My Ultimate Multi Mantis System(s)

[Kharn]

MINOS (l.colemani) - showing even more depth seated in his new burrow this is really encouraging stuff ...



More to come as that is it for now...

 

[NanoReeferZ]

Minos is awesome!

 

[Kharn]

Minos is awesome!

He is awesome isn't he very unique as far as Lysiosquillidea goes...those 2 horns are so cool really "demonic" looking and the way his eyes are angled / diamond / pointed'ish' just makes him look more "evil" then other spearers like L.maculata.

Thanks for the input, keen to get home from work and see how much more he has done on his burrow, has taken him over 6months to get to this point I'm just happy he seems to be still capable of creating a burrow, a spearer without a burrow is like what Quagmire says about a cobras without venom..."You take the venom out of a Cobra and all you left is a belt..." the spearers more so then the smashers really need that burrow for confidence.

 

[Jodah]

I didn't even realize you lived in australia. (yes, i know its right under your avatar, but your avatar is too funny to look at anything else)

How hard would it be to get a license to collect your own food?

 

[priscacara]

Great pics as always mate, took me a bit but finally got on to see some of your updates

 

[Kharn]

I didn't even realize you lived in australia. (yes, i know its right under your avatar, but your avatar is too funny to look at anything else)

How hard would it be to get a license to collect your own food?

It is very difficult to get a live food permit in this country and for someone like myself, impossible...there must be undeniable reasons to obtain it with which only highly paid researchers in laboratories can sometimes get (its difficult for them which means its impossible for me).

 

[Kharn]

Great pics as always mate, took me a bit but finally got on to see some of your updates

Glad your here =) I suppose the biggest update is Minos the L.colemani having over the past few days hunted and killed a live fish (about the size of 50c coin) and having created the deepest burrow that I have seen him in.

This morning I caught the classic spearer 'booty dance' of Minos as he was digging deeper with only a small portion of his telson visible out of the top of the burrow, really encouraging stuff .

The L.colemani is a very tough durable species...it's been over half a year out of the burrow, creating them half way then destroying them never being truly covered inside a burrow mixed with the initial shell rot he came with and missing antenna.

As you can see in this pic compared to the last one he is even deeper seated and practically at the point where the other spearers reside in their burrows , considering what he has done between when I first got him to now (none of my others spearers hunted without burrows) I foresee some great footage to come .



More to come

 

[Kharn]

If there is 1 compartment that I am likely to leave unchanged it would be that of Maximus & Minnie (G.graphurus pair, Top Tank Left Compartment STAND B). There is a very natural cluster of confusion going on in their compartment due to the macro algae that is growing like mad within it and this helps to keep things looking natural mixed with their Live Rock cavities and overall dominant green coloration....makes them difficult to spot...

Half that Minnie resides in...if you look closely you can just see her...


Half that Maximus resides in...if you look closely you can just see him...


This is their half of the Top Tank for STAND B, beside them is Minos...


I might get other types of algae to help make it more colorful seeing as the current macro is going nuts.

 

[Kharn]

A few more random shots taken that I thought were quite individually nice

MORGOTH (L.sulcata)


KRAKEN (O.scyllarus)


ROCKY (G.graphurus)


'SCATS' (Live Food For Spearers)


More to come

 

[Kharn]

Lately I have been loosing sleep as how best to go about doing this major upgrade seeing as everything is basically ready cept for 1 key thing...a test setup...

Basically I need to simulate the new sump filtration stands with 3 buckets a return pump and some PVC, assemble to PVC plumbing and DIY it into the buckets then see how it all runs, if the ball valve works and regulates 50% of the water into sump #2 and the other 50% into sump #3 above at equal rates then the whole system should in theory work since both tanks will drain at equal rates and at equal halves to the max capacity of the 32mm bulkheads on the display tanks they are connected too.

Here is a mock setup similar to ones I have posted in the past with a 3 sump stacked "hob" system.



I'm really looking for comments about potential flaws

 

[Kharn]

MY CONCERNS

#1 Display Tank Bulkheads: Being only 32mm wide and with cages to prevent large debris floating down and clogging I am worried that things might get to powerful for them to handle...?

#2 Return Pump: The return pump must push water up to a height of 2.2mtrs (give or take a few inchs), I'm worried that the pump will only be able to push water up with a lot of flow behind it thus the water exiting the 2nd & 3rd sump be to fast and overflow the display tanks 32mm bulkheads....?

#3 Ball Valve/Gate Valve/Flow Control: Will this work is it as simple as adding a ball valve at the junction of the middle sump (2nd) to divert half of the return pumps flow into that tank at an equal rate as the last sump (3rd), thus allowing them to fill equally and empty equally....?

Cheers for anything...:beer:

 

[NanoReeferZ]

Hi

It says in your signature you have Quollastria and Harpiosquilla

They sound interesting, what do they look like, and where do they live?

Thanks

 

[Jodah]

You can regulate the flow into each section through the use of the ball valves. You can put screens over the overflow's and outlet's to keep debris from getting sucked down. With 1 1/4" (32mm) drains, you should be fine and be able to regulate the pump enough to not overflow the display.

If anything though, I would run a single sump large instead of multiple small ones. Maybe have the sump span the entire width of the displays. Idk, I'm stuck at home today so if you toss up some specs, I can draw it up in sketchup.

 

[Kharn]

Hi

It says in your signature you have Quollastria and Harpiosquilla

They sound interesting, what do they look like, and where do they live?

Thanks

Firstly I'll stop you at their 'names' I am not a 110% die hard scientist researcher like Dr. Caldwell, I just used the information I have to get the best / closest to it that I could, either of them could of and were something else entirely but all of them (cept L.colemani) were 'Squillids'.

They do sound interesting but unfortunately these Squillids are very difficult to maintain in captivity...I acquired 7 various Squillids & 1 L.colemani...originally I feared for the L.colemani due to the shell rot and lack of burrow building amongst other things like not eating however all the Squillids ate, took to PVC burrows & were interactive and then...

All 7 died...I do not know how nor was it all at once but they did after a couple of months start to decline and rapidly this is why I haven't gone into much detail about them and will remove them from my sig...

I wasn't attached to them simply because they were all surprises and I didn't have room for any of them in separate compartments so I put all of them into my Live Food tank with small fish and a small DSB (4inchs) I have them all preserved now in a large jar.

Personally I think it had something to do with the substrate, I know that these are mostly mud dwellers something I am not yet prepared for but Eel_Freak has a 'type' similar to mine albeit his is far more colorful and in a MUCH more dedicated system designed for that species.

The L.colemani not only survived (it was the only 1 originally separated) but has shown advanced regrowth in the damaged shell rot areas and has in the past week finally dug a burrow deep enough to conceal himself.

I was not aware at the time how rare this L.colemani is since the person who sold it too me said "black and white striped spearer" initially I was hoping for a female L.maculata for my large male but this rare L.colemani is something else altogether ...

 

[Kharn]

You can regulate the flow into each section through the use of the ball valves. You can put screens over the overflow's and outlet's to keep debris from getting sucked down. With 1 1/4" (32mm) drains, you should be fine and be able to regulate the pump enough to not overflow the display.

If anything though, I would run a single sump large instead of multiple small ones. Maybe have the sump span the entire width of the displays. Idk, I'm stuck at home today so if you toss up some specs, I can draw it up in sketchup.

I'm a little confused about your first paragraph, regulate what flow into each section (display stand or filtration stand) ?

Not that I am about to pick on you or anything but I am going to assume you haven't seen the scale of my systems on the whole...all 3 stands together measure over 4mtrs long and 2mtrs high...1 sump for all of them would have to be very large and I have limited space (sorry I never mentioned my lack of available space another reason I build vertical) breaking it down though I have done what you mentioned....

STAND A - all display tanks are 600mmLong
STAND B - all display tanks are 900mmLong
STAND C - all display tanks are 1200mmLong

So with that in mind the actual schematics (length) for each of the 3 sump tanks stacked behind each of the display stands (A, B & C) are the same as the display tanks here is an example of the 'current' schematics.

DISPLAY TANKS STAND A
top display - 600mm L x 300mm W x 350mm H
middle display - 600mm L x 300mm W x 350mm H
bottom display - 600mm L x 300mm W x 450mm H

FILTRATION TANKS STAND B
top refugium - 600mm L x 250mm W x 350mm H
middle refugium - 600mm L x 250mm W x 350mm H
bottom equipment - 600mm L x 250mm W x 500mm H (tank is set 6+ inchs lower then bottom display).

Basically behind each stand is about 600mm from wall to stand so another 300-350mm stand behind each current stand will fit (each filtration tank is just 50mm less in width).

Having said all this STAND C does only host 2 tanks and due to their 'unique nature' there is only going to be 1 refugium (2 filtration tanks) however these 2 tanks will be much larger (width wise) then the Display tanks in
front of them.

Hope that gives an idea.

 

[Jodah]

Sorry, sometimes my mind makes leaps to conclusions skipping the bits in between. Lol. But yeah, one large sump does appear to be a bit out of the question.

Put a ball valve on each outlet on the return line. Therefore you can regulate the flow into each "sump" that you have in your picture. Perhaps that explains it a bit better? Idk, it's late and I am a bit tired atm.

Also, I would not run a HOB style overflow as shown. If you're going to be drilling the tanks, may as well drill them all.

anywho, I'll see what I can whip up in sketchup for ya. Learning to program my arduino controller is making my brain hurt. haha.

 

[Kharn]

Sorry, sometimes my mind makes leaps to conclusions skipping the bits in between. Lol. But yeah, one large sump does appear to be a bit out of the question.

Put a ball valve on each outlet on the return line. Therefore you can regulate the flow into each "sump" that you have in your picture. Perhaps that explains it a bit better? Idk, it's late and I am a bit tired atm.

Also, I would not run a HOB style overflow as shown. If you're going to be drilling the tanks, may as well drill them all.

anywho, I'll see what I can whip up in sketchup for ya. Learning to program my arduino controller is making my brain hurt. haha.

The display tanks are already built in place and been running for a year so draining them to drill holes is something I do NOT want to do, I agree that the ball valve(s) will mean a lot in this build...

Why wouldn't you run a HOB overflow ? Have you ever heard of LifeReef ? He is the hands down BEST in the BUSINESS the man (Jeff) is a god! I copped soo much from others on local forums about 2yrs ago cause I bought a HOB overflow (LifeReef) so many tried to scare me out of it and you know what...

2 yrs running 0 failures...LifeReef HOB overflows are built to perfection they are so reliable! I actually try to make it stuff up but it won't...even the siphon hose that does the sucking, is in place so firmly that you could only deliberately remove it to cause a failure, brilliant design and 110% peace of mind ..

 

[Jodah]

I simply don't like Hob stuff. Not saying they're not reliable as you obviously have seen they are.

I also figured you were drilling for the display overflows. Are those hob as well ot were there already bulkheads in place?

 

[Mdpflueger]

Kharn, for your smaller stomatopods (maximus, minnie, and rocky) what are the sizes of their individual compartments? They look pretty small in the pictures.

 

[Kharn]

Kharn, for your smaller stomatopods (maximus, minnie, and rocky) what are the sizes of their individual compartments? They look pretty small in the pictures.

1 cubic foot (30cm x 30cm x 30cm).