Pictures of Bomber's barebottom SPS tank and related equipment

[Zoom]

Bomber

Bomber

I seen in your sump pictures that you have no bulkheads thru the sump to feed your pumps.
Looks like to me that you have PVC tube over the top of your sump and it goes to the bottom of your sump and feeds your skimmer pump.
Do you ever have problem losing siphon to your pumps ?
I like to plum a pump that way for my 90G for the skimmer, it will be better than a submersible pump that is running on now.
I was thinking to do that with a Tee on the top and a plug so i can prime the pump at first or when i clean it.

 

[Bomber]

Re: Bomber

Re: Bomber

What are your nitrate levels, and how do you prefer to controll them?

I really don't know. Someone named Hab gave me this stupid test kit and all it does is read zero. I think it's called SillyFart or something like that.

Shoe, where do nitrates come from? If you don't leave anything in the tank to rot, you don't have them.

Looking good Jerel:thumbsup:
Now when someone asks what wet skimming is you can show them a pic.
BTW, do you run the UV for parasite control since you use NSW for water changes?

Thank you Sir!
LOL we can both thank Greg. He knows how to do all that photo stuff.

I'm running the UV for several reasons. For instance, Jay was here a few weeks ago and we went out and collected a whole harem of neons - disease control. All of the coral chemical warfare chemicals are highly sensitive to UV and photo-degrade almost instantly. Most organically bound phosphates are also highly reactive to UV, UV breaks them into ortho-phosphates and they can then be blown off by the skimmer. Water clarity - it's like there's no water in the tank. And a few other reasons too.

I seen in your sump pictures that you have no bulkheads thru the sump to feed your pumps.

They're all "up and over", I don't trust bulkheads and it seems that every time I drill one - I get something different and it doesn't fit anymore. They never lose prime, they're under water.

 

[Shoestring Reefer]

Re: Re: Bomber

Re: Re: Bomber

I really don't know. Someone named Hab gave me this stupid test kit and all it does is read zero. I think it's called SillyFart or something like that.

Shoe, where do nitrates come from? If you don't leave anything in the tank to rot, you don't have them.

I agree totally; the thing is, when I blast a piece of LR with a turkey baster, I get quite a good cloud of stuff. I'm not really sure how clean LR should be, or if I should just jeave it alone. I'm talking about detritus inside the LR, not on the surface.

In your opinion, will the LR "take care of itself" so blowing it out is not required, or should it be blown out so all the detritus can be removed from the tank?

 

[Bomber]

I would blow the rocks out as good as you can when ever you think it needs it. Can't hurt.

I don't know about you, but when I let detritus build up I get phosphates not nitrates - immediately followed by green glass - which is followed by hair algae.

I think nitrates still get the blame from the old days when nitrates were blamed for everything. Only because people couldn't test for organic phosphates. When they would see hair algae, etc they would test for nitrates and nitrates would be elevated, even if just a little. Truth is, elevated nitrates are associated with elevated organics = phosphates.

 

[DonJasper]

Sorry if this has already been discussed - if so I couldn't find it.

Other than jawfish - what other common saltwater animals would be inappropriate for a bare bottomed setup? I'm guessing most (all) inverts? Most (all) softies?

Please accept this in the good nature that it's intended - but I guess any fish take with a coral or two in it is considered a 'reef' tank huh?

 

[Bomber]

Don, you say most inverts and most softies, why? Most don't care one way or the other. Did you know that conch are raised barebottom and only see sand when you guys buy them?

The only thing that needs sand are animals that use it for direct habitat. For instance, anemones that burrow, worms that live in the sand, pistol shrimp (only if you want to see them make a tunnel, if not, they don't care), etc.

 

[DonJasper]

LOL!!! Because I don't know any better.

 

[DonJasper]

FYI - having time to ponder. The question about inappropriate creatures was based more on a misunderstanding about StarBoard Reef and 'bare bottom' tanks. I thought that bare bottomed tanks was something new. I mistook the design of Starboard Reef to be a typical example of this new fangled technique.

(sigh) Guess I'm getting a little old . . .

 

[Shoestring Reefer]

Don, you say most inverts and most softies, why? Most don't care one way or the other. Did you know that conch are raised barebottom and only see sand when you guys buy them?

Ok, now you really got my interest. I'll have to check out how to care for them with a BB, because my conch is the only thing keeping my sand bed around at this point.

 

[Bomber]

Shoe

Here's a picture from the Turks Farm, sorry we don't have one of ours here online. But, you can see how they are raised.

 

[melev]

That is sooo cool! Thanks for posting that image.

 

[joedelt]

ok folks..bear with me....
im setting up the new tank, its an acryllic cube 2x2x2. my original plan was for a 4-6 inch sand bed. Not gonna do it.


my original plan calls for 2x tunze 7200/2 (Output: 500 - 2400 l/h (132 - 634 US gal./h)
) and the returns for the tank. i thought this would work good for a DSB w/out blowing the world away.

then bomber has to go and add a world of hurt to my life and make me start thinking....THANKS BOMBER


so now im thinking of using black acryllic rod and some scrap black acryllic pieces to make stands for all my liverock to get it off the bottom.


im toying with the idea of a minor upgrade and just going with one TurbelleÃ"šÃ‚® stream 6100 and
one TurbelleÃ"šÃ‚® electronic 7400/2
each with a total of 16,000 l/h
(4,226.7 US gal./h)

would that be too far over the edge? obviously i can dial them back or up to full hilt as necessary.

my skimmer is the smaller euroreef, 5-2, for my water volume i think that will be ok for a bomber inspired modified berlin?

im still thinking i want a small refugeum running some macro algae. i have 5# of mud laying around that i could throw in a HOT refugeum and grow some algea.

looking for thougts, opinions, etc.

thanks

 

[Shoestring Reefer]

Isn't that about a 100 X water turn over per hour? It's a lot higher than anything I've ever seen recommended, but I'm no expert.

 

[Rick Davis]

Joedelt

I currently have a 2 X 2 X 2 cube tank.

DON'T PUT A TUNZE IN THERE!!!!!

Unless your fish specifically asked for a jacuzzi, that sounds like way too much flow. Shoot for about 20X turnover and that should be plenty.

 

[joedelt]

well remember that those values are the 100% values. but its what i figured....im still trying to figure out how to use one fo those

 

[Bomber]

then bomber has to go and add a world of hurt to my life and make me start thinking....THANKS BOMBER

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

Don't you guys think a certain number of tank turn overs per hour is like in lighting saying watts per gallon?

8 watts per gal in a 10gal tank is only 80 watts.

20 tank turnovers in a 10 gal tank is only 200 gal per hour.

 

[MiddletonMark]

If it's an acrylic tank ... maybe consider drilling a couple holes for a closed loop?

Those Tunzes aren't the smallest of all things hanging in your tank ... and not to say it's all aesthetics ... but I find Closed-loop holes/outputs/spraybars to take up a lot less space [can even hide somewhat in rockwork] compared to any sort of powerhead - and Tunzes are great but large.

Esp. on an acrylic tank ... I'd go closed loop. Hide it all but a little plumbing ... plus a spray bar along the bottom IMO would be cool + good flow.

 

[joedelt]

bomber, from the perspective of the fish and some SPS would this absolute overkill? i was going from the angle that if i mounted the stream near the top facing down at a 20-30 degree angle that would do a lot towards keeping everything moving on the bottom. i could use the powerhead to add disruption to the flow stream.
i tend to agree that the x times per hour is like x lighting. but at the same time, i dont want to have fish plastered against the walls of the tank

/john

 

[joedelt]

MiddletonMark
one of the goals of my tank is to keep everything inside the tank. it was originally going to be viewable from all 4 sides but we're moving and the new place has no room to allow for that.
i like the idea of a spray bar, but not sure how i would acomplish it right now...maybe 'Y' the return feed and have it spray out each side of the overflow on the back wall.

 

[SaltwaterNovice]

Conchs are raised by nannies in the Turks?