archway reef build

[easttexas]

I must not have taken a picture of the canopy during this phase, sorry. After I got everything that had to be worked around done, I got all my boys (3 teen agers) to help me move it back to the shop to finish out and sand, paint, stain.

This was the plans for the canopy

I only wanted it to be 12" high, so I cut the hinges into the top to give me more room to work in the hood. I will be building gliders to hang the LEDs inside so that they can be moved out of the way. You will notice that I modified the stand a little, I thought the sump would go in with the center braces, but It need about 4 more inches to clear, so I changed the one side and now the sump comes in and out with ease. The opening is only 36" which is well within the spanability of the 2x6 used.

 

[easttexas]

your now caught up with my pictures. I have all but 2 of the lower doors done, but I ran out of 1X's so I'll finish them on Sunday. My cabinets are all Shaker style and so is the tank stand now.

If you paid attention to the backgrounds in my shop, you'll figure out what I do for a living. I only build Houses for me; Mine, 3 rent houses, a guest house and my shop (4000 sf) so my schedule is really weird and I have a fishing tournament Saturday so its blown already.

 

[easttexas]

Oh, I've had the tank filled up with water for the last 2 days, not a drop on the floor and there really isn't any noticeable bowing. I did take the precaution of doing a "tip and pour" on all the bottom seams with WO40 so I had no doubts

 

[easttexas]

Oh, one last thought before I head in to work.

Anybody see anything wrong, or that I should change in the following rough draft of the plumbing. I'm still tossing Ideas around in my head for the closed loop. I've got 4 1" Schedule 80 bulkheads for the bottom. I'm thinking of having 2 of them come out under the rocks and blow thru the rocks in various places, and like 6 outlets blowing diagonally at the glass and back towards the overflows. Any thoughts?

 

[dave.m]

Suggest you consider using the CL to create a gyre flow around the tank, and an Oceans Motion or Flow Wolf to regulate the CL in two halves to circulate one direction for six hours, and then the opposite way for the next six hours to even out coral growth.

Dave.M

 

[easttexas]

Thanks for the input Dave, I did research both of those, and studied the flow diagrams on the OM site, but I have to right them off due to cost and all the trouble people have keeping them running and not leaking (OM at least, Fl Wf looks great)

I already have two WP40's which are like 5K GPH each wide open. I got the 12-24V power supplies to slow them down until the corals start to grow out.

I was hoping this idea would work, and just started an experiment in the temp tank to see:

If I have all the returns and CL ports (simulating CL in temp tank with an old Korillia) flowing from the far end to the overflow, and pushing them against the WP40's on the over flow side.

I should be having 900-1000 going thru the returns,
2250-2500 thru the closed loop,
and I personally feel that you don't count the wave maker pumps if you are just pulsing them, however, I normally run in random mode, so the sum total is still considerably under the 5K each, lets say I run them in "Else" mode (like reef stream) and combined they calculate out to 5000 total flow, this is all speculation though on the wave makers.

so that would give me a tank turn-over rate of somewhere in the neiborhood of 8,000 to 8,500 GPH or 47.22 TPH

This of course may not work so well, I could have a situation where the WP40 flow never makes it to the other end of the tank because of the push back of the other 2 pumps. However, I should get some really spectacular random flow currents as the 2 opposing water streams crash together and mix. I can also let the 2 WP's not sync and get even more randomness, but again, in practice it may not work. I'll watch my temp tank and see whats happening in each of the wave modes. It's in W2 at 16 volts right now and I watched the food I feed this morning, the chaos looks promising.

 

[easttexas]

oh, and Dave, I was considering the Gyre flow idea, but not switching directions, but haven't any experience with it yet. I was thinking that with the Gyre, the flow would multiply as the water starts flowing in a circle giving me more actual usable flow? I just don't know yet, so I'll listen to every idea thrown at me.

I did throw one of the DC12,000 pumps in the new tank yesterday and the set it to flow in a circle, and it was incredible, but had many dead spots in the corners. I put some PVC elbows in to see what happened and they all ended up in the far corners from the pump. the pump was in the corner under the overflow. It definitely agitated the water

 

[easttexas]

A thought just occuyred to me, thanks Dave.

I planned on setting the Apex up to control the WP40's, I could program them to run just one at a time wide open for a time, and then switch to the other one. With the Apex control, your can program it to run in pulses from like 15% to 50% synced for a portion of the day, and then 75-100% anti sync for a time and set different pulse widths for each "mode" I want to run. What do you think.

BTW, I also planned on the Apex controlling the closed loop pump as well, run it like 100% during the day and drop it to like 25% at night was the plan. The mod to the do this is cheap, and the programming has already been figured out and published. The Apex can control 4 pumps off the main unit.

 

[dave.m]

The benefit of the gyre is, as you pointed out, that with more than one pump working in a circular manner, you can build up quite a strong flow. But over time you will see your corals grow into weird shapes if the flow is only in one direction. In nature they are exposed to a changing tide, thus the suggestion for reversing the flow direction every six hours.

Another thing to consider is a vertical gyre, i.e. like a barrel-roll effect along the length of the tank. This has the benefit of constantly turning over lower water with surface water to get maximum oxygenation. You would still want to reverse the flow every six hours. Lots of things have been tried and I don't know that any one pattern has been proven the best.

Once the free water area above your reef gets filled in with coral growth you will need to consider how that will reduce flow, so regardless of what flow design you come up with today you should be prepared to modify it in the future. Flexibility is the key.

Dave.M

 

[easttexas]

been runnin my flow experiment for a couple days now. With the WP40 pump in "else" mode, it just totally overpowers the returns and the Korillia I've got pushing against it. I can't even really tell its changing speeds other than the change in pitch of the very slight hum it makes. When I put it in pulse mode (W1) it actually does what I want it to, it makes the water push back and forth with lots of little eddies everywhere. I scraped the coralline algae growth off the back wall and watched it flow around for a bit today.

All the chores are done now, and we didn't get a check yesterday (needed to cull one more time to get rid of the last 14 incher and we would have got paid ) so I'm heading out to my shop to finish the shaker style doors for the stand. Should be ready for paint and stain tomorrow.

 

[easttexas]

tweaked the flow experiment a little today with good results. I adjusted the way the pumps were pointed so that they were not right at each other, but sort of shearing off each others streams. Took the turkey baster to the rocks before changing my filter socks today and watched the particles flow around. it drastically increased the amount of turbulence with the WP40 pulsing (w1) I think that when I program the Apex to control the pumps, I'll have it run one side in "else" mode with min and max at 25 and 100 for several hours and the other side in a weaker W1 mode and this should get a very good Gyre flow going that will switch direction (Apex programming) in increments of hours. looks like I'll have like 5 or 6 pump profiles to run throughout the day and have to command each pump separately. but it should work well

 

[easttexas]

update as well:

order 100 pounds of BRs Reef saver rock (don't want to cure the pukani, and volumetrically you get the same amount per dollar spent) and another 40 pounds of Bahama pink.

That will give me around 175 # of rock and 80# of sand, just over 1" by the sand bed calculators.


I see I've had over 600 views, but only one person giving comments, I hope people are enjoying my build.

 

[1234]

I would ditch the closed loop and just run the WP40's or even the 60's. I ran one on my 100g using a reefflo 3600 hybrid and a Hayward three way ball valve with a 10 rpm ac motor on top turning the valve switching side to side. The intake I used 2x 2" BH's with plastic "speaker" grills to keep out the animals, but I have found the
WP40's on an Apex better and more economical

If I had a tank with your length I would run 2x WP40's on each side - more than enough flow

 

[easttexas]

Thanx for the input 1234. I agree with your suggestion to just use 2 WP40 on each end, but this is almost a peninsula build and I would really like to keep power heads off the viewed end pane (only an inch and a half of the very corner is blocked because I inset the tank in the archway. I already have the pumps, and would love to have an ocean motions but really have a problem with spending over $500 on the device that seems from what I read to have a lot of issues.

 

[easttexas]

update: progress report:

I got the doors finished, the final sanding done, the nail holes filled and started painting the inside. I'll paint first so that I can sand off any that gets where it don't belong.

pic of the kitchen side. the bottom of this is sitting on the lower level, so I have a temporary ledger board (the too shot one) installed. the base board that goes there is scribe fit perfectly to the existing base boards and has to be installed after its in place.

painting the canopy and backs of the doors gloss white

and

and yes to those with good eyes, I am painting this in my home made paint booth. this is the past project I did in it

 

[dave.m]

but this is almost a peninsula build and I would really like to keep power heads off the viewed end pane

Some people put one or more powerheads down the left side of the unexposed end and alternate them with other powerheads down the right side of the unexposed end. This puts all your powerheads at one end and avoids having them seen on the exposed end of the peninsula.

Dave.M

 

[easttexas]

That's kinda been my plan Dave, although your suggestions have changed my mind on how to program the pumps. (alternating the front and back sides power levels to get a Gyre going)

I think I posted this drawing earlier, but is shows 2 powerheads on the right side under the overflow pushing towards the viewed end.

If I have to put a PH on the other end to augment as things grow. . . . .well that's a good problem to have isn't it

 

[dave.m]

I don't know if you have addressed the possibility of in-over-the-top water return. Just another one of many options. All you would see is the mouth of the outlet pipe (usually Loc-Line or eductor) coming down into the tank, and not even that depending on how much of the top of the tank your canopy hides.

e.g. You could bring your sump return into the far end of the peninsula tank through the canopy and have it either flow back into the tank towards the powerhead end or have it blow against the end glass to diffuse the flow.

So many solutions, so little time...

Dave.M

 

[easttexas]

That's the plan Dave. It's hard to see in the smallish pictures that are making it above, but I have the outer 2 bulkheads in the overflow are actually 2 - 1" returns the will go over the top and I have drilled the top braces for 9 - 1/2" returns (just over a 1 1/2" equivalent). it will be a loop so that I get even distribution with all of them pushing back towards the overflows. I was thinking of putting like 2 or 3 links of lock line on each, but haven't decided on that one. probably just gonna start with 45* on the front and back and a 3way corner centered on the end (90*)

hopefully you can see the returns in this one, I'm looking at 8 1/2X11 in color of it

 

[dave.m]

Okay, the thing is that a 1" pipe can only really feed one 1" outlet. The more outlets you put on the 1" pipe, no matter how small they are, are not going to have anywhere near as much force as the original 1" pipe had. This may or may not have been considered when choosing the "head" (resistance to flow) when sizing the return pump.

You would definitely need eductors on these overhead outlets to make up even a portion of the loss (eductors can increase flow up to 4:1).

If you put a really powerful return pump on this line you must use Schedule 80 PVC to withstand the increased pressure.

Dave.M