General Reefkeeping tips:
Last Updated: 10/29/2008
Pretty Tank:
For in-tank plumbing use black pvc. You can buy it at
Savko. It is much prettier than white and makes for a very professional look and
is reasonably priced.
Painting the back of a glass tank looks far better then just placing something black
behind the back glass even if you use the same paint. The air gap between the
backdrop causes refraction reflection which makes the back a mirror at certain
viewing angles. The mirror effect highlights anything growing on it besides not
being the color you intended. Painting the back makes the back a solid color that
looks great and consistent from any angle.
Not much is worse than a reef slide. It can scratch your acrylic or glass and kill
your corals. All that live rock likes to shift around. Especially with all that
water motion. I used a long 1/4" drill bit (doesn't have to be masonry) and made
holes in my live rock and connected the pieces together using 1/4" clear acrylic
rod. Much like a tinker toy set only the rods inserted farther so as not to be
visible. Not only did I make my tank impervious to reef slides since all the
pieces are interconnected, I can also create shelves, coves, towers, and caves,
that gravity will not allow by just stacking the rock. Aquascaping options galore!
Fixer Upper:
Don't glue any PVC fittings that you don't have to. Pressurized lines like plumbing
off of a return pump should be glued, some bulkhead connections like the the
drainline from the overflow. But why glue in your stand pipe or fittings off of
an in-sump skimmer, or even the separate pieces of a durso? The fittings keep
pipes and plumbing snug enough while allowing you to make quick effortless changes
to your plumbing.
Bad Practice:
Eliminate or lessen the height of any waterfall in your system. Waterfalls create
three undesirable things: Microbubbles, Noise, and Salt spray. Microbubbles are
often undesireable to look at and scatter light. Noise imposes your aquarium on
the rest of the room atmosphere. An aquarium should be seen not heard. Salt spray
is ugly, causes salinity creep, decreases the life of electronics nearby, and degrades
the surface materials of your hood, stand and any other surrounding materials.
My rule of thumb is less than 1 inch. My sump has no water falls. The fall over my display
overflow weir is 0.5 inches. It's also whisper quiet.
Noise:
- Lessen waterfalls
- Implement a stand pipe drain silencer:
Durso,
Stockman, or
Hofer Gurgle Buster
- In the sump, implement a
bubble tower. A Bubble tower quiets the drainline at the water exiting
side in the sump. A durso and a bubble tower will totally silence the drain
in the system.
- Install the sump on a rubber mat to keep equipment vibrations from resonating
out on to your stand.
- Install marine carpeting on the inside surfaces of the stand. Carpeting
Will absorb sound keeping it from leaking out the cracks in the stand doors.
- Air intake silencers
on the protein skimmer inlet and durso if necessary.
- Quiet pumps by adding "rubber" feet. A little dab of silicone on four corners
is cheap and works nicely.