Hey there.........new member from NH...........for those who are familiar with my meet n greet thread........I took the new wifes "failed"/dead tank........and decided to do a quick turnaround on it.
Originally it was a present from me a few years back before marriage.......she set it up on her own.......tossed in some live rock a few fishes and some clean up crew critters. An SCA 50g starphire cube with back center overflow with 3 1" bulkheads........2 drains and a single return......basic plumbing.......a 32w fluval led light and whatever SCA sent for a skimmer/sump/return pump......soft lines etc........love the tank.......rest was.....
"meh"......in my book.......needless to say......instead of filtered freshwater topping off.......she added straight saltwater everyday.........stuff died.......n tank was shut down.......rock n sand stayed in stagnant super salt water for MONTHS.........fast forward another year.......we get married.......she has her family comin over......and i decided to recucitate the dead tank. So this is my rebuild thread.......
So here are pics of the old setup......fluval 32w light.....ph2500 return pump........sca 150 needlewheel bubble skimmer......generic glass sump.....soft plumbing........
Terrible flow........terrible skimming.........low level lighting....
So.......with that euipment....i came over with a 150g rodi unit i built........poured in some fresh RODI water..........topping off the stagnant super saline water..........pouring out countless gallons and adding countless gallons of fresh water till i got the salinity back down to 1.025........threw in some fresh real live rock and temporarily threw in a Niger trigger in it...........
So after a few weeks getting in a fast cycle.........and tiring of the leaks.......poor adjusting skimmer.........lack of skimming.........manually topping off water........lackluster lighting.....knew it was time to get this tank to full potential.
So.......kept the tank n stand.........tossed everything else!
Here is a quick vid.......fully hardline replumbed........all valved and unioned in a very tight slick manner. This is NOT the fished setup by any means.
That protein skimmer is the real deal. Ive sold and installed alot of high end beckett and needlewheel skimmers in my day(Euroreef/precision Marine and Deltec to name just a few)......but the venturi skimmers are still far and away the kings of skimmers.......they pull in massive amounts of air like a beckett but never clog or need cleaning and are more efficient like a needlewheel in terms of not needing extreme pressure pumps to run them(but higher pressure pumps will jack up the performance no question). Needlewheel skimmers are great for people worried about their electric bill.......but the stuff offered today is built cheaply for the $ spent imo........and just under powered and tank size ratings for these new skimmer breeds and brands are imo heavily skewed and optimistic to put it politely.
