JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system

[NexDog]

So I received a box of frags from Matt (MDP) this morning. He lives in Tokyo which is about 1000km away. Not sure why but it took over 48 hours for the box to get to me. Matt - next time lets use KuroNeko!

The Box:

Matt packed them well:

But as soon as I saw the bags I knew things were in bad shape:

This frag did particularly badly but I'm hoping to save it. Should I cut the skeleton off?

The Red People Eater was completely dissolved and the monti cap frags are completely bleached but time will tell. The clove polyps look to have made it and the metallic green digi frags look good. Many, many thanks Matt, it's very much appreciated!

I have them in the growout section of my sump. Here's a pic I took before inserting them. Has the freebie suncoral and acro colony and my remaining brain:

Also has 2 small anenomes that didn't do well in my old 50g. They've turned very bulbous now but I don't know if I will keep them as my big LTA is doing great under the new halides.

I'm going to cut the bottom off another beer crate and use that for a small stand for the frags. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[NexDog]

This is the acro colony I got free with the LR:

This is the suncoral. Unfortunately half of it bleached but I'm nursing it back to health. Note the yellow in it.

Here's the brain in the growout section:

And for JayS, here's the office taken from as far back as I can. Right side:

Left side:

And a straight on full frontal and yes, I did have to perch on my desk for this shot.

 

[NexDog]

Last few things for tonight. If you've followed this you'll remember that I had a major issue with power. Our 100v mains wasn't enough to fire up all the halides so I had to get some transformers custom made. They seem to have done the job for the most part but there are a few lingering issues. If I fire up the big Sequence pump one of the hal;ides goes out but does come back on. I've decided to leave the big Sequence on 24/7 now to work out any microbubbles in the new plumbing. I actually had to redo the plumbing on that pump completely due to major microbubbles there. It really does keep that area under the racks completely clean which I'm hoping will mean I never have a nitrate issue.

Anyhow, here is one of those transformers (I have 3 in total):

Here is a pic of my current fight with microbubbles. This is the baffle from the skimmer section to the fuge. You can see the bubbles streaming up the fuge side and overflowing into the fuge. There is one more baffle after this but I'm now convinced that these kind of baffles only really work when you have minimal bubbles at low flow....

 

[H20ENG]

Laurence,
PLEASE put an acrylic cover over those terminals on the transformer. I see there are some small ones, but those exposed terminals WILL bite you eventually.
Do you have the microbubble issue without the Sequence on? I know that sometimes a pump seal will leak and draw in air.
Looking good!
Chris

 

[NexDog]

Yes, been thinking about covering them so I'll get the done.

The microbubble issue is from the return mostly. If I turn the return off they decrease by 75% or so. The remaining coming from the skimmer.

 

[jeffbrig]

Laurence, you may want to take a wait-and-see approach with the microbubbles. I remember being annoyed by them in my tank and trying all sorts of things to eliminate them early on. After a few weeks, once everything was nicely "slimed up", it seems about impossible for me to get microbubbles from the sump back into the display, even if I have bubbles blowing out of my skimmer.

 

[NexDog]

Tank's been running for 2 months so I'm sure all the piping is suitably slimed up. Anyhow, I'm set on hooking up the drains to the skimmer which I'm positive will fix the issue.

 

[jeffbrig]

Yeah, at 2 months I think you're as slimed up as you're going to get. Dumping the drains into the skimmer is a nice method. I recently switched mine over, and I'm very happy with the result.

 

[NexDog]

So you're draining straight into your skimmer? I think you have a Euroreef? Can't remember if you have the one overflow or two so interested to hear about that part of your setup in detail if you have the time.

 

[jeffbrig]

No problem.....

I am using a Euro-reef, the one I have is a CS12-2 recirculating with SP4 beta pumps (which is now sold as the RC500 model).

Here's what my plumbing looks like now....

I have two drains in a single overflow box, both 1.5".

The drain in the background is the primary drain, carrying ~2000gph. In the overflow compartment, this is an open drain, no durso, no nothing (more on that in a minute). Down below, it splits with a Y. The straight-through line has a 1.5" gate valve to restrict flow, and dumps into the main sump compartment. The other half reduces to a 3/4" gate valve, then a 3/4" hose feeding directly into the skimmer. I run the valves restricted so that water backs up inside the overflow box. This ensures that the primary drain is always submerged and carries 100% water. Even at 2000gph, there are no bubbles created. I also think this is better for the skimmer, as 100% water should be more consistent than an air/water mix where the amount of water can fluctuate.

The drain in the foreground is the "backup" drain, which feeds into the refugium compartment. It has a durso standpipe up top, which sets the level in the overflow compartment, keeping things nice and quiet. The valves on the primary drain are restricted to raise the water level in the overflow so that ~200 gph goes through this taller backup drain. A small amount of microbubbles come out of this drain, but the flow rate is low enough that they don't make it out of the refugium compartment.

I rely on gutter guard to keep fish, snails, etc. out of the overflow, which is key when using restricted drain lines. I also know that my backup drain can carry the full load if a blockage were to occur.

This is plumbing v2.0 for my tank. This time around I added the direct skimmer feed, as well as a T off the return pump to run to the chiller on my patio. I'm very happy with the way things are working now.

BTW, how is that purple frag doing? I really liked the color of it.

-Jeff

 

[Bax]

jeffbrig

I have taken volumous notes and will shamelessly plagerize your drain and pluming ideas

 

[WanaLeime]

Sorry to hijack this wonderful thread......
anyabody know the plumbing links...I would like to hard plumb my next tank and info would be nice. How do you know where to put unions and valves? sorry...newbie to plumbing...

 

[jeffbrig]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6755655#post6755655 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WanaLeime
How do you know where to put unions and valves? sorry...newbie to plumbing...

Trial and error....as you can see I'm on v2.0

Put valves on anything that you might want to turn off, unions anywhere you might want to remove something. If in doubt, add one or both whenever you have room.

Every plumbing job is somewhat unique, so you're kind of on your own to design something that meets your needs. The best advice I can give is to make it flexible and include provisions for removing/servicing/swapping equipment. Think of it this way.... you should never have to cut your plumbing or drain your sump just because a pump needs to be pulled out for cleaning.


Bax, No problem - I probably stole half the ideas from someone else....they're public domain at this point. Glad I could help.

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6755655#post6755655 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WanaLeime
Sorry to hijack this wonderful thread......
anyabody know the plumbing links...I would like to hard plumb my next tank and info would be nice. How do you know where to put unions and valves? sorry...newbie to plumbing...

I documented how I did the plumbing for the sump of my 280g tank. The link to the sump & refugium is on the front page of my site. Even though it is a big tank, the plumbing is rather straight forward.

And here is another example of how to plumb a relatively simple sump:
http://www.melevsreef.com/plumb_it.jpg

Sorry Nexdog. Back to your thread.

 

[bigeyetuna]

[The best advice I can give is to make it flexible and include provisions for removing/servicing/swapping equipment. Think of it this way.... you should never have to cut your plumbing or drain your sump just because a pump needs to be pulled out for cleaning.
[/B]

I have an submerged pump, so I have connected a union right after the pump for easy removal for cleaning or replacing. I also feed a pipe back to my sump from the main return to help regulate flow to the main. Its a loop back. I feed my refugium from my returm pump as well. So i have a ball valve on all three of these pipe flows. Here is a diagram, I have modified on my tank, as I just have one pipe going back to the display instead of the split.

Hope this helps. Do a search on Sump / Plumbing in gallery. You may find some ideas there.

BTW, I copied the baffle design from Melev's site. Thanks for the great site Melev.

I also use a Durso stand pipe in my overflow.

NexDog - back to your thread. Great Tank!! I can't wait until you fill it up with cool creatures!!!

 

[melev]

You're quite welcome, bigeyetuna. Nice drawing.

 

[NexDog]

Thanks for all the input. Now I'm totally confused.

 

[jeffbrig]

Glad we could help!

My work here is done.....

 

[H20ENG]

Bigeyetuna,
Just a friendly FYI
You can save power by using a ballvalve on the output of the pump, rather than diverting some flow back to the sump. The pump is working its hardest, drawing the most power at max flow. By throttling the return, you still get what you need to the tank, save pump energy (read $$), and does not hurt the pump at all.
The only exception to this is if you restricted the pump so much that it overheated the water and in turn overheated the pump. This would happen, say, if you used a Hammerhead to feed your calcium reactor

 

[bigeyetuna]

H20ENG,

That is interesting, because the information I read on RC indicated you do not want to restrict any flow of the pump as this may shorten the life. You make a very interesting point about power saving. In theory this would be true. Do you think the pump is going to work less by restricting the flow? I would think it is still going to try to spin at the same rate and therefore use the same power consumption. I would think it is an all or nothing consumption. But I am not an Electrical Engineer, so I would not know.

As you mention, the restriction on the pump at some point will cause excess heat. This would be the worst case scenario as I am already battling heat issues in the water. I do not want a chiller at this point either.

Thanks for you feedback.