Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)

[nineball]

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

Remember the first principle Rob. With aquariums and fish rooms we plan the rebuilds before the first drop of salt water hits the tank. I would in retrospect have given three times the square footage to the fish room but then I would be a bachelor and wouldn't have any time for fish!!! :dance::dance::dance:

There's still more equipment going in (like a second chiller, uv and canister filter). Excited???excited??? I would say more like...........petrified. BUT there is lots more to come...........stay tuned.

Peter

 

[nineball]

the floor will soon loose its salt water virginity lol. can you give a run through of what each chamber is for??

I will Antonais as soon as the rest of the equipment arrives. I will probably include a video as well at the time. We expect to have everything in place for a fresh water test in about two weeks. We have to take everything apart one more time for the second chiller.

Peter

 

[artur]

Mr wilson very intresting way to kickstart the nitrogen cycle
Back in 1998 i did some thing similar with my very first attempt at saltwater the guy at the LFS told me to chop a shrimp and put it in the water and then later test the ammonia until there werent any, then I should add fish
What or where do you get the amonium chloride for this proces?

Great build Peter keep it up!

 

[Antonais1391]

speaking of wet test i would do at least 2 of them. what i did with my tank and im glad i did. saved me a lot of head aches.

 

[nineball]

Thanks for the updated pics its much easier to put words to pics...lol all i acn say is WOW. showed my wife all the pics in this thread and she flat out said no way..lol live vicariously i guess great job so far ...love it!!

mynock, you should have told your wife what I told mine. The 'computer room' is not interesting and never visited. The 'terrarium' is a breeze to look after. Look at all the fresh vegetables we will have next winter!!!

Thanks for the compliment Mynock.

Peter

 

[nineball]

Very clever using marble - your wife will never see the saltwater stains!

djm

Dave, you are kidding right? I will be very neat, really........no water gets spilled on my watch!!! If you see my wife in the fish room call 911 and report a murder. I think her exact words were "not over your dead body".

Peter

 

[Antonais1391]

hopefully once fish and corals start to go in she will get into it a tad more

 

[nineball]

Peter,

Great work!

Things are really starting to come together. You must be getting as excited as a child just before Christmas.

Rybren, I've more or less resigned myself to a long process that never ends. I naively thought I would be water testing next week but it looks like it will be the week after. We have decided to not rush it and compromise the quality benchmark we have set for ourselves in this thread. Remember this is a community project.................


Peter

 

[nineball]

That was a wonderful update Peter, well worth the wait:strange::dance:

Rascalson, thanks for the acknowledgment.

Peter

 

[Padrino]

Hey Peter,
good response. You made mention that you are installing a UV sterilizer in the near future. Are you not concerned about destroying everything the bacteria you are trying to create using the ammonia that was suggested by mr. wilson. It will also destroy the plankton that will be in the water column that feeds the entire system and corals. It might be a good idea to have one in the system but only turn it on if you have a serious parasite infestation

 

[Padrino]

Sorry DP

 

[mr.wilson]

Mr wilson very intresting way to kickstart the nitrogen cycle
Back in 1998 i did some thing similar with my very first attempt at saltwater the guy at the LFS told me to chop a shrimp and put it in the water and then later test the ammonia until there werent any, then I should add fish
What or where do you get the amonium chloride for this proces?

Great build Peter keep it up!

Some people use raw organic sources of nitrogen like dead shrimp, but it's hard to dose and monitor ammonia reduction/conversion. The dead shrimp takes a few days to decay and release ammonia along with protein. It also introduces phosphates and heavy metals that you have no means of assimilating or removing.

LFS will have ammonium chloride. Dry crystals are the most accurate, as liquid tends to evaporate and range in concentration.

 

[nineball]

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

Carl, if this is what you are referring to then yes it is a filter canister placed exactly where Mr. Wilson said it should go to make it very accessible and easy to maintain. It is also very close to the sink. There is also a UV as you have noted right next to the chiller.

There is a second system identical to this on which is going to be configured with the second filter canister and UV right next to the existing ones but the second chiller is going on a raised metal frame over the wet/dry filter(which will probably be a mangrove swamp) at the far end.

The pipe coming through the wall is coming from the two salt water storage tanks in the next room. Each tank holds 220 gal of fresh RO/DI. I can make up about four hundred and fifty gallons in two days for water changes etc. There is a separate line for pure RO/DI that will feed any top up requirements real time.

The second pipe which is pictured below is the fresh water intake and direct drain access for the self cleaning mechanism on the top of the chiller. The wire is a dedicated power circuit for the 1 HP skimmer pump.....its a significant power drain. Although it looks like a tight fit to get to it, there is enough room to get to it but I don't expect to need to do anything to the fresh water source or the dedicated drain. The drain will have a constant flow of fresh water as suggested by one of the members of this distinguished community.

Peter

 

[mr.wilson]

Carl, if this is what you are referring to then yes it is a filter canister placed exactly where Mr. Wilson said it should go to make it very accessible and easy to maintain. It is also very close to the sink. There is also a UV as you have noted right next to the chiller.

Peter

Except you didn't put a catch basin under it exactly where I said

The pleated cartridges hold and drip a lot of water as you lift them out. There is also a chance of displacement spillage/overflow if you aren't careful when you put the cartridge back in. It's nice to have a rubbermade-like container below to keep the saltwater off of the floor and electrical equipment.

It isn't a big deal, but if you were to do it all over again, it would be nice to put some water tight sides on that sled and a low point drain line that leads to the floor drain. That way any leaks or spills will migrate straight to the drain, away from your electrical devices. The display tank, sump and refugium should also have dedicated emergency overflows that go to a drain.

Speaking of drains, you should have a valve or check valve (one way valve) installed in your municipal drain so you don't get back flow in you basement or system when the spring Oakville floods come. If you don't know already, Oakville has a problem with basement flooding. I've done a lot of insurance work with basement tanks in Oakville.

 

[nineball]

Hey Peter,
good response. You made mention that you are installing a UV sterilizer in the near future. Are you not concerned about destroying everything the bacteria you are trying to create using the ammonia that was suggested by mr. wilson. It will also destroy the plankton that will be in the water column that feeds the entire system and corals. It might be a good idea to have one in the system but only turn it on if you have a serious parasite infestation

Great observation, I can easily take any system off line without compromising the flow through the entire ecosystem. This means I have full flexibility in configuration or reconfiguration without any major disruption. I took this extra step after the concerns about overall system maintenance were raised in this thread.

Peter

 

[nineball]

Except you didn't put a catch basin under it exactly where I said

The pleated cartridges hold and drip a lot of water as you lift them out. There is also a chance of displacement spillage/overflow if you aren't careful when you put the cartridge back in. It's nice to have a rubbermade-like container below to keep the saltwater off of the floor and electrical equipment.

It isn't a big deal, but if you were to do it all over again, it would be nice to put some water tight sides on that sled and a low point drain line that leads to the floor drain. That way any leaks or spills will migrate straight to the drain, away from your electrical devices. The display tank, sump and refugium should also have dedicated emergency overflows that go to a drain.

Speaking of drains, you should have a valve or check valve (one way valve) installed in your municipal drain so you don't get back flow in you basement or system when the spring Oakville floods come. If you don't know already, Oakville has a problem with basement flooding. I've done a lot of insurance work with basement tanks in Oakville.

OK, I've got most of this covered I think. The sled on which all the equipment sits is seven inches off the floor. There are three drains spread around the floor as per the first photo below. The 4 x 4's are pressure treated wood under the sled. Even the entrance was raised four inches as per the second photo which would create a watertight seal around the whole room to the height of at least four inches. The drains are more than capable to handle the entire water volume contained in the fish room with a catastrophic failure. We calculated the volume and it does not go over 4 inches even without the drains. No electrical access lower than eight inches from the floor across the room.

Power bars are verbotten. I have ordered a detailed mechanical drawing of all wiring and plumbing in the room as of the full production date in electronic format and any changes or amendments from that date forward will be SOP to update. The fish room or 'The Abyss' as I now call it is fully alarmed for fire, water, heat and electrical to the point that if there is an anomaly I will know about it with voice alarms as well as emails and computer logs.
I know about the ground water problems in Oakville and so far have not had to deal with any of them. However the team did plan with a double sump (alarmed 24 hr monitored) just in case as well as the check valve for the same reason you mentioned.

The display tank has its own dedicated 3" drain plumbed directly to the closed loop system for water changes and disasters.

Peter

 

[muttley000]

As said, an update worthy of the wait. The detail and forthought continue to be several steps above the norm.

 

[nineball]

As said, an update worthy of the wait. The detail and forthought continue to be several steps above the norm.

Thank you muttley. This is truly a testament to this entire community.

Peter

 

[Kipps]

Absolutely amazing.....

 

[nineball]

Absolutely amazing.....

Thank you Kipps and welcome to our community.

Peter