If you time things right you can use the old water from the rock vats to jump-start your fish room tanks. If the old water is rich in ammonia or other forms of nitrogen (nitrite & nitrate), even better as it will feed the nitrifying & denitrifying bacteria you are trying to establish. Cycling a reef tank full of rock is relatively easy, as the rock is acting as your biological filter. Your system tanks sound like they will be devoid of rock at least initially, thus calling for a more stringent cycling protocol.
When I started in the marine hobby in 1979, the accepted method of cycling a tank was with black mollies or dead fish. Later we got more scientific and dosed ammonium chloride daily while cycling a tank to feed the beneficial bacteria. As reefkeeping continued along its slow path of evolution, the cycling chemical of choice was sodium nitrite or potassium nitrite, as the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite is quick to establish but the accumulation of nitrite takes a few weeks before it reaches a critical mass where the beneficial bacteria that consumes it can start doing its job. In the waiting process, nitrite spikes and causes fish and or invert mortality. In other (hopefully simpler words) adding nitrite speeds up the process and make minimizes toxic nitrite spikes.
If you are using live rock in the wet/dry filter you will improve the efficiency of nitrification, but in the process increase the build-up of residual nitrate. Rock is much more efficient than plastic media so your wet/dry filter will be doing exactly what some of the others have warned you about (creating a nitrate factory). One benefit of live rock is it potentially offers localized denitrification through anaerobic denitrifying bacteria within the rock. This means that the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate may all be assimilated with one stop shopping on the same rock site. As neat and tidy as this may sound, biological filtration is redundant as you have more than enough surface area for beneficial nitrifying & denitrifying bacteria on the rock and sand in the display tank. Any more rock in the system is therefore just expensive filler.
I would investigate more fruitful ways of using the resources you are using with the wet/dry filter box. If you have the water flow through a drip tray and just rain in the box, it will help with gas exchange thus stripping Co2, and nitrogen gas while adding oxygen. It will also cause evaporative cooling which will take some pressure off of your chillers.
You haven't disclosed your full filtration plan yet, but perhaps there are other technologies like refugia that would work in the wet/dry space. I can't knock ATM for including a wet/dry filter in their design as they traditionally set-up tanks with artificial fiberglass & latex rock structures that offer virtually no viable sites for beneficial nitrifying bacteria. In these cases, the wet/dry filter is essential, but in your case it is redundant (some would say detrimental).
The principals are very simple here. You just need to stand back and decide what you are trying to accomplish then decide how to get there efficiently. Reverse engineering devices without looking at how they all fit together will only cause you more sleepless nights
Just remember how heavy the rock is and how hard it is to replicate what you have created even carrying it a few feet. Do a test before you invest too much time in the process.
Sponges shouldn't come out of water, but personally I wouldn't go through the extra steps of moving them in water as they will inevitably be in the air at some point in the process. Brief exposure to air is not a problem for bacteria and algae.
I may be out of reach on that one. While I've used a number of controllers over the years, I'm not a programming genius like a lot of these IT guys who are on RC all day while they are at work
The Profilux controller is very popular and simple enough to use, but the box looks like tv converter from the 80's and is hard to mount. The connectivity is a little outdated as well. It's a German product with some info lost in translation. Someone on another forum wiped out his tank by misunderstanding the pump shut-off sequence.
The Aqua Digital Reefkeeper V2 is more compact, easier to program and has more modern connectivity. Elite
http://www.digitalaquatics.com/ I like that it has a user friendly, intuitive iphone interface. I assume it has a blackberry application as well. Do some research and figure out what you what to control and where your fail-safes and redundancies will be.
In addition to the main controller interface there are modules that control specific parameters like redox potential (ORP) and PH etc. Aqua Digital offers PH, salinity and temperature all in one module which cuts down on clutter. You should have one PH module for controlling a calcium reactor if you are planning to have one, and a second PH module to monitor the system water. This is a good way of checking night Ph drops due to coral photosynthetic respiration at night as well as elevated Co2 levels during parties. The PH can also climb if you are dosing too much kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) or other KH or calcium buffers. You can employ the controller to make necessary adjustments (raise PH with kalkwasser or sodium carbonate, or lower PH with Co2 or sodium bicarbonate) to rectify PH shifts.
Top-off for evaporation is a science in itself. Use as many fail-safes as possible. I use an electronic float switch (mercury/reed switch) and solenoid to govern a peristaltic metering pump to add an appropriate amount of water as it evaporates from the lowest (end) point in your sump. The metering pump assures that even if the system goes haywire, the pump can only deliver a finite amount of water (usually 8GPD depending on the pump model). Drawing top-off water from a 50 gallon drum that is filled, then allowed to slowly get used up over a few weeks is another way of assuring that your top-up freshwater is a finite quantity that would not adversely affect salinity or temperature even in the event of failure. It's also a good idea to use a secondary mechanical float valve (not switch) as an absolute safety. This can be positioned above the operating water level in the sump where the top-off water enters the system. If the water level in the sump is too high, then the mechanical float valve stops the dosing pump from sending more water. This safety feature comes in handy if and when the electronic float switch jams in the on position. You should also include a second electronic float switch that is set for a high level in the sump so it can shut off the dosing pump and send a warning email or text. Hopefully you already have an emergency overflow drain line in your sump that goes to a floor drain.
Of course the controller logs and graphs all the collected info so you can keep track of it on your computer. This is where you really need an IT guy
great job !:celeb1:
