Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank) - split
- Thread starter nineball
- Start date
Jessie Gray
New member
Truly the most beautiful yank I have seen and great picts too. congradulations on an amazing job Peter , Shawn and teem.
dave.m
Active member
Something I am curious about with the new lighting regime: I know that Peter was fascinated with the glowing fluorescent colours he got from his corals in the early morning and late evening hours with the previous lights. Do you still get these colours with the new LEDs?
I remember Peter had despaired of ever being able to capture the fluorescence on camera. Did you ever work that out or is it still the holy grail of photographing the tank?
Thx,
Dave.M
I remember Peter had despaired of ever being able to capture the fluorescence on camera. Did you ever work that out or is it still the holy grail of photographing the tank?
Thx,
Dave.M
Spectre2006
Reef Addict
how did you handle the humidity issue, to protect the home, most indoor pools if not isolated will cause humidity damage.
dave.m
Active member
The top of the display tank is enclosed and negative air pressure is maintained by a strong fan that pulls any evaporation into the fishroom which is separate and is located behind the tank. The fishroom is isolated from the house and has its own separate HVAC system as well as additional 2-stage air conditioning. The fishroom is entirely clad in marble which acts as a heat sink and helps stabilize room temperature.
Dave.M
Dave.M
Last edited:
nineball
Active member
Thank you Chingchai, you continue to be my primary inspiration so this tank can't be second to none........... I spend most of my time working with Mr. Wilson just to try catching up to you. This is an impossible task I think.
I haven't heard from Andy lately, I assume he must be buried in snow!!!
Peter
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Dave answered the humidity question well. The only thing I would change would be blowing the exhaust from above the tank outside, rather than into the fish room where it needs to be moved once again. In doing this, we have a negative pressure above the tank, and positive pressure in the fish room. That warm humid air has to go somewhere.
The HRV saves the heat and puts in back into the return air. In our case, we need to expel that air, not save it. We are planning to put an exhaust fan in that does not go through an HRV. I was hoping that we could modify our HRV so it doesn't save the heat, in other words, just exchanges air from inside with outside. Apparently, this modification cannot be done for some reason. The heat exchange unit in the HRV is simply a block of corrugated polycarbonate, like the stuff used for signs. I think we can just remove all or most of the panels and it will export the hot air, butte experts tell me it won't work. I'm not that kind of expert
The silly part is we are paying to cool the fish room concurrent to saving the heat. Mother Nature gives away free cold air all winter (that's August - June for those of you who don't live in Canada, yet we are paying the utility company for the same service
We have a spin-off problem, in that the air conditioner is acting as a dehumidifier. This is a standard issue with AC, but in our case the drain isn't level so condensed water pools in the AC and dries into our mangrove system. The fins are aluminum but there may be some copper exposure somewhere in there.
If we put in an "out" fan, and passive air intake, we will maintain negative pressure, save energy, and regulate temp and humidity better, not to mention saving the house from humidity damage.
We are down from three 1300w metal halide fixtures to one, and that one will be gone this week too. With it will go a lot of heat so the dynamic will change. This is where LED owners are discovering that heaters are necessary
We have successfully built up a very nice collection of fish for the tank. We have had very few losses and only had one breakout of disease in the tank, a mild case of icy that went away in a few days on its own. We currently have three moorish idols, a blue spot jawfish, and an achilles tang in the quarantine system. The next batch of fish will be some more anthias from Micronesia. After that, we are considering decommissioning the Mars systems and thanking them for a job well done. We are considering a coral frag grow-out system as this is where our focus will be in the future. We would keep one Mars system for future fish, but three systems is overkill and wasted servicing resources.
Peter really liked the commercial coral tank I built for another project so we may try to adapt a similar design. We just need to send Judy out to a weekend spa so she won't find out
This style of shallow coral tank allows for maximum gas exchange, flow and illumination. The DC pump only uses 40w to provide adequate flow and return from the sump.
Here it is with one of Peter's old metal halide fixtures. The best part, is Peter has an excuse to upgrade all of his older model LEDs on his tank (16 fixtures) and repurpose them for a coral farm tank. I say he applies for an aquaculture pioneering grant from the government of Canada
The HRV saves the heat and puts in back into the return air. In our case, we need to expel that air, not save it. We are planning to put an exhaust fan in that does not go through an HRV. I was hoping that we could modify our HRV so it doesn't save the heat, in other words, just exchanges air from inside with outside. Apparently, this modification cannot be done for some reason. The heat exchange unit in the HRV is simply a block of corrugated polycarbonate, like the stuff used for signs. I think we can just remove all or most of the panels and it will export the hot air, butte experts tell me it won't work. I'm not that kind of expert
The silly part is we are paying to cool the fish room concurrent to saving the heat. Mother Nature gives away free cold air all winter (that's August - June for those of you who don't live in Canada
, yet we are paying the utility company for the same serviceWe have a spin-off problem, in that the air conditioner is acting as a dehumidifier. This is a standard issue with AC, but in our case the drain isn't level so condensed water pools in the AC and dries into our mangrove system. The fins are aluminum but there may be some copper exposure somewhere in there.
If we put in an "out" fan, and passive air intake, we will maintain negative pressure, save energy, and regulate temp and humidity better, not to mention saving the house from humidity damage.
We are down from three 1300w metal halide fixtures to one, and that one will be gone this week too. With it will go a lot of heat so the dynamic will change. This is where LED owners are discovering that heaters are necessary
We have successfully built up a very nice collection of fish for the tank. We have had very few losses and only had one breakout of disease in the tank, a mild case of icy that went away in a few days on its own. We currently have three moorish idols, a blue spot jawfish, and an achilles tang in the quarantine system. The next batch of fish will be some more anthias from Micronesia. After that, we are considering decommissioning the Mars systems and thanking them for a job well done. We are considering a coral frag grow-out system as this is where our focus will be in the future. We would keep one Mars system for future fish, but three systems is overkill and wasted servicing resources.
Peter really liked the commercial coral tank I built for another project so we may try to adapt a similar design. We just need to send Judy out to a weekend spa so she won't find out
This style of shallow coral tank allows for maximum gas exchange, flow and illumination. The DC pump only uses 40w to provide adequate flow and return from the sump.
Here it is with one of Peter's old metal halide fixtures. The best part, is Peter has an excuse to upgrade all of his older model LEDs on his tank (16 fixtures) and repurpose them for a coral farm tank. I say he applies for an aquaculture pioneering grant from the government of Canada
nineball
Active member
Actually I get even better results than before. As great as Mr. Wilson's photography is and its the best yet, I still can't describe just how fantastic the morning and evening settings are. There is a favourite time for me that I really enjoy now and that is around 8:50 pm my time. The best summary I can make is that it is like turning up the contrast on the tank. Its dark outside so I can eliminate all ambient light. The tank lighting at that time consists of the two outside tracks only having the royal blue lights on (4 in each unit) for a total of 16 units covering the 24 linear feet. Add to that 9 more units running down the centre of the canopy with 10% for 30 whites, four reds, 4 UV, 4 royal blues and 18 standard blues and you get a phenomenal result of normal coloration for the corals under subdued white light with a dramatic increase in reef florescent colours that we all hope for. Although subtle, the red LED's do have a measurable additional aesthetic impact that is very pleasing for those of us with a critical eye. The UV's are in the visible range but extremely subtle. We experimented with all the lights off with just the UV's and only certain corals became visible with colours that we had never seen either under the white or the blue lights. What we don't know yet is whether the UV and or red LED's actually cause a pigmentation change in the corals that is observable under white light but we are determined to follow this closely.
Sorry to be so long winded but the answer to your opening question as to the florescence is that I believe it is actually increased in the sense that we can observe it better. This is due in part to the fact that the dimming of the white lights actually causes the white lights to be even bluer due to the fact that the lights are a 2 watt rather than a 3 watt LED which means they are not being overdriven giving us a bluer light when dimmed.
The true colours the eye sees under these conditions will continue to be in my opinion the holy grail for photographers. I am working at the moment with a videographer who is determined to try and crack the code with a video of the tank comparing all the various states the lights go through in a 24 hour period. Hopefully we will be able to share the results when its completed. Before that can be done we have to swap out the one remaining MH/T5 aqua medic unit. and we will be running the entire display tank canopy with LED's exclusively. The section over the Bonsai reef near the fish room has been running on LED's for at least 9 months with absolutely no compromise in coral health, growth and colour. I have reached the point in this build where I can honestly say, based on practical experience and research that LED's are a 'Best Practice' for marine reef display tanks of up to 30"s deep. The results I am getting with this brand of LED have encouraged me to consider putting SPS corals on the ground as our experience so far has suggested we can do without compromising the health, the growth rate and the colouration of the corals.
Spectre2006
Reef Addict
Very nice in all the detail and design put into the system. The mangroves look amazing. Anyway to calculate how much nutrient export is occurring for the space utilized. Could the space be used more efficiently for a artificial nutrient export. Did you use miracle mud for the mangrove substrate?
Similar threads
