. I could watch him eat gobies for lunch catching them if they swam too close to his rock.

Re: 400 gallon project
 

Whoa!! What exactly do you feed it?!?!

What kind of crab? It reminds me of the crab alien things from that (really cheesy) remake of Lost in Space from around 12 years ago...

Looks like a sally light foot crab to me!!

I agree it sorta looks like one, but I also thought it looked a little different. Then again I've never seen one that big so what do I know. :lol:

It is a Sally Lightfoot. I don't feed him anything, directly. I'm sure he gets his share of the frozen food I feed everyone else. He always seems to be picking at something.

I've seen him have lots of opportunity to grab small fish. Never shown any interest whatsoever.

So many nice surprises in this tank. You've done things just a little differently and that makes your tank ever cooler. Love that crab!

This aquarium is art.

Not to dig up the past, but I am in the process of building my canopy and I like what you did. I had a question though. Does the framing sit directly on the acrylic and if it does do you need to compensate for expansion?

- Joe.

Yes, you have dug up the past!

The weight of the upper walls is carried by the tank. However, there is a layer of that foamy door sill material between the tank and the walls. I did that primarily to prevent water from splashed out the seam.

Those walls are NOT attached to the ceiling. The walls are three pieces (left, right, front) They are screwed to each other and only screwed to the surrounding walls at the back left and back right only.

If you look closely, you might be able to see the foam layer in this photo. You can also see the bolts that connect the left and right frames to the front frame.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0479.jpg

Photo updates
 

Things are going quite well. Nothing unusual to report...coral growing, fish growing... It is nice not to have any crisis at the moment.

Glass and sand both happen to be clean at the same time, so that seemed a good reason to take some photos!

Left:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1583.jpg
Right:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1582.jpg

Lance (the unicorn) as he usually struts around in the evening trying to impress somebody.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1571.jpg
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Hard to get the camera out and not take a few photos of these two.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1570.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1560.jpg

Love the Achilles, looks nice and fat :)

Updated FTVs
 

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1585.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1584.jpg

Wow Brad, the tank is looking great. I can't believe how huge your fish are! Love the gorgonians, how many different types do you have in there?

Looking fantastic! To have a large tank like yours would be a dream come true!