A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium

[nahham]

I used the same type of "live well" in the past. I found that if the water splashes/churns the surface more you get better results. When you build your custom live well you might want to make it with a spray bar on the top to spray/agitate the water on the surface. That will give you better gas/air exchange in the water.

Thanks for the information. Did you ever consider using something like this? I am thinking this will be a good idea to inject oxygen and move water in the same time.

Looks like a lot of fun

It is

Good golly It took me an hour to read through this thread but it is truly a remarkable build!

I'm glad you liked it. I think it will help when the area around the aquarium is cleaned up.

This is 1900 times bigger than I could have ever dreamed up in my ceaziest dream.

AWESOME

Why 1900 times? You could of rounded it to 2000 times :lol2:

 

[derrikd]

Any new pics of the tank itself

 

[fla2341]

I've looked at them. I think they will work-as is, but might not work with pumping the water up into a spray bar type system. Also in a sealed container(cooler) the only air circulated is what's in there. With increased air injection/agitation when out in the hot weather on a boat/dock/back of truck the water temps rise much quicker and therefore oxygen retention in the water is lessened. For you, depending on the ocean water temp when you're collecting (like at night), you might not notice much of a rise, if any at all.

In your custom built live well you might want to look into adding a blower fan to blow acrost the water from a spray bar. This will cool the water thru evaporative cooling. You could expect at least 2-5 degree temp drop just using this method. Just provide the air a vent to excape from on the other side.

I've maintained a 100 gallon reef tank on the open back porch here for 3 years using a 5000 btu a/c unit, on the lowest setting, hooked up into the light canopy. Most days the temp here in summer is in the 90's and it rarely run with the a/c but was running on the fan only blowing acrost the overflow and surface. I was able to maintain the temp at 76-78 degrees even when the temp reached 96-98 degrees here in a Florida summer.

With your inverter you might even be able to operate a blower, the leds and pump for several hours on battery power alone using deep cycle batteries like these. http://www.optimabatteries.com/optima_products/bluetop/index.php

 

[digitalchrisg]

I've maintained a 100 gallon reef tank on the open back porch here for 3 years using a 5000 btu a/c unit, on the lowest setting, hooked up into the light canopy. Most days the temp here in summer is in the 90's and it rarely run with the a/c but was running on the fan only blowing acrost the overflow and surface. I was able to maintain the temp at 76-78 degrees even when the temp reached 96-98 degrees here in a Florida summer.

Do you have a thread or any pic's, I am in Florida as well and very interested in the idea. I have been toying with the idea of adding tanks in the garage area, but have been concerned with exactly that issue.

 

[fla2341]

Do you have a thread or any pic's, I am in Florida as well and very interested in the idea. I have been toying with the idea of adding tanks in the garage area, but have been concerned with exactly that issue.

Just sent you a pm

 

[nahham]

Any new pics of the tank itself

Nothing yet. All the pictures I'm shooting right now is by using my Samsung Galaxy S2. I'm too lazy to charge my camera and take it to shoot. Also, the water, even though it is much better than a couple of weeks, is still clearing up. I'm hoping we will have the sand filter installed within a month or so and will hopefully help clear the water even further. Until then, I'm reluctant to add any pictures

I've looked at them. I think they will work-as is, but might not work with pumping the water up into a spray bar type system. Also in a sealed container(cooler) the only air circulated is what's in there. With increased air injection/agitation when out in the hot weather on a boat/dock/back of truck the water temps rise much quicker and therefore oxygen retention in the water is lessened. For you, depending on the ocean water temp when you're collecting (like at night), you might not notice much of a rise, if any at all.

Thanks for the information. I didn't have a problem with the water temperature and usually have a ice packs just in case.

In your custom built live well you might want to look into adding a blower fan to blow acrost the water from a spray bar. This will cool the water thru evaporative cooling. You could expect at least 2-5 degree temp drop just using this method. Just provide the air a vent to excape from on the other side.

The issue with doing something like this in a truck (or a boat for that matter) is that the live-well needs to be water tight; the water splashes quite a bit when moving and there should be a tight cover over it so installing a fan might be hard to do. However, a water-tight hole could be done to pass the air injection tube through.

I've maintained a 100 gallon reef tank on the open back porch here for 3 years using a 5000 btu a/c unit, on the lowest setting, hooked up into the light canopy. Most days the temp here in summer is in the 90's and it rarely run with the a/c but was running on the fan only blowing acrost the overflow and surface. I was able to maintain the temp at 76-78 degrees even when the temp reached 96-98 degrees here in a Florida summer.

With your inverter you might even be able to operate a blower, the leds and pump for several hours on battery power alone using deep cycle batteries like these. http://www.optimabatteries.com/optima_products/bluetop/index.php

That is awesome!! WE NEED PICTURES!!

I don't control the water temperature in my tank and leave it as-is. However, it seems to be 1 - 2 degrees cooler than the water in the sea close-by. I think it has something to do with the water-fall effect from the aquarium to the fish farm

As for the battery, I don't have an issue as of yet. It is connected to the charging system of the car and the car is usually running. I'm really liking the batteries though; might install on the boat since I seem to have a problem with the engine battery on it.

 

[fla2341]

This is my 1st attempt at posting phots so I hope it comes out OK.
Please remember it's very ghetto. Photos of the tank are from march 5th this year. Wonderful windows crashed on me in January and I lost all of my old photos-I'm still digging thru back-ups looking for older photos. If I find them I'll post them. The light canopy was expanded to 12" to occomodate the ac unit being mounted to the outside right. In one photo you can see the ac unit on the far left top of the photo. I changed last spring to a DIY LED unit comprised of 12 3w cree xpe 50/50 cool white/blue with a lpc-35-700 driver to further cut down electricity and heat. Due to vandels I moved the tank inside 10 days or so ago. I had to cram everything into a 30 gal temp tank while the moved tank settles back into shape. I also included the photos from today of the moved tank(s).

When the tank was outside I used 1" foam (blue) to insulate it on three sides with 1/2" plywood framing outside of that. The light canopy was not insulated with foam and was constructed from the same 1/2" plywood. Due to the nature of this tank being ghetto I used less then $40 on new materials to insulate it and build the canopy. The ac unit was $86 from lowes. All other equipment, screws, hardware, salts and etc were already on hand.

Sorry for the crappy photos but my digital camera is a old POS

 

[nahham]

The ac unit was $86 from lowes.

I'm still trying to figure out where the ac unit is in the photo

 

[fla2341]

Upper left side you can just make out the bottom of the side vents above the ro/di unit which you can see in both the photos I posted yesterday. Here's two photos of the ac unit, front and side view. You can see this was a very basic unit. The control was all done by knobs.
I never thought anyone would be interested in seeing an ac unit so it wasn't the subject for many photos. I was more interested in the growth of the corals under the LED vs the MH and maintaining the temp with-in "acceptable ranges" both during the summer and winter. Last winter we had several days in a row 27 degrees or so and I think everyone expects there would be several days in summer over 90 here.
During all three summers the tank temp was maintained from 76-78 degrees with only 1 day where it got to 84 when the power was out for 6 hours then on, then off, then on, etc..... for 2 days. During the winter the lowest the tank reached was 71.8 degrees for a few hours in the early am on those coldest days I mentioned above. The normal winter tank temp was 73-76 degrees. There were no dramatic raises or lowering in temp(except during the power outage) but gradual swings over several days/weeks time within the stated ranges.

 

[AFU]

wow. insane

 

[Haab]

WOW :rollface:

 

[Ziggy953]

What an amazing build!!

 

[chercm]

nice !

 

[Endy0430]

:thumbsup:

 

[Uglyman]

Hi

Just had a look through this awesome thread and build for the first time and must say it is a fantastic experiment you have undertaken with this BIG tank. My congrats to your efforts and hope to see more great updates in the future, I have also had a thought when it comes to your filtration although i have no experience with huge tanks like yours. I was thinking why not stick to regular water changes and just polish the water after each change with a Diatomaceous Earth Filtration Unit, they only need to be run for a short time to clear up the water and then can be turned back on when needed so they dont use alot of power. I know they have been used in the aquarium world for some time and are also available for swimming pools so sizing one for your tank would be possible. Just a thought,maybe it could help.

:thumbsup:

 

[HOBrien]

It was nearly half a dozen of each. 2 of the angels and 2 of the butterflys didn't make it. The rest are doing great though.

What kind of Butterfly's?

 

[nahham]

Hi

Just had a look through this awesome thread and build for the first time and must say it is a fantastic experiment you have undertaken with this BIG tank. My congrats to your efforts and hope to see more great updates in the future, I have also had a thought when it comes to your filtration although i have no experience with huge tanks like yours. I was thinking why not stick to regular water changes and just polish the water after each change with a Diatomaceous Earth Filtration Unit, they only need to be run for a short time to clear up the water and then can be turned back on when needed so they dont use alot of power. I know they have been used in the aquarium world for some time and are also available for swimming pools so sizing one for your tank would be possible. Just a thought,maybe it could help.

:thumbsup:

Thanks for the information. I will certainly research this option.

What kind of Butterfly's?

Black-spotted butterflyfish (Chaetodon nigropunctatus)

 

[Matthewbrian316]

Great looking tank keep up the good work

 

[nahham]

A short video of the current state of the tank:
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http://www.youtube.com/v/0hS2k81MpAw

 

[benjc]

Well done. I wouldn't even call it an aquarium; more like a small inland sea.