Creature Morpheus - 3,000+ gallon multi-tank system (Canada)

[CreativeGuy]

Good Day All - Many Firsts ... first thread, first system, design and build,

Welcome to my project dubbed Project Morpheus, also known affectionately as "Creature Morpheus" as it keeps morphing into something more every time you turn around - it grows.

Prelude:

The name .... Morpheus is a name with multiple meanings or connotations. To an analogy of being attracted to cute little loveable puppies, (like a small St. Bernard puppy), they are warm and fuzzy and adorable things you want to have and take one home .... but they can be mischievous and GROW ! .... QUICKLY ! (not to mention become expensive to feed). This project keeps growing and morphing into a mischievous little creature (or monster might be a better word).

Hence, the above prelude to the following chronicle of my Morpheus Project ....

So as I said, this nice little creature has metamorphosed into a bit of a monster. Hence I have name the main display tank "Morpheus", which can have a number of meanings and inferences such as loosely translated from Greek methodology as the "Gods of Dreams" and/or the "Shaper of Dreams" (whose true semblance is that of a winged daemon, imagery shared with many of his siblings - his brothers Phobetor and Phantasos being responsible for animals and inanimate objects, respectively). It is a challenge to this undertaking, and its build is being fast tracked as system with multiple tanks simultaneously underway. A seasoned friend of aquaria warned me not to do this ... me now thinks I should have listened, before I ran off the cliff chasing that cute puppy. Will be in the dog house (and poor house) for years.

New and Foolish ....

2010

A little more than a year ago, stopped into a local Woodcraft Store in Michigan and saw a beautiful reef aquarium. Of course like most here, was in awe, fascinated and intrigued. Having an appreciation for the little things going on the seed was planted. Over the next several months, I decided to do a salt water SPS reef tank. Started toying with the design .... bad habit for an engineer. Planning and designing ideas started to feed this "cute little creature" and it grew quickly.

As this undertaking was my first aquarium project/design/build, has been an a daunting experience. Learning it was not just about a "display tank" but so much more involved to support it. Taking a "systems design" approach in an attempt to do it right (if there is such a thing) has entail a lot.

Located Where?

The project is located in a smaller ton called Belle River Ontario which is on the south shore of Lake St. Clair, about 15 miles east of Windsor and south-east of Detroit Michigan (just over a 30 minute drive to the USA/Canadian border).

 

[CreativeGuy]

The Development of the Main Display Tank (named Morpheus)

The space I was designing for was to be the centre piece of four rooms of an open concept area and the end of centre dividing "œT" wall, the top of the "œT" being about about 5 feet. Always thought bow fronts were attractive, stylish and added to the aesthetic appeal. From April 2010 through the end 2010, played with various curved fronts and sizes ranging about 6'-7' x 3' or 300g to 350g, and 20-some iterations. Went to Toronto in May 2010 (time flies) to see Paul at Oceans Motions and learned the about the importance of flow dynamics in reef tanks. Continued looking and learning about the necessary/appropriate filtration equipment to support such a tank, even started getting some components (small 90g tank, and 100 sump/refuge and live rock for the future). Progress was slow as there was so much to learn and constantly continue to investigate/learn every day. Now I know why it takes people so long to do a build.

In the summer of 2010 found a great deal on a 330g rectangular 6'x3'x2.5' thinking it would be a good choice and size .... so I thought. Researching and investigating, toying with display tank designs, you are exposed to more and you hear people always wish they did it bigger, and as Chris Carton quoted in his review of David Saxby's tank, that Martin Lakin said "whatever you do, build the biggest box of glass you can - you can deal with the equipment later - once the glass is there it is there" . Based on the efforts and equipment necessary in taking on ambitious project for an SPS reef and as the display tank was focal point and with the filtration equipment in the basement/crawl space below and the dedicated piping, venting, electrical and finishes, whatever was to be placed there would not likely ever be changed.

So the Morpheus went on steroids and the display tank into the 450g gallon range but was still rectangular. As I like more unique architectural features when designing, I thought the tank should also have more character, hence began playing with the concept of a bow front, even an offset "S" type bow front and a wider tank (8 feet to maximize the area) that was in May/June 2010. A rectangular was nice, a bow front adds a lot of appeal in my opinion (but doubles the price of the tank). Thoughts as to other components and developing the support system began to evolve. Yet even the bow front did not quite suit the space and viewing of the home. The location was at the centre of four open concept rooms/areas and would be the focal point of the entire home. It would be better to have more depth from front to back than 36 inches for future live-rock aquascape. So how about a "œL-shaped" bow front? Bumping the size to 570g. Also dynamic flow patterns in the tank could be toyed with in a bigger tank. Flows work better when not forced into a 90 degree corner. Views from the irregular shape of the room layouts would be better too if angled slightly, so adding an additional side, tweaking angles through many more iterations, as well as considering the internal closed loop piping and use of two Vortech MP60s and squeezing more into the space. One more side was added as a late modification to better accommodate the flow pattern generation within the tank, making it an irregular, multiple angled, 7-sided, bow front with a foot print just over 31 square feet.

Optimally the water depth I had been shorting for was about 28" to 30" for factors of lighting, maintenance, rock scape and aesthetics, and physical parameters for the glass, reinforcing, water pressure on 3/4" star-fire glass, a double laminated bottom, a sand bed of 2", overflows, the tank height was selected to be 34". Further research and development of doing a deep sand bed requiring a minimum of 4" to perform, the height was adjusted to 36".

Final Physical Dimensions and Volumes

After all the tweaking, design changes and modifications translated into an exterior volume of just over 93 cubic feet (equivalent to 700 US gallons / 2,600L) and internal expected water volume of 83 cubic feet, or 620g / 4,350L. Many people refer to tanks by their external volume, some by the water they can hold, for the purposes of reference to this project am indicating the actual anticipated water volume space. The actual physical water shall likely be less because of 700 pounds of live rock, 4.5" deep sand bed, internal piping. So for simplicity, I am saying it is a 600g tank.

Some other interesting notes about the Main Display Tank:

The dry empty weight of the glass tank is approximately 1,600 pounds.
Anticipated Water weight just over 5,000 lbs
Live Rock: 700 pounds
Deep Sand Bed: Over 11 cubic feet at 100 lbs/cubic foot = 1,100 pounds
Steel Support Framing: 600 pounds (estimate)
Hood and Structure: 1,000 pounds

Total: Approximately 10,000 pounds not including incidentals of electrical, lighting and other miscellaneous items. Supported on eleven (11) vertical 2-3/8" round steel legs through the floor onto a 7" thick concrete basement floor.

 

[CreativeGuy]

The Total System:

The total system incorporates a host of integrated components and tanks with a centralized filtration system that basically breaks down into about 1500g in multiple tanks and 1,500g in filtration and sumps:

(a) The Main SPS and Fish Display Tank: 600g 7-sided Irregular Bow Front
(b) 330g Secondary Display SPS/LPS/Fish Reef Tank
(c) 200g (4 x 50g) Breeding/Isolation/Fish tanks
(d) 190g Frag Tank
(e) Small Breeding Bank of Tanks
(f) 500g Live Rock Sump (main sump)
(g) 500g 14" Deep Sand Bed
(h) 200g Refugium (with 4 types of Algae)
(i) Commercial Algae Tuff Scrubber (ATS)
(j) Various Pump, Filters and Collection Sumps

Other components will include: Ca Reactor; mechanical filtration; carbon; ozone; custom skimmer; custom bio-filter; ATS; heater; cooling; Apex controller; lighting; and as you know, many more.

So this has been the initial post to make an introduction.
Will be posting more shortly about the system components and design.

I have started a website dedicated to this project because of all the various components and aspects to this project, I find it very difficult to organize and post a thread which would be easy to follow and flow well. The site is "œCreatureMorpheus.com". I am not a web designer or an english major, so you have to bare with me. It already has some 40 pages to it, but I warn you many are incomplete as it is under construction.

Still trying to figure out how to post a picture on Reef Central in these threads. As soo as I do will post pictures and CAD drawings on here.

Next Post shall try to give a better overview of sytem and comment about the various components.

:wave: Thanks to those who have been helping me learn and assisting in so many ways. Also in advance of those who may help and be supportive in the future.

 

[disaster999]

sounds epic, cannot wait to see pictures

 

[TheFishTeen]

sounds epic, cannot wait to see pictures

Seriously! Sounds creative!

 

[CreativeGuy]

House Related Items

House Related Items

Aquarium Equipment Room and Location:

Pretty much as with everybody's systems, there is never enough room and space is limited. Directly below the main display tank is a 4 foot high crawl space which is adjacent to a very limited total basement area of about 500 square feet in which the house's mechanical systems are also located and spaced shared. All of the tanks with the exception of the Main Display Tank shall be located in the basement within a 300 square foot portion for a aquarium room and its complete filtration system. The main display tank will be located on the main floor above. Within the basement aquarium room area and the adjacent crawl space area shall contain all the filtration system.

Indoor Air and Moisture Control Measures

So exists the challenge to create an isolated area for the filtration equipment and aquarium room and manage the humidity, moisture and salt water environment. Wood framing (floor joists, studs and floors) do not fair well to moisture, plus the house was already built without an aquarium in mind, with ductwork, electrical, plumbing, electronics and structure placed wherever. So how do you retrofit a house for a 10,000 pound tank on the first floor and within its basement and crawl space to handle some 2,500g of tanks and filtration equipment? Definitely an engineering challenge. As an engineer for buildings and houses and their systems, including advanced and air tight homes like R2000 homes, it is an area I am familiar in dealing with air and vapour barriers, moisture and mechanical ventilation systems. In Canada, utilization of HRV (heat recovery ventilators) units are used frequently in homes to improve indoor air quality and control moisture as they exchange (balanced) fresh outside air while expelling bad or moist air from source locations (i.e bathrooms, kitchen areas, laundry rooms, etc.) on a continuous basis 365 days a year. Our home already had one for the purposes mentioned above. Yet two more are being installed for the dedicated purpose of venting the aquarium and filtration areas, and a smaller unit for the enclosed hood over the main display tank (and vent the interior of the cabinet under it) in the living area. The HRV units selected were energy efficient (recovery energy by heating the cold incoming air (winter time) with the warm air being exhausted by use of heat exchangers that do not mix the air), but more critically were units suited for salt and chlorine environments to be less effected by the corrosive nature. Their ductwork is sized and exhausting registers are strategically located in the source and high moisture areas. Another beneficial advantage is for cooling by venting heat generated by lights and pumps.

In addition, these areas shall be isolated using an effective continuous vapour barrier system consisting of: a double-bubble insulating vinyl and aluminum foil faced material on the ceiling and crawl space (with taped seams and penetrations); and isolated by using heavy gauge clear segmented plastic drop walls (typically used for industrial fork-lift and/or commercial freezer door openings). These are not air tight, but sufficient to help keep these areas in a negative pressure so the salt moisture laden air does not circulate throughout the home and wood framing and plywood sub-floors.

Incidentals and Other Preventative Measures:

Another preventative measures include: the removal of drywall, wood trim and other susceptible materials wall/ceiling areas around the tanks and replaced with moisture resistant materials and barriers; special ceramic paints; tiling of walls and floors with solid porcelain tile (almost 2,000 square feet of floor and all the walls in the aquarium room are being tiled); installation of new floor drains (both in the basement & crawl space and also under the tank and on the main living area floor by the tank, re-sloping floors to force water to new drains (three men worked full time for three weeks just for the levelling material installation); ; installation of a service sink by the main display tank upstairs; use of granite and stainless steel on counter and surround surfaces near the display tank; e-coating and powder coating of the mild steel used for the supporting structure under the tank. All these things have been or are being worked on over the past year and are continuing, which is part of the reason of the project taking longer and costing more. They don't always tell you about the "œincidentals" associated with a large project. It would definitely be much easier if a new home was being built and planning of most of these things could be incorporated.

 

[CreativeGuy]

Filtration Equipment and System

Filtration Equipment and System

Above has described most of the tanks which shall be make up about half of the whole system.

The other half is the central 1,500g (approximately) filtration system consisting of multiple components and sumps listed below.

(a) Two main collection sumps which each accept and split 50/50 the water from the various tanks (3,600gph x 2 = 7,200 gph total filtration); these are designed with multiple filtration socks for each entry and bubble reducing plates or devices. Custom DIY fabrication in acrylic. There are a few other minor sumps and manifolds for pumps too.

(b) Main live rock sump (500g), Custom DIY 3/4" Acrylic 100" x 51" x 25"

(c) Custom 4,800 gph Skimmer: Bashsea Twisted 4-Beckett, air driven;

(d) Commercial Algae Turf Scrubber (ATS) Surging Unit: 1,800 gph;

(e) Refugium: 200g multi-chamber (4) different algae (600 gph)

(f) Custom Moving bio-filter by Bashsea (1,500gph)

(g) Ozone with Oxygen feed, DIY

(h) Deep Sand Bed (500g) which has 14" DSB with 8" water, Custom DIY 3/4" Acrylic 100" x 51" x 25"

(i) By-pass of carbon filtration before returning to the various tanks.

Critically to filtration is live rock and deep sand beds, which within the whole system the is expected to be approximately:

1,500 pounds of live rock (have over 1,200 already "“ presently dead rock but hoping to start them circulating in water in the next few of weeks)

60 cubic feet of live sand (at 100 lbs/cft = 6,000 pounds) within multiple tanks and the dedicated DSB. Was a rude awakening to find out how much live sand was.

Will be picking up my 20 boxes (200g box size) of salt mix too soon.

 

[d3hree]

IMO I wouldnt bother with live sand...all sand will become "live" over time.
Why the 14" DSB?...6" is plenty.
What do you mean by oxygen feed for the ozone? Feed the ozone with fresh air from an outside source, through an air dryer and it will be more efficient.
Ensure your live rock sump has really good flow as these can become nutrient sinks.

I am looking forward to seeing what a surging ATS is like

This will be a great thread to follow!

 

[CreativeGuy]

600g Display Tank Plan View

600g Display Tank Plan View

Hopefully this shall work, I am trying to get some initial images up on Reef Central to see if it works:

A CAD Plan view:

A 3D Conceptual Drawing for Illustrative Purposes
(Disregard piping as piping configurations are changing and being worked on)

A Portion of the future Live Rock (approximately 800 pounds being brought home of the 1,500 to be utilized). Just a trail for a photo upload.

Now lets see if it worked :spin3:

Sorry didn't work .... have to get my IT wiz nephew (great to have a computer guy in the family) to help me out. Try again soon.

 

[CreativeGuy]

IMO I would not bother with live sand...all sand will become "live" over time.

I purchased a large quantity of sand (over 60 cubic feet) from Inland Aquatics who has an amazing facility has over 40,000 gallons. Working with them over the past year and because of the quantity involved, was able to obtain live sand comprised of mostly oolitic (sugar fine) and some reef sand and larger stuff, with an appropriate stratification for promoting conditions for better performance within the tanks and also in the Deep Sand Bed filtration sump. Within the tanks the sand levels are in the range of 4.5" to 5" depth. Ideal recommendations have the sand at least 10% or greater of the tank height or 10% of the system for filtration.

QUOTE=d3hree "Why the 14" DSB?...6" is plenty."

In the DSB sump it is to be deeper (14") to promote (which also shall have some buried live rock and above the sand bed surface to disrupt laminar flow across the top). These are reflective of research/reading of Delbeek/Sprung, Shimek, Berlin Methods and other resources, from discussions with and/or visiting with several large long term facility successful operators (Inland Aquatics of Terre Haute Indiana, Tropicorium in Romulus Michigan and personal discussions knowledgeable aquarists consultants Morgan Lidster of Inland and Charles Delbeek to whom I respect, and know more than I could hope to ever learn. So for multiple reasons, one of the larger system components (DSB) that I feel important as part of the filtration system and quantities appropriate for the scale of the system, the DSB dedicated sump depth was selected to be 14" with 8" of water circulated across over at an adjusted flow not to suspend or move the sand (there is a flow bypass intended using Jandy 3-way flow valves for maximum flow without suspension).

Using an oxygen concentrator (generating a high oxygen concentration over 90% vs 20% in air) coupled with an appropriate ozone generator can become much more effective/efficient, reducing the size of DIY misting chamber. Followed by a carbon neutralizing flow through. Will have more detail on this later on the DIY fabrication.

[QUOTE=d3hree; "Ensure your live rock sump has really good flow as these can become nutrient sinks."

The main 500g rock sump is my primary sump which the majority of equipment draws and returns from (4,800 gph skimmer; 1,500 gph bio-filter; ATO, Ca Reactor; Kalkwasser; heater), as well as approximately 7,000 gph of total flow-through filtration for all the tanks in the system. The 1,800 gph ATS surge is discharged into the rock sump. Should these not be sufficient, powerheads or a circulation manifold with eductors could be added.

The temporary set up I am planning is a series of like rubber made tanks or vessels that cascade through/down like a water fall system. Depending on the flows, I may add some circulators or powerheads.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Inland Aquatics in Terre haute Indiana, the people are great and happy to show there facility that has probably 40 or more ATSs in operation. When I am up and running, will post some short video clips on YouTube.


Hope these answer your questions or give you insight into my reasoning.
Nothing is written in stone for this project, so welcome suggestions or comments and discussion.
Although certain aspects or equipment have already been purchased (i.e. Bashsea Skimmer, Bio-Filter, several tanks, the ATS)
I have so much to learn and expect there shall be changes, tweaking and modifications for years to come. :headwallblue:

 

[CreativeGuy]

Current Items on the work list:

Wish to get the a portion of the rock going (between 800 and 1,000 pounds) so it can cycle over the next few months. This is a learning curve for me in itself.

This entails a number of things:

a) Need RODI water: The first step is to hook up and get running the RODI unit. Have the RO unit (Cirqua HP 800) already with a softener. However it needs to be modified for the DI components as well as the pre-filters (sediment and carbon) and post filter. In the future I would like to set this up as an automatic system. Bean reading up on Bean Animal's we post for automating systems and seeing if can be adapted.

b) Exterior temporary set up: obtaining and setting up a series of vessels, tanks or tubs and piping to hold the dead rock. The rock has not been in water for a couple of years, so everything is dead on it.

c) Install piping and pumps to adequately circulate water for several months.

d) incorporate and set up several pieces of filtration equipment (skimmer, bio-filter and ATS - all three are new and have not been seeded) with the rock.

e) install some method of maintaining water temperature about 80 degrees. Right now warm temperatures are not a problem, but shall be likely in later September.

f) getting some of my salt mixture sufficient of the rock curing process.

Other aspects:

(i) fabricate out of wood a mock up of the main display tank to gain a full size representation of the tank. Try some rough rock aqua scape trials to see how things might go together.

(ii) finish the flow design and piping layout in the main irregular 600g bow front tank and holes for the tank fabricator (Bow Valley in Alberta Canada) to complete the tank over the next couple months. The front bow piece should be completed in the next couple of weeks.

(iii) Also working on a couple ideas for the tank reinforcement utilizing a machine stainless steel perimeter and vertical members on the corners. Top cross bracing with 3/8 ths stainless rod. Not sure if I can afford to do it that way. Hard part is the irregular shaped corners and the bow front to create an bowed angle iron shape to match exactly.

(iv) working on a VFD set up for the rock just to try playing with a variable flow set-up;

(iii) drilling and cutting concrete for additional plumbing in the basement area for lines between the tanks and sumps and more drains;

(iv) scheduling the HVAC mechanical work to move main trucks and install the new two HRVs;

(v) once completed, coring holes in the granite tiles (in-floor heating to avoid) and fabricating the base for the man display tank.

Other On-Going Work:

There are quite a few other concurrent projects on-going with the house too (cabinetry, flooring, painting, electrical and granite work) not related to the aquarium. Also, someplace in there my clients would like some engineering work done, lol - which I have to do to keep buying components for Creature Morpheus.

Looking forward to MACNA in Des Moines Iowa next month (first time).

 

[Opcn]

Pictures don't work for me :/

 

[CreativeGuy]

Waiting for some help to resolve the problem or figure out what I am doing wrong to fix the picture uploads. Everyone seems to do it, so its something I am doing incorrectly. Will post when I can. Until then, you may find going to my web site helps with illustrations and pictures. Also I have started to try and learn a 3-dimensional software (sketch-up) to make better graphics.

 

[muttley000]

I like the style of you posts, and am looking forward to following this build. Bookmarked your website also.

 

[dzfish17]

Your project sounds interesting... cant wait to see that 7 sided tank. From your previous posts it looks like you have put alot of thought into this system. It should be fun watching it come together. Good luck.

 

[CreativeGuy]

Another Attempt to Upload Photos and Documents

Another Attempt to Upload Photos and Documents

Okay, here we go again on trying some uploads.
Found out: you can't use *.tiff files (jpg better); also best not to use spaces in file names; and proper url file address. So hopefully this works this time.

The Main Display Tank ( water fill volume of 600g / 700g space volume)

Conceptual 3-Dimensional CAD Illustration (plumbing in progress of being determined)

Live (dead) Rock: Partial load of the (dead) rock - about 800+ pounds, to be revived into Live Rock over the next couple months. Total Live Rock in system will be over 1,500 pounds.

Hopefully this works and I can work at uploading more this week.
Now will have to redo many of the photos on my web page too because they are tiff (too large and not suited for web pages). Always more to learn.

 

[Rybren]

Here's one of your images. You had a double http tag and were missing a colon after the second http.

 

[n-kleine]

Hello again. Tagging a long.

 

[CreativeGuy]

Thanks Rybren for the repost. Yes, I found that it doubles the http://

Now if I can figure why it they are rotated 90 degrees.

n-kleine, welcome to this journey.

 

[JanVelazquez]

Hi

Setting up a 500gal myself I'm going crazy, can't imagine how much thought you have put into this project.

It looks to be a great build and wish you all the best.

One recommendation... You should make videos of the progress and put them on the website. I was just browsing it and it looks very good.

When do you expect to complete the project? Or at least the initial setup.

I will be tagging along.

Regards

Jan