265 gallon setup

[Dale]

very nice colin!!!
I also zip tied my rock, only to eggcrate instead of PVC. I really like the open design of your rockwork.
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extreme vaporizer review

[Dave C]

Originally Posted by niloc16

i've never heard that dave. thanks for the advice, i'm going to look into it. does anyone know more about mounting co2 horizontally?

Colin, I did some checking on RC and found these statements...

"Always tie or chain the cylinder to the side of the stand to prevent it from falling, always use it in the vertical position to insure you get gas and not liquid. If in the horizontal position, liquid will pass to the regulator which can be trapped in the body, after expanding into gas the increase in pressure can blow the regulator body cap or the gauges if not your reactor."

"Tilting it 10 degrees won't be a problem. I'd think that you'd have to go past 30 degrees before liquid would enter the regulator."

One thing to remember is that a lot of times on the net people pass on information that they don't know for sure is accurate (take the example of me warning you about this subject). That doesn't mean they're wrong, or right. But if I were you I'd put that tank upright until you find out for sure. It doesn't sound like a good thing if these folks are right. btw, here's the links for those two statements so you can read the entire thread for yourself...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...al#post7513526

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...al#post3053728

[fishface]

just outta curiousity, is the vortec and your sandbed playing nicely together or does the vortec shift things around alot?

[niloc16]

it doesnt seem to effect the sand at all. the first day the flow shifted the sand a little but after everything settled it was fine.

[niloc16]

i repositioned my co2 tank, thanks to the advice i did some research and found that positioning the bottle horizontally can be very dangerous. but i was still able to use the brackets so that was good, lost some space in the stand though but i will manage

[niloc16]

i've finally decided on my lighting. i'm going to go with the new icecap 250w/400w pendant 3 of them with 3 400w 14k aquaconnect bulbs and 400w icecap electronic ballasts and 8 54w T5 actinics. they will be mounted inside the canopy and we're going to put a couple fans on the canopy for circulation. the top of the canopy is routered out about 50% of the surface for venting so i'm hoping that i dont lose too much light reflecting out the top. i dont have the components yet but they should be in in the next couple days and hopefully by next week i should have some pics to show. i also a school of 8 chromis the other day, nitrite and ammonia was 0 as well as nitrate and salinity and temp have been good for 2 weeks so i thought i would add some livestock to build up the tank ecosystem before transferring stuff from my 55 gallon over. obviously i cant do that until the lighting is in but the school of chromis are doing really good. they have taken ownership of one end of the tank and dont seem to venture past halfway across the tank.

[niloc16]

well this is a pretty lame update but it is all i have for now. with advice from jason from proline and mark from edmonton i installed 2 15amp circuit. all together the tank will run on 3 15a circuits. by fluke i was looking around in the unfinished basement which is directly below the tank and found that the electrician had spooled up about 10ft of 14/3 wire already hooked up to a 30amp breaker. it was as if it was installed for the tank because once i finished wiring the 2 GFI outlets i had about 2 ft left over of the wire. the install went really smooth. i'm pretty confident now that i wont have any issues with power or lack there of. i lost 3 chromis for unknown reasons, they were really young though so i'm thinking that may have been it. otherwise tank is running good, still waiting on getting my lighting, been told that it should be arriving shortly. i know that my bioload is really low right now, only 5 chromis but i'm getting very little skimmate. and the skimmate i get is light tea colour. i've tried pinching off the airline to bring the bubbles further down the chamber and just this week i tried the airline wide open but with now change. it is H&S a200-1260, i'm hoping it is just that i have a low bioload because the first week and a half after the substrate and rock went in it skimmed like crazy, thick gross goo, but now like i said just light tea color.

[Coderad]

Looking good.
But that 14/3 should be on a 2pole 15 amp breaker, not a 30amp.
The breaker is there to protect the wire and the 14 gauge wire is only rated for the 15 amps.
If an overload ever did happen it would start to melt the wire before the 30 amp breaker would trip the breaker.

[niloc16]

sorry i didnt really know the terminology but it is a 2 pole 15amp breaker. it looks like 2 15amp breakers with a rod between the two. i am assuming that is what you were talking about coderad. if not please let me know. i only know basic home electrical

[littlesilvermax]

Just tuning in.

Ever considered a basement sump. Many many advantages to that.