The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[Michael]

yeah post it up, we can have a read of it, im sure it will be a useful addition to the article

[nomorenames]

How do you guys keep from having sand storm I have a 2 k1s and 1 modded MJ 1200 I have the k1s aimed at each other and the MJ aimed up at the surface and it stirs up the sand alot

[nomorenames]

How do you guys keep from having sand storm I have a 2 k1s and 1 modded MJ 1200 I have the k1s aimed at each other and the MJ aimed up at the surface and it stirs up the sand alot

[damac20]

I have 2 K4s aimed at each other in my 54 and I only have issues with the left corner of the tank. For me I just keep the powerheads pretty close to the surface. Mine are about 2 inches from the surface of the water.

[Misled]

I went with 2 modded 900's facing each other about 4 inches from the surface. I also put 2 K1's in the corners a couple inches down pointed at the surface.

[reefscape15]

I only have a K-3 and K-1. They are pretty close to the surface though, and don't ever stir up the sand.

[nomorenames]

maybe I should add another MJ to diffuse the other one.. the one in there now is aimed up hanging on the overflow at the center of the tank and just rolls down the front and stirs up the sand sorry for the double post BTW

[Hookup]

why is everyone pointing at the surface?

[Misled]

My MJ's are not pointed at the surface. These are my main flow. I later added the K1's to point at the surface and help mix the flow of my sea swirl that's on the overflow box.

[reefscape15]

Both my powerheads are pointed kinda towards each other, going over the top of the rock work, sort of down towards the center of the tank.

[Michael]

i must be doing something wrong haha, i have 3 tunzes, 3 koralias and 2 maxi-jets in mine and no sand blowing about

[damac20]

I think most of it depends on what size the sand is.

[nomorenames]

Originally posted by damac20
I think most of it depends on what size the sand is.

Mine is a mix of south down and Fiji black so that might have somthing to do with it.

[Michael]

ive also removed my leds as well now, and added another 120 watts of t5s above the tank, im at 4 watts per gallon now, pics to come soon, im water changing later.

[reefscape15]

Michael - Are you going to get rid of those LED strips or are you keeping them? Looking to maybe waste a little money!

[Hookup]

man, it's funny... so many of us built our systems within 6months of each other, we all hit the same "ideas"... I've been asking around the GHL / Profilux forum for an LED system... including lightning.. i was told to wait for the next release...

[Shrine26]

Michael, with that much flow how do you keep everything from being turned into soup? I have 1 Koralia #5on the back of a 75gallon pentagon shape (yep, I am corner tank guy) that bounces off of the front panel and 2- #2 Koralias on the long sides. I've got enough flow to suit most soft corals and the acros I have seem to like it as well. You can mod the Koralias by changing out the stock screw type impeller to a modified propeller to maximize flow rates.

By the way, we would be glad to send Liverpool David Beckham in a trade. This season with LA, I think he is more excites about all the modeling gigs he got signed up for than playing soccer. Eventhough my wife says she wouldn't mind seeing David's bum in "tightie whities" on billboards around town, I would rather think not.

[Michael]

Originally posted by reefscape15
Michael - Are you going to get rid of those LED strips or are you keeping them? Looking to maybe waste a little money!

ive already sold them to other reefers jim

[Michael]

Originally posted by Shrine26
Michael, with that much flow how do you keep everything from being turned into soup? I have 1 Koralia #5on the back of a 75gallon pentagon shape (yep, I am corner tank guy) that bounces off of the front panel and 2- #2 Koralias on the long sides. I've got enough flow to suit most soft corals and the acros I have seem to like it as well. You can mod the Koralias by changing out the stock screw type impeller to a modified propeller to maximize flow rates.

my gonioporo was being blasted admittedly, ive moved 1 ph and hes ok now, otherwise the flow isnt too distruptive, believe it or not, it seems a lot at 50x, but nothing seems to be bothered by it.

Originally posted by Shrine26

By the way, we would be glad to send Liverpool David Beckham in a trade. This season with LA, I think he is more excites about all the modeling gigs he got signed up for than playing soccer. Eventhough my wife says she wouldn't mind seeing David's bum in "tightie whities" on billboards around town, I would rather think not.

we'd never except becham at liverpool, he used to be a man u player, he'd never be allowed on the pitch

[reefscape15]

Bummer Michael! Those LED strips are SWEET!

[boret]

Hello guys!!! A week gone on a business trip and there is already quite a bit to catch up!!!

Michael I like the blog and will try to help. The ToC is a must to get info organized.
I love the idea to ask the mods to change the name of the thread to better represent and help ID its content to RC users, without excluding any non corner users as it kind of does now. I like a lot of Hookup's ideas but I think that we should try to focus on the corner tanks and stay away from general new to reefing info. All the tidbits of useful information will still percolate from the blog, and much of that information will be invaluable to newbie but we need to focus on the corner tanks, otherwise we might make it a huge repository of data, not very user friendly. (It is just my opinion )

gerryo I have an older 3/4" SCWD spliting the return into my frag tank with eductors at each end. As far as flow I get plenty with the eductors, and I am probably running 400-500 gph, but the SCWD just doesn't work properly. It is an older unit, that can't be taken apart, and even though I soaked it in vinegar for over a week I still think it has some buildup that clogs the internals because it gets stuck in one output without switching. I need to tap it with a hammer to get it to switch, it does so for a couple of cycles and gets stuck again. Great idea... fairly short lifespan... maybe poor design. I won't use it again. However, the new ones might be better... there are a couple of systems out there, like the wav valve that I might try.

A lot of you use several powerheads inside the tank to produce decent and random flow.... do you dislike the Close Loop idea??

You can have a Close Loop with some PVC pipes and without drilling a single hole in the glass (I still prefer to drill but it is doable without drilling). I understand that it is easier to keep adding powerheads, you don't have to remove anything from inside the tank to place them but... they add heat to the system, the more you add the less natural look out of the tank, and you just have a lot of parts to fail and to maintain adding to the chores. At some point I would love to talk about how nice is to have the close loop and it is really not that difficult to setup. Mine cost about $100-120 including external pump, loc-line adapters, pvc and drill bit.

Michael I don't know if you are aware but there is a mod for the Tunzes that makes the 9025s as powerful as the 9045s and it is not that difficult to make. All you do is dremel some plastic off the front plastic piece. You can find the thread HERE. If it does that to the 9025 I can't imagine the flow increase you might get out of modding the 9045!!! You are supposed to increase from 660 gph to 1200+gph.
I have done it in my tunzes and I can tell that there is a very noticeable increase in flow, but I don't have the tools to measure if it is indeed 1200+.

Also, one little piece of advice (little trick many of you might know already), if you have trouble finding info on RC, you can try this simple trick: add "site:reefcentral.com" to all of your searches in google and it will match results from RC only.

[Hookup]

"site:reefcentral.com" OMG Sexy.. tyvm.... learn one thing every day.. i'm done.. going home now!

[gawf4fun]

+1 on closed loop. Absolutely one of the best decisions I made when setting up my 180. Also, as luck would have it, something I would change now if I could do it all over....

As I was a relative newbie at the time, it was suggested that a single outlet and a single inlet would be satisfacory for the 3000 gph flow as the return angled 30 degrees at the front of the acrylic. This was enhanced further by my sump return which comes through a 1" Sea Swirl, providing added variability, as the paths crossed. This originally worked great for flow dispersion and turbulence.

However as the corals grew and additional rock was added, the full tank coverage of the flow was interrupted, requiring me to add more flow behind the rock towers. Thankfully, EcoTech Marine introduced the Vortech MP40 pumps, which I have now acquired for high flow and low heat addition to the rear of my rock towers.

Were I given the rebuild opportunity, I would still use the closed loop, but I would definately drill additional returns through the base and rear walls of the tank for better overall dispersion of the flow, regardless of rock and coral location and growth.

[reefscape15]

I also agree with the closed loop system, but as gawf mentioned, "were I given the rebuild opportunity. Believe me, the next tank that I set up is going to be drilled all over!!!! I'm going to go with the swiss cheese approach

[boret]

This was my approach to Close Loop:



I am very pleased with its performance. The final iteration had a split on the output on the left wall, so it pushes water behind the rocks in the corner.

This is what it looked like when I firsts set it up:



I drilled the intake for the Close Loop on the right. If I was doing it again I would drill two intakes instead of one.

But if you don't want to drill the glass you can take the water with another pipe going in about half way down in the corner.

I am extremely pleased with the performance. I should have added a couple more outputs though, but I was concerned about adding too many elbows in the PVC limiting the flow. Hasn't been the case. I use a Little Giant 4 with an Ocean Motions 4. (1-2-3-4)