Need help with a remote fuge design
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class clown
Well-known member
Oh dude Jesse...too funny. I'm just laughing out loud to myself right now remembering that- Sad but my dog is the only one here to listen to me right now and he's giving me a wierd look. That was a funny one. Just for the record, the cat pedestal will hold my 18lb cat, but no human beings. it does look very appealing to step on though.
What's reefing without a few broken pieces of equipment ya know? you'd never have any fun stories to tell. Most of my casualties usually come after I've been drinking a little (ok a lot), but I'm pretty sure both of these recent ones were done completely sober (maybe
)91YOTA
Well-known member
just was reading through this thread and thought i might add my $0.02... for lighting, i have had great success growing chaeto under a 65w lights of america pc light as seen here:
http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Americ...3SE/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b/002-5797577-3750446
i would definately do chambers if you can with very low flow in the rubble section... i would shy away from any cleanup critters in the fuge as they will only be eating the things you are trying to produce... if you are worried about long term nutrient build up in the DSB, suction some off with each water change and replace with fresh stuff... also, chaeto and other macro algaes generally reach their saturation point at around 6 hours of light so if you can have 2 chaeto cultures going and split the lighting at ~6 hours each, it will pull even more nutrients out of the water (cant find the article right now but i remember reading, on iirc- wetwebmedia, something about it...)
anyway, hope this helps some... good luck with finding a replacement fuge
http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Americ...3SE/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b/002-5797577-3750446
i would definately do chambers if you can with very low flow in the rubble section... i would shy away from any cleanup critters in the fuge as they will only be eating the things you are trying to produce... if you are worried about long term nutrient build up in the DSB, suction some off with each water change and replace with fresh stuff... also, chaeto and other macro algaes generally reach their saturation point at around 6 hours of light so if you can have 2 chaeto cultures going and split the lighting at ~6 hours each, it will pull even more nutrients out of the water (cant find the article right now but i remember reading, on iirc- wetwebmedia, something about it...)
anyway, hope this helps some... good luck with finding a replacement fuge
class clown
Well-known member
just was reading through this thread and thought i might add my $0.02... for lighting, i have had great success growing chaeto under a 65w lights of america pc light as seen here:
http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Americ...3SE/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b/002-5797577-3750446
i would definately do chambers if you can with very low flow in the rubble section... i would shy away from any cleanup critters in the fuge as they will only be eating the things you are trying to produce... if you are worried about long term nutrient build up in the DSB, suction some off with each water change and replace with fresh stuff... also, chaeto and other macro algaes generally reach their saturation point at around 6 hours of light so if you can have 2 chaeto cultures going and split the lighting at ~6 hours each, it will pull even more nutrients out of the water (cant find the article right now but i remember reading, on iirc- wetwebmedia, something about it...)
anyway, hope this helps some... good luck with finding a replacement fuge
This helps a lot actually- thank you. Here is my latest and (I think/hope) final design unless anyone has any better suggestions. the chamber with the live rock won't have much flow. the chamber with the chaeto and LS will ahve a little more with help of a MJ1200.
Scooterman
Well-known member
Looks nice, contain your SB though, make sure the lower baffles are tall enough, won't hurt to extend them, even though I know it isn't scaled in the drawing, just checking up on ya!
class clown
Well-known member
What do you think Scooty.. 7" enough for those bottom baffles if my sand bed is 5-6"?
class clown
Well-known member
You forgot to draw the bulkhead ON THE END. JK
Ahh ha..yes.. very important.. no drilling on the back unless I'm positive the back isn't tempered.. he he...
Scooterman
Well-known member
Depending on flow really but I'd think you would want more because of the nature of sand to blow around but that is just my thought, maybe flow will be slow enough where it will be fine 1" above the bed?
class clown
Well-known member
Success!!! the AGA 55 comes through!!!!!
logiktest
Well-known member
Very nice. Looking at your drawing... why do the baffles need to be so close to the sand bed? In your picture the return bulkhead sites toward the top of the tank. Could the baffles be a little lower than the height of the bulkhead?
class clown
Well-known member
Hey Logik! Not sure I follow the first question, but the second question I get. The top baffles coudl be lower than the height of the bulkhead, but by doing so of course I encourage water to move over top and with that microbubbles. Plus, I was really hoping to channel the water down by the sand and the live rock and if I had the top baffles lower, I think I might comprimise a bit on flow to the bottom of the tank. I'll have a powerhead moving water up top which will keep the chaeto rolling hopefully. Any other thoughts to consider? open to anything.. I want to start building this thing here pretty quickly, but I also want to make sure I've got a good plan.. maybe rephrase that first question a bit and I'll give it another shot to try to answer. thanks
logiktest
Well-known member
Sorry about the vague question. In post #44 the lower, center baffles that are used to house the sand bed... if you have a 5-6" sand bed and the lower center baffles are close to the same height, I think you are going to get a lot of sand flowing over the baffles and into the rock chamber. It's a good plan for sure... It's just a question of the lower center baffles height in relation to the depth of the sand bed.
class clown
Well-known member
Ok.. so similar point to what Scooty was mentioning. an inch more in baffle size (7") probably isn't going to be sufficient to contain 5-6" of sand. I hear ya.. i'll see if I can cut taller center baffles to contain the sand. Good suggestion. One good thing I have working for me is that I'm really not getting a whole heck of a lot of flow coming into this.. I'd guestimate only about 300gph or 5-6 times turnover. although I will have an MJ1200 inside the middle chamber stirring up stuff. Best to probably make the baffles 8" tall or better. thx.
logiktest
Well-known member
That sump is going to work great. The maxijet will make an excelent addition as well. Post pics when you get it up and running!!
class clown
Well-known member
I'm half way up and running. I spent about 2-3 hrs last night rinsing the sand. I had to come in a couple times b/c my hands became numb. Hey.. what's reefing without a little sacrifice right?
I siliconed my baffles in - went with 9 inch walls, added sand and have it about half way filled up with water and am waiting for my RO/DI unit to finish up with the rest. I'm still short a couple inches of sand, but figure this should be good to get me started.
I'm tempted to just hook it up to the main system and get it running. I cleaned the sand pretty good. What do you think?
I siliconed my baffles in - went with 9 inch walls, added sand and have it about half way filled up with water and am waiting for my RO/DI unit to finish up with the rest. I'm still short a couple inches of sand, but figure this should be good to get me started.
I'm tempted to just hook it up to the main system and get it running. I cleaned the sand pretty good. What do you think?
Snowboarda42
Cirrhitichthys falco
Toss some chaeto in there and a light and wait a week. Then test for PO3 and NO3 and plug it in.
I think I would test for PO4:razz: and NO3 but I think I can agree with that. I would probably keep my hand on the ball valve and run about 1/4 of the new water into the system, wait a while to see if the corals are still happy and then proceed with another dose of new water to the tank until I was comfortable that I wasnt going to tick of my reef. Doing this will also help with temperature and Ph diiferences although I doubt 55Gs will have much affect on a 300+ gallon system.
Dirtsquirt
Well-known member
Cool setup, looks professional
I'm tempted to wonder how the rubble chamber would have worked out if it had one tall baffle and a down draft design, kind of like a overflow in a tank. It looks like it might be interesting to get detritus out of it the way it is currently setup.
-Dan
I'm tempted to wonder how the rubble chamber would have worked out if it had one tall baffle and a down draft design, kind of like a overflow in a tank. It looks like it might be interesting to get detritus out of it the way it is currently setup.
-Dan
