Equipment

I suppose the 29 gallon must be feeling jealous of the attention and parts bill for the 75 gallon. Today while I was home for lunch the second of the main tank power compact light units went up in smoke. Horrible smell! Luckily, I was home and was able to get it unplugged and outside. No fire, but did I mention the horrible smell. Fried ballast is not a pleasant smell.

So in the last couple of months both 65 watt power compacts (used for the main lighting in the tank) have ...

A very busy work week and cooler temperatures have slowed progress to a crawl this week.

On Monday I got the top on the stand frame and lifted the tank into place for a trial. I wanted to confirm the height would be about what I'd thought and get the wife's approval. Here's a picture of the tank on the frame with my wife (5'2") standing next to it. I thought I'd also gotten a picture with the sump in place once I'd completed the lower platform, but I can't find it now.
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The overflow I ordered came in today. Here's the package contents. I guess candy is a trademark thing for these guys, lol. Just noticed the hole saw isn't in this picture, but it came with the kit also.



Measured multiple times and placed the template.


Per the instructions, I got the holes started using the template and then removed the template.


I ...

I'm ready to order the overflow but wanted to get some input from some of you guys with more experience. After all I'm really liking the idea provided in one of my earlier blogs about using an MP-40 and maybe adding an MP-10 for flow over my planned use of a snapper hybrid (less electrical use and fewer holes in the tank). I've also just about talked myself into the AI Sol leds because they're more electrically efficient and if they last as long as advertised will be a significant savings in buying ...

After doing a few "best guess" calculations, it appears the snapper hybrid would flow somewhere around 1500 - 1600 gph with the snapper impeller and the calc'd head loss. The pump actually comes with two impellers which can be changed out. My "best guess" calculations suggest, with head losses, the dart would flow around 2200 - 2400 gph. That's around 30x turnover for the tank. But with the dart impeller and at the calc'd head loss, the pump would pull around 180 watts. I'd ...