08TRDOFFROAD's 45 Gallon Build

[08trdoffroad]

i love those green birds, i have a bluish purple 1. its very nice too.

im still fighting stn on my enhanta and a few of my pink birds. its upsetting me.

as far as overflows. i would stick with eshopps, lifereef . i know fleshy has a cpr overflow and likes it, but the only bad thing about the cpr's is u have to use a vaccum pump to keep siphon.

That is what scares me about SPS. It seems like STN can strike without warning and can wipe out whole colonies before you even have a chance to do anything about it! I have seen huge colonies reduced to frags in the owners attempt to stop the STN and save what they can of their colonies.

I will probably end up with one of those two boxes or I may DIY a PVC overflow to really save some money.

I will probably be pulling of my black background and actually paint the bakc of the tank in the near future too because I am tired of the salt creep and water spots showing up between the background and glass.

Nice tank.. I would put that Xenia somewhere off by itself because that stuff spreads like crazy.. I bout a piece about the same size as yours and now it seems like i'm ripping it out of my tank weekly just to keep it under control. I'm sure you may already know all of this but just letting you know.. It will eventually make its way to the highest point in your tank as well, if it has something to latch on to. I look forward to seeing your updates..

I have it off on it own in one corner of the tank right now. I noticed that it has already dropped a "baby" on to the sand that is a little bigger than a pea and beginning to grow the "arms".

 

[mos90]

i gues stn is better then rtn, but both are bad. im going to have to frag my enchata this weekend in hope of saving it. the weird thing is while they were in the frag rack on the front of the tank they were doing fine. i slowly moved the frag rack higher in the tank over like 3 weeks. within a week of mounting them they started stn. im wondering if they are getting too much light.

im hoping my sps corals will survive until i get the 125g up and running. i will move all the sps corals over to that tank and keep all the softies in the 28g.


i wouldnt do a diy pvc overflow. they can be touchy and u would need at least 3/4" tubing and it looks kinda ugly in the tank. i built a few pvc overflows for a drip systems for my freshwater tanks, but that all i would trust them for. i had 1 get airlocked on me and made quite a mess with about 20 gal of water on the rug. took me a week to dry it out.

 

[08trdoffroad]

So I guess that would mean drilling or an overflow box...

 

[mos90]

I still say go with an overflow box

 

[FLESHY]

If it means anything I have been using a CPR overflow for quite some time now (christmas) and after working out the basic kinks with it (just thinks you need to watch...you have to idiot proof yourself here) it works flawlessly.

Nice stuff.

 

[08trdoffroad]

If it means anything I have been using a CPR overflow for quite some time now (christmas) and after working out the basic kinks with it (just thinks you need to watch...you have to idiot proof yourself here) it works flawlessly.

Nice stuff.

What are the kinks you speak of....what things or tricks have you found?

The overflow box looks like the best option since I don't want to break the tank down.

It has come down to an Eshopps, Lifereef, or CPR overflow that can handle 3-500 gph.

Taking votes...would like to hear pros and cons of each also!

 

[08trdoffroad]

I also need suggestions for an energy efficient return pump that won't have too large or a footprint for a 10 g. sump and that can flow about 3-500 gph, with about 4 feet of head loss...

 

[FLESHY]

You are going to want the CPR because it doesnt use U tubes that can get bubbles in them and break siphon.

We use U tubes where I work and they are just a PIA.

The issues I had is not making sure that the little outlet for the air in the top of the CPR always stays debris free...if you get something in there your little aqualifter pump will not be able to pull the air bubbles out...even so I never lost siphon until I figured out what was wrong like 4 weeks later.

 

[08trdoffroad]

Anyone else have an opinion? Still looking for return pump ideas!

 

[mos90]

mag 5 is the way to go with a ball valve. thats what i have on my nano tank with a life reef nano overflow box. i have to dial the pump back about 25%.