The MAD Scientist Way of Reefing

[crazzyreefer]

I figure a little bio will help, I am a realtor in walnut creek, but after work I have Crazzy Reefer Co. its a R&D and Testing Company, this unit isnt for sale, nor mass production, some of the items have pattens pending, others do not will not, I urge everyone never to produce for profit any of my Ideas, other than that usage in your own reefs is by all accounts ok and have my blessings.


As the title sugest this isnt ordinary plumbing, I have tried almost every contraption that is going in on this unit, it is a one piece unit that encompassas, a sump, skimmer with a wet neck and a rotating spray wash unit, a Algae Turf Scrubber with the newest T5 lighting, a air cooling unit for cooing off the tank, a salinity reactor, yea you never heard of one, a dump for the scrubber, and a vinager/kalk reactor *deadly it its done wrong, and 6 t5 fixures for lighting, will it work? the prototype did, so... off we go, this will take a few months to compleate, and all this for a 72 bow front, the size of the tank is the challange, most of the unit sticks out the back, and the 2 small doors make it impossable to get anthing in or out of the unit,and no bracing will be used on the back. I made systems for several thousand gal units, thats easy, there is room, everything in here has to be made in one piece and is never to be remove short of replacing a pump or bulb and even then its like working on a saab..., cleaning must ge done in an auto mode, NO room, Heat from the lights and pump will be cooled from a air cooiling station, the project is expected to cost 1500.00, well we will see, as of this point, I have 1/3 of the Items and by next week will have about 2/3 of the equipment, items I am looking for, large air pump, air stones (mike might give me his old one) thanks mike, 3 small fountain pumps, 3 duel parastic pumps, 1 stainless coil 1/2 20 feet one air drier/filter and 1 gal of west system epoxy 1 pt hardener, and thats all, the project will start to take shape as soon as the lighting arrives, I will post pics, and explain if I can why, but something are not in the realm of logic, ohh well...and here we go.... off the see the wizzard...

 

[Scooterman]

Can you post a better pic?

Can't make that out at all, sorry.

 

[mojoreef]

Ok I like the concept, all in one processing unit. Hard to really tell how the plan is for the individual units though.
Salinity reactor is a cool idea are you using a probe of some kind to control that??
On the skimmer I would say dont let the feed line go to the bottom, allow the water to come in on top that way you will get a cuonter current and better processing of raw water. Out put looks slick. I would imagine that the concept is to use cold air controlled as needed with a temp guage or am I reading that wrong? looks good.
As you mentioned watch the vinager and kalk mix, can be very scary. You might want to look into a metered pump instead of the dosing style, much more exact.
Scrubber dump chamber..hmm need more detail on that one. Are you talking algae??
I would loose the prefilters. What the plan on the spray down.


looks neat!!!!


make sure you pm me your addy for the stones if you want em.


Mike

 

[crazzyreefer]

just bought a sl22 for 80.00 not bad, hope it powers it it rated 1.8 cfm, all the plans are drawn in cad, for cutting, it will be controlled by a aquacontroller pro, have that laying around, and 2 ph contollers, the pre filters are so it dosnt suck a snail in, just foam, as far a the air goes, you got it right, there will be a cheap ac unit a 99.00 Home depot special,every one thinks they need to cool water, that is expencive, same as heating water, a cheap ceramic heater does with 1000w what water heating units that use 10,000w does in hours, I used this in a 3k gal set up for cooling/heating, it keep it in about 1/2 degree with 3000w of lighting, 4 mag 36k pumps and another 6 or so pumps. the air pump will go in a sealed box when the temp rises, the AC unit will kick on, when it it gets cold the AC turns off an a small fan keeps just the Air Pump cool, this is in a insulated box that will quiet any pump, the coil could be made of copper, but when moist air comes in contact copper will be released into the tank, so Stainless will be used, a drier will pull condensation and filter the air pre stones, and the tubing will be wraped with cheap pipe insulation, a warning alarm will be set for 1 degree. As the salinity reactor its a set and forget, ran with probs before, no need, vinager, yea, lots of problems, especialy cyno, that where the scrubber comes in, this will keep the PH high, use up any excess nutients from the algae, and will reintroduce pods, and eliminate cyno, the cleaning of the scrubber is key, with a wet neck and a rotating unit not too differant than what you have on your dish washer, this will keep it clean, the only acess to the unit is through the top and side of the sump, through boat port hatches, yea havent seen them either used but if my sail boat dosnt leak and it takes a pounding than this should work, sooooo much easier than drilling inspection covers, two lock downs and its water tight,

 

[mojoreef]

Excellent, I want to see the skimmer cleaning head!!!!!!! lol On the coil SS will rust to, bacteria will get to it no problem. give titanium a try.

Goof thing you got a cnc, or you would be thier for a while, lol shoot some pics up when shes done I would love to see it working


MIke

 

[crazzyreefer]

the coil is only in air no way it can rust, but just incase always take a strong magnet it will tell you if it is 1808 or 1810 or worse, ill shoot some picks as I make everything, it will be trial and error to find just the right pump size, im starting with a mag 12, then Ill go up to a 18 and if I have to a mag 36

 

[crazzyreefer]

well the light came in, I retofited the CSL ballast to T5, this was easy, the 65w CSL powered the 54w T5 lights without any glitches, from a 8 Compact lights to 6 T5 with just a little more light but 130w of savings, I ended up stagering the bulbs to cram them in, well see how the tank runs on them

just in case anyone wants to do this, I drilled the 2 rivets in the case, unscrewed the cover and cut all lines, this left me with one black and one white wire for power, and two yellow wires one red one blue wire, on your t5 end cap push in 4 wires of the proper length, I used 11 gage its small and can handle the current, you only need 2 colors, on one end of the t5 lights put in the socket 2 of the same color wires, and attach them to one of the yellow leads, next take the other two wires and combine them to the blue lead, next do the same to the next light usng the other yellow wire, and then the other side the red wire, its that easy. turn the power on and your good to go.

 

[mojoreef]

excellent

Mike

 

[crazzyreefer]

update installed the mag 18 in tank with 1 1/2 flex hose to 2 Sea swirls, not happy with the set up, the SS are blocking the lights and the not producing enough current, even with the mag 12 in the sump, (this would have been upgraged to a mag 18 also but the overflow is maxed with the mag 12 at this time) time to go back to the drawing board