Cale's Australian SPS Nano - wheels in motion

[Cale W]

Hi everyone, hope the tanks are thriving !

I am a reefer from downunder and after a recent disaster whilst i was on holidays in Fiji I am contemplating upgrading my nano tank. It had been running for almost 11months after a move to Melbourne with good SPS growth. At this stage i would greatly appreciate as many comments as possible so i can edit the design before getting quotes. I will discuss all other equipment being used shortly.

Existing Nano: Aquaone 510 (approx 75L)
New Tank: 2ft rimless custom.

Tank Dimensions = 60cm(l) x 50cm(w) x 40cm (h)
Display Dimensions (ie excludes overflow region) = 60cm(l) x 42cm(w) x 40cm (h) = Approx 100L

Reasons for Upgrade:
1) Increase volume and hence stability for SPS
2) Utilize beneficial effects of DSB and refugium in the sump
3) Hide equipment except flow pumps.

The idea behind the tank is that i didn't want an overflow intruding on the dimensions of the tank. By making the last 8cm of the tank the overflow i can avoid that problem. I figure 8cm will be enough to get my hand down into it if required. As you can see below i am thinking of using a siphon and back up durso (for noise and bubble control) and single return, all in 1 or 3/4 inch. I have not decided whether to make the front panel starfire as this will depend on price and the benefits in respect of the width of the glass.

Here are the images: sorry but i cant work out how to change it to cm.

At first i was thinking about making the overflow out of acrylic but after speaking to some fellow reefers (thanks Rod) i think it will be more sensible to make it glass and line the inner front and side panels with black acrylic. This will add strength due to the inferior adhesion of acrylic to glass and it will mean i don’t scratch the acrylic when cleaning off coraline algae.

My main concern is the bulkhead positions in the overflow. The reason i have the holes high in the overflow is to minimize noise by keeping the water level close to the top. I guess by tweaking the siphon rate i can adjust the water level anyway. Any comments on how to improve it would be great.

I was just thinking of pluming the bulkheads as such but offsetting the bulkheads as shown in the pictures above. The alternative is pluming them at the same height, as Guv did below, and having an internal right angle on the durso to raise its level within the overflow. What are peoples thoughts on these two (or other alternative) designs. Cheers!

Here is a pic of roughly what it would look like from behind.
Please note: I pinched this photo from Guv's thread located at http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=168430&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight

Thanks for reading everyone!

 

[gas4544]

Greetings,

Would you be placing anything into the rear overflow section of the tank? For example, you could place a heater in there or section off part of it to be a refugium that was lit from the behind.

You could also have the overflow teeth extend the entire length of the divider. Perhaps having two returns plumbed to LocLine would give you more flexibility in varying your waterflow in the display section.

What are your plans for the sump?

Gary

 

[Cale W]

Hi Gary. Thx for your reply. At this stage the overflow area was just going to be for aesthetic reasons. There is the option of placing ruble in there to stimulate pod breeding but this would likely act as a nitrogen trap. There is also the option of placing a DSB in it. I could definitely place a heater etc in there but would prefer to place all equipment except for the tunze flow pumps within the sump. Expanding the overflow the length of the tank wouldnt be a bad idea. I coul use something along the lines of

Sourece: http://www.aqua-medic.com/overflow_comb.shtml

I cant only think that the benifit of this would be enabling the overlfow to cope with a higher flow rate and quieting the noise generated by dispersing the flow evenly in a trickle. What do people think?

Having the extra return would be sensible but im not sure about the lock lines atm. I would want to keep them discrete. What did you specifically have in mind?

I was going to use my old aquaone 510 (75l) initially and upgrade it to a more suitable 3 chamber sump down the track.