A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium

[Favinha]

Good luck with the project and thanks for sharing!

 

[nahham]

-Hi nahham ,

I`m just curious , what where the results of the tested waterparameters ?
Because i saw some kind of a harbor on the other side of the bay ,and there a lot of building activity `s as well , hopefully they don`t pollute the sea to much.


greetingzz tntneon

I would lie if I said I remembered. I will check if they have the numbers achieved though and will get back to you.

 

[Diablo]

Assalamu alaikum nahham,

If your budget will stretch, I would recommend looking at Lykkegaard. They make plastic propeller pumps. I would draw from the sea and overflow straight back and aim for ~ 5x per hour... that way you should not have too much trouble with thermal management. A warning, they start at Euro14K...

FWIW, I did a calcutation and assuming 5x turnover and that your aquarium receives full sun, the temperature rise, relative to the surrounding seawater will be limited to 0.2 deg C (0.36 deg F)

 

[nahham]

Assalamu alaikum nahham,

If your budget will stretch, I would recommend looking at Lykkegaard. They make plastic propeller pumps. I would draw from the sea and overflow straight back and aim for ~ 5x per hour... that way you should not have too much trouble with thermal management. A warning, they start at Euro14K...

FWIW, I did a calcutation and assuming 5x turnover and that your aquarium receives full sun, the temperature rise, relative to the surrounding seawater will be limited to 0.2 deg C (0.36 deg F)

walikoum esalam Diablo,

Thanks for the recommendation. I looked up Lykkegaard (http://www.lykkegaard-as.dk/) and they have some freakishly ridiculous pumps, 24/7, 70 years. They have pumps that go up to more than 3,700,000 gallons/h. That is just ridiculous. My current pumps do around 45,000 g/h each and I'm happy with them. If they break down, I might think of getting a loan to fund one of 'em beasts, j/k .

As for your calculations: a 1/3 of the tank is currently covered so I think my humble 4x wouldn't be a problem

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

I could put one of those together if my gas was .35/gal:spin3:

You don't have to worry about people messing with the tank out near the dock?

 

[nahham]

I could put one of those together if my gas was .35/gal:spin3:

Believe it or not, we pay ~1.7/gallon of 'pertol' we are not Saudi Arabia. i used to pay less for petrol in Georgia than I do in the UAE. I remember it was .89/gallon when I was there in 2001 - 2003.

You don't have to worry about people messing with the tank out near the dock?

I would see how you would perceive it as a potential problem, and I think it might be to a certain extent. However, I don't worry about it for a couple of reasons:

1. People in boats cannot really see the fish farm or the aquarium. To comfort you and all of the people who asked about this, here is how the fish farm is seen from the water (I'll post an actual photo later):
   
   
   
   
2. It is rare that someone would actually cross into our land. We had a couple of incidents but it was straightened out.

 

[FishBoy05]

I thought a 1200 gal pond was crazy!

 

[RoganTerrance]

wow

 

[nahham]

Water Flow Plans

Water Flow Plans

Hello everyone,

I just had a visit from the aquarium guys that built the glass front for me and I was discussing the waterflow plans and would like your opinion.

Ideally, I want the water to flow from the sea to the refugium, to the aquarium through a weir overflow box (got to be one hell of an overflow box), to the firm farm, and then back to the sea. Here is an illustration:

The weir overflow box will be helpful because I don't want to have 2 pumps (one getting water from the sea to the refugium and another pumping into the aquarium. I think it just complicates matters.

In this ideal situation, I do not see any problems. I can circulate so much water that will be good enough for even a reef tank (especially with submersible pumps in the aquarium).

However, ideally isn't how it goes all the time. When there is a reason to close off the waterflow from the sea (ride tide anyone?), I would like to be able to circulate the water within the tank and hopefully, with the help of the refugium, be able to sustain it for several weeks without new water. An illustration:

Here is where my problems arise. The refugium is to be built as the same level as the main aquarium, which isn't a problem and will help in moving water between them. When I introduce the fish farm as part of the closed loop, it becomes a bit more complicated. I'm thinking of having a T connection to the pumps that allow the water to be brought either from the sea or the fish farm. This way I can control where the water comes from. I can also circulate some of the water again from the fish farm if needs be together with new water from the sea.

Any other suggestions? There are a lot of much more experienced people than me here in the forum and I would love to pick your brains

 

[evsalty]

Honestly I think your last paragraph has a solid idea behind it and would be the best solution. It gives you a lot of flexability.

 

[Elliott]

I think this will work nicely for a fish only system but maintaining coral will probably require more flow. You may want to consider building an elevated surge tank that will release periodically into the display creating additional flow. Surge systems are economical and reliable.

Also, you may need to set up cloth shielding for some corals that can't accommodate direct sun for prolonged periods.

In general I would think constant NSW will provide a much more natural environment that cannot be achieved with closed systems. Very exciting project!

 

[nahham]

I think this will work nicely for a fish only system but maintaining coral will probably require more flow. You may want to consider building an elevated surge tank that will release periodically into the display creating additional flow. Surge systems are economical and reliable.

Also, you may need to set up cloth shielding for some corals that can't accommodate direct sun for prolonged periods.

In general I would think constant NSW will provide a much more natural environment that cannot be achieved with closed systems. Very exciting project!

Thanks for your response.

The turn over rate will be between 80,000 - 90,000 g/h (I don't remember if the pumps are 40,000 or 45,000 g/h). So that is 4 - 4.5x turn over rate. I'm planning for my flow rate to be somewhere in the range of 10x with the help of powerheads and submersible pumps.

The aquarium is 1/3 shaded (via the over-the-aquarium-seating) so there is ample shading. If need be, I'll be installing lights under the seating area to help growth in those areas that don't get direct sunlight. It is trial-and-error process

 

[mstrpln03]

Wow, awesome set up. I wish I could do an outdoor tank but the winters here prohibit that.

 

[Elliott]

Thanks for your response.

The turn over rate will be between 80,000 - 90,000 g/h (I don't remember if the pumps are 40,000 or 45,000 g/h). So that is 4 - 4.5x turn over rate. I'm planning for my flow rate to be somewhere in the range of 10x with the help of powerheads and submersible pumps.

The aquarium is 1/3 shaded (via the over-the-aquarium-seating) so there is ample shading. If need be, I'll be installing lights under the seating area to help growth in those areas that don't get direct sunlight. It is trial-and-error procedure

Yes, this will undoubtedly be a work in progress, like many of us, just a little bit bigger! :thumbsup:

You have plenty of light and filtration (rather no need for it! ). I suspect you'll have flow issues to solve, but that should not be too difficult to overcome. Wow, the plankton, etc. you will have from NSW will allow you to maintain many species otherwise impossible to keep in closed systems.

One other thought, if you should acquire a pest that requires treating the display, you will need to close the system temporarily as well. So being able to close the system from the ocean will be important for potential pests intrinsically and extrinsically.

Again, great project! :beer:

 

[sarmo]

the only thought i have is the water from the fish farm should probably not be recycled to the main display tank. i am assuming here but isn't the point of the fish farm to have a large number of fish in a small area? assuming that's true then the water quality in the display tank will be much better than the water quality in the fish farm tank. i wouldn't cycle the fish farm water into the display tank.
in the case of needing to stop taking in fresh seawater, i would find a way to bypass the fish farm and flow between the display tank and the refugium only. you could add a pump to the display and plumb that to the refugium and then overflow into the display. or another possibility would be to add a pipe from the display tank to a "T" on the ocean side of your "supply in" line and put in a couple shut off valves and you could cycle the water that way and bypass the fish farm.
i hope that makes sence....

great build, i've been folllowing along for a while. i wish i lived closer to the ocean.....

 

[nahham]

the only thought i have is the water from the fish farm should probably not be recycled to the main display tank. i am assuming here but isn't the point of the fish farm to have a large number of fish in a small area? assuming that's true then the water quality in the display tank will be much better than the water quality in the fish farm tank. i wouldn't cycle the fish farm water into the display tank.
in the case of needing to stop taking in fresh seawater, i would find a way to bypass the fish farm and flow between the display tank and the refugium only. you could add a pump to the display and plumb that to the refugium and then overflow into the display. or another possibility would be to add a pipe from the display tank to a "T" on the ocean side of your "supply in" line and put in a couple shut off valves and you could cycle the water that way and bypass the fish farm.
i hope that makes sence....

great build, i've been folllowing along for a while. i wish i lived closer to the ocean.....

Thanks for the comment. I understand what you are saying and I apologize for not explaining a bit more about the fish farm. The fish farm is a ~45,000 gallon container and we had at most 300 fishes in there, I don't think it is considered high density. I get your point regarding the quality of the water. I would really want to include the fish farm into the circulation process so that not to include more piping. I need to think about this some more :fun5:

 

[sarmo]

my bad, you should be fine with only 300 fish in the fish farm. i would just plumb in a pipe from the fish farm to the sea water intake pipe and add a shut off valve to both pipes and you have created a closed loop or you can add fresh sea water.

 

[nahham]

OK a couple of updates for all of you.

The v2 of the plumbing plans are illustrated here (thanks Elliot and sarmo for the input):

A redundant system with 2 pumps and a couple T connections that connect the pipes coming from the sea and the fish farm to the pump. The refugium looks so small in this illustration, maybe I should enlarge it a bit (everything is to scale). If I have my way, the whole backyard will be filled with aquariums and related stuff.

That's that for the refugium.

As for the aquarium itself. The workers will start to plaster the walls today (it is 1:20am Monday here). I am planning to go with epoxy for paint just because most of the walls will be covered with rock and the concrete is marine-grade. After the plastering and paint is done, we will do a leak test as the workers will start to work on the fish farm and the refugium. I hope nothing leaks or it will really really suck

 

[stymee69]

I would be concerned that in those times when you are running in the closed loop(red tide) that the build up of amonia from the fish farm will be to much for the reef. you will also need a source of fresh water for those times as well for topping off the system.

 

[TandN]

This is insane best of luck with the build !!!!!