Set-up for Bare Bottom

[maffs]

Hi folks,

I have a Miracle Mud system witha 90 gallon display tank. I decided early on to run it barebottom and I'm glad I did. The problem I am having is that a lot of detritus is lying on the bottom of the tank and I seem to be reading that this should be finding its way into the sump. I spoke with a guy at a LFS yesterday who insisted I would need some kind of "mechanical" filtration, but I have not seen any mention of this in MM literature (apart from siphoning detritus off as part of water change.

So, I was wondering if I have got my watermovement wrong. At the moment, there is a return from a OR3500. It comes up via a shaepherds crook and re-enters the tank at the opposite side of the tank from the weir. Most of the water simply goes straight down from the shepherds crook. The only exception is that I drilled a small hole to prevent siphoning in case of a power cut.

I also have two Tunze Stream 6000s, both housed in Stream rocks. I have one at either end of the tank. Both are near the bottom pointing slightly upwards (about 10 to 20 degrees). I have two thoughts:

(i) should they be pointing down a bit more, say a 5 degree upward move so that they have a greater impact on the bottom and so keep the cr@p in the water column? The problem I have with this is that I have two lovely plate corals on the bottom and I'm not sure how they would take the increased flow. They seem to be thriving just now.

(ii) I currently have them both on all the time "pulsing" between 50% and 100%. When one is on at 50%, the other is at 100%. This changes every 10 seconds or so. I was wondering if I need to have a different set-up. The LFS guy suggested having both at the end pointing towards the weir so that the detrius get moved towards that end and down into the sump.

My tank is 50 long by 17 wide and 24 high. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Matthew.

 

[Yellotang]

If you are having detritus building up on the bottom, then you will have to play with the tunze to get them to move the water across the bottom.

Instead of Tunze, I run three eductors aimed downward along the back of the tank. It is a closed loop 18mag driven flow of water. It pushes the detritus either up into the water column and down the overflows to the skimmer or if some some reason it is too heavy, it pushes it to the front of the tank to be easily syphoned out by hand.

 

[Yellotang]

Oh forgot, today is international No-Pants Day. That means barebottom tanks are celebrated today.

 

[rvitko]

The stream rocks give an upward angle to help eliminate substrate disturbance. I plan to get some 45 degree 50mm PVC elbows here to take home with me and these would be ideal with the rail- maybe a bit unsightly. When I get home on the 24th remind me and we will see what we can do. It should be no problem. In the meantime try angling the rocks a bit and pulsing at different intervals with a 30%/100% pulse- this creates the greatest turbulance. If you go to www.tunze.com we have the ultimate solution due in fall, it is on the Interzoo flyer at the bottom of the home page with the flags. It is called the Wavebox and I will have one at IMAC. Nothing even comes close to the potential of this product for flow creation.

 

[Yellotang]

Nice to see I was edited!

 

[Yellotang]

I guess these forums are for supporting the vendors, no complaining allowed???

 

[rvitko]

Frankly there is nothing to complain about in your case, you are not a customer and just piping in to make trouble. Buy it or don't buy it. A zoo is going to get a wholesale discount, the high price is to keep it from being purchased by a hobbyist who just wants the biggest magnet and then will end up sueing us because they have no fingers. If you can buy a $100,000 aquarium a $500 magnet is chicken scratch.

 

[Yellotang]

see thats all you had to respond to my thread. I wasn't stirring up junk. I was voicing a complaint in why I don't purchase tunze stuff. Do not get me wrong, if I could afford it I probable would. But it completely out of reach for most hobbyiests to purchase a $750 system, that most believe could be built for less then $100.

 

[rvitko]

Nothing is out of anyones reach and lots of people of average means will pay for quality. I would be willing to lay money that you earn more than I do but I know that I am better off buying a $300 pump once than a mediocre $30 pump 10 times. The same goes for any appliance. I spend no money on golf or boats or any vices, I have my aquariums, my house and my garden. No wife, no kids so I can buy what i want. It is all where you will spend your money, not how much you make. Many a struggling musician owns an instrument of the best brand which equals there annual income- because it is what they love.

 

[rvitko]

Since no one has stepped up to the plate and built it for under a hundred and a hobbbyist here built his own transformer for just one pump at $40 I would say it can't be done, our only competitor for an electronic pump is more expensive and the only competitor of the 6200 is $820- one pump and no controller.

 

[Yellotang]

Just because I want to look stupid, try this, then how come a computer, which is a million times more technical, the same price as one of the Tunze controllers?

Please don't say because they mass market it, that only works for some of the cost.

 

[Yellotang]

BTW, I am done complaining, I am just looking stupid doing it.

BTW, I doubt you make less then $3,500 a year. That's what I bring home.

Full-Time student. Parent of four teenagers.

No other hobbyies.

 

[rvitko]

When you can sell a couple million the fixed costs of production are offset. Plus a smaller margin must be made on each product. I know for a fact at the estimated sales rate for the set price it will take 1.5 years just to recoup the cost of the molds for the new magnet holder. It also makes a big difference when you use first world labor. Tell me where all of our money goes if you would? I can photograph the parking lot out here and you can see Axel Tunze's car- a VW van. They didn't put me up anywhere but in one the kids rooms. No one is getting rich here so it just isn't true.

You are right I don't make less that you but I am at the bottom quarter of the average income of people on this board- known fact from the demographics surveys.