Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)
- Thread starter nineball
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Antonais1391
New member
WOW that skimmers amazing! are you going to name it?? lol wondering cause my LFS named there skimmers Thelma and Luise. whats the canister resting on the middle tank for?
nineball
Active member
The skimmers name is Robbie the Robot from 'Lost in Space'. The canister is the Calc reactor. It will be mounted on the wall with a bunch of other similar technology.
Peter
Antonais1391
New member
very impressive. what else is being mounted on the wall?? has the aquascaping started yet?? or is that a update for tomorrow?
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Now that you are sure that your rock has no die-off, you should add ammonium chloride (not household ammonia/ammonium hydroxide) to feed the nitrifying bacteria (nitrogen cycle).
You can simulate a bioload by adding 0.01 grams of ammonium chloride (dry crystals) per gallon of water. This will give you an ammonia level of 1ppm. Check the ammonia level to make sure you got the dose right. Depending on how much of a filter bed you have already established, it will take one day or several for the ammonia to go down to zero. When it hits zero, add a slightly higher dose (0.015 grams/gallon) to render an ammonia level of 1.5ppm. Continue to dose at this level until you start stocking the tank. The livestock will supply all the ammonia you need for the nitrogen cycle.
You will start to see nitrite as soon as the nitrifying bacteria converts the ammonia. It is safe to add livestock once the rock is able to maintain nitrite at zero while you are dosing ammonia, which may take a few weeks depending on your rocks bacterial biodiversity/filtering capacity. Nitrate will start to show in tests after a few weeks of nitrite reduction. The family of bacteria that assimilate nitrate take the longest to establish. Once you have established nitrates below 10 ppm you can start adding sps corals. At this point in time phosphates will be a concern. Throughout this cycling process you need to monitor PH as it may drop with heavy bacterial growth.
Alternatively you can use livestock to feed the nitrogen cycle but it puts a lot of stress on the organisms you use and it is more of a shotgun dosing system. The chemical route is faster and safer.
You can simulate a bioload by adding 0.01 grams of ammonium chloride (dry crystals) per gallon of water. This will give you an ammonia level of 1ppm. Check the ammonia level to make sure you got the dose right. Depending on how much of a filter bed you have already established, it will take one day or several for the ammonia to go down to zero. When it hits zero, add a slightly higher dose (0.015 grams/gallon) to render an ammonia level of 1.5ppm. Continue to dose at this level until you start stocking the tank. The livestock will supply all the ammonia you need for the nitrogen cycle.
You will start to see nitrite as soon as the nitrifying bacteria converts the ammonia. It is safe to add livestock once the rock is able to maintain nitrite at zero while you are dosing ammonia, which may take a few weeks depending on your rocks bacterial biodiversity/filtering capacity. Nitrate will start to show in tests after a few weeks of nitrite reduction. The family of bacteria that assimilate nitrate take the longest to establish. Once you have established nitrates below 10 ppm you can start adding sps corals. At this point in time phosphates will be a concern. Throughout this cycling process you need to monitor PH as it may drop with heavy bacterial growth.
Alternatively you can use livestock to feed the nitrogen cycle but it puts a lot of stress on the organisms you use and it is more of a shotgun dosing system. The chemical route is faster and safer.
digitalchrisg
New member
That looks more like a water heater than a skimmer, man I am just drooling over this build. Keep the pics coming, they are great!
nineball
Active member
Sean, thank you. I have to ask some dumb questions with this material. Are you suggesting this process be done in the temp storage tanks before the transfer to the tank??
Peter
Padrino
New member
Peter,
I don't understand LOL. you have a 4000 square foot basement and you build a closet for a fishroom. What happened???? It seams like the one end of the equipment sled is almost inaccessible...
No seriously the long awaited pictures are awesome. Certainly on of the nicest fish rooms. You will need to post more pictures of it as it comes together and ill add it to the fishrooms/nice sumps thread
You must be excited
Rob
I don't understand LOL. you have a 4000 square foot basement and you build a closet for a fishroom. What happened???? It seams like the one end of the equipment sled is almost inaccessible...
No seriously the long awaited pictures are awesome. Certainly on of the nicest fish rooms. You will need to post more pictures of it as it comes together and ill add it to the fishrooms/nice sumps thread
You must be excited
Rob
Antonais1391
New member
the floor will soon loose its salt water virginity lol. can you give a run through of what each chamber is for??
Padrino
New member
http://cdn-3-service.phanfare.com/i..._Web_3/0_0_56653bf0c0f0eb711761806333dc6356_1
LOVE THIS SHOT. LOVE THE ROCKWORK.
also it looks like you used pecs lines? is that correct? That is not for the tank plumbing is it? If soo brass fittings are just as bad as copper as the RO/DI water you will be using will pull the copper ions out of the brass which will end of killing your invertibrates. If not, disregard this.
AWESOME BUILD PETER!
LOVE THIS SHOT. LOVE THE ROCKWORK.
also it looks like you used pecs lines? is that correct? That is not for the tank plumbing is it? If soo brass fittings are just as bad as copper as the RO/DI water you will be using will pull the copper ions out of the brass which will end of killing your invertibrates. If not, disregard this.
AWESOME BUILD PETER!
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
Not a dumb question at all. Yes, dose ammonia in the rock holding tanks as it is the rock you are feeding, not the water or filtration devices lying around.
It would be beneficial if you can do the same with the sand. The denitrifying bacteria that consumes nitrate does not even begin to form until the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite, and in turn nitrate into nitrate has developed.
Denitrification (nitrate reduction) is the main goal with sand beds. As I mentioned earlier, this process takes awhile and is the last to start if you don't treat the tank chemically (ammonia).
Start dosing lightly to be sure of the concentration of the ammonium chloride. You may also mess up the math with displacement etc. An ammonia test kit will assure you end up with the 1 ppm ammonia level you need.
If your rock hasn't been starved of nitrogen, it will reduce the ammonia quickly (in a day or two). If the water has been nitrogen poor, it will take as long as a week for the ammonia spike to drop to zero.
Commercial fish wholesalers use ammonia to simulate high bioloads when fish stocks get low between orders. All your rock needs now is nitrogen (ammonia) and good water flow for oxygen. The biological filtration process is working independent of your protein skimmers and whatever else you are currently using with the rock. If you keep the bacteria on the rock fed and monitor it with test kits, it will jump start your display and fish room. You will not get the diatom algae and green slime algae blooms that you traditionally get. You can also turn your lights and protein skimmer on earlier in the process (right away instead of a few weeks down the road).
nineball
Active member
there is no metal fitting used in any line dedicated to any part of the entire aquaria ecosystem. If you are sharp and spot a metalic fitting then that is a house line and NOT a fish line.
Peter
Reefski's
Active member
Peter:
in the last photo what is the canister looking thing? is there also a UV in the same photo?
i few pictures up there is a pipe and wire coming through the wall behind the sump tank, what are these for? it seems like it might be difficult to access these once equipment is all in place.
Carl
in the last photo what is the canister looking thing? is there also a UV in the same photo?
i few pictures up there is a pipe and wire coming through the wall behind the sump tank, what are these for? it seems like it might be difficult to access these once equipment is all in place.
Carl
nineball
Active member
digitalchrisg, Thank you. If that skimmer turns out to be a water heater I think we will have the chillers to deal with it!!!!
Peter
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