Son of Kahuna (56K!)

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Betowess

One thought here, since the gravity fed inflow is low pressure, couldn't you plumb your existing fert peristaltics in there, since you mentioned the pressure is too great on the outflow?

GREAT question Bob! You are absolutely right. But I've been doing fert injection for a few years now, and ferts injected into the in-line plumbing seems to add to the buildup of cr*p in the lines. So I prefer to move the fert injection just as close to the return to the tank as I can. I don't want to be feeding all those lovely nutrients to the little critters gumming up my lines.

And sorry I didn't answer before. Those lights are Aquamedic 150w HQI pendants - 10,000K bulbs. And I swapped out the stock magnetic ballasts with an Aquamedic 2x150w electronic ballast. So as big as this thing is, I'm happy to report it is stone cold silent. No plumbing noise, no mechanical noise, and no ballast noise.

2x150w may prove to be too little light. But I want to try it, since I want to keep growth real slow, and reduce my maintenance. Just cleaning off the plexiglass seems to take forever. I definitely don't want to devote my life to trimming fast growing plants in there! Heck, even if I had the time, many places in the tank I can't reach without a step ladder.

No - I'm gonna give 2x150 a shot. Hopefully we'll have nice slow growth.

[BlueRam]

Agreed, You have a reef tank (FOLER) that just happens to have FW plants. Simply swap the heaters for chillers, skimmer for canister and you would be set for anything you could want

Thank you VERY much for the pictures.

The last time that particular spreadsheet was linked here (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu.../featurejp.htm) you were not as excited if I remember correctly.

Originally Posted by scolley

Raul-7 - I actually had to get a LOT of help from Reefers to do this! I spend a bunch of time over on ReefCentral. I learned a lot too. For starters, I learned the everyone's whining and moaning over 90 degree angles in plumbing is a bunch of whooey. 90 degree angles in PVC have an impact. But it's a small impact, and is one that I learned is easily calculated. So before I even had the system built, I knew what the flow rate was going to be, depending on which pump I bought.

There's a great spreadsheet out there that calculates it all for you - depending on the size of your pipe, number of unions, number of 90 degree elbow, etc. I had to modify it a bit though. It's setup for saltwater (go figure!), and the drag coefficients for fresh water are a bit different.

[BlueRam]

Originally Posted by scolley

In this shot you can just barely see the drain solenoid - it's a few inches under the fill solenoid. In the case of draining, I let system pressure work in my favor - so the drain is in-line AFTER the pump. And that drain solenoid, of course, has a line to my home's waste water plumbing.

You could improve the system performance by using the drain water to backflush the OC canister. I will have to think about the plumbing that would be required to run the flow backwards through the canister to remove the accumulated waste.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by BlueRam

Thank you VERY much for the pictures.

The last time that particular spreadsheet was linked here (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu.../featurejp.htm) you were not as excited if I remember correctly.

Last time, if I remember correctly, I didn't need it as badly!

Now I really did. I had to know if this monstrosity would actually work. And it does OK. I get about 350 GPH with just the Sequent pushing water through all that plumbing. With the Eheim Pro II hooked up (no - I haven't posted pics of that yet) I'm getting a total of just a tiny shade under 600 GPH. That's not calculated BTW - that's measured.

My pleasure on the pics. Sorry they are so poor. Was in a rush, and pics were just not the major priority. Getting the tank up fast was. But as I finish things off I'll get some better pics that hopefully shows things a bit better. But my chances for a "from the top" view is over. Making sense of future pics will probably require looking at the new pics, and then referencing these old ones to understand what you are looking at - and where it is.

But when you look into the stand - in person - it's not so bad. Really.

[Jason Baliban]

OMG!! That looks like the machine at the end of Superman III!! HAHAHA

Best of luck on this one man, its a beautiful tank

If i was to suggest anything it would be three of those pendents

Good luck

jB

[scolley]

Originally Posted by BlueRam

You could improve the system performance by using the drain water to backflush the OC canister. I will have to think about the plumbing that would be required to run the flow backwards through the canister to remove the accumulated waste.

That is, IMO, a brilliant idea.

When you figure it out, please DO let me know!

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Jason Baliban

If i was to suggest anything it would be three of those pendents

Thanks Jason. And I am thinking about another 150w of light. Your suggestion is the easiest possibility, though if I have to get another pendant, I imagine I'd get one of the Aquamedic 3x150 plus 2x70 HQI pendants instead.

For now, I've got my fingers crossed on the 2 150's. Thanks.

[Raul-7]

Originally Posted by scolley

If your read those threads you know I had a LOT to learn.

That Ocean Clear is a model 340 - the one with the mechanical and biological filtration.

As for the heater - no genius in that. Just necessity. But what a HUGE impact it had on my design. The Pentairs are the "double" size. The "singles" wouldn't hold heater that were big enough. Which is really too bad, because the doubles have to lay down - too tall to fit otherwise. And BOY, they do take up a lot of real estate in that stand. Deciding to get enough heating power to allow a fast infusion of cold water had - by FAR - a bigger impact on the design/layout of the stand - and impact on plumbing decisions - than any other factor.

And BTW - I LOVE this Sequence pump. It DOES add heat (did you see that thread?). But not too much. And once you get the vibration issue tackled, it's a real sweetheart. Works like a champ, and silent as a stone.

I think you mean the Velocity/Poseidon pump, not the Sequence? The ReeFlo Sequence pumps would have taken half of your stand given their large footprint (18"x8")!

The pump is great (dead-silent), I have two of them ready to run two OC's on my upcoming tank. From what I've read and asked, the OC work much better with a pressure-rated pump. Maybe you can switch out the T1 for a T2 or T3, both of which are pressure-rated, to maximize the preformance out of the 340?

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Raul-7

I think you mean the Velocity/Poseidon pump, not the Sequence? The ReeFlo Sequence pumps would have taken half of your stand given their large footprint (18"x8")!

The pump is great (dead-silent), I have two of them ready to run two OC's on my upcoming tank. From what I've read and asked, the OC work much better with a pressure-rated pump. Maybe you can switch out the T1 for a T2 or T3, both of which are pressure-rated, to maximize the preformance out of the 340?

You are EXACTLY right! Clearly I need to pull my head out! <<< much embarrassment >>>

I did say the wrong thing! It is indeed a Poseidon T1 - one of these.


I'm gonna go back an change my prior posts. Not to cover my tracks, just to keep from confusing anyone with my mistaken information.

And actually I looked long and hard at the different models. The problem I have is that if that spreadsheet is correct, most of the extra power of those other pumps just gets chewed up in drag, and provide only moderate increases in GPH while greatly increasing the power consumption. The T1 (or PS1) gets almost as good performance with lower power. To take advantage of those other pumps I'd have to increase my pipe size from 3/4" to 1". Or at least that's what the spreadsheet shows.

[scolley]

Originally Posted by Raul-7

I have two of them ready to run two OC's on my upcoming tank. From what I've read and asked, the OC work much better with a pressure-rated pump.

Sounds like you are setting up for s SWEET setup!

But I'm not so sure about these needing a pressure rated pump. I say that because I tested the flow of this system with water running through all the plumbing, and with the OC bypassed. The difference was 10 GPH, or less than 3% of a speed drop.

Maybe that changes as the filter gums up. But with a clean new filter, it's just not putting that much drag on the system.

[m.lemay]

Looking good Steve!!. It already looks fantastic. Its come a long way since the short time ago that we were pulling paper off the acrylic. Oh ,and nice lights!!

Marcel

[jpfelix]

nice! i plumb to the basement so it doesn't have to be as pretty! considering what you've got in there, the stand setup is beautiful!

[TheOtherGeoff]

BEAUTIFUL...thats all i can say....

and i have a new background on my computer. i cant wait til you do a good photoshot with it. i can see alot of neat pictures coming from this

[Boz]

I can't even wrap my brain around all of that equipment, so I'm green with envy. I'm just going to wait for the PT party at your house so we can see it up close and in person!

Seriusly, though..the tank itself is stunning, and isn't that what you were working towards? Absolutely stunning.

[CampCreekTexas]

I can't even wrap my brain around the first sentence describing all that equipment, Boz!

But that sure doesn't detract from my opinion that it's a beauty, Steve. If you hadn't pointed it out that you have no substrate, bare spots in your sand and plants in pots, I wouldn't have noticed. I was too busy looking at the deep green of the plants and the smiles of relief on the fish. I just showed that full tank/stand pic to my hubby and said, "You know how you were wondering how to top my last birthday gift of a spinning wheel..."