OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

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OK...refugium leak fixed and sand has been washed. I am now filling through the fuge and have about an inch of water in the display. Only 33 more to go...I guess I'll have plenty of time to deal with ventillation, building the skimmer, and cleanup!

I don't care how long it takes, I am so stoked that things are running well. The cooling issue is my next big hurdle. Should take a day or so to have everything hooked up, but I won't be able to test it until the tank is full.
 
Travis, I think I confused you a bit with the way I wrote that. What I was talking about is how to handle any hitch-hikers that need a lot of calcium. Like should those be separated into a QT that has controlled levels of calcium and lighting to keep them alive. Does that make better sense?
 
Jonathan, you won't have anything that demands a huge level of calcium that your saltwater can't provide right out of the bucket. As you add more SPS, LPS, snails, shrimp, fish, and grow coralline, you'll need more Calcium, but not at this point. It won't deplete what you get right out of the bucket.

Since you have such a huge tank, you might consider buying carbon in bulk. I just bought 45 lbs for $151.50 shipped, and then we divided it among four people ($38 each) at 11.5 lbs per person. That should be plenty, even with your system. Each person got 4 very full 1g ziplock bags of carbon.
 
All right, so I will cool my jets about calcium.

hmmm...I ordered Rowa Carbon 5 ltr. for $50 from custum aquatic. The guy said that was about 20 lbs. but from your description it sounds like I was told the wrong weight. Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense either. They said the bulk carbon was around $3/lb which is about what you guys paid. I'll have to weigh the Rowa when I get it to see. I hate when they switch to volume measure to fool the customer!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6754889#post6754889 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
The purpose of a spray bar is to diffuse the outlet water flow along the length of the pipe. This can be acheived however you want, whether that be with a series of holes, a slot, or a series of slots. I went with one long slot because it is less likely to get clogged and it puts less back pressure on the pump. It does diffuse the flow pressure a lot so that is why my spray bar is actually cut in half and each half is fed intermittently with a OceansMotions 4-way. Each half is 3 feet long. The feed pump is 6000 gph. This way I get 6000 gph of flow through 3 feet of spray bar at each interval instead of diffusing the 6000 gph of flow through 6 feet of spray bar, which would result in half as much flow pressure coming out of the spray bar. Not sure if that made any sense but some things are hard to explain in writing.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That makes sense.... sounds like a pretty sweet setup as well, and a ton of flow. I guess I was thinking that it all came out at once, but having it split like that it probably works pretty well. You said you had it spraying towards the bottom of the tank... do you have a sand bed? Does it kick up the sand if so?
 
Every time you add something to your tank it will cycle. The cycle size and time will depend on the capacity of the tanks biofilter. Your 200lbs of rock is already cycled, so it will deal with a bioload of a reasonable size already. (If I remember correctly, you are "feeding" your live rock a piece of cocktail shrimp.) As you add uncured rock, you are in essence adding bioload. If you add that load in moderate doses, then your tanks cycle will be minimal.

What is a moderate dose? 100 lbs? 200lbs? 500lbs? That I do not know. I do know that a vendor here at RC (it is a Florida based seller) sells packages of live rock. They ship it in 1/2 orders. You get the first half and cure it. Then they ship the second half and they reccomend just adding it in. Between the biological filter alreaady established on the "old" rock and the potential of the new rock, the cycle is very short.

If I were making the choice, I would add it to the sumps and refugium just to give myself a chance at QTing a bad hitch hicker. Can you imagine wading in your tank after a bad crab or a bad.......

Good Luck,
Dale
 
Good points Dale. I looked at the TBS package but for my tank it was rediculous and I don't neccessarily agree with how they build the package either, although I think they are a good vender and they put out a good product.

melev I just cut up a 6.5 kg round of raclette and in your honor I tested 3/4 of a lb. to make sure it was good enough to sell. That should keep the sheets warm tonight! :lol:

BTW, Dale...maybe you want to help with the rock move???
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6760571#post6760571 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Good points Dale. I looked at the TBS package but for my tank it was rediculous and I don't neccessarily agree with how they build the package either, although I think they are a good vender and they put out a good product.

melev I just cut up a 6.5 kg round of raclette and in your honor I tested 3/4 of a lb. to make sure it was good enough to sell. That should keep the sheets warm tonight! :lol:

BTW, Dale...maybe you want to help with the rock move???
Click to expand...

I have the duty watch this weekend (I love working the 3 dayers...). I will have to wait and see about the week after.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6760113#post6760113 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TheCoralNabber
That makes sense.... sounds like a pretty sweet setup as well, and a ton of flow. I guess I was thinking that it all came out at once, but having it split like that it probably works pretty well. You said you had it spraying towards the bottom of the tank... do you have a sand bed? Does it kick up the sand if so?
Click to expand...

It is barebottom and the spraybar was designed to keep the detritus in suspension rather than letting it form piles on the bottom:
<img src=http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/page12/under-eggcrate.jpg>
 
Dale,

I was talking about the trip to the airport which will be in maybe 3 weeks. I'll let you know.

Travis: Wow, you weren't kidding about the bare bottom! That is cool but why are there no creatures in the pic? How do you keep them from taking up residence below the rock?
 
That pic was taken right after I finished curing the rock and had just turned the lights on. There is plenty of life on the rocks now. The bottom stays clean though, as it is dark down there. I get a little coralline under the rocks but not really any encrusting organisms or anything like that. The area under the eggcrate is refuge to the fish and all of the larger fish sleep down there rather than in the rocks. The spraybar keeps the bottom spotless as long as it is on 24/7. I experimented with running it for 1 hour at a time twice a day to save on heat and electrical consumption. After a month or 2 I found that the "off" times were allowing bacteria to grow on the bottom that were "holding" onto the detritus and allowing detritus to collect on the bottom. I have been back to running the spray bar 24/7 for about a month now and the bottom is pretty much nice and clean again.
 
very nice. I doubt I could create such a contraption on a tank this size without going to the loony bin, but it is impressive indeed.
 
3-1/2 inches...

3-1/2 inches...

Finished blower side of the ventillation system:

I used basic home vent materials and built an adapter to hold the vent on the rim of the tank. These are sliders so that they can be slid out of the way in any direction and mounted on any part of the tank.

They are each attached to a 6" blower under the tank that will draw cooler air up and across the surface of the tank.

Blower side:
blower%20side.jpg


Blower top-down:
blower%20top.jpg


Blower backs:
blower%20back.jpg


Blower fronts:
blower%20front.jpg


The result is excellent. I am getting a wide flow of air that reaches the other end of the tank but does not disturb the lights. Hurray! :D :D
 
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