Yarr's 100G Reef Project

[Yarr]

Yarr's 280 Gal System

The tank has been set up for about 8 months now and is having nitrate and phosphate issues. Attributed mainly to the UGF Im thinking. I am in the process of getting all the gear together to manafacture a 50 Gal sump and probably a modified spraybar system for the return. With it i need to manafacture an overflow and all the goodies that comes with it.

The sump itself will be made from glass as acrylic in Australia is VERY expensive and the tank alone would cost about 1000 bucks.

Today i ordered a 4 Stage RO/DI unit for that goodly water quality. I have to think very carefuly where i put this and how it will be plumbed as we are in a 6th floor rented Service Unit ( Subsidised military accomodation ). That said i cant drill holes or modify plumbing that i cant change with relative ease. I am thinking that maybe i can plumb it to the tap out on the balcony and route it to the corner there wher i can have setup a storage system.

Tomorrow i will start aquiring quotes for the glass and once i've settled for a design out of the plethora available online will fin dout how much they will sting me to cut it all. I will need to modify and re-inforce ( again ) my stand to accomodate the sump. The hangon skimmer will be turfed in favour of a much better unit from tunze in sump skimmer rated from 400 - 1200 L aquariums. That is roughly double the total system water i'll have so theres is no chance of me under-skimming :-D I'm still undecided whether ill get a top up system right away or just add it later. An Eheim 1262 pump will be used for the return. nIt flows 2500l/hat 1.2 M head.

The project will be broken up as i go on course with the army for a few months in the next few weeks. That will give me a chance to save some money.. which also is needed for my holiday at the end of the year. Do they have a decent aquarium in Hawaii ?

 

[Woodstock]

Sounds like you have a good plan! When you install your ro/di unit, keep in mind you can T-off the supply line and run one to your sump or kalkwasser reservoir if you want to... I am going to do that to my auto top off (have to ro/di replenish it automatically) very soon.

Hawaii!?? I've never been there. Have fun!!

 

[Yarr]

Thanks, My sister lives there and has just had her 3rd little girl. So we are heading voer to visit and spoil them rotten

I dont think i can run piping to my sump on the RO/DI unit as i have no holes to stick the pipe through from the balcony. I had thought of placing the unit in thelaundry and using the supply line to the washingmahine as the fed to my RO/DI. I hadnt looked too much into that but i cant see any real problems why i cant do it. a Tee.. Valve.. should be gold. I wont be able to run piping to the sump from there either as it is about 30 feet away atleast and has to pass 3 bedrooms and a kitchen

 

[Sharkbait]

Hawaii has Waikeii National Aquarium, very established aquarium.They have a nautilus display that is amazing to see. Dr Bruce Carlson is also on staff there, many of his books and inventions are commercially available.Yarr sounds like you got a good gameplan for your system.Keep us updated and have fun in Hawaii.

 

[Dakota]

dont know what island u will be on but if u snorkel or dive im pretty sure hunamu? bay is supposed to be on of the best.

 

[Yarr]

Awesome, thanks guys. I will definately make sure i check it out

 

[Yarr]

I've just been thinking. I want a few layers of Substrate in my sump when i make it. Maybe elevated off the bottom to allow water flow beneath it.. then rocky layer then sand. My idea for this was to use some stones i have left over after i tore down my tropical freshwater tank. I woudl wash and bleach then very diligently rinse it before putting it in the sump. The above layer i was thinkign about using sand farmed from the local beach. We have very clean beaches here with no pollution. I was thinking of running a pump and skimmer in a container with the sand for a few days to get out as much stuff as i could. Then place it all in the tank and go from there.

Any comments or ideas ?

 

[Woodstock]

Hummm... I don't know about the layering idea... it sounds SORTa like the jaubert plenum set ups except those have an empty area void of circulation/oxygen to create an anaerobic area to change the nitrates into harmless nitrogen gas... here is an article about it Jaubert Plenum.

I ahve never used that type but have read a lot about it. I prefer a shallow sand bed or a bare bottom.

 

[Yarr]

BB in your sump ? i thought u wanted things in there to let the lil cleaners and stuff do their ork. A few of the sump ideas that ive seen online have been layered. I will have to read mor einto it. Thanks for the link

 

[Sharkbait]

If you are talking about refugiums. Yes you need a substrate to allow whichever type of macro algae and micro fuana to exist.Bio sediments are used primarily, very fine almost sugar sand, to provide the proper environment and nourishment that macro's need.Sediments should also be replced on occassion. This is usually only one of your sumps compartments, other areas store skimmers,probes and other equipment.

 

[Yarr]

Yup. I was also thinking on the way home as i was passing soem waterfront that i should look at putting some mangrove seedings in there for extra nutrient sap Will cost me nothing and i stand to gain more than to lose.. so what the hell i say

 

[Yarr]

If i were to go BB on my tank when i add my sump. Will that be too much stress for the inhabitants to bare ? I have the 4ft tank aswell that i can move everything into while i drain and rid myself of everything.. Ive seen ppl use a few differn hings on the bottom in Bb systems.. acrylic.. that chopping board stuff.. a very thing layer of substrate and other.. the thin layer is wht i was leaning to, but after readong some other chronicles it occurred to me about damage to the bottom of the tank in the event of a rockslide or whatever.

Any advice ?

 

[Witfull]

ok,,,ill throw my 2 cents in here

first if your on Oahu, you have to go to hanama bay and snorkel, also eat at Zippys drive inn. the Waikiki aquarium is outstanding, you will get lost staring at everything! if you want tropical rainforest fun, go to niu valley, you may even see the wild wallabys.

next, in a sump i would go BB or load it with some large pieces of live rock. the difference between a 'fuge and a sump is flow rate and function. the sump is to give an undertank (or remote location) area to put the non aestetic equipment and filter media. most sumps have a high flow rate through them (my dual pump sump return is 2500gph and i have dual skimmers in it, and it has given mean additional 35-40 gal of water) in a 'fuge, flow rates are slower to allow the macro algae and the mudd bed time to pull nutrients from the water.

as for a protective base for the floor of tank, some use the plain white cutting board, and Ffrankie in his 120 ordered some in black,,,looked real good. others just go true BB (thats what i did, i like the free under tank light, makes it real easy to do pump or skimmer chores)

and finally, when your in hawaii, we expect lots of pics!

 

[Yarr]

Wallabys here are almost plague like. You can freely shoot some species of them. Being the lil cousin of the kangaroo i think that i can miss seeing those

cant wait to go to the aquarium, will be sweet!

I may have gotten my terminology wrong when i posted about my sump. In addition to providing a plac eto put my stuff i also want to have a 'fuge in there. Will the flow rates, even slowed in the fuge, be aqequate enough for circulation in the tank given my manifold idea ? If not i coudl set up a Tee from the skimmer compartment to pump water through the fuge at a slower rate controlled by a valve perhaps ?

 

[Yarr]

My RO/DI unit arrived at the post office today. Kylie is picking it up for me tomorrow and i can start having fun setting it up. I will be pushing it fine though as i go on course on sunday for a few months :/ I will psot updates and pics as i progress and install it.

 

[Woodstock]

Cool! Make sure you flush out the system prior to the 'membranes' for 15 min or so. This will help flush any loose carbon dust out and prevent a premature membrane blockage. Membranes are not cheap!

 

[Yarr]

Thanks for the advice will do more karma your way if it woudl let me :/

 

[Yarr]

I've been thinking about my lighting situation aswell. MH are just way to uber expensive in Oz to buy all in 1 hit. Not to mention a distinct lack of lights to fit a 6 foot tank. I've coem up with this idea after seeing a few combinations around. I've actually found a few online suppliers that look half decent here that i might order soem stuff from.

I was thinking a few staggered T5HO Actinic Blues.. maybe 4 or so. 1st one rea left.. next right. next left front right.. like that.. I cna purchase for a decent price some E40 light fittings to suit MH aswell as PC. Ill just attach the proper electric lead and wire it all in nicely with some fans. I will be using some high output PC lights. 3 of them with parabolic reflectors. Should make a huge difference in my tank as i only have 2 x 4 ft starndard marine fluros atm. Pretty embarrased about it to be honest but everyone has to start somewhere. I have seen an awesome rail setup to mount these all this on made out of aliminium L shaped lengths. All rivted together. very sturdy and very light. I will be fitting a series of fans with a variable speed fan contorller to handle cooling. I will also be staggering the lights so they come on and go off at different times as to simulate the natural environment a little bit better.

That is my thought for the day atleast

 

[Mad Mike]

From what I have seen and read under gravel filters are nutrient hot beds the same can be said of DSB, deep sand beds. Personaly I don't care for either, they tend to break down after a couple of years and you are hit with a plague of algae. But I wonder how much of this is from using them for the wrong applications and poor maintenance ie nutrient export. So as a result you see a lot of BB systems.

So if we follow this thinking and your set on an UGF or DSB then what is the proper animal for a nutrient rich enviroment? With this you just fixed 2 problems, your lighting delima and your method of filtration.You can have a nice low light softie tank that will thrive. It will take time to establish but a system like this would probably work well.

If you go bare bottom then you are looking at a nutrient free, or somewhat free enviroment. Then you could go high lighting ( based in the dimensions of the tank, I haven't seen them I probably missed them someplace) and go with some nice acros and other hards with high light requirments.

First figure out whats going in the tank. Who's going to live there? Thats the biggest mistake I made and now I'm forced to improvise and adapt the tank to whats in it to keep them alive. Rather then putting them in the right enviroment in the first place where they would have thrived from the start.

 

[Yarr]

Ok, my RO/DI unit arrived today and after abotu 20 minutes of very relaexed work it was in and running. i am letting it flsuh throug hto waste for about 2 hours.. it says it only needs an hour but it isnt as if i pay for water here so i dont really care. I havent made its permanent bracket yet. I want ot get water out of there as fast as i can so i can do a water change tomorrow.

Kylie found out today that one fo the ploys i used to convince her to let me buy it was that it made pure drinking water for her.. the catch was that i didnt care less about the drinking side of things heh.

My only concern with the system is that it needs 40 psi of water pressure min to run properly. Water pressure isnt that great here as i am on the 6th floor so it has quite a head to get up. It is sitting on about 50 which is ok. iwll keep an eye on it now that i have a guage to look at