Hi Everyone,
My name is Brandon Reyes and I am a graduate student in Dr. Forest Rohwer's coral reef microbial ecology lab at San Diego State University. I'm designing a large aquarium experimental system adaptive for a variety of coral experiments and provides a water source that has stable physical and biological components. The system is in the rough planning stage, but I need a lot of help from experienced aquarists with the overall ideas and what I can do to make the project work. I would appreciate any feedback/ideas about the aquarium setup that is explained below.
The current plan is to have five main components, each with specific functions. The overall goal is to provide water with uniform water quality parameters and microbial communities to experimental chambers over a period of time.
Component 1 will be a large aquarium (approximately 2,500 L) that collects and filters recycled water from coral experiments and provides a stable microbial community for those experiments. The filtration will consist of Chaetomorpha, a large skimmer, PO4 reactor, and a large waterway of liverock. Filtering the water before it passes through liverock will prevent any excess nutrients from drastically changing the liverock's microbial community and will inoculate the filtered water. After the water passes through the liverock, the temperature and alkalinity of the water will be adjusted with a chiller and calcium reactor in a final chamber. Finally, the water will be mixed before flowing into an external pump and travelling to component 2.
Component 2 will be a large (over 400 liters), shallow frag tank that grows corals for experiments and further inoculates the water with microbes. Most of the flow will be delivered from the pump directing water from the previous component. Any additional flow required will be delivered by powerheads. The light will be from overhead AI units or similar adjustable LED's. Most of the corals housed in this setup will probably be Acropora yongei, Montipora sp. and Favids. The water from component 2 will then travel into components 3 and 4.
Components 3 and 4 will be functionally identical to each other and used for different experimental treatments. Water coming into these units will travel to adjustable connections that will flow into either small aquaria, niskins (cylinder-like chambers), cups or whatever experimental compartments the experimental designer chooses for their experiment. Experimenters will also have the option of diverting flow downwards toward the treatment sumps to relieve excess water pressure. The outflows from the experimental treatments will be connected and flow downwards towards the sump for treatment. The sumps below these components will contain filter socks, skimmers, PO4 reactors, activated carbon and an additional compartment for a chiller and Ca reactor. The additional compartment for a chiller and Ca reactor will give the options of components 3 and 4 to function autonomously from components 1 and 2 in case the researcher decides to use antibiotics or something else that could contaminate components 1 and 2. The water will then be pulled into another external pump before flowing into two tandem UV sterilizers in order to eliminate microbes from the experimental treatments before flowing back into component 1.
Please tell me if the system makes sense and any feedback, suggestions and/or critiques would be very much appreciated. I'm also still struggling with how much flow we will need the external pumps to move.
Thank you very much for your help.
Here's a link to a picture of the schematic:
http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/btreyes/media/aquarium schematic_zpsa3bhrqe9.png.html?sort=3&o=0
-Brandon
My name is Brandon Reyes and I am a graduate student in Dr. Forest Rohwer's coral reef microbial ecology lab at San Diego State University. I'm designing a large aquarium experimental system adaptive for a variety of coral experiments and provides a water source that has stable physical and biological components. The system is in the rough planning stage, but I need a lot of help from experienced aquarists with the overall ideas and what I can do to make the project work. I would appreciate any feedback/ideas about the aquarium setup that is explained below.
The current plan is to have five main components, each with specific functions. The overall goal is to provide water with uniform water quality parameters and microbial communities to experimental chambers over a period of time.
Component 1 will be a large aquarium (approximately 2,500 L) that collects and filters recycled water from coral experiments and provides a stable microbial community for those experiments. The filtration will consist of Chaetomorpha, a large skimmer, PO4 reactor, and a large waterway of liverock. Filtering the water before it passes through liverock will prevent any excess nutrients from drastically changing the liverock's microbial community and will inoculate the filtered water. After the water passes through the liverock, the temperature and alkalinity of the water will be adjusted with a chiller and calcium reactor in a final chamber. Finally, the water will be mixed before flowing into an external pump and travelling to component 2.
Component 2 will be a large (over 400 liters), shallow frag tank that grows corals for experiments and further inoculates the water with microbes. Most of the flow will be delivered from the pump directing water from the previous component. Any additional flow required will be delivered by powerheads. The light will be from overhead AI units or similar adjustable LED's. Most of the corals housed in this setup will probably be Acropora yongei, Montipora sp. and Favids. The water from component 2 will then travel into components 3 and 4.
Components 3 and 4 will be functionally identical to each other and used for different experimental treatments. Water coming into these units will travel to adjustable connections that will flow into either small aquaria, niskins (cylinder-like chambers), cups or whatever experimental compartments the experimental designer chooses for their experiment. Experimenters will also have the option of diverting flow downwards toward the treatment sumps to relieve excess water pressure. The outflows from the experimental treatments will be connected and flow downwards towards the sump for treatment. The sumps below these components will contain filter socks, skimmers, PO4 reactors, activated carbon and an additional compartment for a chiller and Ca reactor. The additional compartment for a chiller and Ca reactor will give the options of components 3 and 4 to function autonomously from components 1 and 2 in case the researcher decides to use antibiotics or something else that could contaminate components 1 and 2. The water will then be pulled into another external pump before flowing into two tandem UV sterilizers in order to eliminate microbes from the experimental treatments before flowing back into component 1.
Please tell me if the system makes sense and any feedback, suggestions and/or critiques would be very much appreciated. I'm also still struggling with how much flow we will need the external pumps to move.
Thank you very much for your help.
Here's a link to a picture of the schematic:
http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/btreyes/media/aquarium schematic_zpsa3bhrqe9.png.html?sort=3&o=0
-Brandon
