Matt's 5000ltr Display

[d3hree]

Pretty boring update but an update nevertheless.

Added an air dryer to the ozone.

Continued a bit more of the return plumbing.

This pipe will attached to a small pump in the sediment/water change tank. The other end will be tank side. I will be able to use one of the closed loop pumps to drain water from the DT and pump fresh water back using this pipe/pump.

 

[Moort82]

Hi Matt, nice to see its really progressing now.

Being as meticulous as you are i'm sure this isn't an issue but do you think having the mangrove section before the dsb will deplete the influx of detritus, so food, that the dsb needs? I know you have a settlement tank and various other filtration methods but are these before or after the dsb?

 

[d3hree]

Hi Matt, nice to see its really progressing now.

Being as meticulous as you are i'm sure this isn't an issue but do you think having the mangrove section before the dsb will deplete the influx of detritus, so food, that the dsb needs? I know you have a settlement tank and various other filtration methods but are these before or after the dsb?

Hi Ad, hope you're well

The flow gets split, there are two 63mm feeds. The first enters the mangrove tank before moving on to the dsb. The 2nd bypasses the mangroves and moves onto the cryptic zone before feeding the dsb. Truth be told I have no way as yet of determining the potential starvation of each filtration tank. I may have to rethink things once it is all running....or add loads and loads of fish :twitch:

 

[d3hree]

Day off today so I managed to get a fair bit done.

I added an 18mm sheet of ply to the sediment tank stand.

..and then added a rubber sheet to it's top.

The sediment tank will also be used as a water change tank. A 2" ballvalve will drain the tank. The standpipe is so that if i want/need to I can just use the sediment tank and the return tank, turning off the DSB, mangrove and algae tanks.

Sediment tank in place...

Side bulkheads added...

..and plumbed in

The small 25mm tap is for water tests. I will be able to drain water from here.

The 63mm standpipe simply extends down into the return tank.

As does the 50mm drain...

With a ball valve to drain the tank

 

[ABBS]

Hi Matt

Just took this , seems a crime to post it on your thread.

Cheers Martin

 

[d3hree]

nice Martin, as you know I have always been a fan of your tank. I see you are venturing into more sps. Did that calc reactor ever work?...or have you bought a different one?..balling?
Looking good Martin, nice to see you are still keeping the lps frags for me

 

[ABBS]

Hi matt

The calcium reactor pump was broken and seized solid that you gave me. So i got a bigger reactor secondhand for the same money as a new pump. Have passed the old reactor body onto another reefer to play with lol. I have sold off about half of the hammer coral, which gave me the cash for my rescape and new sps frags.
Im going to put more photo's up on my thread, going over the changes I have made and general improvments.

Cheers Martin

 

[d3hree]

Another little update.

I added the warning stickers that match my avatar to the sediment tank.

Plumbed in the fresh water tank , ato and kalk stirrer. I am not happy with this ato so I think it will be swapped out.

 

[d3hree]

I wasnt particularly comfortable with the lights over the mangrove tank. I had no reasoning but I felt that the t5s that close to the ceiling tiles could potentially be a hazard mainly due to them overhanging the reflectors

So I swapped them out for a grow lamp

With large reflector

 

[Six line]

Hilarious warning stickers. Oh, and the tank is nice too ;p

 

[d3hree]

I installed 18w flourescent tubes under the upper vats purely to help with maintenance.

And lastly I have plumbed in the sediment tank and it's associated bypasses so it becomes the water change vat.

 

[dave.m]

You were quiet so long I just knew you had to be up to something, Matt. So are you on schedule to get this monster wet for Xmas?

Dave.M

 

[d3hree]

I havent really stopped on the tank Dave apart from a little break in Amsterdam and fighting off a dose of Man-flu.
I would love to have the tank wet for xmas but there is still soo much to do and work is busy so I am not allowed the time on the build that I wish I could have.
If not xmas then soon after I hope

 

[ccuk]

looking good ...
do you have any resent pics of the display tank , i no theres no front pane in yet just so we can get a look at the scale of it ....
stewart

 

[Moser]

Looking good, Matt.
Did you see any tanks whilst in Amsterdam?. There is a high density of stunning tanks around that area!.

Mo

 

[d3hree]

Thanks Mo, I managed to drop in on Jan. We tried to stay with him but he was fully booked. Another amazing reef.

I am inching closer and closer to a dastaco! Your tank, Adnaans, Vince's, Jawsee's and Jan's are great adverts for those calc reactors. Unfortunately by the time Jon got them in the Uk I had already got the Deltec 1001 and my wife will kill me dead if I swap it out before the tank is even running!

 

[CMM23]

nice setup lots of hard work !!!!

 

[jwre]

Come on put water in that thing already!

Looking really good, Matt !

 

[d3hree]

nice setup lots of hard work !!!!

Thanks CMM23. It has certainly been lots of hard work, I hope it matures into a nice set up making the hard work worth while.

Come on put water in that thing already!

Looking really good, Matt!

Ha, Ha. Thanks Jan. Water maybe this year...if not soon into 2012. I want a tank that is as stunning as yours so I am happy to be patient.

 

[d3hree]

I have been testing salts for a year or so now. With such a large tank I want to have a good foundation with a good salt and buying salt by the pallet means that I dont want to have a change of mind after a few weeks!

I bought a bucket of Royal Nature some time back and have been waiting to test it out.

The Salt. Royal Nature is another pharmaceutical grade salt coming from evap at the red sea. From what I have been told there are two refineries, one owned by Red Sea and the other by Royal Nature. Once the salt has been obtained by the evap process it is ( for simplicity) divided into 3 piles. Two of the piles go to the red sea plant, red sea owning one and D-D owning the other. From what I have tested this past year or so there seems to be very little difference in these salts.
This is only what I have been told by various reps so feel free to take it with a pinch of salt :twitch:

Right, on to the test.

The Salt;

A standard bucket size which cost about £50 IIRC

The test.
A 600 ltr vat filled with 493.5 litrs of fresh RO with 0 tds.

I added an old skimmer, 2 x 300w heaters and approx 10000lph in flow via two powerheads.
I also added two airstones to airate the water overnight.

Once the water was up to temp and airated overnight I added the salt.

Royal Nature recommend 1kg of salt for every 25ltrs. With 493.5 litres I added 19.74kg of salt.

After leaving the salt to mix overnight I got the following results. ( the temp was 26)

Specific Gravity. 1.026
Nitrates Zero (using D-D test)
Phosphates Zero (using D-D test)
Cal 445 (using D-D test)
Mag 1240 (using D-D test)
DKH 9.2 (using D-D test)

On the whole I am quite pleased with how easy the salt mixed and more importantly how clean it mixed. I will be doing approx 500ltr water changes per week/two weeks so a pallet of 36 buckets will last approx 40-80 weeks.

I also made a start on adding some of the electrics too