Fish's new tank project

[nanopodreefer]

Are you going bare bottom? I am aware of the huge debate... but can you give us newbies maybe your top 3-5 (or more ) reasons for going bb, or if you still plan on sand, same thing? Looks good though.

Nano

[Fish]

Nano,
Yup this tank will be BB. Sorry, but I don't think I can contribute any more to the debate than what has already been said. My advice would be to just try it both ways and see what you like better. Start with sand and if it starts to give you trouble, syphon it out. If it doesn't give you trouble - then rock on.
For me, BB allows me to keep a way cleaner system with higher flow and easier cleanup of detritus. I don't have/plan to have any sand dependant livestock, so my reason for keeping a sand bed would be purely for aesthetics. Now that alone is a pretty good reason - I put a lot of effort into trying to have things look good - but for me, my sand beds have only looked really good for about a week. After that golden week, the sand loses some of its brilliance and gets dulled by the bio-film that grows over each of the grains. I have tried different sifting critters and daily stirrings but I have never been able to maintain that beautiful white look. At that point, aesthetics is no longer enough reason to overweigh the drawbacks of sand and I go back to BB.
This time around I am going to try and cover the bottom of my tank with meadows of gsp, zoos, and mushrooms - should look alright...

- Chad

[danny zubot]

Hey Chad, that red pump with the pulse dail, what kind is it?

[woodcarver]

Starting to get exciting

..................................Dave

[Fish]

Haha.. thanks Dave.
It's about time... this project has been slowly creeping along..

[Fish]

Originally Posted by danny zubot

Hey Chad, that red pump with the pulse dail, what kind is it?

Danny,

That is a diaphragm metering pump made by Advantage Controls. It is not reefing equipment but is made for industrial/laboratory applications. I use it to add ro/di topoff water to my tank. It adds 0.31ml 9x every minute.

- Chad

[Fish]

To Do:

- I am planning on picking up a new Geissman Actinic + bulb for my hood. Right now I have one Geissman and one UVL Super Actinic but the UVL has dimmed to the point where I don't think it is even helping. It is a shame because the UVL was a real nice purple colour and seemed to add more variety - I think it is probably just a bad bulb but the Geissman actinic looks great too and seems to put out a lot more light.

- I am going to add some more LR to the display, add a pair of little clowns, and slowly build up my soft coral collection.

- I am also debating building a coil denitrator... great one more project...

- Chad

[danny zubot]

Danny,

That is a diaphragm metering pump made by Advantage Controls. It is not reefing equipment but is made for industrial/laboratory applications. I use it to add ro/di topoff water to my tank. It adds 0.31ml 9x every minute.

Cool, I was kind of hoping it was some kind of new pump with a built in wave controller. Some one should invent one.

[Fish]

Ya, right - that's all I need, one more piece of expensive equipment that I will 'have to have'.

Inventors: please disregard Danny's post. Don't invent anything else... just work on ways of making our current equipment cheaper.

[Skimmer Juice]

What kind of light (brand) is that? Sorry if it was already stated but I did not want to read all the pages. I ordered a high output t5 also just waiting for it