700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance
- Thread starter Reefski's
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Reefski's
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thanks for your input Pat. the algae is all gone in the tank, within a few days of putting the tang patrol in.
i post the same pictures on RC and MDF so you can just see it all here on RC.
Charles on MDF is not Charles Delbeek, that Charles lives in the Philippines. Charles Delbeek has just moved to San Francisco to manage the new giant reef exhibit at Golden Gate Park. you can see Charles Delbeek though in the pix of the Waikiki aquarium showing us behind the scene of the 5000 gallon tank. one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet.
it was the other guy from Waikiki, Bruce Calson, who went to Georgia to work at the Georgia Aquarium.
i do know what you are saying about the Cyano though. my 260 gallon tank had Cyano, high phosphates, and no skimmer, and very infrequent water changes and no good nutrient export mechanisms.
i do have a big skimmer running now. i am still learning how to tune it.
i also am hooking up a turf scrubber. that is another way to export nutrients. it will pull out the nitrate and PO4 directly and leave the particulates for the filter feeders including corals. all the invertebrates will produces gametes that will in turn feed all the inhabitants of the tank.
have you seen this thread about algae turf scrubbers?
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic89570-4-1.aspx
i hope that by having the large sumps with a greater water volume than the tanks that this will reduce the basd and produce the good stuff.
i hope to be skimmerless one day again with better export than i had in the other tanks.
Eric Borneman has very successful reef tanks with many healthy sps corals and no skimmers and little or no water changes, and heavy feeding. he does use a turf scrubber.
i hope to follow that example. it will take some time until the ATS is fully functional.
right now my nitrates are 5ppm and PO4 was 0.21ppm yesterday. too high but not dangerously so i don't think. Eric Borneman says 0.3 is the upper limit.
Charles Delbeek told me that the Waikiki Aquarium has nitrates about 5ppm and it is one of THE most magnificent tanks you will ever see. (see the first part of my thread for pix)
now that i have the Melev viewing box i don't have to snorkel to see what i am doing in the tank. highly recommended piece of equipment and inexpensive, yet excellent craftsmanship.
i do still have to lay on the top of the tank though to reach deeply into the one side. the other two sides are a dream to work on standing on the ledge at the edge of the tank.
Carl
i post the same pictures on RC and MDF so you can just see it all here on RC.
Charles on MDF is not Charles Delbeek, that Charles lives in the Philippines. Charles Delbeek has just moved to San Francisco to manage the new giant reef exhibit at Golden Gate Park. you can see Charles Delbeek though in the pix of the Waikiki aquarium showing us behind the scene of the 5000 gallon tank. one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet.
it was the other guy from Waikiki, Bruce Calson, who went to Georgia to work at the Georgia Aquarium.
i do know what you are saying about the Cyano though. my 260 gallon tank had Cyano, high phosphates, and no skimmer, and very infrequent water changes and no good nutrient export mechanisms.
i do have a big skimmer running now. i am still learning how to tune it.
i also am hooking up a turf scrubber. that is another way to export nutrients. it will pull out the nitrate and PO4 directly and leave the particulates for the filter feeders including corals. all the invertebrates will produces gametes that will in turn feed all the inhabitants of the tank.
have you seen this thread about algae turf scrubbers?
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic89570-4-1.aspx
i hope that by having the large sumps with a greater water volume than the tanks that this will reduce the basd and produce the good stuff.
i hope to be skimmerless one day again with better export than i had in the other tanks.
Eric Borneman has very successful reef tanks with many healthy sps corals and no skimmers and little or no water changes, and heavy feeding. he does use a turf scrubber.
i hope to follow that example. it will take some time until the ATS is fully functional.
right now my nitrates are 5ppm and PO4 was 0.21ppm yesterday. too high but not dangerously so i don't think. Eric Borneman says 0.3 is the upper limit.
Charles Delbeek told me that the Waikiki Aquarium has nitrates about 5ppm and it is one of THE most magnificent tanks you will ever see. (see the first part of my thread for pix)
now that i have the Melev viewing box i don't have to snorkel to see what i am doing in the tank. highly recommended piece of equipment and inexpensive, yet excellent craftsmanship.
i do still have to lay on the top of the tank though to reach deeply into the one side. the other two sides are a dream to work on standing on the ledge at the edge of the tank.
Carl
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Reefski's
Active member
still have a little fine tuning to do to the water flow but here it is completed.
it is an algae turf scrubber. the idea is that algae will export PO4 and nitrates. the middle is filled with Chaetomorpha.
there is a lone pipe fish living in the rock work in the tank.
here is a bit of the algae that i will try to cultivate. it is growing out of the water in the outside tank in the splash zone.
here it is in action-
the calcium reactor is online now. dKH was 10 yesterday and Calcium was 450
it is an algae turf scrubber. the idea is that algae will export PO4 and nitrates. the middle is filled with Chaetomorpha.
there is a lone pipe fish living in the rock work in the tank.
here is a bit of the algae that i will try to cultivate. it is growing out of the water in the outside tank in the splash zone.
here it is in action-
the calcium reactor is online now. dKH was 10 yesterday and Calcium was 450
hoosierpat
New member
Looks good, the fish room is coming along nicely. You should buy stock in a pvc company I think 
salty joe
Active member
I always liked your setup a lot-now I think I love it. How many sq. in. is that waterfall algae filter? Will it be lit from both sides or only that light in the middle? What kind & how many watts of light will you use? I like the four sided construction. Might use that idea myself. Very cool, I think it will be very effective.
Reefski's
Active member
thank you -
it is about 2500 sq inches. each of the four sides is removable independently as you can see in the picture before the screen was installed. the light will only be the one you see over head. it is a 400 watt SE 10,000K halide. i may change it out for a better reflector once i take down my other tanks. right now it is powered by a mag 24 but i am not sure i need that much flow. it is kind of messy.
i may put some acrylic over at least the top part to direct all the water down and change the pump to a mag 12 i have to see how that works.
i still have to attach some actual algae to it also. maybe monday.
there is a screen on the underwater part to keep the cheato inside.
i got virtually all the pipe and connectors from my koi club. they were getting rid of a bunch of stuff. i only needed to buy a couple of unions and the screen.
in about three months the sand in the sumps and the turf should be doing it's thing.
i should have all the other tanks broken down and i can relax and try to keep up with keeping the acrylic clean which i am not doing a very good job of right now... a non reefing friend asked what i did to keep the acrylic clean. when i told him he said i should buy the electric version that you just put in the tank and turn it on and it just goes around and cleans the acrylic. wouldn't that be nice.
a future invention. i'll be rich! then i can hire someone to do the maintenance. i know just the guy. i hope to tag along and see a 3000 gallon reef tank he maintains tomorrow.
Carl
it is about 2500 sq inches. each of the four sides is removable independently as you can see in the picture before the screen was installed. the light will only be the one you see over head. it is a 400 watt SE 10,000K halide. i may change it out for a better reflector once i take down my other tanks. right now it is powered by a mag 24 but i am not sure i need that much flow. it is kind of messy.
i may put some acrylic over at least the top part to direct all the water down and change the pump to a mag 12 i have to see how that works.
i still have to attach some actual algae to it also. maybe monday.
there is a screen on the underwater part to keep the cheato inside.
i got virtually all the pipe and connectors from my koi club. they were getting rid of a bunch of stuff. i only needed to buy a couple of unions and the screen.
in about three months the sand in the sumps and the turf should be doing it's thing.
i should have all the other tanks broken down and i can relax and try to keep up with keeping the acrylic clean which i am not doing a very good job of right now... a non reefing friend asked what i did to keep the acrylic clean. when i told him he said i should buy the electric version that you just put in the tank and turn it on and it just goes around and cleans the acrylic. wouldn't that be nice.
a future invention. i'll be rich! then i can hire someone to do the maintenance. i know just the guy. i hope to tag along and see a 3000 gallon reef tank he maintains tomorrow.
Carl
salty joe
Active member
I wonder if you would get more growth per watt if you used a hydraponics type high pressure sodium lamp. I read a thread where a guy was exporting a volleyball sized wad of Chaeto weekly with a 70 W HPS lamp. I also wonder if you would be better off putting the light inside the algae box & forget about a reflector. Artificial light drops off so fast with just a little distance.He also found that the majority of growth occurred within 6 hours of the light turning on. He started using two separate Chaeto filters and alternated the lights 6h on, 6h off, always one of the Cheato lit and one dark. I did some digging around the net and found a study on a marine algae, can't remember what kind, that showed O2 intake peaked after 5-6 h then dropped off fast, which backed up this guys experience.
I also plan on running skimmerless, that's why I got excited to see a high powered algae filter. Can't wait to see this thing ramp up.
I also plan on running skimmerless, that's why I got excited to see a high powered algae filter. Can't wait to see this thing ramp up.
matt & pam
Member
How stiff is the fabric on your scrubber?
salty joe
Active member
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/134/m134p207.pdf
Go down a couple pages & check out the growth graphs. I wonder how this study on Chaeto might relate to other marine algaes.
You might want to talk to a hydroponic light dealer to see about waterproof etc.
Go down a couple pages & check out the growth graphs. I wonder how this study on Chaeto might relate to other marine algaes.
You might want to talk to a hydroponic light dealer to see about waterproof etc.
Reefski's
Active member
the material is not very thick. it is diamond screen from aquaticeco.com
either 1/8 or 1/4 inch, i can't remember right now. it may be a real pain to clean, i may have to take a weed wacker to it. it will be interesting to see how it grows. the screens are easy to remove from the framework.
Joe-thanks for the link. i will give that a read.
Carl
either 1/8 or 1/4 inch, i can't remember right now. it may be a real pain to clean, i may have to take a weed wacker to it. it will be interesting to see how it grows. the screens are easy to remove from the framework.
Joe-thanks for the link. i will give that a read.
Carl
I have seen at Hydroponic Stores a glass globe that sealed over an HPS bulb such that water actually circulated between the bulb and the globe such as to remove heat from the bulb to be exported from the vicinity to keep temperatures down in the room. Heated water was exported to a swimming pool!
Reefski, congratulations on your setups, continually amazes me how many diverse technologies you come up with!
{How many Patents you got?? }
Reefski's
Active member
thank you-
i have tweaked a few ideas but not invented anything that i could patent. i wish. the turf scrubber has been around for a long time and popularized recently by "Santa Monica" with an easy design in a 5 gallon bucket. i needed something bigger for my system so i came up with what you see from a bunch of stuff i had laying around. it remains to be seen if it will work.
Bryans thread about the turf scrubbers can be found here on Marine Depot Forum. you'll see my same pictures there.
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic89570-4-1.aspx
the 5 gallon bucket size is working for many on smaller systems. reducing nitrates and phosphates to near zero, and without a skimmer.
i have a hydroponics store near me and will check them out.
i have tweaked a few ideas but not invented anything that i could patent. i wish. the turf scrubber has been around for a long time and popularized recently by "Santa Monica" with an easy design in a 5 gallon bucket. i needed something bigger for my system so i came up with what you see from a bunch of stuff i had laying around. it remains to be seen if it will work.
Bryans thread about the turf scrubbers can be found here on Marine Depot Forum. you'll see my same pictures there.
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic89570-4-1.aspx
the 5 gallon bucket size is working for many on smaller systems. reducing nitrates and phosphates to near zero, and without a skimmer.
i have a hydroponics store near me and will check them out.
melev
Well-known member
What is the outer frame for? At first I thought it was spraying the screens, but it seems like the water is coming from the screen frames after all.
A 6500K bulb might be the better option, growth-wise. You could use N.O. shop lights instead of MH, and save a little more electricity I'd think. Looks neat so far.
A 6500K bulb might be the better option, growth-wise. You could use N.O. shop lights instead of MH, and save a little more electricity I'd think. Looks neat so far.
Reefski's
Active member
the outer frame is just to hold the frame with the screen in place. the screen frame just slides down between the two.
the water is coming from a closed loop over the screens. each side of the screen can be removed for cleaning. once it gets going i can rotate the cleaning and only do one at a time.
what is an N.O. shop light? are they waterproof?
i do really like the idea of the light hanging in the middle. closer to all sides and the cheato in the bottom.
Carl
the water is coming from a closed loop over the screens. each side of the screen can be removed for cleaning. once it gets going i can rotate the cleaning and only do one at a time.
what is an N.O. shop light? are they waterproof?
i do really like the idea of the light hanging in the middle. closer to all sides and the cheato in the bottom.
Carl
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