480gl elos braceless earthquake trap

ching, love your tank. No, the MI never touches the corals. Maybe because i feed him 5 times a day, although he always seems hungry. He picks a bit between corals, has eaten a little caulerpa that was growing, until i got the rabbit that ate it all.

Vadimshevchuk; What's the point of being rimless now? not much really but using same one saved me getting a new tank and all the associated work and expense. In fact it might be easier if i had a middle brace, as was one of elos early designs for my tank, as would be able to brace myself when i reach in.

Desideria; yes, the achilles is fat. I got him that way from divers den and he's stayed fat as he's grown. I think he's probably full grown now as at least 8", so now it should be easy to keep him happy.
 
I am glad I found this thread. You are definitely building a dream tank! Your cabinetry and reef are incredible!

Could you share with us what ballasts you chose to drive the Aquaconnect lamps? I am considering a move to them and am interested in your setup.

Thanks,
Mike
 
how is the rdsb working for you?
if it was me i would also imploy the biopelets.
is the fuge keeping up with the system?
what type of macros do you have in there?
with feeding the fish that many times in a day that must add to the bioload so some form of carbon dosing i think would be beneficial.
love the AT it has to be one of my favorite fish
 
i use icecap electronic ballasts for the 400w aquaconnect bulbs, they seem to run them just fine with nice color and par combo

Early to say how the RDSB's are working just yet. The mechanics is going well, now just need to get NO3 down. My NO3 only tests at around 2ppm, but i think that's because it's being taken up by film algae and others.

My refugium redu only has chaeto and caulerpa prolifera in it at this point. Neither appear to be growing as of yet and both are too small to help much at this point. Usually i've had only chaeto, but it seems to have trouble growing with GFO reactor running. We'll see this time.

I feed several times a day but not huge each time. Definitely something wrong with my process that i'm trying to address. I think it was the refugium and the mixture of 3" sand, live rock with zoas and chaeto was become a source of problems not part of the solution. Went fine for first couple years but now water quality is slipping. I think what i'm doing will reverse but may take some time to kick in. I'm actually adding the carbon pellet reactor hoping to add a bunch of anthias once my system is back where it should be, but I'll be patient.
 
I think one of my biggest problems is that my throughput to sump from display has dropped over time as i've added reactors to the manifold and other issues, especially now as most of my filtration is in the sump room, with the display having limited rock and very little sand. To rectify this situation I'm redoing my flow by adding 4 tunze 6305s, removing two vortecs, and taking the eductors off the return. When i take the eductors off the return, i'll lose some flow inside the tank but greatly increase flow to the sump. So for flow inside the DT I'll have 2 tunze 6205's, 4 tunze 6305's, 3 closed loops with red dragon 12m3 driving them, and the hammerhead return. Should be enough.
 
The cabinetry and tank came out perfect man.
I am curious to see the DSB's long term. The corals and fish look wonderful! Keep up the great work dude!
 
tylorarm said:
I think one of my biggest problems is that my throughput to sump from display has dropped over time as i've added reactors to the manifold and other issues, especially now as most of my filtration is in the sump room, with the display having limited rock and very little sand. To rectify this situation I'm redoing my flow by adding 4 tunze 6305s, removing two vortecs, and taking the eductors off the return. When i take the eductors off the return, i'll lose some flow inside the tank but greatly increase flow to the sump. So for flow inside the DT I'll have 2 tunze 6205's, 4 tunze 6305's, 3 closed loops with red dragon 12m3 driving them, and the hammerhead return. Should be enough.
Click to expand...

increasing flow through your sump will decrease contact time resulting is less filtration, though will give you more flow over your RDSB's, you could leave the eductor on the return and add small powerheads over the RDSB's, what is your current turnover rate through your sump?
 
I think my current rate through the sump is down to about 1000 gal per hour or less, but it's difficult to tell. So probably lower than 2x DT volume. I have a couple eheims 1262 and 1260 and it seems like my sump flow is lower than either of their flows. One thing that leads me to believe my flow is too low is that when the lights are all on and raising the temp in the DT the sump is still about 1 to 1.5 degrees lower in temp than the DT.

My flow over my RDSBs, reactors and fuge is all good. It's small relative to the 5000gpa or so that the hammerhead can put out. It's the head pressure of going up stairs then adding the eductors that is killer. Might help if i cleaned the hammerhead and the eductors, maybe i'll try that first...
 
tylorarm said:
I think my current rate through the sump is down to about 1000 gal per hour or less, but it's difficult to tell. So probably lower than 2x DT volume. I have a couple eheims 1262 and 1260 and it seems like my sump flow is lower than either of their flows. One thing that leads me to believe my flow is too low is that when the lights are all on and raising the temp in the DT the sump is still about 1 to 1.5 degrees lower in temp than the DT.

My flow over my RDSBs, reactors and fuge is all good. It's small relative to the 5000gpa or so that the hammerhead can put out. It's the head pressure of going up stairs then adding the eductors that is killer. Might help if i cleaned the hammerhead and the eductors, maybe i'll try that first...
Click to expand...

Hammerhead is not pressure rated and not doing justice to your eductor(s). If you look at the GPM at 23' (10 psi) of pressure and divide by 7, that is your minimum number of eductors you can run off the pump. (7 GPM at 10 psi)

Here are the specs for the Hammerhead. As you can see it really drops off dramtically at 23'

HAMMERHEAD
Pressure GPH Watts
0' 5,800 350
4' 5,500 360
9' 4,880 375
14' 4,200 360
17' 3,600 345
20' 3,000 325
24' 600 265

I'd recommend swapping that Hammerhead for a Panworld 250, it's a pressure rated pump that will increase your flow substantially in your DT and increase your DT/sump turnover.
 
Yes, thanks for the information. I originally liked the eductors when i set it up, as didn't want huge flow to the sump and the eductor flow was great (still feels pretty good coming from the eductor actually) in the DT, but over time i think various factors have led me over the hump and now my flow isn't sufficient to run the eductors and get good enough flow to the sump anymore. Your chart sure shows how past 20' the flow falls off a cliff.

First i'm going to try without the eductors, and then if that isn't working out i may replace. One reason is hammerheads are very efficient in running all the flow required by my manifold in terms of flow per energy, another is that i also have a brand new spare hammerhead as i keep spares/redundancy of all my key equipment.
 
tylorarm said:
Yes, thanks for the information. I originally liked the eductors when i set it up, as didn't want huge flow to the sump and the eductor flow was great (still feels pretty good coming from the eductor actually) in the DT, but over time i think various factors have led me over the hump and now my flow isn't sufficient to run the eductors and get good enough flow to the sump anymore. Your chart sure shows how past 20' the flow falls off a cliff.

First i'm going to try without the eductors, and then if that isn't working out i may replace. One reason is hammerheads are very efficient in running all the flow required by my manifold in terms of flow per energy, another is that i also have a brand new spare hammerhead as i keep spares/redundancy of all my key equipment.
Click to expand...

At peak output Hammerhead consumes 375 watts, Pan World 250 consumes 390 watts, so the difference is really insignificant

However at 23' (10 psi) the Pan World pumps 20 GPM (1200 GPH) which will run your eductors properly, pulling up to 7 times the amount of water around them compared to what is being pumped through them, creating very large water movement

This may alleviate the need for more flow in your DT and purchasing more pumps as you suggested, resulting in considerable savings
 
Definitely a thought as 1200gph would be pretty close to what i want running through the DT to the sump, a little less than 3x. However, then I'd have to find other sources of flow for all my reactors and RDSBs, but i do have a reeflo dart just collecting dust...I think i'll try the hammerhead without eductors first but if i miss the flow too much i'll give your suggestion a go. I have been very impressed with the eductor flow when fed properly, its effects can easily be seen 5 ft away.
 
Nice cabinet design.

tylorarm said:
Here's yet another angle. Hard to capture the 48" depth but it actually looks deep now in person, particularly since i added the black background. Also was just looking at the front view i posted a few minutes ago and it's kind of funny because it no longer looks like two islands (which it is), the "ultimate" stag in the middle has almost completely filled the space.
IMG_3647.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Thanks ankur. The cabinet design mimics our kitchen and other cabinets throughout the house. I particularly like the way the black marble frames the aquarium.
 
One more a little closer up. Note that it's now hard to see the original two islands. Just looks like one continuous reef now. Coral that fell on the sand just kept on growing, now is getting pretty big. I like the orange m. sertosa but it's getting crowded out from all sides. I took a frag the other day just to make sure i have some:
IMG_9995.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top