120g Mixed Reef Build - Newbie with lots of pics

LOL, thanks Todd... I'll let her know she has a fan in the reefer community! She'll get a kick out of that!

 

Tilian: I just wanted to say welcome to 3reef! My eyes glazed over trying to follow your set up because I am mechanical and plumbing impaired. It looks like you've done some serious meticulous planning and I'm sure your build will be fantastic!! When you get your first saltwater fish, your hot sister-in-law will be way jealous!

The only thing I can comment on is, why not cure your dry rock with a piece of live rock? Just a thought. Adding the bacteria will help as well.......

 

Well I certainly could. I plan on buying 50lbs of the primo deco rock from live rock N reef. I definately don't want to cycle my dry rock in the garage with that live rock since the whole point of that stuff is all the life. It would die off in the tubs without lights which would suck big time considering the cost! :

I hadn't actually planned on using a pre-made bacteria booster/culture. I'm just not a big fan of those even from back in my freshwater days. I'm not as concerned with the actual speed of the nitrogen cycle kicking off... I can do that in a lot of ways (will probably use table shrimp, definately fishless). In curing the rock I'm mainly concerned with getting the phosphates out. That's what the SeaKlear is for. It's main ingredient is lanthanum chloride (LC) which, as I understand it, bonds to free PO4 and causes it to percipitate. Then you can just swish it off and that PO4 won't leach into the tank's water. As more PO4 leaches from the rock into the tub water, daily doses of the LC will keep pulling more and more out of the water each day.

My (very limited) understanding is that the process of leaching out this phosphate can take 1-2 months depending on the quality of the dry rock to begin with. This can be sped up with techniques like an acid bath or bleaching, but it is still a rather long time. Certainly there should be plenty of time for a standard table shrimp or two to kick off the nitrogen cycle while the LC works on getting the phosphates out.

At least that was my plan. Throw 100lbs of dry rock in a tub with a couple shrimp and dose LC until BOTH my phosphates show minimal numbers and the Ammonia and Nitrite drop to 0. After the expected 4-6 weeks that will take, I'll order the 50lbs of good live rock and put all 150lbs of combined rock in the tank at the same time. Wait a week to check Ammonia and Nitrite levels and if all checks out, start ordering the CUC! ;D

Since i'll have the 50lbs of good liverock air freighted in, the die off should be minimal which I think means only a slight mini-cycle once I move everythign to the DT.

 

OK, a little confused here, (which is usual for me),

You talk about a weir, to me that functions like a U tube for a siphon overflow.
Then you talked about drilling the tank, and having an external OF box for you bean system, this I thought you were justgoing to flow thru the holes you drilled only.

Could you clarify this for me, maybe others please.

And again, those are the nicest computer composed drawing I have ever seen of any system like you're designing.

So, How will the water get from the DT, to the external box?
With all the sound planning you are doing, surely you are going to have a surface skimming area?

As I sit in serenity watching my 125 mixed reef!

 

Welcome to 3reef!!

Your build is going to be absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to see it come together.

 

So let me preface this by saying I have no real world experience in this... just dozens of hours of reading... this is just my best understanding of the research I've done.

So in general terms, a weir is simply a solid structure put in the way of flowing water to raise or divert that water in some way. So a U tube style siphon box does, in fact, contain a weir to raise the water up and over the tank edge. But the front face of your internal overflow box is also a weir. That's what creates the surface skimming and of course it's what keeps the water level constant in the display tank.

In my case I simply have two overflow boxes... one inside and one outside. This picture capture it best.


So on the inside of the tank is a black acrylic internal overflow box that runs the entire length of the tank but it's only 1 1/2" deep. The height of the box is right at the trim level so that's the piece that keeps the waterlevel up and it's also what creates the surface skimming.

I've drilled two 2.36" holes through the tank. Those holes are completely covered by the internal overflow box. Once the water falls over this very narrow internal box, it flows through those two holes into my much larger external box. That's the box that houses the plumbing.

In my case, I'm making the external box out of 1/4" glass, but the internal box I'm making out of acrylic. I'm adding a bit of complexity by covering the entire internal back wall of my tank with 1/8" black acrylic and then I'll weld this 1 1/2" internal box (made of 1/4" acrylic) to the top of that. Covering the back with acrylic is purely and asthetic thing... I didn't want the seams caused by siliconing the external overflow box to the back of the tank to show through to the front. The black acrylic wall should cover those seems up and make for a very nice clean look.

Here's a nice video where the guy does a very good job explaining the concepts (just the first 5 min). This is a freshwater tank but of course the concepts are the same. Notice though that his plumbing and overflows are still very visible from the front of the tank. To me, this isn't very appealing in terms of appearance. You still get the benefit of a smaller footprint inside the tank (and less light blocked than with a full internal box) but it doesn't look as clean as, what I hope, my black acrylic wall will look.

BeanAnimal Overflow - YouTube

 

Question about water station

Hey guys,

I was thinking... any reason I shouldn't drop my plumbing down to 3/4" (from 1" as currently planned) on my water station? The pump has 3/4" input and output. It would save me a few bucks and more importantly it would be smaller... with 1" plumbing, that's a lot of PVC to cram into a relatively small space.

 

1100 gph is just over 18 gpm, which puts you over 10 ft/sec for a velocity. That's pushing it pretty hard. I would stay at 1" until your wye and neck down to 3/4" after that. Pushing those velocities can lead to water hammer when your pump shuts down.

 

Oh no, sorry for the confusion... I'm talking about for the saltwater mixing station in the garage. That will be using the Panworld 30HD pump. At 0' head, it is rated at only 590gph. Still too much for 3/4"?

 

Just found a nice website that lists flow rates through pipe of various sizes:
http://flexpvc.com/WaterFlowBasedOnPipeSize.shtml

Based on that, 3/4" should handle 660gph at low pressure (or feed side of pump) and 1410gph at average pressure.