Great looking tank! Nice dimensions.
How much reserve water will you use for your ATO?
Perhaps a glass top would help evap when you are away?
CR Member
Great looking tank! Nice dimensions.
How much reserve water will you use for your ATO?
Perhaps a glass top would help evap when you are away?
Thanks AJ,Originally Posted by AJ :)
Great looking tank! Nice dimensions.
How much reserve water will you use for your ATO?
Perhaps a glass top would help evap when you are away?
My Kalk saturated ATO is kept in a sealed 7 gallon bucked hidden beneath my desk. The 2011 build evaporates ~1/2 GPD, so it's good for about 2 weeks. I suspect this build will evaporate a bit less as I've removed the AC70 (and the waterfall) and also the skimmer. This tank will also have less flow than the prior - all of which should extend the ATO capacity.
I don't think a top would work well on this tank - I base my dosing plan on the evaporation. The more Kalk I can introduce, the less 2-part is required. This also lessens the salinity creep resulting from dosing large amounts of 2-part in smaller systems.
I found a temporary use for the AC50 - It will serve as a nursery for some Mangrove propagules until the tank is complete...
Last edited by CalmSeasQuest; 01-21-2012 at 09:16 PM.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard ShawSir Patrick liked this post
Sorry for the lack of progress, business has kept me largely away from this project for the past couple weeks. A few updates....
- The Fluval 406 canister filter has a leak and will be returned. Strange how things work out - I think the failure of the 406 gave me a better, simpler filtration idea.
- Acrylic fabrication is done (finally) I finished the last of the flame polishing today.
- I'm waiting on a pump and a couple of fittings - with any luck the tank will be wet within the week.
- These tanks were initially sold out everywhere. I ended up working directly with the importer. I originally ordered one tank and stand - due to some miscommunication, I ended up getting three tanks and 2 stands. I'll no doubt come up with plans for them
I created a bulkhead for this tank in hopes of hiding most of the equipment and gaining better surface skimming. It's a bit crude as I cut the teeth for the weir using a table saw as my router was DOA.
It's amazing how some of the simplest things can take the most time and patience. I spent far too long creating this stone bridge...
Last edited by CalmSeasQuest; 02-06-2012 at 09:11 AM.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw
Original post updated to reflect changes in equipment...
- Added a small return pump (Eheim 600 Compact)
- Replaced Tunze Osmolator with Elos Osmocontroller to reduce space required by the sensor.
- Changed from auto water change to 2-part dosing for better pH/dKh and Ca management.
- Changed from ROX 0.8 GAC and BRS Hi Cap GFO to Chemipure Elite and Purigen (better fit for space limitations and easier maintenance.)
- Added Marine Pure Ceramic Biomedia Spheres as very little live rock will be utilized. (The porosity of the Marine Pure Biomedia is amazing - water literally runs right through them.)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw
CR Member
Thanks for the update. I have wondering about the Marine Pure Ceramic Biomedia, sounds like it works good. Have you used them before?
All of my prior builds have been "traditional" in that they utilized as much live rock as possible and DSBs when practical, thus no need for additional biomedia. This build is different and will need additional media to support biological filtration.
What sold me on Marine Pure was the BRS video demonstrating the porosity by showing water running straight through it...
The numbers are impressive - A cubic foot of Marinepure 1.5 inch spheres has 98,000 square feet of surface area which is around 600 times the surface area of bioballs. For reference, the interconnected porosity of a single teasoon of activated carbon has the surface area of an entire football field (57,600 square feet).
This tank will quickly become home to a pair of TalCassos, so I want to make sure I have sufficient Nitrification early on. I've had the Marine Pure "seeding" in the sump of an existing tank for a couple weeks. I'm also going to try Dr.Tim’s Nitrifying Bacteria in an effort to support bacterial buildup.
Pure
Last edited by CalmSeasQuest; 02-07-2012 at 08:07 AM.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw
LOL - Sorry for the shroud of secrecy, This tank is such a a radical departure from what a traditional reef tank is considerd to be - I wanted to get more work done (and make sure I thought it was viable) before introducing it.<me looking around sadly not seeing what the tank is going to look like or finding any real insight to the plans for the tank still.... and yet I plan to return lol
I am interested to find out how the marinepure works for you tho for sure! I think I need to get a reactor and run something more then I have been doing!
Thanks for your patience - It won't be long now
I'm also interested to see the Pure Marine results. I don't have solid surface area numbers for live rock (and I'm sure it varies greatly), but I think these would be the equivelent of a lot of live rock.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw
Tank is Wet
It's just freshwater for a leak and overflow check, but it's progress
I've been working on the overflow and filtration. The challenge is I have only 8"X 3"X 8" in which to install a return pump and plumbing, heater, temp, ORP, Salinity and pH probes, Osmocontroller sensor and ATO, 2-part dosing, mechanical, chemical and biological filtration a few mangroves..AND...I decided this tank needs a skimmer
I looked at all the commercially available skimmers and none would fit in the available space, so my remaining option was to build one. Due to my very limited acrylic skills, it's not the prettiest, but it does fit in the allotted space (2"x2"X12") and for an airstone-driven skimmer, seems to function well. The reaction chamber is modeled after a Tunze 9006 fitted with a foam extraction unit so I can store the skimmate remotely and lessen the skimmer footprint.
Lastly, I took down my office desktop nano today to make way for the 2012 build. I hope to install the new tank on Wednesday and be able to post the first photos shortly thereafter.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw
A2 Club Coordinator
Have any pics of this skimmer??
Your narration is such that I'm totally stoked to see this tank!! The suspense is killing me!!!
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