Sump and Refugium pics...

[rickm]

Sorry to bore everyone but here's some pics of my set up.

[flame]

Looks good

[jerryc]

Not boring at all i love seeing everyone's setup top to bottom

You have it looking good

[dakar]

Definately not boring. It looks really good. The fun part will be in a month or two and come back and revisit these pics and see how much it has changed.

[rickm]

Thanks everyone...I picked up a lot idea's from here. So far so good, I still have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrates. My calcium is 360 ppm and alkalinity is 8 dkh. My PH is a little low at 8.0. I'm using Seachem Reef Salt, haven't heard much about it but it sounds good and mixes up better than the Reef Crystals I used to use. The only disappointment so far is the light fixture. I paid 90.00 extra for the Ice Cap variable speed fans and guess what, there loud. They make such a loud pulsating metallic whine that resonates thru out the fixture when the MH's are on. I know at some point my wife is going to flip out.

[jerryc]

Haven't heard that about the icecap fans i have been planing to look at them for my new hood.

[dakar]

Rick have you tried isolating the fans from the fixture with something like rubber grommets or anything that might help dampen the vibrations? It's a shame when you have to hack on a new fixture....

[rickm]

Yes I tried that this morning. that was my second thought after checking previously for anything loose inside the fixture that might vibrate.I don't know else to do I even contacted the guy who makes these. And of coarse I didn't get the answer I was looking for. He said they make noise. Well I didn't want noise so that's why I paid extra for these fans.

[dakar]

I'm assuming they are already able to be underpowered by reducing the supply voltage since they are variable speed.... so that's not going to help...

You may not like this either then.... most of the noise is created at the outter most edge of the blades. The closer tolerance between the blades and the interior of the fan body, the more efficient but more noise is generated... if the blade is out of balance it will create a ruckuss as well. If you were to shorten up the blades a mm or so it may quiet them down considerably. I've used this method on computer CPU and case fans; insert a piece of sandpaper in there and turn the fan on... it'll shorten up the blades a bit and blance them at the same time... but you will sacrifice some performance of the fan for quieter operation. The only real problem is you obviously can't put back what you remove if you don't like the results.

[Tanked]

Looks Great .I like that skimmer what brand is it ?