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Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus (Post 578848)

Ahhhhhso grasshoppa! :lol:

I'm pretty sure the boxes are tuned correctly is the thing. I did it with the rest of the current turned off and I dialed it back and forth around the spot where the waves were the biggest and yeah the slightest little bump on the dial would cause the waves to lessen.

The problem resides with how the water level sits against the boxes when the sump return is on. The waveboxes are as high as they possibly can go, jammed up against the Eurobracing. But the water level is right up to the top of the box so the water in fact spills into the boxes from the top. What ends up happening is that the boxes do not empty and refill like they should when the pumps do their thing. They are just powerheads turning off and on. Without the displacement there is no real wave. There is a slight level deviation at the ends, you can see the water level lap up around the bottom of the Eurobracing.

The problem isn't with the waveboxes but in the way the tank was built - the overflow is too high.

I'll take some pictures and/or video tonight and show you guys what I mean. Maybe it will make more sense when you see what's happening.

For the most part it was enough. I have the load split for the 3 tanks now in the basement among 4 circuits and when the other two are offline I may be able to shift things around a bit to load balance even further.

I ended up adding two powerbars in the end: one for the Tunze 6080's (AC, non controllable) although now there is only one of them so I probably don't need that powerbar any more, and then another for the skimmer (two pumps to run the skimmer, it's nice to have a shutoff if need be in case I need to open it up for any reason) and then I tagged the Osmolator, the carbon reactor powerhead, and the zeovit reactor pump off that powerbar since otherwise I'd have needed 3 extension cords to make them reach to the plugs.

I wish I could do without the powerbars since there isn't a powerbar in the world that doesn't seem to say right on it "DO NOT USE FOR AQUARIUMS! YOU IDIOT!" (well maybe I'm paraphrasing a little, but you get the gyst). But I really wanted an easy way to turn the skimmer off and on without pulling plugs out of the wall.

The electrical hookups are a huge messy disaster with plugs and wires everywhere. I wish I could think of a way to tidy it up a bit.

Instead of a power bar, grab a DJ box. The ones they use for their lights etc. They normally have about 5 switches/plugs. Each plug has its own switch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonT (Post 578855)

Instead of a power bar, grab a DJ box. The ones they use for their lights etc. They normally have about 5 switches/plugs. Each plug has its own switch.

I've tried to find one of those but the ones I saw had a price tag that only a Rock Star could afford. Where do you get them?

Not too much to report but some pictures what the hey. Wish I could add my name to the hat of 8' tanks that seem to be all the rage but that's um not going to happen anytime soon.

I technically had fish in the tank in 2010! New Year's Eve I got a zero nitrite reading after what felt like weeks hovering at 0.1 so I promptly went and picked up a few small chromis. A couple days later I moved over the one big chromis from the cube, they found each other and school pretty good. It's hilarious the size difference, the four new are about 1" max and the old guy is almost 2.5" so it's like seeing the mother ship or something.

Diatom bloom is abating, not all gone as yet but going away. Water remains cloudy though and has been for the better part of at least a week. Previously it would sort of come and go. I'm not sure what's up with that. I don't have an ammonia test kit but I have been testing nitrite and it's consistently reading zero. So hopefully it will clear up.

Filter socks - have to clean them out everyday. Hope that's a function of the diatoms and will settle down to something less frequent.

January 8 FTS -
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1710-0.jpg

You can see the flow pattern of the hidden 6080 on the back glass, the big brown patch. I'm thinking the 6080 is going to come out, I have some major tweaking to do with the flow still before I'm happy with what I see.

End shot:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1715-0.jpg

Other than that I've moved over some gorgonians, a baby RBTA, and added a pile of cleanup crew.

I took a picture of these guys in the bucket because I figure that's the last I'll ever see of them..
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1704-0.jpg

Going..
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1707-0.jpg

Going ... gone ...
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1708-0.jpg

Fighter meets Strawberry..
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1713-0.jpg

Some spaghetti worms from the small cube..
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1716-0.jpg

And this little guy makes 6 fish so far. Need a better photo but this was the best of the bunch.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1721-0.jpg

He had actually been chased into the sump a few times in the cube that he ended up living there for a few months. So for now I'm not going to move any fish over to let him establish here and hopefully not be bullied. The ones I'm a little worried about are the trigger, the canary wrasse and the dottyback. I think the chasing should be not a problem once he's established and these guys become the newcomers.

In the meantime I'm dripping some more corals and some clams for introduction tomorrow. I'd do more but the cloudy water really has me a little worried. As we all know the only thing that happens quickly is disaster so I'm not allowing myself to be rushed here. The next few steps are going to be interesting: tomorrow, if all goes well, I plan to move the two clams out of the big cube into the tank. But the 2 clams in the little tank are going to go into the cube for now instead of the big tank, and then maybe they'll have their turn after another week or so. The reason for this is that they are firmly attached to their rocks - and I'm not going to remove them - but the rocks are covered in aiptasia and caulerpa. So the tangs, rabbits and butterflies are going to have a heyday cleaning the rocks off.

Caulerpa, valonia and anything else that's green for that matter, shouldn't be an issue in the big tank much the same as it isn't an issue in the big cube, since the 3 tangs and the rabbit devour the stuff if given any. Aiptasia on the other hand is something I hope not to introduce if I can avoid it since the butterflies aren't going to go into the big tank.

And on that last note I am going to be starting up a new thread for my pending FOWLR. :lol: Won't be anything too spectacular though. The cube is going to come down and be sold, the two butterflies and the golden dwarf eel will be moved into their own home. Could just keep them in the cube indefinitely but the cube has to be moved anyhow, won't really fit in the tank room in the corner thanks to the TWO corner overflows (who builds a 30" cube with dual overflows .. seriously. Anyhow, water under the bridge now) and just to hopefully keep costs "somewhat" under control it will be a bit of a downgrade. Oh well. So much for the plan to move to one tank to simplify things.

Really liking the FTS man. Looks a bazilion times better (and roomier) without the old-school tunze on the wavysea brackets. Strange about the cloudy water perhaps it gets cloudy for some reason each time your sock gets full and it's not pulling stuff out anymore?

What are those pancake mofos you added from the bucket? Funny I've never seen them before in a thread.

rofl....pancake mofos..i just loled and startled the kid. theyre sand dollars :lol:

Tony do those flat thingy's work and what do they do do they go through the sand bed cleaning

Quote:

Originally Posted by christyf5 (Post 580335)

rofl....pancake mofos..i just loled and startled the kid. theyre sand dollars :lol:

+1 :lol:

The FTS looks great so glad to see fish in there :mrgreen: I think you're right the small wrasse should be fine if he has a few days to settle in first.

FTS looks great Tony! And as for those filter socks: I warned you to go bigger. I wish I had. I'm going to rig up for a larger sock. Cleaning every two to three days is a real PITA. Anyhow, things are looking good.

PS. Brett, only a flatlander wouldn't know what a sand dollar is. :mrgreen: Used to use those things as skipping stones on the beach when I was a kid.

I am realy surprised you got the sand dollars Tony, they have a very pour survival rate in tanks and will compete with the fighting conch for food.

looking good though.

Steve

Just always wanted to try some sand dollars but never had enough open sandbed to try them so was never really an option. We'll see how it goes.

Yeah Lance I know you told me but you didn't tell me anything I wasn't already thinking. It was a matter of cost and what could be built: the glass sock holders were available for $20 each for 4" but a lot more for the 6" and would have to be fabricated. Plus all my 6" socks have broken rims so I needed to get all new anyhow and a few people convinced me to at least try the 4's. I've been using 6" for a long time now and I get a week before they need to be cleaned.

Worst case scenario I'll just stop using socks, but I'll use them for now as they help clear the diatoms. But I'll switch to a larger micron size first as that would be an easy enough thing to try.