A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium

[bullitr]

Come by.. I can give you a couple

I wish ...
I agree it's so bright in person specially when it becomes adult
Some iPhone picture of my Old maculosus with the lights off

 

[nahham]

I wish ...
I agree it's so bright in person specially when it becomes adult

I wanted to ask: do you have any corals in your tank with the p.maculosus? I've heard they aren't very good with corals? What is your experience?

 

[bullitr]

I wanted to ask: do you have any corals in your tank with the p.maculosus? I've heard they aren't very good with corals? What is your experience?

I have the maculosus with SPS ,LPS ,soft corals and clams
Unfortunately ick got to it!

The question for you does your massive ocean for a tank have ick on it?

 

[firereef]

been reading through thiis build and wanted to use some of your ideas when I move later this year to the Philippines. Im planning on building an aquarium that is plummed into the ocean as well. Im thinking no more than 5000g. Ill be asking alot of questions that I may have to successfully build my tank. Thanks and again, great build!

 

[nahham]

I have the maculosus with SPS ,LPS ,soft corals and clams
Unfortunately ick got to it!

The question for you does your massive ocean for a tank have ick on it?

The good thing about these fishes I caught in the trap is that they are caught in sea in front of the house; in terrible waters so they are quite hardy. I haven't had a fish die of ick until now.

So the maculosus never munched on your corals?

 

[nahham]

been reading through thiis build and wanted to use some of your ideas when I move later this year to the Philippines. Im planning on building an aquarium that is plummed into the ocean as well. Im thinking no more than 5000g. Ill be asking alot of questions that I may have to successfully build my tank. Thanks and again, great build!

You are welcome to ask any question and I'll try my best to answer. The people on RC and my local group of aquarists are the ones to really ask though; I wouldn't of got this far if not for their suggestions, comments, and help :thumbsup:

 

[nahham]

Hello,
We connected the skimmer body to the rest of the tank and ran it with just the skimmer neck. We ran into some problems but I'm surprised with the amount of 'foam' it is creating straight on:

Is this good? Bad? I'm controlling for the water level to be just at the tip of the skimmer body, everything above that is skimate. I still haven't installed a venture value which should add the amount of air going into the skimmer body. I've also installed a DIY nozzle at the end of the input pipe going into the skimmer body which seems to be working.

More updates tomorrow..

 

[mr.wilson]

Natural seawater will have lots of hydrophobic (surfactants) agents that will be easy to skim. A high salinity also helps increase foam production. Your evaporation will likely drive up salinity and the local water is also likely to be elevated north of 1.025. Often a simple drain into a sump is enough to generate foam. Once you add the venturi valve it will foam out of control. Foam is good. It will stabilize after a few days or weeks of skimming. Ozone is still a good investment. Even a small 300mg/hr unit will make a difference in clarity and algae control. Delzone make a nice cost effective ozonizer that sells for under $100 (Delzone 3).

 

[nahham]

Here are some photos and explanation about the DIY skimmer.

This is where the pump pulls the water; the fish farm. The hole is surrounded by sand where the mangroves will soon be planted.

My trusty pump. I have 2 of these; one is hidden under the plywood.

The simple venturi. The side inserted into the water pipe is similar to this image:

The end had some 'teeth' that bite into the water and help dissolve o2 into the water. The pipe going into the main water pipe isn't glued which allows us to move it up and down depending on the amount of air we want. The lower you push it though, the higher the strain on the pump and the more air you allow.

The skimmer 'body'. Excuse the mess; it was covered with foam in two hours and I still don't have the collection cup to place over it.

The output from the skimmer. We had 2" pipes going in and out of the skimmer but then it turned out it didn't really allow us to control it very well. We then decided a 3" pipe coming out of the skimmer is what we need to control the water.

There were the valves we tried earlier. Good valves, not so good design for controlling the water level in the skimmer body.

I still have some trouble controlling the level of water in the skimmer body. It seems that if the water level reaches the acrylic neck, the suction from the venturi stops. If the water level in the skimmer body is low, there is a great amount of air combined with the water but it can't reach the neck.

 

[mr.wilson]

Is the air intake on the influent or effluent line of the pump?

The skimmer will be more efficient if you use one pump to feed it a throughput and a second pump as a closed loop just to generate bubbles. There is a company called Avast that makes a nice needl wheel impeller replacement for the Sequence Baracuda pump. You can buy the 230v 50hz Baracuda from England and the NW mod from Avast in the US.

The throughput should be such that the water remains (dwell time) in the skimmer for 2 minutes. You can do the math, but it will likely be in the neighbourhood of 3000 GPH.

Adding the Delzone ozonizer I mentioned would be even better. You can use a few of them in series all plugged into the Prifilux ORP controller set to turn off at 400. The Delzone is 230v ready.

You have too much head pressure for your pump to draw in air when the water level rises. Once you add an air intake on the pump, the head pressure becomes a lot more significant, even on a closed loop where the water level on the in & out is the same. I'm afraid you will have to scrap your DIY air intake, move to a smaller feed pump, and add a dedicated closed loop bubble generator (needle wheel pump). Adjusting the water level will be simple, increase or decrease throughput, increase or decrease air intake, or increase or decrease the resistance on the water line draining the skimmer. These valves will be fine, no need for gate valves in most cases.

 

[kinlayan]

Got to agree with Mr Wilson you need a feed pump and dedicated aerating pump for that Diy skimmer- also Ozone will be a great help but make sure that all those materials being used on the Diy skimmer are ozone resistant or it will eat away some plastics in no time! also if i was you i would not pull water from the fish farm but directly from the aquarium to the skimmer , otherwise you are feeding the waste of the fish farm to the skimmer if i understand it correctly and not the aquarium waste?

 

[nahham]

Is the air intake on the influent or effluent line of the pump?

It is on the effluent line of the pump. We made some changes and now it is pulling so much air into the skimmer is it just amazing. I didn't think it will work this well

The skimmer will be more efficient if you use one pump to feed it a throughput and a second pump as a closed loop just to generate bubbles. There is a company called Avast that makes a nice needl wheel impeller replacement for the Sequence Baracuda pump. You can buy the 230v 50hz Baracuda from England and the NW mod from Avast in the US.

I am keeping an open mind regarding the solution from I'm seeing, the tank is clearing up very fast it is just amazing. You can see a difference everyday and the skimate is just disgusting which I'm told is a good sign

The throughput should be such that the water remains (dwell time) in the skimmer for 2 minutes. You can do the math, but it will likely be in the neighbourhood of 3000 GPH.

I knew about the 2 minute 'rule' and calculated the size of the skimmer body accordingly. My pump does around 7,000 GPH which is equal to 117 GHM. This means the the dwell time is around 2.56 minutes. This of course does not take into consideration the amount of air going through and the pressure it causes the pump which probably drops the throughput of the pump.

Adding the Delzone ozonizer I mentioned would be even better. You can use a few of them in series all plugged into the Prifilux ORP controller set to turn off at 400. The Delzone is 230v ready.

My ORP currently reads 381 but I haven't calibrated my sensors for a while so I'm not really sure. I am strongly considering a ozonizer in the near future.

You have too much head pressure for your pump to draw in air when the water level rises. Once you add an air intake on the pump, the head pressure becomes a lot more significant, even on a closed loop where the water level on the in & out is the same. I'm afraid you will have to scrap your DIY air intake, move to a smaller feed pump, and add a dedicated closed loop bubble generator (needle wheel pump). Adjusting the water level will be simple, increase or decrease throughput, increase or decrease air intake, or increase or decrease the resistance on the water line draining the skimmer. These valves will be fine, no need for gate valves in most cases.

I've fixed this issue by rising the venturi to over the skimmer body level. Now it is pulling so much air you can't cover with your hand.

also Ozone will be a great help but make sure that all those materials being used on the Diy skimmer are ozone resistant or it will eat away some plastics in no time!

I didn't know that, thanks for the information

also if i was you i would not pull water from the fish farm but directly from the aquarium to the skimmer , otherwise you are feeding the waste of the fish farm to the skimmer if i understand it correctly and not the aquarium waste?

My fish farm isn't really a 'fish farm'. It is more of a 'fish spa'. There is around 300 fish in there. My water moves from the refugium --> aquarium --> fish farm --> refugium. It would of been quite difficult to do it any other way.

 

[SeattleReef]

nahham - Great thread, what a fun read!!! :celeb3:

Can you please post an updated FTS?

 

[nahham]

nahham - Great thread, what a fun read!!! :celeb3:

Can you please post an updated FTS?

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Sorry nothing special as of yet. The water was quite cloudy but it clearing up nicely these days. I am hoping it will totally clear up in a couple of weeks. If that happens, I'll surely post some pictures.

 

[robvdv]

The water was quite cloudy but it clearing up nicely these days.

Sorry if you've answered this already, but have you considered UV? I recently installed a 55W UV on my 15000L sunlit system and it made a dramatic difference in under a week.

 

[Reefski's]

i had a 400 watt UV on my koi pond that was barely adequate. many would say that is just a bandaid though. reefs are very clear without a UV as are all the reef tanks i have seen including ones outside at the Waikiki Aquarium.

Carl

 

[robvdv]

many would say that is just a bandaid though.

Mine was used to kill a problem dino in the water column, so it wasn't a band aid in my case. In general, I'd agree, though.

 

[Algaenot]

Sweet skimmer!

 

[nahham]

Skimmer Update

Skimmer Update

Does this look like good skimate?

and no, none of the neighbors complained yet of the smell..

and yes, there will be a collection cup over the skimmer at some time..

:lol2::lol2::lol2:

 

[nahham]

Sorry if you've answered this already, but have you considered UV? I recently installed a 55W UV on my 15000L sunlit system and it made a dramatic difference in under a week.

I am keeping an open mind regarding everything. If I remember correctly, Mr. Wilson recommended the Viper Series UV (400W).

I still have of a way to incorporate it into the system though. It is becoming more and more complicated; I hate complication

BTW GREAT TANK