cale262

Pump brand names...ehiem is always popular, I run all Danners, RedDragons if you got the extra $$$ ($800ish)..

The first thing I'd ask is which skimmer are you using? You want your skimmer chamber water too remain at a constant height, water depth based on the skimmers requirements (8-10”s?)… At 48”s long, I don’t think I’d worry too much about the bubble trap. ATO is a must IMHO...flow requirement for you return pump...Not so important and there are several different schools of thought depending on how you set up your returns, I personally run mine at 10xDT volume, allot of others match their flow to their skimmers GPH capacity...so many different opions out there

Still expensive, for example, a six foot Vertex Illumina 260 LED Lighting Fixture (Cree) is still gonna cost you >$4500,...althought it's one damn sexy fixture :thumbs:

If you're starting fresh, why don't you just sump it...I put a sump on my shrimp edge and they are super happy,...or run a canister on it (read: not an HOB fan) :thumbs:

I'm using two Mag18's, one on a freshwater and the other on a 200g saltwater system, both were acquired used and have been rock solid and quiet.

Good find...I'll have to drop them a line on Friday... I've painted the white with Krylon and not only is it a PITA but it's time consuming (=more$$$).

I don't think you'll need any real light for your sump, unless you are planning on growing some macro algae in there...

Either way I think he'll be happy in there and eat any food that finds it's way down there,...just give the little fella a little rock to hang out with :thumbs:

The crab looks like a little emerald crab...I'd leave him in there, they're great CU crew guys IMO. The worms are bristle worms, harmless and will clean up any left over food...just don't grab one with your hands, those bristles sting pretty damn good...

When do you want it? do you need anything else? I've got a bunch of black flourite here...how bout any plants? dwarf hair grass? filters? LOL I got a tonne of stuff sitting that I need to clear out :thumbs:

I have a nice 24" dual T5HO fixture with two 6700K bulb you can have for $60...it's this one link here

"Salarias Faciatus"....more commonly known as a "Lawnmower Blenny"..

You have to spend allot of money to get a quality LED fixture...Unless you have >$1000 in your lighting budget I'd stick with the T5's...I have a little 24" two bulb T5HO fixture that I ran on my 20gal hitec planted tank with great success... I don't have a FTS but here's an old pic...

They look great CBG :bow:

HomeHardware Carries some cheap D-holesaws aswell...

I had a nice 20g hitec, heavy planted running an ehiem 2213, it worked great with the injected Co2... I think I still have the filter kicking around here if you want it...$50 with the media (ehiem), has everything but the spraybar (unless I can find it somewhere) as I was using a DIY with the inline Co2 reactor.

Was your live rock cured?

How about club soda to rid the rock of your unwanted pests.... http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=67665&highlight=soda

I wouldn't use salt in a tank with live plants. ICH doesn't reproduce at 30*C but you have to keep the temp there for the complete life cycle of the ICH, the higher temp also increases the life cycle of the ICH. I haven't done this myself but have heard of people successfully using a salt dip treatment for individual fish. Another thing that helps the fish build up their immune system and recover is to premix food with garlic. I have used UV filters with no ill effect to my plants.

I haven't had any ...fresh water Ich in a long time but, I found the most effective way to treat the issue was to increase the water temp to about 30*C or 86*F and leave it there for about two weeks.

Welome to AA and Edmonton... :welcome: Sounds like a great project build...everything but the sump, I love sumps but think they're rather counter productive if you're injecting CO2.....too much exchange going on, canister filters are the way to go with a hi-tec planted tanks IMHO.

No, the tank is kept at a nice warm 78*-80*F...I've never had any melting issues with it even with the undergravel heater, I was told that it wouldn't likely get bigger than a 10" spread in a warm tank but this one has to be at least 30"s.

I put about ten bags of Flourite in my 85G hi-tec (4WPG, co2, very little liquid fert added biweekly, 20% weekly WC, heavily stocked), that tank is a year old now and the plants are growing crazy fast and zero algae... I've used Eco-Comp in other hit-tec tanks and no issue there either.... I've tried 90% sand (HD playsand) 10% Flourite mix and never really had much luck with it, but then again I was not really dosing allot of ferts either... I say Flourite if you have the coin, big upfront investment but worthe every penny in the long haul IMHO. Sorry for the crappy photo, I just took it, bubbler stays on until 11am, lights and Co2 come on at 12noon until 10pm bubbler comes back on at 11pm.

I think I'll check it out today... http://www.petcetera.ca/Locations.aspx

I imagine you want to cycle your 90 gal tank about 10 times in one hour (=900 gph), your overflow is rated at 1500 gph so if you buy a pump rated at 1800 gph your over flow won't be able to keep up... Most pump ratings on the box are max with no head pressure, so a pump rated at 1800 gph is if the pump is at the same level of the water exiting the pump....if you have your pump on the same level as the floor and the top of your tank is one meter high you need to read what the pump output is at one meter of head pressure (900 gph?)... for example if you look at the chart on the link below you can see that the 1262 is rated at 40 lpm with a one metre head, about 23 lpm with a 2m head and the max head pressure rating is 3.5m for that pump. http://www.eheim.com/base/eheim/inhalte/index9b2d.html?key=liniendetail_27591_ehen I hope that helps you a bit...