I decided to try something new with my latest build. I'll spare the details of the build (unless anyone wants to know) and cut right to the present day. I filled the system with NSW a few days ago and turned on the pump. Hopefully, it will start to cycle in the next few weeks. Right now cycling will have to rely on some natural sunlight through a window in my garage and an overhead fluorescent, as I have yet to buy some used lights. My RODI system is hopefully in the mail, but other than that I really don't plan on buying anything else equipment-wise. No skimmer, no reactor, no filter, etc. I have to put a filter sock in to keep sand out of my pump, but I won't clean out the sock, only dump the contents back into system.
This design is based on some research done by Markus Huettel et. al. where they showed that water flow alone is enough to circulate water through sand. Other than bacteria, I am not actively cultivating any worms, snails, etc. in my sand. My Iwaki MD-100RLT is wide open pumping ~2000 GPH through my 90 gal DT and ~35 gal sump. I'm calling the sump a racetrack because that's water the water is doing.. racing. I'm not sure if there is another name out there for the concept, nor have I seen anything documented, but if anyone knows anything please let me know. Visually, the surface flow in the sump looks to be about 10 cm/s, that what the cited reference managed in their experiment so I though it would be a good place to start. I made a feature that lets me adjust the flow over the sand so I can fine tune as necessary.
My DT has no sand or live rock in it, I took a large plastic rock that I bought at Home Depot and cut up and secured with cable ties. I will drill some holes in it to accomodate coral plugs when the time comes. I put in a custom overflow along the whole back of the tank, and the return pipe is not glued, so I can turn the nozzles and change things out should I need to tweak flow.
I plan on stocking coral only. I am not interested in fish, plus this makes it easier to keep nutrient input in check as well as maintain. I spend weeks away from home at a time so the less I have to worry about the better. I am planning on a bigger system based on this concept should it prove feasible. Basically, a rimless tank 8'x4' that fits on the stand you can see in the picture. It would look more or less like my sump but just bigger.
I could go on and on but I'll just save it for any discussion.
This design is based on some research done by Markus Huettel et. al. where they showed that water flow alone is enough to circulate water through sand. Other than bacteria, I am not actively cultivating any worms, snails, etc. in my sand. My Iwaki MD-100RLT is wide open pumping ~2000 GPH through my 90 gal DT and ~35 gal sump. I'm calling the sump a racetrack because that's water the water is doing.. racing. I'm not sure if there is another name out there for the concept, nor have I seen anything documented, but if anyone knows anything please let me know. Visually, the surface flow in the sump looks to be about 10 cm/s, that what the cited reference managed in their experiment so I though it would be a good place to start. I made a feature that lets me adjust the flow over the sand so I can fine tune as necessary.
My DT has no sand or live rock in it, I took a large plastic rock that I bought at Home Depot and cut up and secured with cable ties. I will drill some holes in it to accomodate coral plugs when the time comes. I put in a custom overflow along the whole back of the tank, and the return pipe is not glued, so I can turn the nozzles and change things out should I need to tweak flow.
I plan on stocking coral only. I am not interested in fish, plus this makes it easier to keep nutrient input in check as well as maintain. I spend weeks away from home at a time so the less I have to worry about the better. I am planning on a bigger system based on this concept should it prove feasible. Basically, a rimless tank 8'x4' that fits on the stand you can see in the picture. It would look more or less like my sump but just bigger.
I could go on and on but I'll just save it for any discussion.
