Share Your Random Tips

[GrimReefer]

Just like it says. I'll start, and I have lots of these but nothing's really coming to mind.

Today I realized I could make water changes a lot easier on me and my reef inhabitants by simply moving my top-off pump from fresh water to my saltwater reservoir. Then I could remove water by siphon and it would slowly refill with fresh saltwater.

[Quagmire]

If you have a mag-float type algea scraper,try to get in the habit of cleaning the glass every day or 2 ,and you wont have to break out the blade scraper on the weekend for the built up coralline.

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

If you have a mag-float type algea scraper,try to get in the habit of cleaning the glass every day or 2 ,and you wont have to break out the blade scraper on the weekend for the built up coralline.

yeah as soon as I see the slightest film on my glass I attack it with the hammerhead.

Here's one of my own:

A 6g glass jug (for winemaking), a cheap air pump, and an electronic timer equals a quite safe and very cheap auto top-off unit.

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by kwirky

yeah as soon as I see the slightest film on my glass I attack it with the hammerhead.

Here's one of my own:

A 6g glass jug (for winemaking), a cheap air pump, and an electronic timer equals a quite safe and very cheap auto top-off unit.

I like that one - how do you fit the air pump in the jug, though?

ANd do you set the timer for how long, 30 minutes or so?

[fishface]

Originally Posted by andsoitgoes

how do you fit the air pump in the jug, though?

[GrimReefer]

for the beginners:

-when selecting LR, choose pieces that are porous and have a lot of holes. not only is it cheaper, but a porous piece provides more surface area for biological activity.

-when designing a system, don't forget flow. it's almost as important as light. and with the new affordable flow pumps on the market, there's no excuse for lack of it.

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by fishface

HEY!!! :P

I'm serious!!

I have those 5g water jugs from purifed water, and man - I'd have to jam it in good!

I'm making myself seem even more stupid, aren't I?

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by andsoitgoes

I like that one - how do you fit the air pump in the jug, though?

ANd do you set the timer for how long, 30 minutes or so?

lol.

I completely disassembled the pump, then put it inside the jug, then reassembled the pump using 24" forceps. (lol j/k)

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

If you get one for wine making it's called a carboy, get the rubber stopper that already has two holes in it, one for air line in (from an external air pump) and one for an airline out (water that is pushed out of the carboy from the airpressure that the air source creates.

Doug

I didn't bother with a two hole rubber stopper. I just forced the two 1/4" flex pipes into the single hole and sealed it with silicone. Worked for me and cut down on the running around to find stuff.

the yellow hose reaches all the way to the bottom of the jug, and it's the one taped to the 2" pipe. Water comes out of that.

the white hose coming out of the plug with the green airline tubing attached only goes about 1" into the jug. The other end is attached to the air pump with a check valve. THE CHECK VALVE IS ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT! When the pump stops, the pressure in the glass jug will force the water into the air pump if you don't have the check valve.

The timer supports two separate on-off times. I run one at 3pm for 15 minutes, and another at 9pm for 15 minutes. I like the system because there's no float valves to break down, and if the pump stays on by accident, it's only 6g of water or less that goes into my 33g sump.

I fill it up every 2nd day for my own tank (120g with 8 bulb T5 lights).

The great thing with this system is that you can dose kalk with it if you wanted with zero worry about wearing any pumps out. I don't dose kalk any more though, but for those who do it's a great little thing.

For those in cities, almost all of this should be available without having to order a single thing online. The whole unit cost me just $20 for the jug, $1 for the plug, and I used an air pump that was just lieing about the house. Oh and a $3 check valve.

[X-Treme]

Looks ALMOST identical to mine, but my Carboy is smooth sided. And my digital timer can do up to 14 presets PER day. VERY cheap and worthy set-up IMO.

[Okguy]

Originally Posted by kwirky

For those in cities, almost all of this should be available without having to order a single thing online. The whole unit cost me just $20 for the jug, $1 for the plug, and I used an air pump that was just lieing about the house. Oh and a $3 check valve.

Sweet! I've just recently finished building an acrylic Sump\Fuge and I didn't make the return chamber large enough so I am only able to leave the tank alone for 3 days max. I made this Auto top off last night and have bought myself an extra 5 days! And it cost me nothing!!!!!

I guess it's my turn. For those of you who put paper towel into you're Remora to reduce noise. You can cut out a piece of plastic (I used a margarine container) using the bottom of the collection cup as a template and then glue air tubing to the outside. This can replace the weekely paper towel changes. Here's the link where I got the idea from.

http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/sh...ad.php?t=25389

Works really well!