A very large aquarium in a very small condo!

[captngreg]

Posted by bboudreaux

you mentioned a chiller, but my experience with leds has made that piece of equipment obsolete. in fact i use to keep my parameters stable with kalk in the ATO, but with lower tank temps evaporation has diminished greatly causing me to have to saturate my solution, and that is just bearly working for now. i fear i may have to get a calcium reactor. i think you will be able to get away with fans for cooling, as i live in se louisiana and my tank never gets above 80.5 degrees in summer.

Thank you for your observation; I'm hoping I do not need the chillers I'll have two of them in this build, but do to the very mild climate in Peru I have neither heat nor A/C in my home, a few days a year, the temp can go above 90, so it's a risk I care not to take, plus I already have them. My system will have two calcium reactors plus a nelson kalk reactor. I believe in backups for the backups, especially here where you just can't get on the phone and order a part next day from Marine Depot

Hope to have some more pictures very soon
Captngreg

 

[Aquatron]

Hello,

Gonna be nice Before you buy MP60s you should check out the small Hydro Wizard @ 15000gph.

Best of luck!

 

[captngreg]

Posted by Aquatron

Gonna be nice Before you buy MP60s you should check out the small Hydro Wizard @ 15000gph.

Best of luck!

Very interesting, the MP60 is one of the few pieces of equipment I have not bought yet. Thanks for the heads up. I do not think I will be going with them & here are my reasons;

First; I currently have a closed loop system that should push between 10,000 & 15,000gph back & forth. My filtration pumps are rated @ over 4,000gph each; & of course if I get half of that I'm doing good. Then when you add the two MP60s that another 15,000gph, I believe this is more than adequate flow for a 500 gallon tank.

Second; the cost issue, they are twice the price of the MP60s

Third: I don't like the looks of the MP60s in the tank but they have a small footprint due to the motor being located on the outside of the aquarium. I have been unable to find out exactly how big the Hydro Wizard is. I am assuming it's footprint inside the aquarium is much larger than the MP60s. due to the fact that the Hydro Wizard's motor is located on the inside.

Forth; I believe in redundancy, so even though the Hydro Wizard puts out twice the flow as the MP60s I would still want two.

Fifth; it's new to the market, I would prefer to see more reviews from other aquarium owners not only on its performance but also its reliability & longevity.

I would like to thank you for your suggestion, & encourage comments on any of my systems, equipment or my reasoning.

captngreg

 

[Aquatron]

No Worries you will have a very nice system. You could build wave boxes on each end to hide your mps may add to your WOW Tank wish

 

[msr224]

Subscribing to this one.....Looking forward to the ride.

 

[Ldagger]

Hi, I like the idea of a large tank in a smaller living space. Something I think you should consider is rethinking the closed loop system. Having alot of bulkheads can be worrisome on a tank where they mightbe hard to get too etc. I had a 500 gallon tank and always had issues with bulkheads. My new tank has no bulkheads in the bottom or exposed to the main body of the tank, the only ones are in the overflow which is the calfo style. Richard Harker has published in an artical in the aquarium fish international mag a setup using your main pump with one in and one out coming from the top down, -so on one side of the tank, the intake is deep, and on the other the return is shallow, this forces all the water thru the entire tank as a larger volume of water. Really a simple idea, but it works very well, and the pump can go above the tank. Less bulkheads will make your tank cheaper and you do not have to worry so much about a bulkhead failing in an apartment complex. piece of mind my friend is a good thing indeed.

 

[Ldagger]

After thinking alittle more about your setup, I think a top down closed loop is the way to go. This would free up needed space in the bottom cabinet of your tank. Large pumps do produce some heat and this would be better above your tank than below it. If you wanted a more complex return pattern you can just make a manifold to run around the top edge of the tank and place returns where you wish. It would not even have to be connected to the tank it's self. The returns could be at water level and you could easliy adjust it if you are getting bubbles. They could be the same color as your background which helps them disappear.. for example I use a black background with black pipes. All you need is a length of airline tubing to prime the loop, you could add a T fitting with a valve pointing straight up and add a check valve for added safetly if you ever wanted to break siphon. Futhermore, in an earthquake area a tank with few bulkheads(especially in the bottom) will be stronger, cheaper, and searing motion of quakes on bulkheads would be a bad thing I think. You could even use some gutter guard material you spoke of to make it where if the pump ever did leak, it would leak into the main tank.

 

[DNA]

I don't think the speakers in the stand is a good idea.
Midrange and tweeters are probably alright, but the fish will be able to pick up every beat of the bass like someone is banging on the glass.

 

[captngreg]

Finally some progress!!!

Finally some progress!!!

 

[captngreg]

This is just half of the plumbing

This is just half of the plumbing

The refiugiums are being built. Hopefully they will be installed this week.

 

[captngreg]

This is just half of the plumbing

This is just half of the plumbing

The refiugiums are being built. Hopefully they will be installed this week.

 

[Crazyfingerz]

Neat work I must admit

 

[captngreg]

Posted by Ldagger

Hi, I like the idea of a large tank in a smaller living space. Something I think you should consider is rethinking the closed loop system. Having alot of bulkheads can be worrisome on a tank where they mightbe hard to get too etc. I had a 500 gallon tank and always had issues with bulkheads. My new tank has no bulkheads in the bottom or exposed to the main body of the tank, the only ones are in the overflow which is the calfo style. Richard Harker has published in an artical in the aquarium fish international mag a setup using your main pump with one in and one out coming from the top down, -so on one side of the tank, the intake is deep, and on the other the return is shallow, this forces all the water thru the entire tank as a larger volume of water. Really a simple idea, but it works very well, and the pump can go above the tank. Less bulkheads will make your tank cheaper and you do not have to worry so much about a bulkhead failing in an apartment complex. piece of mind my friend is a good thing indeed.

I couldn't agree more on the bulkhead fitting in the bottom of the tank. I designed the tank to use every square inch of space, I have neither space on the sides or the back to run piping on the outside of the aquarium. I even have to run the return up throw the bottom of the aquarium. I calculated the width of this aquarium by taking the length of the kitchen wall and subtracting the length of the new rattan love seat plus the end table.
If things go as planned I should be able assesses all the throw whole fittings. Each fitting has its own true union Hayward valve as well.
My overflow is the calfo style, only the throw whole fittings are on the bottom instead of on the side.

After thinking alittle more about your setup, I think a top down closed loop is the way to go. This would free up needed space in the bottom cabinet of your tank. Large pumps do produce some heat and this would be better above your tank than below it. If you wanted a more complex return pattern you can just make a manifold to run around the top edge of the tank and place returns where you wish. It would not even have to be connected to the tank it's self. The returns could be at water level and you could easliy adjust it if you are getting bubbles. They could be the same color as your background which helps them disappear.. for example I use a black background with black pipes. All you need is a length of airline tubing to prime the loop, you could add a T fitting with a valve pointing straight up and add a check valve for added safetly if you ever wanted to break siphon. Futhermore, in an earthquake area a tank with few bulkheads(especially in the bottom) will be stronger, cheaper, and searing motion of quakes on bulkheads would be a bad thing I think. You could even use some gutter guard material you spoke of to make it where if the pump ever did leak, it would leak into the main tank.

As far as the throw wholes weakening the bottom of the glass, this has been a concern of mine as well. My solution is using laminated glass and if you look at the S/S frame you will see it has three cross members, the bottom pieces of glass will be silicone onto this frame and it's cross members. Hopefully this will give the whole structure enough strength to with stand any earthquake that does not bring down the building. My expectations are this build should hold up to an 8.2 Quake.

Thanks for your comments, I think if I had to do it over again I'd follow your advice and have made the tank a little smaller and run the pupping on the outside instead of throw the bottom.

 

[captngreg]

Posted By DNA

I don't think the speakers in the stand is a good idea.
Midrange and tweeters are probably alright, but the fish will be able to pick up every beat of the bass like someone is banging on the glass.

I was thinking about using 5,000 watt subwoofer to generate the waves in the tank, the power consumption was just too much! LOL :lmao:

All kidding aside the stereo system and the speakers are built into a bar a crossed from the aquarium build. I built the bar and wainscoting as a test platform to proof my proposed design for the aquarium woodwork.

 

[NEPTHEA]

very nice start. will be tagging along

 

[captngreg]

One thing I think I need to clarify, in the above pictures you will see a piece of ¾" plywood in the S/S frame. This piece of ¾" plywood is just a stand in for the ¾" laminated glass bottom of the aquarium. Once all the plumping is finished, the frame and the ¾" plywood will be given to the glass people as a pattern to cut the actual glass base.

 

[Ldagger]

Looking good, are those mangroves outside in your planter?

 

[canyousee]

I know every thing is just put in place and not in there final spot,so you may have a plan to do what i'm thinking,I would put rubber mats under your pumps to help reduce the noise in your small condo.The noise from all the pumps and such is the only thing about may set up I wish I could change/improve on. Nice set up i love your view.

 

[captngreg]

Posted by; canyousee

I know every thing is just put in place and not in there final spot,so you may have a plan to do what i'm thinking,I would put rubber mats under your pumps to help reduce the noise in your small condo.The noise from all the pumps and such is the only thing about may set up I wish I could change/improve on. Nice set up i love your view.

Thanks, The dolphin pumps are very quiet, maybe one of the quietest pumps out there.
Each pump comes with its own Anti Vibration Noise Dampening Pump Pad.

 

[ladybugs]

Nice work captngreg

Subscribed