210 g peninsula in restaurant lobby

[Opah]

I do plan to use a calcium reactor down the road somewhere. At the moment, I'm trying to keep down cost by only getting essential equipment. I will start doing calcium by adding kalk to start. I think this should be fine until I decide to get more serious about keeping LPS.

I assume when adding a tee that is should be place with the "T" upside down. i.e. water comes in from the top and split evenly (and level) in to two streams. Is that right?

 

[EnderG60]

How much space do you have to work with for your equipment room?

Gata think vertically as well.

Just so you know my "plan" is to have a 3 100g rubbermaid's stacked on top of each other.

Top one will be RO/DI water, covered with a 3/4" drain at the very top just in case.

below that will be the mixing tank. Covered, with a mixing pump and heater plugged into a float switch(so nothing burns up). With a 1" drain at the very top.

Bottom one is the sump. Also with a 1" drain up to just in case.

That way I can just use gravity to move the water around as needed. And if I were to do a kalk tank it would be sitting next to the salt mixing tank, and gravity drip into the sump.

All that and sink and then some could easily fit in a 5x5 room thats 8' tall.

And no matter what you do completely seperate your kalk and top off systems. Put your kalk on a timer/drip doser whatever to keep it constant and independant of your evaporation. Use a different system for the evap. Ive seen WAY to many VERY nice systems take out by overdosing kalk for some reason or another.

 

[justinm0424]

I'm upgrading my tank right now and I used a 1.5" cross + on my return pump and put in 1" threaded adapters on each end and plugged on one side and the other side goes to a tee T and I plugged one end of the tee and the open end goes into my frag tank

 

[Opah]

EnderG60,

I have about 8'x20' to work with. I think I have plenty of room for tanks etc...

justinm0424,

thanks for the info.

 

[Opah]

OK, I have couple decisions to make on equipment and just wanted to write them down and get some feedback.

Auto Top-off:
For the time being I will not use floats to fill the salt mixing tank nor the top-off water tank. I do plan to use an auto top-off to keep the water level constant.

I am considering either getting the Tunze Osmolator http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=1309#or the Spectrapure Ultra-Precise Liquid Level Controller http://www.spectrapure.com/St_alc_p7.htm .

I am leaning towards the spectrapure due to the logistics of dosing Kalk. I think with the tunze, I should buy a seperate system for dosing Kalk. With the spectrapure, I can just add kalk to the water storage tank. I am leaning towards the spectrapure unit (which does use a peristaltic pump) because I believe I can just add the kalk directly to the top-off water. I may add a low level of kalk to the top-off tank so I avoid overdosing (cause Ender scared me a bit lol). If I do this, I am thinking to use a Kent drip system for Kalk dosing. My equipment will be in the basement and I plan to use a 32 gallon brute for top-off water storage. I can always upgrade the tank if priming due to water loss below the pump intake becomes an issue.

Refractometer:
I also plan to get the refractometer from marine depot http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...Equipment_Optical_Refractometers~vendor~.html It's "the blue one". I plan to calibrate with the "American Marine Pinpoint Salinity Calibration Fluid 53.0 mS". I have never used a refractometer and I am a bit concerned about how tedious it is to use. I am thinking to get close to desire salinity with a simple hydrometer and then tune in with the refractometer. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but generally when I make salt water, it's a process of adding salt and checking salinity several times before it's right. This seems like a big pain the the refractometer. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses

 

["Umm fish?"]

The refractometer is no pain at all. It's a very quick process: a drop of water on, push the flap down, look at the result, wipe the drop off.

 

[Opah]

OK, I got some drawings back from the LFS for the tank design. I am concerned about how far the overflow box sticks out. I do plan to put about 6 inches of the tank behind a wall on one side and behind cabinetry on the other. However, I am worried that an overflow that goes in to the tank 6+ inches is just too overwhelming. I am considering a slimmer overflow box with three holes drilled in the back of the tank and to have the same pipes that you have Gary. Any thoughts? I don't have any experience with this sort of drain. I don't plan to use any additional strainers. Probably just a netting on the overflow box like Gary uses.

Flow rate and overflow box size:

I would imagine that the total area of open space for water to "overflow" in to the box must be several times greater than the pipe area. I am doing a rough calculation and the ratio of "overflow area" to "pipe area" is roughly 1.5 to 1. This assumes an overflow box that is 12 inches long and 4 inches deep. This doesn't seem enough to me. In fact, I'm not sure my current design has enough overflow flow rate to match the pipes. any thoughts?

 

[Mishap]

Nice plan so far! Where exactly is this establishment? I'm not too far away and wouldn't mind stopping by to help ya out if ya need it.

 

[mcrist]

Any reputable tank manufacturer should be able to tell you the correct size of the overflow depending on your expected flow rate. Have you considered an external overflow?

 

[mcrist]

I am a little confused on your return lines and closed loop. Are the returns going over the top of the tank and pointing down the length of the tank away from the overflow? Also where is the pump for the closed loop going to be located and are the return lines from it also going over the top of the tank and then running down to the bottom of the tank?

 

[mcrist]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11638193#post11638193 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EnderG60
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.

I disagree...

 

[Opah]

Hi Mishap,

Thanks for the offer! I may need some help, especially if I ever have a "crashing" event or anything serious, so I will definitely keep you (and Ender) in mind. We are located right on main street in New Hope. The name of the restaurant is the Logan Inn. Beautiful place. I live and work in the building. It'll be nice to have a tank for my own mental health

Hey mcrist,

Thanks for jumping in!

Overflow Flow:
I just started really thinking about the overflow situation recently because we've been having some issues with our chimney flow (been getting some backflow and smoke puffs). I think there are some similar principles involved. Makes sense that the tank manufacturer would check to make sure all the dimensions are OK.

Tank Flow:
Gary has convinced me to change the return lines to the end opposite the overflow (thank you Gary!). I will work towards concealing them, probably behind some wooden trim on the canopy.

Closed Loop:
I plan to locate the closed loop underneath the tank. This will be the only substantial piece of equipment located upstairs (the rest will be located in the basement). I plan to "T" off from the pump outlet in to 4 return lines. I plan to upgrade to a om4-way down the road. I'll admit, I am scared to drill the CL returns directly in to the bottom like you mcrist I was thinking to run them over the top on the overflow side using black PVC. Then down the side of the tank and then down the center (white PVC) along the bottom. I will then cover them with sand and rock-work. I was also thinking to put an adhesive on the pipes and glue sand to them, so that in the event that sand shifts, they will still be covered in sand and not just bare white PVC.

External Overflow:
I am familiar with two external overflow styles. (1) external overflow on an standard tank (glass or acrylic) that uses a siphon to drain water. I don't particularly care for these. (2) an acrylic overflow box attached to the side of an acrylic tank. The tank side is actually "teeth" of the overflow.
I would imagine you could also connect an external overflow using a sealant and a bulkhead, although I don't recall seeing that exactly (and search is not working in RC atm...). Problem is no surface skimming and I don't think Gary would approve ;-)

Acrylic Tank:
I do like the flexibility of using acrylic. My two concerns are scratches and price without having a huge benefit. If I was totally sold on the idea however, I would suck up the extra $1000 or so and just do it.

 

[Opah]

new flow

 

[jeffs86GT]

I'll have to come check this out once you get it all up and running. (Take the wife to dinner ) I'm in Sellersville not too far from New Hope.

Good luck sounds like your plans are coming together.

Jeff

 

[mcrist]

On the closed loop, I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t blame you for being scared about drilling the bottom of the tank. Especially after what happened to invincible569 but he used standard bulkheads. I talked to a lot of different people and they all said as long as you use schedule 80 bulkheads (like Hayward) you will be fine. So itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s your call but I would hate to run all that extra plumbing and then hide it when so many people have successfully drilled the bottom of the tank.

I would definitely not use and external overflow that worked on siphon so thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s out. The other example you gave was with an acrylic overflow on an acrylic tank. You can do the same thing with a glass tank but use a glass overflow. This was what I was looking at before I switch to an acrylic tank.

The acrylic tank decision is a tuff one and a lot of people have strong opinions on the matter. Acyclic does scratch way too easy but just like everything else it does have its advantages. New Hope isnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t to far from me (about 1hr 15min) if you want to see a large acrylic tank and the scratches that you will live with if you go the acrylic route.

 

[cbui2]

i have a total 8 sch 80 hayward heavy duty bulks without any problems for my CL on acrylic display. fresh water test for a month to be sure. hope this helps

 

[Opah]

Sounds good jeffs86GT!

Honestly, we have the best food around :thumbsup:

 

[Opah]

I would definitely prefer an external overflow. I'm having a hard time getting any concrete info though. So far I got price quotes for acrylic (2000) and glass (790) as described on page two. Hard to justify 1200 more just to get an external overflow. If I could a reliable tank with external overflows for under 1000 I would seriously consider it. Then I would also have to re-evaluate the CL.

I can't water test for one month (not sure I even have the patience for that lol). The tank will be located in the main lobby of the restaurant. Basically it needs to go from nothing to up-and-running overnight. It'll be a long day I'm sure. I will basically just give enough time for all the PVC glue to dry.

Ultimately, I am willing to sacrifice some aspects (functional, aesthetic, etc...) for reliability. Drilling what I have even scares me a bit. I know nothing is going to be 100% reliable but I need to make sure it's as close as possible.

Thanks for all the input, please keep it coming.

 

[stangreef]

try practiing drilling on some spare pieces of glass until you have the courage to do it on the real one...thats what i did.. 20 plus holes later on sump and main tank and not one crack to report..

 

[Mishap]

Have you decided who's going to be making your tank yet? Maybe have them drill the holes for you? It's not too expensive to add a few holes in the bottom of the tank.