Serpentman's 300g upgrade

[serpentman]

Here's an updated FTS with the new LED's. The STN'ing seems to have slowed or stopped. The cyano also seems to have retreated. The plan is to lighten the bioload a bit and move some clowns and nems into my new cube. I also plan to move 4-5 fish over to the eel tank.

I've also been busy on some other projects. I started a dedicated thread for the cube:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1874218

 

[serpentman]

Here is another side project that has been in the works for about 2 years:

April 2008:

July 2008:

It sat in this state for until about last weekend.

At the urging of my wife who was sick of the mud pit in her yard, I spent the weekend of the 4th sweating out the 95F day and finished the waterfall. Hurray! Still lots more to do but its presentable.

 

[serpentman]

I was down in my fishroom this morning checking things out and notice that my tiger tail cuc had split. Honestly, I wasn't aware they did that but after a little research its not entire uncommon. However, I thought it was cool enough to share.

On another note, things are slowly improving in the reef. I'm still experiencing some STN'ing on some colonies and my ORP was still lower than usual. So, earlier this week I emptied and cleaned the sump. Man there was a ton of sludge down there (note to self, clean the sump more often). I also noticed rotten egg smell so the denitrator had run its course so I took it off line yesterday. ORP shot up to 383 last night (still not where it was but much better). In all, I did 120g of water change this week and will do another 40g today or tomorrow.

Between the detritus build up and my denitrator spewing Hydrogen Sulfide, I think I've eliminated the issues. Nitrates were reading 0-5 yesterday and the cyano is completely gone. Fun stuff.

 

[heisenberg]

Hi there. Read through your thread today, lovely build. It's quite an undertaking to light up a large tank with LEDs even though they break even in cost within a couple years.

Do you do all those changes with 5gal buckets or did you sort out a better way to deal with waste water?

You have ATO running, I presume- how do you cope with water loss from the skimmer?

What's that little Aiptasia-looking fellow in the last shot of the tiger cuc?


All in all very impressive. I hope I have enough money, space, and time (and an understanding family) to do this at some point in the future.

 

[serpentman]

Hi there. Read through your thread today, lovely build. It's quite an undertaking to light up a large tank with LEDs even though they break even in cost within a couple years.

Do you do all those changes with 5gal buckets or did you sort out a better way to deal with waste water?

Thanks for the kinds words. I do water changes with 2 Rubbermaid Brute cans on wheels. I have a drain valve in my frag tank that I open and fill to the correct line and then pump clean water back in. In all, it takes about 15min.

You have ATO running, I presume- how do you cope with water loss from the skimmer?

Yes, the ATO is a continues drip system with using a high output peristaltic pump. This pulls from an 80g RODI reservoir. In all, I have to replace 30-40gallons per week, most of which is due to evaporation. Both skimmers run pretty dry.

What's that little Aiptasia-looking fellow in the last shot of the tiger cuc?

Unfortunately it is an aptasia. I had a copperband that destroyed them. However, he quickly starved once they disappeared. Shortly after, they made a resurgence and will be something I will need to deal with. Planning on putting about 30-40 peppermints in one day.

All in all very impressive. I hope I have enough money, space, and time (and an understanding family) to do this at some point in the future.

This project was definitely a long time coming. It all started with a killer deal on the tank and steamrolled from that. Still, its about 300% overbudget. With my oldest starting college in the fall, I will be reverting back to basic maintenance. No capital improvements for a while .

 

[Padrino]

Jeff,
Awesome update. One question for you now that im looking at a 300 gallon tank similar to yours. Do you have anything you might change with this setup. How is it to get good flow in the tank? Also have you calculated the weight of this tank full? Im trying to squeeze this into the main floor laundry room which the front of the tank would sit on a steel beam. There are joists that run from the inside of that beam across the bottom of the laundry room floor and sit on the concrete. Just not 100% sure that will be safe to put a 300 gallon display on.

 

[serpentman]

Jeff,
Awesome update. One question for you now that im looking at a 300 gallon tank similar to yours. Do you have anything you might change with this setup. How is it to get good flow in the tank? Also have you calculated the weight of this tank full? Im trying to squeeze this into the main floor laundry room which the front of the tank would sit on a steel beam. There are joists that run from the inside of that beam across the bottom of the laundry room floor and sit on the concrete. Just not 100% sure that will be safe to put a 300 gallon display on.

Other than wishing I had made the fishroom bigger, I really can't think of anything I would have done different. One mistake I made was going with a sump that was too small. Eventually that is something I will need to remedy.

Getting good flow is a bit challenging given the dimensions of the tank. 36" front to back almost ensures that you cannot do it will just two powerheads. In all, I have 5 running and don't have any dead spots.

Referencing weight, I estimate the tank is ~3000-3500lbs with sand, rock and water. If I were to put this tank upstairs, I would marry the joists and put some floor jacks under the tank. Although the beam situation would likely hold it, I would be more concerned about floor deflection/bowing that would make leveling very difficult and could potentially effect things structural elsewhere in the house. Its a relatively cheap and easy precaution (<$100-150).

 

[techreef]

man, you guys brave enough to put a 1.5 ton tank on wooden joists amaze me. I am such a chicken-something that there's no way I'm installing my 300G tank on anything but a concrete pad when we finally move and I can go ahead w/ my build! I spoke to a strutrual engineer about my 90G tank just recently. I live in a 35-floor apartment building that uses reinforced concrete for the walls and floors, and this engineer was still concerned a little with the weight of my tank. Her point was that even if you have a party where eight fat people are standing in the same floor space that your tank sits on now, and the floor doesn't deflect, a tank is different. It's that much weight, pushing down 24/7/365. The people move along once you run out of alcohol and food, but the tank is permanent.

x2 with Serpentman on the floor jacks!

 

[maroun.c]

Any specific reason to go with Tunze VS Vortechs relative tot he tank dimensions?
Can you please describe the flow configuration of the controller?

 

[serpentman]

Any specific reason to go with Tunze VS Vortechs relative tot he tank dimensions?
Can you please describe the flow configuration of the controller?

Sorry for the delay, I must've missed your post.

IME, Tunze's penetrate further into the tank albeit with a more narrow flow pattern. The Vortech's move a wide column of water but tend to taper off mid-tank. I was an early adopter of Vortech's and had some bad experiences with reliability so I have favored Tunze. However, IMO, the best solution would be to go with a mix of both in a large tank setup.

4 of my 5 Tunze's are controllable. I run them on an asynchronous pulse via my Aquasurf. Each opposite corner pulses at 100% at the same time, while the other corners run ~60%. I did this to avoid potential harmonics resulting in a wave. IMO, waves are bad in large glass tanks.

 

[prop-frags]

Here's an updated FTS with the new LED's. The STN'ing seems to have slowed or stopped. The cyano also seems to have retreated. The plan is to lighten the bioload a bit and move some clowns and nems into my new cube. I also plan to move 4-5 fish over to the eel tank.

Wow, Jeff - the LEDs look great. I think all that work is paying off. Will be very interested to see if you are able to maintain good growth. The pond looks awesome, too. We'll definitely look you up next time we come up to Mentor!

 

[serpentman]

It's been a while since my last update. Still continuing to see some STN'ing as of late. In all, I've very unhappy with how the tank looks (I'll post pics later.) Water parameters are in check so my only other possible cause is something in the sand bed or pests.

So, in the upcoming weeks, I am planning to take a Scorched Earth approach and reset things to zero. In other words, I plan to remove all the rock, dip all the coral and remove some pests such as the ugly paly's and aptasia. Furthermore, prior to doing this, I plan to remove some of the sand little by little.

Because I can isolate the display from the rest of the system, I will be able to run the frag system separately as a QT. Gonna be lot's of fun.....

 

[Esquare]

OK, I'll bite. What is STN'ing?

 

[serpentman]

STN = Slow Tissue Necrosis
RTN = Rapid Tissue Necrosis

 

[Esquare]

Thanks

 

[MarineGirl411]

That sucks. =( I hope someone will help you with all of this.

 

[maroun.c]

Sorry for the delay, I must've missed your post.

IME, Tunze's penetrate further into the tank albeit with a more narrow flow pattern. The Vortech's move a wide column of water but tend to taper off mid-tank. I was an early adopter of Vortech's and had some bad experiences with reliability so I have favored Tunze. However, IMO, the best solution would be to go with a mix of both in a large tank setup.

4 of my 5 Tunze's are controllable. I run them on an asynchronous pulse via my Aquasurf. Each opposite corner pulses at 100% at the same time, while the other corners run ~60%. I did this to avoid potential harmonics resulting in a wave. IMO, waves are bad in large glass tanks.

Thanks for the info Jeff.
Went and bought a Tunze 6105 with a controller to get the feel of the Tunze and better decide ont he flow for my coming 340 G.
Definitly pushes much more water than the vortech throughout the whole length of the tank but I hav et o admit the vortech setup is a lot easier as well as not having to worry abot corals getting blasted...
Totally agree on having a mixed set of pumps in the tank so most probably it'll be a pair of vortechs and a pair of Tunzes (still wondering if I should switch to waveboxes instead)
You got me scared with the waves in a large glass tank, any bad experiences? Do you think I should just aim to have an intermittent flow and no dead spots VS a synchronous flow throughout the tank that would look more harmonious and maybe have some advantages?
Sorry to hear the STN is continuing. I'm having a similar thing happen where I had some Cyano appear in the frag tank connected tot he tank and then soem STN started to appear here and there consuming 3-4 colonies and having many colonies with an affected branch or two...couldn't isolate a cause for this so might also dip all corals for prevention during the tank upgrade. any other things you did that you think could help with this?

 

[Padrino]

Thanks for the info Jeff.
Went and bought a Tunze 6105 with a controller to get the feel of the Tunze and better decide ont he flow for my coming 340 G.
Definitly pushes much more water than the vortech throughout the whole length of the tank but I hav et o admit the vortech setup is a lot easier as well as not having to worry abot corals getting blasted...
Totally agree on having a mixed set of pumps in the tank so most probably it'll be a pair of vortechs and a pair of Tunzes (still wondering if I should switch to waveboxes instead)
You got me scared with the waves in a large glass tank, any bad experiences? Do you think I should just aim to have an intermittent flow and no dead spots VS a synchronous flow throughout the tank that would look more harmonious and maybe have some advantages?
Sorry to hear the STN is continuing. I'm having a similar thing happen where I had some Cyano appear in the frag tank connected tot he tank and then soem STN started to appear here and there consuming 3-4 colonies and having many colonies with an affected branch or two...couldn't isolate a cause for this so might also dip all corals for prevention during the tank upgrade. any other things you did that you think could help with this?

I run both pumps, i used to just run the Tunze but find that the tunze loose power over time as they get clogged where the vortech stays more consistent and add a good amount of laminar flow to my tank. Although the tunze are much quieter.
HTH

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

Damn that's a shame to hear about the STN'in! Such a beautiful tank. Hopefully everything goes well, but don't you think it's going to put more stress on the corals and fish by taking everything out! I understand how experienced you are, however, it's never a good thing to mess with the whole system. It could have more drastic effects rather than leaving everything and trying to come up with a solution where you don't have to take all the corals/fish/rock/etc out. If you think it's a pest why not treat the tank with interceptor. I just don't think it's a good idea to do something to that magnitude in a reef tank. Good luck with whatever route you go! :wave:

 

[Padrino]

Better to treat the tank with interceptor than individual corals