Building Big Bertha: 800G
- Thread starter bbrantley
- Start date
Howdy all,
As usual, everything's taking about twice as long as I'd like. Fortunately, all of the recent delays have been because I've been taking time to do other fun stuff and haven't been around much. I finally got some time this long weekend to get a few things accomplished. Let's see...
Got the preliminary rockwork placed into the tank. I used a combination of acrylic "feet", acrylic rods, and regular stacking, depending on how heavy and stable the rocks were for the various piles. Nothing is glued together, so I preserve my right to change things around later if I realize I did something stupid. I've also attempted to leave plenty of open space, both around the rock structure so I can have emphasis on fish, and above the rock so there is room for lots of coral growth. I also needed to leave a little room for some live rock, though I will put a lot of the live rock chunks into the sump or refugium rather than in the main.
One thing I like about the layout is that it leaves a large, sandy patch open and visible from the corner... which is the "average" view you get from any other part of the great room. I've also tried to make sure there is room along all the sides to get to the walls easily for scraping. Yum, scraping.
Here's a shot of one of the pillars showing the acrylic pegs:
Somehow I managed to design this pillar so that you can't see the pegs at all from the front. Go me.
...and here's me putting some sand in. Thanks for taking the pics, Mermaid!
...tank with sand mostly put in. It's only an inch or so thick.
...and, finally, a couple of shots with the lights on just for fun. The tank walls are pretty grimy, and you can see the continuous drip of DI water already starting in. This afternoon the tank has about 3 inches of water; my math says it will be full in just under 9 days! In the meantime, I have a disaster area of a garage to clean up, a RO/DI storage system to design and plumb, and I can get started building the stands for the fuge and grow-out tanks if I'm feeling really productive.
That's all for now!
Ben
As usual, everything's taking about twice as long as I'd like. Fortunately, all of the recent delays have been because I've been taking time to do other fun stuff and haven't been around much. I finally got some time this long weekend to get a few things accomplished. Let's see...
Got the preliminary rockwork placed into the tank. I used a combination of acrylic "feet", acrylic rods, and regular stacking, depending on how heavy and stable the rocks were for the various piles. Nothing is glued together, so I preserve my right to change things around later if I realize I did something stupid. I've also attempted to leave plenty of open space, both around the rock structure so I can have emphasis on fish, and above the rock so there is room for lots of coral growth. I also needed to leave a little room for some live rock, though I will put a lot of the live rock chunks into the sump or refugium rather than in the main.
One thing I like about the layout is that it leaves a large, sandy patch open and visible from the corner... which is the "average" view you get from any other part of the great room. I've also tried to make sure there is room along all the sides to get to the walls easily for scraping. Yum, scraping.
Here's a shot of one of the pillars showing the acrylic pegs:
Somehow I managed to design this pillar so that you can't see the pegs at all from the front. Go me.
...and here's me putting some sand in. Thanks for taking the pics, Mermaid!
...tank with sand mostly put in. It's only an inch or so thick.
...and, finally, a couple of shots with the lights on just for fun. The tank walls are pretty grimy, and you can see the continuous drip of DI water already starting in. This afternoon the tank has about 3 inches of water; my math says it will be full in just under 9 days! In the meantime, I have a disaster area of a garage to clean up, a RO/DI storage system to design and plumb, and I can get started building the stands for the fuge and grow-out tanks if I'm feeling really productive.
That's all for now!
Ben
Thanks, Dave! I thought so, too, at first. Then I sat down and started looking at all the other stuff I have to do to get the whole thing set up, and I realized that nine days is perfect: I'm home for the next two weeks, I'll be motivated by the constant dripping and filling, and I have about two weeks of after-work effort to get things whipped into reasonable shape, I think.
So, cup half-filled?
Ben
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10031588#post10031588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
took about 28 days to fill mine! Looking really good Ben and I like the simple but elegant trim. Very nice.
Thank you Sir Jonathan. The trim was an easy choice; it matches the cabinetry on the other end of the great room and provides some balance in the room. I originally hated the "drop-weighting" where the bottom portion is thicker than the top, but, true to form, the eye balances it out pretty well anyhow. And, regardless, it was unavoidable.
28 days huh? Wow. I did a bunch of testing, plotting a production curve for my RO/DI against temperature, and decided I would feed it at 92F and 70psi. It's zipping along pretty good as a result, and I have a lot of nice volume in the tank already to consume a bunch of the space.
Ben
No knock taken! Great question, and something I've worried about myself many a time.
Here are the answers, I hope, in no particular order:1. System size. A big system's inertia is a huge asset in the short-term battle. (This cuts both ways, of course.)
2. Careful stocking. I am going to try to stay away from the picky eaters, the fish that have to be fed 10 times a day on the half-hour, and so on. There are plenty of beauties out there without subjecting myself to torture. (Of course, it's easy to say this now...)
3. Automation. I'll try to have the system do as much as possible without me. I had a 225G, albeit admittedly with a much lower bioload, that managed just fine during my absences. I know from experience that the biggest, most annoying thing that I can't automate is scraping. My, how I dread scraping.
4. The mermaid. She will gladly feed and keep an eye on the little buggers when I must be away.
5. House sitter. We have dogs that have to be kept when we are both away, anyway, so we have a trustworthy friend who stays here frequently. Frequently enough, in fact, that we can afford to invest the time to help him understanding basic troubleshooting and the like. I am almost always available quickly when traveling since it is mostly business.
6. Monitoring. The Aquatronica, some web-software mangling, and a webcam that'll go in the corner of the room will help me keep track of things and diagnose problems from afar as needed.
7. Engineering fail-safes. I'm convinced that there's no way I can preempt every failure mode in the system, but I've learned a lot from observing others' failures, and I've sat around and thought about it a bunch, too. The whole room is on a generator that will trigger after 15 seconds of mains outage. A variety of features, from passive simple stuff like overflows to active stuff like flow monitors and solenoids, will work together to try to avoid the disasters I can think of in advance.
I would welcome other input into what I'm missing and what I should consider down the road. This topic is one of the most fascinating and challenging to me as far as the engineering and design side of the reef tank goes, and I think it's still poorly -- or at least haphazardly -- addressed in the "literature" as well as the online communities.
Ben
Ben, I don't think you've left out anything in terms of thinking ahead and forseeing disasters as you can predict them. You can't expect to have a 100% flawless system, but you can strive to come close. Obviously you have all the most common tank crash scenarios covered (powerfailure being number one). Also, having a trustworthy person around to watch after things while you're not around is truly worth its weight in gold in this hobby. For any of the unpredictable disasters at least you'll have someone there to call you and help you if neccessary.
And I totally agree with you that this topic is one the most fun and challenging aspects of the hobby. I think pretty much everyone here who gets really into reefkeeping and designing their systems have some sort of engineering gene in common that drives us to set up such insanely complex aquariums (at least they seem insanely complex to other 'normal' people that see our tanks)
And I totally agree with you that this topic is one the most fun and challenging aspects of the hobby. I think pretty much everyone here who gets really into reefkeeping and designing their systems have some sort of engineering gene in common that drives us to set up such insanely complex aquariums (at least they seem insanely complex to other 'normal' people that see our tanks)
rmougey
Chair, MACNA 2014
Hey Ben,
When you get the lovely beast up and running, DARC may ask you for a tour! I've stolen... er... I mean... borrowed a couple of your ideas for my remote refugium. My water volume is only about 25% of yours.... so it's just a baby.
Enjoying the progress.....
-Rob
When you get the lovely beast up and running, DARC may ask you for a tour! I've stolen... er... I mean... borrowed a couple of your ideas for my remote refugium. My water volume is only about 25% of yours.... so it's just a baby.
Enjoying the progress.....
-Rob
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10033851#post10033851 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rmougey
Hey Ben,
When you get the lovely beast up and running, DARC may ask you for a tour! I've stolen... er... I mean... borrowed a couple of your ideas for my remote refugium. My water volume is only about 25% of yours.... so it's just a baby.
Enjoying the progress.....
-Rob
Hey Rob,
I'd be happy to host the DARC. I'm still a tad confused on the DARC v RMRC v other clubs, but I've only been to a couple of meetings (RMRC, I believe) so I will try to stay on the political fence.
Good luck with your remote fuge! Let me know if my plan sucks. Hehe,
Ben
Thanks Geoff. I admit I haven't figured out the whole water management thing just yet. Here's what I know/think so far:
I've got two 60g plastic cylinders that I think will hold freshwater and saltwater respectively, and both will get topped off by the RO/DI automatically. I'm going to construct a couple manifolds (input and output) so I can use one pump to mix and drain either tank, that much is also for sure. In a pinch, I can salt up the freshwater container and have 120g of change ready to go. (If I need more than that, I am pretty much screwed the way I have it planned right now. I may add a larger, sealed container of RO/DI in the garage for emergency use... but then I have to deal with it freezing in the winter, going "stale" as it acquires contamination, yadda yadda...)
The freshwater 60g container will have an output drawn through a LiterMeter peristaltic pump set to a maximum flow slightly higher than the max observed evaporation rate. I think the LiterMeter itself will be triggered by a top-off sensor tied to the aquarium controller -- or maybe direct; not sure yet? Eventually the topoff will actually be pushed through a kalk reactor, though the path and delivery conditions will be the same as if it weren't in the chain.
Not coincidentally, the 60g saltwater storage vat is the same capacity as the 65g propagation/physical QT tank. (Not a chemical QT since it's tied into the whole system.) Over time, I expect the prop tank to be used less and less. When it is unused, the water change will be extra-simple, entailing only a quick disconnect and swap of the water in the "empty" tank.
I haven't decided whether a fancy doodad like a Dialyseas would be a wise choice for this tank. I like the idea that it's mostly automated. (See earlier discussion on that!) I don't like the up-front cost much, and I'm not sure about its operating cost-effectiveness, either. Fortunately, I can think about that later.
Would love to hear your feedback on what I "know" so far,
Ben
rmougey
Chair, MACNA 2014
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10033947#post10033947 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bbrantley
Hey Rob,
I'm still a tad confused on the DARC v RMRC v other clubs, but I've only been to a couple of meetings (RMRC, I believe) so I will try to stay on the political fence.
Ben
Yeah... so is everyone else.
The easiest thing to remember is that RMRC holds more formal, regional type events (and they have local chapters). DARC is simply a group of folks who like to hang out and look at each others tanks (sort of a reefers version of 'show me yours and I'll show you mine!'). Many of us, myself included, belong to both.We are all afflicted by the same malady.... an incessant need to create aqueous saline containers at high altitude... and then populate same.
We'd love to come see.... pick a club... any club.
-Rob
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10034005#post10034005 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rmougey
Yeah... so is everyone else.
We are all afflicted by the same malady.... an incessant need to create aqueous saline containers at high altitude... and then populate same.
We'd love to come see.... pick a club... any club.
-Rob
Got it; I can remember that. All are welcome at Casa Brantley,
Ben
