Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)

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Chago- forgive my manners... what is more important is congratulations!!!!
I swear that the best word in the history of the world is "Daddy" :)

Geothermal for the tank/system only would be considerably less. At least mine was. Instead of lots & lots of trench, or many deep holes, a few 10-12" holes should do the trick. Also, the gt for homes includes the heating aspect.... for a tank, chilling only does the trick.

Factoring in a cost of zero for the trench that I have (sprinkler guys- an additional $200), I am into it for about $500. That includes the metal and pvc for the heat exchangers, 200' of poly pipe, and $50 value for the used Iwaki I already had. Using the lake provides an infinite source, unlike holes in the earth which need time to "replenish", but still vary in the moisture content around them. Getting the insight of a someone trained in gt would decidedly help. As would a skilled driller (to avoid wrecking the garden!!!)

edit: oh yeah... the typical home gt system uses LOTS of looped poly pipe for the in ground exch. A metal one would work just fine for this use.
D
 
Chago09 said:
Hello everyone, sorry Peter to steal the thread for a moment.I wanted to share with everyone my wife gave brith to our first child on Sunday. We named her Valentina, she was 8 lbs 8 oz. She actually loves to sleep in front of my 180, maybe a potential marine biologist. Here's a pic. Sorry but a proud father has to brag. Back to you Peter. QUOTE]

Congratulations! Is she reef safe?
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Chago,

Congrats! You have a beautiful child. I hope that mother is well and that you are taking good care of her. She'll need it.
 
110galreef said:
In case you missed?:o
Click to expand...

By all means, repost if I miss a question. I read it, but haven't been near a computer recently.

Penductors and Eductors are virtually the same. Eductors spread the flow a little wider, while penductors concentrate the flow in a forward direction covering more distance. We wanted to move the whole column of water so we went with 1" locline eductors from All Seas Inc.
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=18368&cat=0&page=1

I tried a 3/4" penductor which looks almost identical to an eductor. The flow didn't flare out how we wanted. As you can see in the link it is almost identical to the eductor design (they even called it an eductor instead of a penductor by accident on the website). http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=20957&cat=0&page=1

The nice thing about the locline is it can be directed.
 
Chago09 said:
Hello everyone, sorry Peter to steal the thread for a moment.I wanted to share with everyone my wife gave brith to our first child on Sunday. We named her Valentina, she was 8 lbs 8 oz. She actually loves to sleep in front of my 180, maybe a potential marine biologist. Here's a pic. Sorry but a proud father has to brag. Back to you Peter.

071.jpg
Click to expand...

An absolute stunning build!!!
 
bbart12 said:
I have been thinking about geothermal and it's benefits with respect to my first large tank. I would love to through my idea out there and see what the community thinks.

As I understand it a geothermal system essently replaces the outside condenser unit with a loop filled with a glycol solution. My idea is to simply replace this glycol solution with the salt water from my tank. The only minuses that I can see are one that you may need to move the water rather fast to stop it from becoming Hypoxic and as such negating some of the benefits of the system (both the heat expense of pumping the water and not having enough dwell time in the Earth) and two how do you clean out 200 foot loops of pipe underground.

The reason that I was even thinking about cutting out the middle man so to weak by removing the heat exchanger is that given the Earth at a constant temp equal to that of the average temp of the air over the year (for arguments sake let's say 68 degrees) why add another inefficient exchange into the equation if it is unnecessary.

Thank in advance for the input.
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Glycol is a very efficient liquid for heat transfer, while salt water is very inefficient. Neither freezes.

The other issues is heat exchanges use copper piping for better heat transfer, so you don't want your system water in contact with these pipes. You would have to use PVC pipes/hose which are insulated and thus poor heat transfer.

Large tanks have a great deal of thermal mass so they are stable if the environment is stable. In Peter's case, most of the issues have stemmed from ambient room temperature swings from summer to fall. The small fishroom is jammed with equipment that is generating heat. I have installed hundreds of reef tanks and have never seen cause for a chiller. Heaters should be installed, but will rarely come on.

I am a big fan of geothermal climate control and studied it for coral green house applications. The ideal set-up is a very large pond. Wind power and solar is also worth looking into especially with the availability of DC pumps. Large tank applications lend themselves well to natural lighting through skylights and high kelvin shade cloth such as Chlorinet Blue.

There are also some venting tricks like drawing up cool air room the floor whole you exhaust hot air near the ceiling. Evaporative cooling with fans pointed down at the surface is another very effective cooling method. Remote basement or garage sumps also keep things cool.
 
muttley000 said:
Interesting thought that I will file away, no reason my pond couldn't work for the same reason right?
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I was told that a one acre pond is required to service a 2000 sq' home. I know a few people with geothermal heating & cooling. Cost runs about $40,000.00.
 
Peter,

Don't know if you or Mr. Wilson picked up one yet, but if you are looking for a rare and exotic fish, ReefRaft in Misssissauga has a Gem Tang on sale for $1500 CDN. It would look fantastic in your tank:)

Wei
 
Peter,

That's true ... ReefRaft has only ONE Gem Tang on Sale and I was there yesterday. Gem Tang is waiting for a much bigger home :)!!

Paul
 
mr.wilson said:
By all means, repost if I miss a question. I read it, but haven't been near a computer recently.

Penductors and Eductors are virtually the same. Eductors spread the flow a little wider, while penductors concentrate the flow in a forward direction covering more distance. We wanted to move the whole column of water so we went with 1" locline eductors from All Seas Inc.
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=18368&cat=0&page=1

I tried a 3/4" penductor which looks almost identical to an eductor. The flow didn't flare out how we wanted. As you can see in the link it is almost identical to the eductor design (they even called it an eductor instead of a penductor by accident on the website). http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=20957&cat=0&page=1

The nice thing about the locline is it can be directed.
Click to expand...

Very nice.....Thanks....I know this thread gets busy and things get lost in the mix very easily!
 
thanks everyone and yes Mr. Wilson she was a great build LOL I did a lot of research on the internet:love1: LOL

Yes she is great and my wife is doing really well considering what she went through.

Danno thats really cool that something so simple is working for you. I guess my first post about thinking geothermal was nuts because I only know geothermal as one thing. The giant hole they dig (bigger then most people foundation of their house) and tons of piping. I didn't think on such a small scale like you mentioned would even do anything. Thats really cool idea for all the members in rural areas.

And I agree with that other guy, I need my fix to LOL how about a picture
 
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