Reef nutrition

Tank #2 - 57g rimless

porksmash

porksmash

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Finally have enough going on here to post :)

I've had my first tank running for almost a year now. Through that year I've learned a ton, and then I got the upgrade itch. This is the tank where I know what I want and I know how to do it. I settled on the popular 57g Oceanic Illuminata. The stand was built by Undertow Aquatics represented in BAR by Lateralus. I scrapped the overflow kit that came with the tank and set up a herbie style overflow. To avoid ruining the rimless look I drilled a return in the back. I ran the freshwater test and was absolutely amazed at the low noise compared to my current tank. I am extremely pleased :D I also jumped on the Ecotech bandwagon and got myself a couple MP10s and a Radion.

I'm timing this build with my change of apartments, so instead of a rushed tank move I just have what boils down to a livestock transfer. All that's left is to partition the sump and paint the back as soon as this rain clears off.

PICS (click for big):
Drillin'


Front view


Underneath. Sump isn't finished just yet.


Rear view
 
That's there so I can tune the siphon line. The 1" pipe can flow a lot faster than I'm going to be pumping, so I have to slow it down with the gate valve or it will start sucking down air. The other drain line there is wide open in case the siphon line can't handle everything due to an adventurous snail or something.
 
I've got the herby/beananimal concept (have one myself). Just wondering about the spigot/gate valve you have just above the pump. Is that for water changes or did you intend to use that to limit return flow to the display tank, rather than the ball valve you have on the line? Will you be tuning this so no water goes down the open channel unless that adventurous snail of yours gets involved?
 
Oh oops, I didn't comprehend return vs drain in your post. That's just there to dial down the return flow without restricting the pump. The ball valve near the bulkhead is just for easy disconnection. I'm going to have the herbie dialed in so there is a small trickle going down the emergency.
 
porksmash said:
Oh oops, I didn't comprehend return vs drain in your post. That's just there to dial down the return flow without restricting the pump. The ball valve near the bulkhead is just for easy disconnection. I'm going to have the herbie dialed in so there is a small trickle going down the emergency.
Click to expand...
It is OK to restrict the output flow from magnetic drive pumps. Within reason of course. And never restrict input.
And it often saves power.
 
rygh said:
porksmash said:
Oh oops, I didn't comprehend return vs drain in your post. That's just there to dial down the return flow without restricting the pump. The ball valve near the bulkhead is just for easy disconnection. I'm going to have the herbie dialed in so there is a small trickle going down the emergency.
Click to expand...
It is OK to restrict the output flow from magnetic drive pumps. Within reason of course. And never restrict input.
And it often saves power.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, though I can never seem to find a proper explanation for why it happens, I believe it has been shown with a Kill-a-watt.
 
Bah, if only I hadn't already glued together $30 worth of PVC fittings... I suppose I could use the ball valve up top and just close off the gate at the bottom.
 
Well at least it still looks awesome with the sch80! If you really wanted to change it, all you would need to do is replace the bottom half of that union, and whatever fitting you have connecting to the pump, a nipple maybe?
 
I do love the sch80. I think I'll leave it as-is for now. Based on calculations the pump will do about 450gpm (which is perfect) so I don't think I'll have to do any restriction. If I do need to slow it down I think I can spare a few pennies a month to open the gate valve :p

Got some hardware last night to hang my lights. I can't go from the ceiling, so I ended up with some heavy duty plant hangars that reach out from the wall just the right length. I got this idea from the BRS video where they demoed the Radion, but when I looked up the Geissman brackets they used my wallet said hell no. That said... I finally put the light over the tank and I think I may need to get a second unit.

Preliminary sump design:
sump.png

This is in a 20gal long tank. I want to try out an algae turf scrubber on this system. Unfortunately I won't have time to build it before I have to have the tank running, so I'm going to start it up with a skimmer. The plus side is the skimmer can just plop right down where I plan to have the turf scrubber. The sump will be mostly refugium since the ATS will reside above the tank. I don't think I'm going to put in a DSB down here, just a bit of sand and live rock rubble.
 
It's a Radion. I was just holding it in the air over the bare tank to get an idea of the coverage. Ecotech says it covers a 2'x2' area , but my tank is 3' wide. I don't plan on keeping corals out to the edges, and mostly LPS in any case, so I'm on the fence.
 
Haha, well I started planning a DIY build and decided the time and effort factor won out for a manufactured unit. It was a toss-up between the Radion and Mazarra P series, but I went with the Radion since it integrates with the Vortechs. Should be fun.
 
Finally. Apartment and fish move complete. The chromis were a pain to catch and I ended up just draining the tank down to a couple inches. Frogspawn is opening more and more every day but the trumpet coral is still closed up. I'm super impressed with the radion, although you can clearly see the dark areas towards the outside in the picture. I'm afraid I'll have to upgrade to 2. First thing on the schedule is a proper screen cover :p

 
Well I just had a nice surprise. I took my second MP10 out of it's box and set it up on the tank and then went to set the drivers up in a master/slave configuration only to find out that the MP10 I bought from eBay in January is NOT wireless. The auction was for wireless and I figured since the case had the 'W' on it it meant it was wireless. Nope, the 'W' has to be lit up! This'll be fun to resolve 2.5 months after the fact.

My two percs have been cool cats during the entire move. When I put the net in the tank they went "ooh what's in here?" and swam into it. They were just chilling out in the bucket on the ride over, and then immediately exploring the new tank when they were finally released. The chromis, however, were nervous wrecks the entire way through. Couldn't catch them until I drained the tank down to a couple inches and removed most of the rocks. They're still a bit nervous in the tank but as soon as I walk up and kill the pump they forget about everything except food. Trumpet is still closed up, but doesn't appear to be dead or dying. Hoping it gets comfortable and opens up soon.
 
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