North Dakota Mini-Ocean

[tom obrecht]

Your journey is a mirror image of my own. We fought many of the same battles if memory serves...primarily the Spazz/Volcano scenario . Although my system wasn't quite as large as yours I still was over 500 gallons total volume and had many headaches with the skimmer as we had discussed in my old build thread. I too have recently gotten back into the although on a much smaller scale. Once in your blood, reef keeping is hard to shake! It's good to see you back on the boards and I personally am intrigued to see what direction you head! Welcome back!

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Well Brady and I scoped out the possible tank area. It will be in the back of the garage as well as an addition area behind the garage. The viewing room will be 14' x 23' (12'-14' ceiling) with the tank taking up 10' x 5' (7' height including a 1.5' foot). Tank will be roughly 1800 gallons. The tank room will be 13.5' x 17' (12' ceiling) with a retractable screen on opposite wall to the tank for easy access to large equipment.

Sump will be roughly 10' x 4' x 3' with many chambers for denitrification and algae growth.

1-2 Large recirc protein skimmers will be used.

2 - 100g surge tanks will be used for wave action inside the tank.

3 pumps will be used for circulation.

Lights will be a combination of LED and MH.


Currently getting quotes on most equipment. More coming soon...

 

[iced98lx]

What's the plan on ventilation and air exchange? Looking forward to this one!

 

[S14Swap240sx]

cant wait, just skimmed this whole thread and learned a ton.

sometimes simple is better! do you plan on running a calc reactor or just sticking with 2part dosing?

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Ventilation will be commercial grade pool air exchanger. I might add an air conditioner as well.

Equipment will be simple so my wife or anyone out of the industry can operate it. Probably will have a monitor system just so I can what's going on real time.

Calcium and Kalk reactors.

MRC Protien skimmers.

1300-1500g sump.

UV system for QT.

Surge tanks (no power heads thank god!)

LED and MH mix.


Just waiting on quotes...

 

[biecacka]

You should look into GEO for a skimmer as well. He can build them
As large or small as you need. He also has too notch stuff.
Anyway I'm super stoked to tag alon on this ride

Corey

 

[lost in it all]

What are your plans for such a large sump? Any reason you are going with such a large volume?



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[Reefaquariumnut]

It will have a 200g water change chamber, 300 gallon Chaeto chamber, 200 gallon rock/refugium chamber, and a 300 gallon bubble dissipation chamber.

The reason for all the large chambers is easy access and adding more stable volume to the tank. It will also allow for housing mangroves with inhabitants if I chose down the road.



I have a drawing for a 39' x 25' detached addition to my house that will be off to bid early next week. Will have a sound-proof equipment room in it that will house everything for the life support systems. The room with be temperature and humidity controlled.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Okay a couple questions:

When I do the flow calculations to size my overflows it tells me that I will need 5" drain. Could I just have 4 - 2" drains? I believe I should have one overflow on each end of the tank.

With respect to the 2-100g surge tanks; What would be the optimal interval these should be dumping back into the tank and at what rate (how big should the pipe be)?

I think with big enough overflows the tank display level shouldn't fluctuate too much. Can I assume that's true?

Thanks!

 

[lost in it all]

At one point you had talked about building your next tank out of concrete with a viewing pain is this what you are still looking at?

I do not know anything about surge tanks, that in mind why surge vs closed loop?



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[Elliott]

Okay a couple questions:

When I do the flow calculations to size my overflows it tells me that I will need 5" drain. Could I just have 4 - 2" drains? I believe I should have one overflow on each end of the tank.

With respect to the 2-100g surge tanks; What would be the optimal interval these should be dumping back into the tank and at what rate (how big should the pipe be)?

I think with big enough overflows the tank display level shouldn't fluctuate too much. Can I assume that's true?

Thanks!

yes, a 5" drain can be divided into smaller drains, so placing 4 x 2" drains would be equivalent to an 8" drain

if you provide the size of your display tank I can calculate the volume and flow necessary for your surge tanks

you will have surface agitation from the wave caused by your surge tanks but thats fine, it will provide some back and forth movement that is naturally found on reefs

btw, keep in mind all your sumps will end up being nutrient sinks unless there is sufficient water agitation to keep detrius in suspension, either by significant flow through or from a propeller pump

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

2200g display tank. It will be a 10' x 6' front pane with 5' wide.

I'm open to suggestions on the sump design. I was thinking no socks. But something like 4-5 chambers. One of the chambers used for a water change area.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

I hate closed loops. Too many potential problems that mean ripping out components from a full tank. A surge can be removed or maintenanced with no effect to the tank at all.

 

[Elliott]

so just as a reference,

90g will raise the level of your display tank by 3" (120" x 60" x 3" = 90g)

a 3" pipe will drain 90g in 1 minute

a 2" pipe will drain 90g in 2 minutes

a 1" pipe will drain 90g in 3 minutes

now you are planning two 100g sumps, I would suggest going with 2" pipes with gate valves so you can adjust the flow to your liking.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

60"? Do you mean 72"? It's a 6' pane tall.

 

[Elliott]

60"? Do you mean 72"? It's a 6' pane tall.

your display is 10ft long x 6 ft deep x 5 ft wide right?

so 120" long x 60" wide x 3" deep = 90g

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

How long would the surge intervals be? Would you let one fly on the one side then when that one is about done, then let the other side fly? So a full cycle would be like 2 minutes plus the fill time?

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Yeah!! My bad. Haha!

 

[Elliott]

not sure on the timing, I'd probably set up and play with it a bit, you would get a lot of flow and turbulence with both going simultaneously

won't know if it's too much until it's up and running

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

What pumps do you suggest to feed the display tank? And how many pumps?