Curunir

I like the fact that I can remove and change them at any time, and never have to worry about emptying them first. Also, the first two levels are not really expensive. Four tin ingots to a chest, and four invar ingots for the first upgrade. They are also 100% explosion resistent and will not be destroyed by lava, even if dropped into it. With Iron Chests (up to diamond/obsidian) you tend to have more room, but the bigger they get, the more hassle it is to empty them.

Buildcraft Refineries do not auto-eject their fuel into Fluiducts. Had to set them to force-extract. Maybe they work better with their own piping, though.

The glass has purely cosmetic value, and it increases the building cost a little. Since 0.3, you only get one block of Reactor Glass for each block of Reactor Casing - it used to be more than that. A Yellorium Reactor makes no distinction between source and flowing liquid blocks. So Cryotheum is actually the only liquid requiring a complete source-block fill, because it will not stay put once placed. All other liquids are fine with a top-layer fill only. I think that the Power Tap has no limits, but Redstone Conduits peak out at 10k RF/t, so that will probably be your limit for a while. Extra Utilities has stuff that can take more, but remember that Resonant Energy Cells also have the 10k RF/t limit per side, so anything higher will require a bit of planning.

You are either running Tekkit Classic (which still has IC2, and Macerators) or are referring to a different kind of block. As for the question, the early game method of choice is buffer chests (preferably Strongboxes) and Itemducts to route the ores. As has already been stated, add pneumatic servos to control what goes where. If the Itemducts get stuffed too quickly and cannot unload everything, craft them into Impulse Itemducts by infusing them with liquified Glowstone with a Magma Crucible / Fluid Transposer setup.

Buckets? This is Tekkit. Use a pump, man. ;-)

Not from MJ to RF, only the other way around. Remember, Thermal Expansion set out to provide low-lag power options, so they don't even bother doing all the calculations required by the MJ system. They just output a certain number of MJ per tick per RF (0.1, I think), and that's it. So, get over those outdated engines already and use dynamos and reactors.

7x7x7 is not actually big as in "Big" Reactors. It says here that in the default config, they can be up to 48x32x32. Although it might be tricky to set up a power grid for that. Btw, does anybody know a light source in Tekkit that actually uses energy? The questions sounds strange, but just about anything I used so far, including my favourite floodlights, just run on Glowstone or some form of Redstone current. I remember using (IC?) Luminator panels in Tekkit Classic, but I have never seen another powered light since that. It would make sense to use at least part of that power to light up streets and buildings, instead of ignoring it and scraping tons of Glowstone from the Nether for that purpose.

I think that's two smooth stone above each other, to get the rods required to craft saws for cutting up Forge Microblocks. As for the actual problem, no idea what's causing this.

I fail to see how a thread becomes a zombie in just two or three weeks. It is tricky to get Cryo and Lava to behave, especially since Cryo can freeze lava even if they do not touch directly. Make sure you have enough room between the two. Also, it is hardly infinite if you need to supply energy. No matter how high-yield nuclear power may be, it is still finite. Reliable - yes. Infinite - no.

An artifact of having two independent nuclear power mods in Tekkit. The others already gave you the recipes, but you should note that while just about anything will work in a Big Reactor, the Atomic Science stuff is more picky about such details.

As rogueclon said, you can only change direction of a block if there is another valid orientation for it to change to. In case of engines, you usually only have one power recipient attached, so they will automatically turn towards that. Only if you placed the power recipient after the engine, it might take a whack with the wrench to snap the engine towards it. The Crescent Hammer is mostly used to wrench pipes and rotate machines and energy cells - and of course remove all kinds of machine blocks by sneak-clicking. Engines should be place-and-forget items anyway, once you automated their supply lines.

In the current build, it would just lead to gross inefficiency. Meltdown is on the roadmap for Big Reactors, but not implemented yet. It sure is nice that you can build a "city power plant" sized reactor, but it only makes sense if you have an actual city to power. P.S.: Big Reactors roadmap

You might want to give the current version a try, as there are substantial improvements in key mods such as Thermal Expansion. If you must revert, I think 1.2.6 was a major milestone, so you probably want to go further back than that. If you were looking for stuff like Industrial Craft or the old Equivalent Exchange, Tekkit divorced those for good. Have a look at the mod lists from Tekkit Classic (very old, Minecraft 1.2.5-based) or Tekkit Lite (quite dated already).

Right, that was assuming a sufficiently large setup. But even the base Plus-shape reactor benefits from Cryo if you make the columns at least three or four blocks high and retract the Control Rods far enough. I am on a 7x7x8 frame / 5x5x6 interior now with a 3x3 middle block of fuel columns and a mantle of Cryo. Gives me nearly 10k RF/t at 70%, which is perfect for my base.

Apparently, none. It seems that in 1.2.9, the Drum is enabled and working fine. I have been filling a few today, they work with Fluiducts and also if plonked right on top of a Buildcraft Pump. Try putting a stack of eight full Reinforced Portable Tanks on top of one (no Fluiduct, they just slow it down), set the bottom tank to output and weep as 256 buckets of liquid rush into a single container.

That looks severely outdated, most likely for 0.2 or even earlier. Cryotheum is the best coolant now, closely followed by Resonant Ender. Diamond blocks are also good, but usually not worth it unless you have a surplus of them to fill your reactor with.

Good luck with that. You should also keep in mind that there are two separate power systems in there: Minecraft Joules (MJ) and Redstone Flux (RF). To avoid issues, always produce RF with dynamos and attach machines with conduits. The conduits will then do all the conversion for you, outputting MJ or RF as needed.

About smelting speed, the TE Induction Smelter did receive a general speed upgrade somewhere during the TE3 transition - but it just works for pulverized metals. Those should smelt very fast, given you have the sand to keep the smelter stuffed. Not sure if this also goes for the Redstone Furnace, but the Induction Smelter is superior to it for many purposes anyway. Sure IC is not dead as in abandoned, but adding it to the current Tekkit is not trivial and will likely not produce the intended results.

You can and should make a Crescent Hammer, which is the Thermal Expansion wrench and can be used to rotate machines and do many other useful things. However, your problem here is the engines. You are using outdated ones that only produce Minecraft Joules (MJ), when you need Redstone Flux (RF). The engines you need are called dynamos, starting with the Steam Dynamo for solid fuels. Note that even that simple one needs a water supply to run - just right-click it with a water bucket to get going.

IC is outdated, quirky, and loses hard to Thermal Expansion in almost any aspect. There is no room in current Tekkit for IC2, and that is a good thing.

Do you have an estimate how many Aqueous Accumulators each of these setups take to feed it enough water/steam? The main thing holding me back from building a turbine is the potentially huge "waterfield" required to get it running.

Given enough materials, you can of course build it higher than just one layer of fuel, which will increase output and efficiency from the start. Apart from that, what jakalth said.

+1 for Thermal Expansion Itemducts and Fluiducts. Simple, straightforward, compact and easy to maintain. The TE stuff will probably be not the last network you build, but it should be the first one. Don't forget the Crescent Hammer for fine tuning, and remember that you need to upgrade links with Pneumatic Servos to gain advanced options.

I once heard about a small mod called "Creeper Collateral" which supposedly makes it so that creepers cannot destroy blocks, i.e. the blocks will always just drop and can be picked up again. In standard Minecraft, creepers will regularly vaporize blocks. So they can still break blocks and hurt players, only block destruction is disabled. To my knowledge, that mod is not in Tekkit. I have been so annoyed with creepers that I am playing exclusively on peaceful difficulty now. There is no way to disable just them, so the only way to be rid of them is peaceful mode. I would play on normal if the game gave me an option to remove creepers, but since Notch is a griefing troll himself, there ain't none. The required mob loot can be gained via Peaceful Tables, added by Extra Utilities. Which is in Tekkit.

You might try with the more expensive "Semi-Stable Ingots", as described here (scroll down a bit). As far as I know, the true unstable ones cannot work with recipes, because the actual item changes every second (due to explosion countdown), so you have no chance to make a proper recipe and automate it, even if you are quick.