A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium

[maroun.c]

okay, this might be a really stupid question. but do u have to worry about anything dangerous ever jumping in there? like a sea snake maybe? i have no clue, i was just wondering with it being next to the ocean.

Was imagining seagulls diving in the tank and picking up some :fish1:

 

[nahham]

okay, this might be a really stupid question. but do u have to worry about anything dangerous ever jumping in there? like a sea snake maybe? i have no clue, i was just wondering with it being next to the ocean.

Was imagining seagulls diving in the tank and picking up some :fish1:

Will it would be a circle-of-life type of thing then wouldn't it . I ran the fish farm for around 6 months without any problems of that sort. Hopefully it will continue the same way.

"Nass-ur-Qareeb minn annt".

Nassur: Nassr : Victory
Qareeb: Close
minn: From
annt: You

Arabic words typed as pronounced in English with a slightly bad grammar and bad pronounciation...
I'm sure he meant good though

I'm sure he meant good as well. I looked at it again an figured that much out, just wasn't too sure. The sentence structure doesn't seem like Arabic though..

 

[justgettinstarted]

Here is the pump they use for the commercial section of the center. This provides for 6 large tanks for breading sea bream.

Can anyone decipher this?

As far as i can tell Bonora is simply an electric motor manufacturer. They motor its self runs on 3 phase electric. I looked at their website and was unable to get any info on pump housings etc. So if i were to guess some company uses their motor and then slaps on the impeller and housing. So without the diameter of the impeller its probably impossible to figure out how many GPH these pumps put out.

http://www.motoribonora.com/novitae.htm

I can make a super rough guess simply based on pumps like this for pools, a pentair pump will do 160GPM @ 45' of head pressure @ 3450RPM. So I would GUESS that this pump could do somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400gpm or 18,000-24,000 GPH but that is just a guess. But thats totally dependent on the impeller size etc.

 

[nahham]

As far as i can tell Bonora is simply an electric motor manufacturer. They motor its self runs on 3 phase electric. I looked at their website and was unable to get any info on pump housings etc. So if i were to guess some company uses their motor and then slaps on the impeller and housing. So without the diameter of the impeller its probably impossible to figure out how many GPH these pumps put out.

http://www.motoribonora.com/novitae.htm

I can make a super rough guess simply based on pumps like this for pools, a pentair pump will do 160GPM @ 45' of head pressure @ 3450RPM. So I would GUESS that this pump could do somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400gpm or 18,000-24,000 GPH but that is just a guess. But thats totally dependent on the impeller size etc.

Nice deciphering . Some people have really useless websites. But then, I'm pretty sure I'm not within their target users' group

Thanks for taking a shot at it

 

[nahham]

Minor Update

Minor Update

Just a minor update. We tried to see how much deep the water well should be to be enough for the 24/7 operation of the pumps, turns out 6 meters is not nearly enough

Good thing is that we didn't spend much on this "experiment". We will need to figure out how much is enough though. Any guesstimates? I'm thinking somewhere in the 15 - 20 meter range should do it. We will have 2 pipes, one for each pump.

One of the public aquariums around here get their water from a saltwater well, it is just 10x deeper than what I have right now (60m). But then it is much bigger than my tank and they are a public aquarium..

First go at the well.. :blown:

 

[KarlBob]

Okay, 6 meters is too shallow. It was still a successful experiment, because you learned that the well should be deeper. The only unsuccessful experiments are the ones from which you can't collect any data.

As a second estimate, how about:
(depth of public aquarium's well * volume of your tank)/volume of public aquarium's tank

It's still a rough approximation, because it assumes that the pumping rates and the rates at which water flows into the wells are the same.

 

[nahham]

Okay, 6 meters is too shallow. It was still a successful experiment, because you learned that the well should be deeper. The only unsuccessful experiments are the ones from which you can't collect any data.

As a second estimate, how about:
(depth of public aquarium's well * volume of your tank)/volume of public aquarium's tank

It's still a rough approximation, because it assumes that the pumping rates and the rates at which water flows into the wells are the same.

More guesstimations for you: I don't know the volume of the public aquarium tank and I forgot to ask . However, I'm "sure" it's bigger than 50,000 but not bigger than 120,000 (concentrate on the sure part). So it is something between 10 and 25 meters. Oh yeah, and they don't run it 24/7 so that isn't taken into consideration..

 

[nahham]

Correction

Correction

I've asked the person again about the depth of the well and he said 16 meters; I heard wrong the first time. However, they pump into a holding tank, something that I don't have. I need to be able to run it continuously. He estimates 200 gpm (12000 gph) from the well.

Progress..

 

[sarmo]

i've been following along since you started this thread. i think you are doing a really nice job and i applaud you for taking other peoples advice into consideration. great job so far!!!
i've been wondering about your saltwater well. you said you want 12,000gph from your well. i am wondering why you want so much? if i did the math right that is replacing you system volume every hour and half. why don't you replace it at a slower rate and re-circulate some of the system water. i assume you chose 12,000gph as the amount of flow your system needed. not all that flow has to be fresh saltwater......
if you are worried about your fish farm not getting enough flow, couldn't you use water directly from the sea for it? i thought i read the reason for the well was to purify the water before you use it. the fish in the fish farm should tolerate the sea water conditions better than corals in you display tank, at least that's my opinion.

just food for thought.

 

[nahham]

i've been following along since you started this thread. i think you are doing a really nice job and i applaud you for taking other peoples advice into consideration. great job so far!!!

Thank you. I wouldn't of been able to do it otherwise.

i've been wondering about your saltwater well. you said you want 12,000gph from your well. i am wondering why you want so much? if i did the math right that is replacing you system volume every hour and half. why don't you replace it at a slower rate and re-circulate some of the system water. i assume you chose 12,000gph as the amount of flow your system needed. not all that flow has to be fresh saltwater......

First of all, the 12,000 gph is the rate the public aquarium gets from the the 16 meter well. I first thought of doing a more complicated flow system through the tank, but then decided to simplify it as much as possible. What I want to reach is a 1x turnover rate of fresh water. I'm hoping this will be beneficial for my corals. I've also recently read that 1x turnover in big reef tanks are acceptable. My waterflow or circulation within the tank will be (I'm hoping) somewhere in the range of 4x and can go up to around 8x with the two pumps running.

if you are worried about your fish farm not getting enough flow, couldn't you use water directly from the sea for it? i thought i read the reason for the well was to purify the water before you use it. the fish in the fish farm should tolerate the sea water conditions better than corals in you display tank, at least that's my opinion.

just food for thought.

It is true that the fish farm can tolerate direct water from the sea, and this is why the aquarium overflows in the fish farm and not the other way around . I would, however, rather have 'good' water for both tanks than discriminate between my tanks . If you go back several pages you will see the discussion regarding the circulation of the water. I'm sure that this setup isn't the ultimate solution, I'm hoping it is a good one.

It is also a one-time cost and then free fresh water, yay!. The one-time cost is the thing that is bothering me right now though ..

 

[mr.wilson]

What is the shoreline stability like? Is there a historical record of very high tides or flooding of any kind? You mentioned that your family has a fishing history. Perhaps they can shed some light on the subject. Do you have an action plan if the sea level climbs to that of the tank? Is this possible?

 

[Reefski's]

good question.

what is the annual fluctuations in the water temps, just off shore from your tank? did you ever measure temps in the fish system? what part of the year was it running?

Carl

 

[nahham]

What is the shoreline stability like? Is there a historical record of very high tides or flooding of any kind? You mentioned that your family has a fishing history. Perhaps they can shed some light on the subject. Do you have an action plan if the sea level climbs to that of the tank? Is this possible?

How do you come up with these questions? OK at the highest tide when the moon is full and the wolf-people are out, we still have at least a meter or so of the 'wall' that separates the sea from our 'backyard'. Look at this picture:

The water never goes over the overflow opening (if you can spot it. Hint: it is next to the hanging 4" pipe).

I don't remember any flood of any kind and haven't heard of anyone talking about it either. It might of happened or will happen, but then if the water ever reaches the tank, I hope it bring even better species to the tank, that's my plan and I"m sticking with it .

good question.

what is the annual fluctuations in the water temps, just off shore from your tank? did you ever measure temps in the fish system? what part of the year was it running?

Carl

As for water temperature fluctuations, I have absolutely no idea. The people from the ministry did measure the temperature at the fish tank when it was summer (really hot here) and said "it was good" and they spotted no difference between the fish tank and the sea nearby even at deeper waters. I really can't recall the temperature though. Furthermore, I think the well will provide a stable water supply in many aspects, especially regarding the temperature, usually colder as well.

I will be sending water samples from the well to be tested soon, stay tuned..

 

[mr.wilson]

I think there was something in the bible about a flood

 

[Mr T-reefer]

I had a 8gal surge tank on my 80gal reef tank for 13 months and it was pretty strong. The factors that I can see that determines the surge strength is the exhaust pipe diameter, the total volume in the surge tank, in my case 8gallons, and how fast the surge tanks fill up.

You might want to try several smaller ones throughout the tank rather than one or two large ones in hopes that they will cover everything; but in your case "small" is big for the rest of us.

Another thing is that you may want to set it up so that the surge exhausts are not too close to the rocks or have them blow through mini canyons that you created with your rock

_____canyon wall
- - -> surge flow head on view: \*/
_____canyon wall

To get a decent flow if your only going to use surge devices, I would recommend that the total sum of surge volumes be 8-10% of your tank voulme (mine was 8gal on a 80gal tank, so it was 10%). You can go lower of course since this may be difficult with such a large tank, but the closer to these values, the better off you will be. Just my educated opinion. :reading:

 

[nahham]

I had a 8gal surge tank on my 80gal reef tank for 13 months and it was pretty strong. The factors that I can see that determines the surge strength is the exhaust pipe diameter, the total volume in the surge tank, in my case 8gallons, and how fast the surge tanks fill up.

You might want to try several smaller ones throughout the tank rather than one or two large ones in hopes that they will cover everything; but in your case "small" is big for the rest of us.

Another thing is that you may want to set it up so that the surge exhausts are not too close to the rocks or have them blow through mini canyons that you created with your rock

_____canyon wall
- - -> surge flow head on view: \*/
_____canyon wall

To get a decent flow if your only going to use surge devices, I would recommend that the total sum of surge volumes be 8-10% of your tank voulme (mine was 8gal on a 80gal tank, so it was 10%). You can go lower of course since this may be difficult with such a large tank, but the closer to these values, the better off you will be. Just my educated opinion. :reading:

Thank you for the information and insight. I am shying away from the surge tank idea just because I do not have a place to put the surge tank that doesn't cover the view of the sea. I really like the idea but implementation is turning to out to be more complicated that anticipated.

I am, however, getting 2 pretty powerful (~72,000 gph) submersible pumps and will be alternating between them. They are also energy efficient: someone told me it uses around 600watts .

 

[mr.wilson]

I think you will be fine without the surge device. Even a large unit would be like a drop in the ocean or however the saying goes

The prop pumps are the only way to go with a large exhibit like yours, and you can't complain about 1,200 watts for 144,000 GPH. Play around with the settings to catch the wave or however that saying goes

Did you ever look at ozonizers? They are a cost effective method of controlling water quality, algae blooms and disease in large systems. Phytoplankton blooms (free floating algae) are not uncommon with outdoor exhibits. You would probably need a 10 gram per hour unit for your application.

You can control ozone dosing with a redox controller and introduce it with an external gas reactor or a venturi valve. http://www.mazzei.net/products/injector_info.htm

Because the system is outside, you don't have the same residual ozone issues that apply to public aquariums.

 

[tonyf]

I think there was something in the bible about a flood

That's funny :lolspin:

Great looking project ... I look forward to seeing it complete.

Tone

 

[Pylon]

All of this for a pair of clownfish... Amazing.

On serious note keep up the good work, I've only read the first couple of pages so far, but I'll catch up on everything soon!

 

[KarlBob]

I think you will be fine without the surge device. Even a large unit would be like a drop in the ocean or however the saying goes

The prop pumps are the only way to go with a large exhibit like yours, and you can't complain about 1,200 watts for 144,000 GPH. Play around with the settings to catch the wave or however that saying goes

I agree. I think this system can run perfectly well without a surge device.

Can you control the flow levels of these pumps? If so, it's possible to create waves and simulate surge flow without having a surge device. There are some pretty impressive videos out there showing the wave action that can be generated by prop pumps with wavemakers.