210 g peninsula in restaurant lobby

Hey EnderG60,

Thanks for your input in my tank design. I want to see if I understand your suggestion correctly. Are you saying to add one more water storage tank that would have only fresh water? Then I would have 3 tanks.

1) Top-off / kalk tank
2) Water / Salt mixing tank
3) fresh water tank.

Is that right?

Also, I'm not familiar with the eductors and I did a quick google search and I'm not quite sure what they are. Do you have a link?

I did find the pump.
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~RB3119.html

Also, what do you think of the perfecto stands? I talked with the LFS today and they are getting prices together (including another drain hole ;-)). The guy also said he will find a price for an unfinished stand. I think it's basically just the frame and I'll add the panels and hardware etc...
 
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yep you got it right. 3 tanks.

I hate all prebuilt stands, they all seem VERY cheap to me. But im picky. If your doing as a wall kinda thing, make the stand out of 2x4's and 4x4's and finish it to look like the wall. Either that or get yourself a cabinet maker to do you one. It will cost more but it will look ALOT better.

Eductors or penductors(a differend version)
http://storefront.addictiveaquatics...mp_Penductor_Eductor_3_4_Female-1253-160.html

they are a nozzle with a shroud originally used to mix paint. They must be used on a pressure rated pump, and work by forceing the water through a smaller opening which creates a low pressure zone and draws water in from the sides. If used right they can up the flow 3-5 times.

If your return is already a pressure pump, then just get a slightly larger one and use the eductors, and you probably wont even need the dart closed loop. If ya need a bit more flow a few stream style power heads will take care of it, and you will save a ton of electricity.

Oh and yes thats the right pump, friend of mine uses one to mix his water, and along with the 1740 return(also used to drain water for a change) he can do water changes in about 10 minutes including time to mix the water. And all it takes is lifting the bag of salt, turning two valves and two switches....its nice:D
 
A few years back I priced a custom Oceanic 240. I was blown away by the price, it was over $3k!! I ended up with a Glass Cages for about $650 instead. I think your Closed loop looks fine but I would agree you should use the flexible return loc line for any tweaking of the flow you may need down the road. I'd say build your own stand too. It will end up looking a lot better IMO. If you are able to build it yourself it will probably be less expensive too.
 
OK, I sent my tank drawing to the Hidden Reef for a price (LFS) to get a price for a custom drilled perfecto tank and I also sent james from Envision Acrylics an email to get a price too.
 
oh god dont do acrylic....tank is no where near large enough for that to be a worth while option, and its a serious pain to keep looking good. Trust me on this one, I know.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the input! Please keep it coming.

oh god dont do acrylic....tank is no where near large enough for that to be a worth while option, and its a serious pain to keep looking good. Trust me on this one, I know.
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I will probably just stick with glass but I wanted to at least get an idea for what acrylics run (already thinking about upgrading the tank in a few years to a 1000 g or so).

flow along the surface should travel towards the drains- not away from them. What are you planning on keeping in the aquarium?
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The flow is a bit of an issue. I'm not sure how I could change it without either creating a sand problem or placing returns in more visible areas. I would really like to avoid having the returns at the end that is opposite the overflow. I had imagined the flow would be something like this:

2666Tank_flow_with_overflow-med.jpg


I thought this might be nice because food will not go immediately down the overflow box before it has time to be eaten. I figured food and other suspended solids will get caught in the flow of the CL returns and then get to the overflow box to be skimmed out.

Alternatively, I could probably turn all the CL returns around and put the two sump returns on the far end (end opposite the overflow box) and point the sump returns directly at the overflow box. Problem I see with that is food being directly shot in to the overflow.

I plan to keep a mixed reef. I'd like a variety of fish and a variety of soft and hard (both sps and lps) Corals. Maybe even an anemone with a pair of clownfish. I've never felt too comfortable with anemones but I may try it for the general public.

Any other thoughts or experiences?
 
p.s.

EnderG60, where did you go to school and what kind of work do you do? My background is actually in Mech E. I went to Drexel University for undergrad and CMU for grad school. Now I own a restaurant, go figure.... lol

Gary Majchrzak, your tank is awesome. WOW! I plan to read your TotM for anemone info :)
 
Graduated from SPSU after starting at UGA. Currently working at Rosser International doing plumbing and HVAC layout/design. But im only a year out of school and spent the past 5 years working at a LFS, and doing installations and maintenance while I was in school....and should have been interning but oh well.

And yes ideally you would want the surface water to be going toward the overflow, but usually thats not the case, and as long as you have good surface movement and nothing settles out in the tank its not a problem.

Anemone's arnt a problem as long as you plan for them, and setup your rockwork with that in mind. As in make a rock island with the anemone as the high point since they usually head to the highest point to get at the light(or at least the ritteri I have does). And poeple hate it when I recommend this but I still do because it works 95% of the time I do. Get your anemone within a few months of starting things up. That way it can move around if it wants and you dont have to worry about it stinging anything. Then just adjust your rock work around it. Mine only moves now when I dont change my bulbs on time :) If you do want one I would recommend you do at least two 400's for your lights since its been my experience that light is the best bet to keep them in one place.
 
I'm always curious what people actually end up doing with engineering degrees, because often it's not engineering lol :)

I'm thinking to try a BTA. Been reading they are pretty easy (relatively speaking) and will host percs or ocellaris.

I'm thinking to get a hamilton hood with 3x400w MH and 2x165w VHO. I'll probably go with a 14k MH and actinic VHO.

Still waiting to hear prices for the tank and stand options. I'm hoping the two together will be less than 2k.
 
I'm always curious what people actually end up doing with engineering degrees, because often it's not engineering lol
Click to expand...

My brother has a degree in civil engineering. He's been an OB/Gyn for the last twenty years. :)
 
Oh hell do the lights with retro kits. Will be more on the order of $1200. You can get some 400w halide kits with luminarc reflectors for around $300(a bit more for a nice bulb) get a magnectic balast(they overdrive the bulbs a bit) and the right bulb to match it and the sweet reflector and your set. Then its just a simple $100-$150 VHO(or t5) retro kit. Bolt it all in the canopy and call it a day. (ill send ya some links when I get home drop me a PM)

And the easier of anemones are BTA's, LTA's(long tenticals), and sebea's. My best advice is to get one with a color you know you can live with(as in not a green or brown one) But in my experiance the kind of anemone doesnt really matter, clowns will either host or not so get some your sure will)

So Civil to OB/Gyn, guess he got tired of never seeing women!
 
:) I think he worked as an engineer for about six months before he decided to go back to school.

But, yeah, from never seeing any women to maybe seeing too much of them.... :)
 
EnderG60,
For lighting I was thinking to do a hamilton with 400MH watt fixtures which runs about $1200. I do think a retro design is probably better but I'm not looking forward to all the wiring etc....I am still tossing around the idea however. My last lighting was 440w VHO retro. Every time I had to change a bulb or I took the top off, I had to cross my fingers hoping the lights would go back on without "fiddling".

I think you have a great point about not getting a brown or green anemone. I have always liked the rose BTA, I think I'll try one.

Gary,
Great thread! A question though.

Return Flow DIrection:
1) I am concerned that pointing the returns at the overflow box will cause too much food to go directly in to the overflow box without having enough time for the fish to eat it. I always had this problem with my last tank. I read that you put some food in the return line (I imagine at least partially to avoid this. I also understand that you have the variable flow to partially address the issue. Do you have any other tricks to keep a lot of food from being sucked down the overflow with minimal fish exposure time?

I'm also kinda reluctant because I would like to avoid having any plumbing on the far end of the tank for cosmetic reasons. I also do plan to try some eductors to increase the flow.
 
food placed at the far end of my aquarium sinks to the bottom.
If you place food in the path of the water returns it will get pushed towards the overflows, but hungry fishes are very fast and little to no food ever ends up going down my drains.

I consider pushing surface water in the direction of the overflow one of the basics of good aquarium design. Pushing surface water away from the drains is a BIG no-no.
 
FYI those feeding ring things work great, once the food is off the surface is fair game :)

And if your getting a rose dont skimp and get a cheap one(usually from china with a green base) they suck and loose color, get a real rose, red all the way through. It will be much more worth while.
 
After reading & thinking a bit about the "RO/DI - Top-Off - Saltwater mixing" system and decided to change things around slightly. Part of the reason is due to dosing Kalk and not wanting too much mixing with CO2. I'd like to avoid getting kalk top-off water from the surface and would rather use a powerhead to pump it to the sump.

Top-Off / Kalk Tank:
I plan to use a 32 gallon rubbermaid brute tank for the top-off / kalk tank. I will use a float level control system (spectrapure) connected to the RO-DI. I plan to manually fill the tank with the RO-DI water and use the float as a back-up to fill the unit unit as a backup. I prefer some level of manual control because I don't totally trust a controller. Therefore if I forget to shut off the RO-DI unit it should automatically turn off. http://www.spectrapure.com/St_alc_p4.htm anyone have experience with this unit? (Hopefully it can be connected to a round tank)

I also plan to use a top-off level controller http://www.spectrapure.com/St_alc_p3.htm connected to a powerhead to pump the kalk water back to the sump.

Salt / Water Mixing Tank:
I plant to use a 70 gallon rubbermaid stock tank and also use the spectrapure float system as a backup RO-DI flow control device when filling the tank. I'm still considering a way to measure how much water I remove from the system when I drain for a water change. I'd like to avoid having to connect another 70 g tank if possible.

Sump:
100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank

2666Tank_two_floor_Plumbing_Schematics_1_23-med.jpg
 
are you planning on using a calc reactor or anything? also you might want to add a tee or a couple tees and plug them just for upgrades.
 
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