kinetic
Supporting Member
OMG, All About Fish! That was such an awesome place. I loved going there after work every day when I used to work in Concord. I'm pretty sure it's been way more than 10 years =X
Home prep for tank. Need sanity checks and advice.
- Thread starter kinetic
- Start date
Some people do. Mostly old-school people (like us
) who have been using them since when they were in fashion, or who come from someplace else in the country that’s humid where fans don’t work well.Not a cost thing. A better thing. A lot of us have no problem paying more for better, and we have fans.
That sounds like it’s true for some but it wasn’t for me. The stand has to be REALLY well ventilated. I tried fans only in my large sump first because I didn’t want one over the top of the tank. I had fans blowing on the sump water, and additional fans exhausting air from the enclosed sump cabinet, and it wasn’t very effective. Evaporative cooling requires evaporation, which requires the air to be dry. A little humidity ruins it. Enclosed sumps are quite humid by nature. One good fan pointed at the surface of the display works amazingly well- cools my tank at least as fast as my 2 300w heaters can heat.
I'm on clay, so I think they wanted to keep as much off the ground as they could. My foundation is pier and beam, the piers being 12feet deep....Looks like three fat LVL beams. That will definitely hold
iani
Supporting Member
I don't run a chiller at my office, I do have my AC set at 78 degrees just in case. I don't believe it hits that very often. I do have a fan and that does a great job. In fact I still have my old chiller sitting in the garage (probably does not work) its been in my garage for like 12+ years.
iani
Supporting Member
Wow, how is the foundation on the existing house? Same thing?
Existing was I believe 6 feet deep
What are we looking at? What are cross sectional dimensions of those additional members? How attached to the sills? (I think those are sills atop foundation?)
Qwiv
Supporting Member
There is a benefit for a chiller that fans can be noisy and they can be ugly, but they use a lot less energy as a trade off. I would always design a tank to use fans and ventilation as much as possible and only add a chiller if I needed it. Have not needed one yet, but have wanted one on some days. Maybe you need it quiet or it’s extra hot, you can pop on a chiller for those times, but use the fans most of the times. There are a lot of tanks in peoples pix with chillers, so it’s not uncommon. I would just not want to depend on a chiller. Nothing wrong with planning for a future chiller if you ever need it and adding it as an option like vibrating drivers seat in the car.
Qwiv
Supporting Member
They would have needed to add a grade beam to connect a shallow pier to the perimeter or add additional piers at the load. Upsizing the beams is easy and more cost effective and flexible, especially to an engineer.Looks like three fat LVL beams. That will definitely hold
2x 7"x9.25" PSL plus a doubled up 5.25"x9.25"
All resting on foundation on both sides. I forget how they are anchored.
The key to a quiet effective fan is get a larger fan and run it less than full speed. I got the 6” wide deep blade fan below set to about half full speed, and wired it to use the DC port on the Apex. My system is quiet and I didn’t want my fan to be noisy at all. Those tiny computer fans they sell in a row for reef tanks are terrible by comparison. It’s weird that no one makes good reef tank fans, if someone wants to make some money it’s an unfilled niche.
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Qwiv
Supporting Member
Oh, I saw some comment on here about hanging lights above the tank and how to hide cables. You can put a plug above your ceiling as long as you can access it. They make nice access panels that are tape in that you can add too access the power supplies. They are really clean and easy to patch if you ever want to abandon it. Most are fiberglass and look like this.
www.upceilings.com
Don’t think you would notice it above your tank and would hide your power supplies.
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Don’t think you would notice it above your tank and would hide your power supplies.
Unless you get one that isn’t. Those little computer fans are so ineffectual that one 6” fan is more effective and overall smaller than the banks of multiple small noisy fans they sell. And you can mount it someplace less annoying, like in the back corner, rather than along a long edge of the tank like what is required by aquarium fans.
H2OPlayar
Supporting Member
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Not the quietest, but definitely the blowiest! Also with finger cutting capabilities. We were blowing each others hair around at 20 feet with this thing I got under my tank.
ReefSparky
Supporting Member
I would have the electricians mount a box in the ceiling on the side of the light the power runs, with three separate circuits and a raceway (flex conduit) for control for future lighting upgrades, supplementary additions. You can run cleanly up the aircraft cable and hardwire in the box.
Wow holy cannoli! You’re in good shape.
With all that strength now you need to get a bigger tank!
kinetic
Supporting Member
Thanks for all the input. I'm not going with fans. I'll be rocking a chiller because:
1. I don't want more fans anywhere above the tank for aesthetic reasons
2. Having one in the sump will require a ton of ventilation, but there won't be much (and I hope not, because I want to contain any pump/skimmer sounds as much as possible, even though I'll mostly be using quiet DC pumps)
3. I have a perfect spot to store the chiller, and the walls/ceilings will be open and I'm putting in brand new cabinets etc. so adding a 4" duct from that bottom kitchen cabinet through the roof will be easy. I'll add a 4" duct fan with a temp gauge (there are so many options out there, I think because of indoor grow these days, nice).
4. I've never had plumbing issues with chillers, and they haven't leaked. I don't know if that's normal, but I'll keep an eye out. I have plenty of other equipment pieces that could leak too, so it's not a new problem
5. I won't have to worry about fans, ventilation, etc.
1. I don't want more fans anywhere above the tank for aesthetic reasons
2. Having one in the sump will require a ton of ventilation, but there won't be much (and I hope not, because I want to contain any pump/skimmer sounds as much as possible, even though I'll mostly be using quiet DC pumps)
3. I have a perfect spot to store the chiller, and the walls/ceilings will be open and I'm putting in brand new cabinets etc. so adding a 4" duct from that bottom kitchen cabinet through the roof will be easy. I'll add a 4" duct fan with a temp gauge (there are so many options out there, I think because of indoor grow these days, nice).
4. I've never had plumbing issues with chillers, and they haven't leaked. I don't know if that's normal, but I'll keep an eye out. I have plenty of other equipment pieces that could leak too, so it's not a new problem
5. I won't have to worry about fans, ventilation, etc.