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BIGSHOW

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What's the benefits/negatives of higher (80) vs. lower (74)?

After talking with our suppliers, 80% of there coral tanks and corals collected/farmed are in ocean temperatures 73-77 degrees (of course the ocean does fluctuate to extremes on either side). In terms of health benefits to the corals I would say I have seen better growth and polyp extension on pretty much all types of corals. Running a lower temperature also saves costs in the winter time for heating, but may be an issue for summer time for some people.

Running at 80 degrees IMO is the threshold between a coral that is happy and on the verge of stress. If your temp goes up a degree or two, your in danger zone. So why risk running it so hot when there is no benefit (at least that I have observed)

As an importer we measure the temperatures of all incoming shipments and I can say without a doubt, a coral bag with a temp of 82-85 is 90% of the time a dead coral or severely stressed. A coral bag in 70-77 degree range is 90% perfect. This is eliminating all other shipping issues (leaky bags, improper packing, etc)
 

Pipes

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I don't want to take Saltys thread off track (bruins suck and that's what this thread is about). Feel free to start another thread, might be a reef temperature may be a good topic to discuss. Definitely one that doesn't get much attention.
Done. In the TFT poll.
 

BIGSHOW

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Come on, really?!?!?
In summer that would be hard to maintain without a chiller, but that just seems way too low, but hard to argue with your results...

You don't have AC in the mansion you live in?

I keep my house around 72. I keep my fish room around 74, so not a big deal for me. I can see the issues if you don't have AC.
 

Salty Cracker

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You don't have AC in the mansion you live in?

I keep my house around 72. I keep my fish room around 74, so not a big deal for me. I can see the issues if you don't have AC.

I can ask the butler to drop the temps here, or maybe the groundskeeper has some ideas. The new tank is in the basement, probably I could keep it at 74 no problem, I guess I've always just had a tank at 79-80.
Maybe I'll look into running a bit cooler.
 

Salty Cracker

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Okay, so overflows are running perfectly.
Here was my criteria after the catasrophe that started all this:

Wanted "cost to coast" style hang-on-back overflows, but wanted two, so that there was redundancy. I wanted 1" plumbing so that it didn't have to be too far away from the back wall. So GHOST style was what I ended up with. These things are crazy simple, and now I know they will work. Each strainer in the tank has 2 bulkheads (everything has to do with redundancy). Those drain into the overflow boxes on the back. In the bottom of each of the boxes are 2 - 1" slip fit to male threaded adapter. Threaded on the down side and slip in the overflow. In one overflow, I have an open drain (looking for strainers now), and a taller pipe on the second drain. Hopefully the diagram makes sense...
plumbing.jpg

So with the DC motor, I simply set the return to whatever speed I want, and slowly shut off the ball valves. When water starts coming out of the "dry" lines I back it off a bit, and the level is set. Of course, that has to be repeated for any change in flow (you will either get gurgling if flow is too slow, or water through the wet lines if too fast). If anything blocks the wet line, the water rises and starts to pour over the top of the pipes in the dry line and you know right away something is wrong, BUT you will never get a flood. I did two just to be double safe, but don't know if it's necessary (that freshwater bath my corals got made me uber paranoid!!!!).

Anyway, I have no idea if this is a known design, or if this is how every "ghost" system works, All I know is this is what I asked for, and this is what I got....AND IT WORKS!!! :)
 

Poseidon

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hey glen it looks good!
Exactly what i have planned for my tank.
except just one overflow instead of two.
as long as you keep the tank clean and have a good strainer on the active line your chances of problems are low
but of course anyone whose experienced a flood wants an emergency back up :)
 

Salty Cracker

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hey glen it looks good!
Exactly what i have planned for my tank.
except just one overflow instead of two.
as long as you keep the tank clean and have a good strainer on the active line your chances of problems are low
but of course anyone whose experienced a flood wants an emergency back up :)
Right, and I had a flood that then shorted the GFI. When (if) I go on vacation again I'm going to run a separate electrical line to a backup life support system (apex/heater/pump) that will supplement the huge UPS I already had in there.

As you say one overflow box "should" be enough, but let's say the strainer in the tank comes loose, then the fish start getting sucked in, and both overflows get plugged? Almost impossible, but it was almost impossible what happened to me (2 separate overflows on different sides of the tank plugged simultaneously after running perfectly for 12 years??!?!).
 

Salty Cracker

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Oh and the strainers in the front are removable.... that means replaceable AND I can take them out to get stuff off them that has grown on it (algae/coralline/sps/etc). That drives me nuts in my current system, I'm always sure I'm going to break them to bits scraping stuff off.
 

Salty Cracker

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Rock is in, drains are working perfectly, I'm going to start water testing shortly, the teeeny skimmer I have in there is taking out some foam and yellow water from whatever is decomposing off the rocks...
I have to start the hood maybe today, but I have to figure out the light structure sooner rather than later.

So far so good though... still silent and working as hoped.
 
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