my nano and my project 55gal

[supertech99]

empty tank

first rocks, checking temp and salinity and acclimating first snail

got a moonlight

more rocks

if you look really hard you can see my 2 o.clowns, my fireshrimp is in his cave

55gal with water, lacerock, and new powerheads

100 gal tank rated wet/dry trickle, its a tight fit down there because of the short stand but i love the clean look

soon to be remote fuge for dsb and cheato, as long as I measured correctly and it will fit

my diy bulkhead

 

[fallinapart]

You are moving right along, and setting all this up and getting it running is so much fun. Just to sit back and see the results of your hard work is so satisfying. Your looking good there

Norman

 

[supertech99]

Thanks norman, I wanted to ask what you guys think about my remote fuge. I have built it so that the water overflows by gravity back into my return pump area of my w/d filter. I am still unsure about how to get the water in the fuge from the tank.

I was thinking of a small powerhead in the bottom of the filter pumping the water into the fuge via a short piece of tubing
or
I could put a t-fitting in the return line but that will probally be too much flow.
or
I could replum the overflow line with hardline pvc and put some kind of bypass in it but again I think it may be too much flow, and since its so tight of a fit down there hardline would require 90 degree elbows which will restrict flow from the overflow. I know you want slower flow in the fuge but I am unsure what is optimal flow?

 

[fallinapart]

I would think that a Maxi-jet 1200 would be fine for a fuge like that. (providing it was not far above the main tank) I ran one using the Maxi-jet 1200 for a long time and it worked good for me. That way you could just use some rubber tubing to plumb with.

Norman

 

[poolkeeper1]

I would ditch the bio balls (nitrate traps) and get a skimmer to fit in that space. you will be better off in the long run. jmi.

 

[supertech99]

I will not be upgrading this system to a reef for some time due to the prohibitive cost of lights able to support corals. Bioballs do a very good job (the bacteria that grow on them actually) of converting ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. The system has multiple points of natural nitrate reduction built in to it (dsb in display tank, rdsb and cheato in fuge, live rock). The amount of nitrate produced is directionally proportional to the amount of ammonia and nitrite in the system. The use of a skimmer removes doc's (dissolved organic compounds) from the water before they can be converted by the bacteria into nitrate. (By using ro water you will greatly reduce the amount of DOC's in the water to be converted.) Therefore the skimmer is providing a service that the bacteria already perform, and bacteria don't use electricity or cost $300 bucks. Therefore nitrate export need only keep up with ammonia production (the balls themselves don't produce ammonia). Properly stocked tanks (not too many ammonia producing fish) that are properly fed (not overfeeding to introduce ammonia from rotting food) with proper surface adjitation to exchange nitrogen, o2, and co2 should focus on nitrate conversion (to nitrogen gas), not nitrate production (which is inevitable regardless of filter media type). Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish in small quantities, nitrate only at high quantities.

just in case you were curious of my opinion of bioballs!

If my understanding of the science here is incorrect, please correct me! (But please refrain from anecdotal evidence!) And provide sugesstions that I should access for further reading.

 

[poolkeeper1]

I don't know anyone in the hobby that is as rude as you. About something you admit in your own reply, bioballs do a very good job converting ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to NITRATE. They are so 20years ago! good luck. How is Randy Holms Farley on nitrate. GO read. anecdotal enough. Was just trying to give some good advice. Good Luck.

 

[supertech99]

My reply was an attempt to explain you to my understanding and my knowledge base for understanding how the system is to work and why I chose it. I am sorry if you implied rudeness (I see how you could have, when I re-read it I was rather blunt). If I did not want more information from you, I would not have posted a reply. Many people post messages without any scientific basis for their statements and simply proliferate myths that is why I asked for no anecdotal information. I assume that with 20 years of reefkeeping you have a good working knowledge of how to set up systems AND the why behind them. I hope that you will check this thread again so that you can see my reply. Let me try this again!

Please explain to my why you suggest using only a skimmer? Can you suggest any scientific readings on the merits of this system and how it works? Do you need a source of mechanical filtration when using a skimmer only? Does this eliminate the need for other natural nitrate reduction methods? What type of system do you currently use on your system?

 

[poolkeeper1]

I currently have 185gal reef, remote real deep sandbed,6inches+ refugium,with live rock,cheato, reactor with carbon(knop) or sea gel. large protien skimmer dnw200reculating mesh modded etc. I dose vodka daily. I also run a cal reactor. My tank is about 16months old and as kevin at E Bay calls it a growing machine. I did not mean to imply just protien skimming. but i do believe that bioballs are not the best way. And i have no mechanical filtration at all. My suggestion to you would be to put live rock in that section of that sump, It would do the same thing as BB without the long term nitrate issues. IMO good protien skimming is a must reef or FOWLR. don't starve your fish skim heavy. sorry about the rude comment guess i'm just a grouchy old man. If you have any questions i will help if i can.

 

[supertech99]

i read something about vodka dosing the other day it seemed delightfully simple and made a lot of sense. I am assuming that you mean to keep the live rock fully submerged in that area? What ml/gallon do you dose at? I really want to keep the outward presentation of the tank clean and there is not much room in the cabnet. do they make shortish skimmers?

 

[gsusfreak]

one thing i noticed from the pictures...is if you plan on purchasing something like an auto shut off switch incase the overflow box loses siphon?....happened to me before and many others....luckily this happen on my nano tank, and i was in the room when it happen and only had maybe a gallon on the floor....others have had theirs overflow while they were out and came back home to a really really wet house

 

[supertech99]

so the auto shut off would go in the sump and kill the return pump if it senses an decrease in water volume or in the overflow? I have never seen one before

 

[poolkeeper1]

Good Morning, Go to reef keeping magazine Aug, 2008 vol it will explain vodka dosing in detail. No the rock does not have to be submerged just kept wet same as BB. The difference is denitratrafication takes place deep inside the rock and the rock will not trap detritus like BB eventually will. They make many types of skimmers short, but maybe the way to go would be a hang on back model, you can find them used on RC all the time. Right now i do a maintence dose of 1ml per day .5ml at a time, my nitrate is undetectable (salifert) and phosfate also undeteable. I hope this helps. Keep an open mind there are many ways to be succeseful. Bill RE poolkeeper1