2300G Cylinder - Preview

[LNell]

You may want to have the refugium above your frag tanks so you can gravity-feed some pods to your frags. Many people have done this. Also, I'm assuming that quarantine 1 is at a level above your main tank. Otherwise, when the power goes out there will be a lot of drainage from your tank into your sump. Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me! Good luck on this; it looks awesome!

 

[Diablo]

The valves dont use much air at all, so you can use a small compressor. They need about 80psi.

Plus, you can remote mount the compressor in a garage or shop to keep the noise down, then simply run 1/2" poly tubing to the control solenoid and valve. I ran the tubing about 200' from our buildings main air compressor, so I mounted a new air receiver as well.

LMK if you need a hand with the controls. Its easy and I can walk you through it. Pics of several surges on my website (red house).

Thanks for the info H2OENG... is poly tube OK for compressed air?

Can you please check that I am on the right track with interpreting the data to select the correct gear as per below (specifically, my interpretation of actuator torque is sound).

 

[Diablo]

Here are some sketchups of the first stages of the outdor processing room.

I am having a 3' (1m) "pit" built into the garage foundations that will accomodate subfloor refugium, crytic tank and sump.

Lift-off fiberglass grates will cover the "central corridor" and act as a walking floor. Sump and crypt will be covered in PVC covered ply. The refugium will be covered in clear acrylic and run on reverse daylight cycle lighting.

Equipment such as calcium reactors, kalk stirrers and media canisters will sit under the walking floor.

There will be 5 pumps, 1, 3 & 5 will pump water to a manifold that will directly feed the skimmer, frag tanks media filters and calcium reactors; 2 & 4 will be stronger pumps that will act as the returns to the main tank.

 

[jumpfreak26]

thats pretty thought out, and a cool idea with the subfloor!but why not on ground level instead of subfloor?

 

[Diablo]

thats pretty thought out, and a cool idea with the subfloor!but why not on ground level instead of subfloor?

Two reasons:
1) If the sump were sitting at ground level, I would stuggle to get the head required to gravity flow from the inside the house to the external room.
2) Im trying to fit a lot into a smallish space. If the sump were at ground level, it would make my second frag tank too high to comfprtably reach.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Don't get me wrong ... the tank looks like it'll be cool and all.... But I really want to see plans for that pizza oven.

Good luck! That looks like a lot of fun!

 

[AcroSteve]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12965298#post12965298 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Diablo
Thanks H2OENG, very much appreciate your advice. I will have 2 x 80 Gallon surge tanks. I want to use 4" butterflies, so it looks like it will have to be pneumatic. I didn't really want to go down the compressor path, but it seems like it is required for adequate operation.

A compressor is not absolutely required.

You could use a cylinder of compressed gas like nitrogen. It would be something that would need changed out on occasion, but you would not need any electricity(other than your timers) and it would not be noisy.

 

[kumb knots]

I think this is one of the best house tanks ever thanks for sharing so much with us. I have a concern about tying the q/t with the main tank?

 

["Umm fish?"]

The only problem that I see is that it'll make photography impossible because of the distortion. Other than that, it'll be incredibly impressive.

 

[Elliott]

unique tank, great project, looks like fun!

 

[dteske]

Can't decide which I like more, the tank or the floor plan for the rest of the house. Looks like a wonderful project.

 

[8BALL_99]

I just dont know about a round tank. It looks like a very cool setup. But every time I've looked at curved or round tanks, The distortion when veiwing at angles bothers me. My 92 is Ok with this, but its walls are pretty thin and its not bowed that much. At public aquriums the under water domes and what not always cause me problems at angles.

I know your already concerned about this.. Just thought I'd through in my 2 cents on it. At the very least maybe have a back up plan to replace the tank if the distortion bothers you to much. It would suck to build the house around the tank. Then not like looking in the tank lol

 

[jejton]

Looks like a very exciting project - tank and the house. My only questions is why are the quarantine tanks inline with the DT? Doesnt that defeat the purpose of quarantine since the water supply will all be connected?

 

[Diablo]

A compressor is not absolutely required.

You could use a cylinder of compressed gas like nitrogen. It would be something that would need changed out on occasion, but you would not need any electricity(other than your timers) and it would not be noisy.

Thanks for the suggestion Steve... it is a really good idea.

In my case, I have calculated that I will be discharging 13 cu in. of gas 54 times per hour. This would mean one large cylinder every 30 days... unfortunately for me this is too frequent (I don't get much time during business hours). If it were every 3 or 4 months, I would definitely go down this option.

Looks like I need to add a compressor to the gear list.

 

[Diablo]

I have a concern about tying the q/t with the main tank?

My only questions is why are the quarantine tanks inline with the DT? Doesnt that defeat the purpose of quarantine since the water supply will all be connected?

Thanks for raising this... its something I wanted to talk about.

Here's my philosophy:

For fish...

I see the role of the quarantine tank as more of an acclimitisation and monitoring station. I have never had an outbreak of disease. The q/t tanks will be set up so that I can isolate them if required, but by having them in the main flow under normal circumstances, I ensure that the water quality is exactly the same as the main tank.

For corals...

The role of the q/t tank is to allow observation of corals to ensure that there are no imported nasties such as red bugs and AEFW.

This is where my concern is... would a UV filter on the q/t tank outlets be sufficient to prevent infection to the main system? How about UV followed by ozone? Is this just a bad idea?

 

[Elliott]

neither UV or ozone will prevent disease spread to your main tank, you must have separate water in a qt tank, even if you normally have the tanks connected and then isolate them when new livestock arrive contamination can and will occur if any water gets shared through plumbing, etc. its really best to keep a totally separate qt tank. all you need to do is get a small 10-20g tank, fill it with your main tank water when new livestock arrive, then do partial water changes using your main tank water

 

[sfsuphysics]

I agree, completely separate water systems. If you want to keep similar water parameters I would suggest simply using water from the main tank whenever you do a water change.

 

[8BALL_99]

Also you have to remember sick fish require treatment. Half the junk you treat fish with will stay in the tank. I.E. copper. So if you ever treated anything in the tank then you wouldn't be able to open it back up to the rest of the system. Really that's the main reason for having them with no sand rock ect.. So you can treat sick livestock in them with all the non reef save medicine

 

[RokleM]

I agree with the QT/hospital comments, keep the separate. That being said, it is VERY nice to be able to manually add water to your QT/hospital tanks from your main tank as seen in your illustrations.

 

[garrettm85]

I definately wouldn't get rid of you QT tanks being inline with your system. I would however have another system set up for QT of diseased animals or corals. The reason I say not to get rid of your inline QT's is because I am with you on the acclimation and observation theory. I believe that the corals and fish will be much better off in as close to the same conditions as your display. I also think that this will lower the stress on new fish that may just need an opportunity to get used to your systems parameters. Your head is in the right place in my opinion. Do make sure and have seperate system set up for QT though as to make sure that you can take care of any issues and prevent those same issues from re emerging in you main system.

Nice stuff! I look forward to watching this thread.

Garrett