Dave W's 3000 gal plankton/reef tank

[LanglandJoshua]

Its not a build thread if theres paint and a finished bar in the beginning its it? This is the definition of a build thread. When you are chilling out with this insane tank...well you'll know its all worth it!

[dave w]

You're right Joshua. But I also feel like the systems are complicated enough already and with unfinished pics I write a lot of explanation that probably gets boring. (zzzz, did I say something?)

 

Although I know where the details merge into an overall picture, I'm not as good at writing it. I will post another pic of the phyto setup with more details and needing less imagination from my WAMAS friends.

[LanglandJoshua]

Sounds like a plan. Somewhere between the brain and keyboard the details just disappear! I don't know how many people here will read it. But if you have some design drawings, that may be helpful. As well as a picture. This is not boring! I can only speak for myself, but I love design. Its even on my member title!

[dave w]

Sounds like a plan. Somewhere between the brain and keyboard the details just disappear! I don't know how many people here will read it. But if you have some design drawings, that may be helpful. As well as a picture. This is not boring! I can only speak for myself, but I love design. Its even on my member title!

 

Because the "as built" tank has evolved from the design, the sketchup drawings may not be so helpful. I just need to ignore the heat and start fiberglassing away, but a greenhouse in summer is not a fun place. I go outside into the 100 degree heat to try and cool down. I should start early but mornings are too busy getting kids ready.

[LanglandJoshua]

Where are you located? If its close I could help (doubt it).

[dave w]

Fairfax Station is 20 minutes down the Ffx Co Parkway from Vienna, I'm near Burke Lake Park. I should just break down and have a build party, especially with my hurt arm preventing me from fast progress. But I have a problem of not wanting to show it until it looks better. Kind of like picking up the house before the cleaning lady gets there because I'm embarrassed how dirty it is. Do you know the feeling?

 

Let me pick a cool fall weekend and have a party, I'll provide plenty of refreshments and food.

[dave w]

Now that the phyto shelves are up I'd like to automate copepod production. Pygmy angels spawn several hundred to a thousand per night so 50 centropyge could make a lot of eggs which eat 50 micron copepod nauplii (Parvocalanus and Oithonia types). Pod fecal pellets and eggs are both negatively buoyant so they mix together as bottom muck. Most people batch culture pods for a few days, rinse the muck to harvest eggs then restock to new water. This works for small cultures but I need a thousand gallons of pods with automated feces/egg separation to grow the millions of nauplii needed to make a serious attempt (failure) at angelfish babies.

 

Any ideas? Two key factors: one, eggs are lighter than fecal pellets, and two: egg shells are probably much tougher than the encased pellets. A fan blowing eggs off the bottom is a possibility before a sump removes feces. A tumbler or mixer would accumulate heavy pellets on the bottom while eggs flowed off the top. Muck could go to a holding tank until eggs hatched and swam to a surface light for collection, or the mix could be rolled over some type of rough surface (algae tray?) to break open heavy pellets while light eggs flowed through unharmed.

 

There is probably a simple yet effective solution that I haven't thought of, please advise or PM.

[LanglandJoshua]

I saw on a show that they can separate gold from dirt with a shake table. The wave action causes a layer of gold to build while the dirt water flows by. Maybe something similar with a scraper that comes by to knock the eggs into a separate area. Just a thought, I may have overlooked something. But if the eggs are heavier, it may work. This way it is a constant flow, and with a simple timer you can have the scraper go by every few minutes, maybe less.

[dave w]

That sounds like a good idea. A screen could catch the pellets while the eggs flowed over the top. Thanks.

[hbh]

Dave,

I would encourage you to put aside any fears of needing "to clean house" & put out the call for help! We ALL want to see you finish this amazing tank! And there are quite a few members who could help and would enjoy learning from this in person. You do explain well what you are doing and ask good questions. Keep it up! :-D

[dave w]

Dave,

I would encourage you to put aside any fears of needing "to clean house" & put out the call for help! We ALL want to see you finish this amazing tank! And there are quite a few members who could help and would enjoy learning from this in person. You do explain well what you are doing and ask good questions. Keep it up! :-D

 

Thanks a lot for the compliment, hbh. How about I finish the dirty work, then invite everyone for the fun work of making the reef structure? If I don't change the structure again (for the tenth time!) Now I'm leaning toward making mountains from stacked pyramids of concrete rings. The fish can swim through the whole thing, kind of like a giant piece of swiss cheese.

 

But not to worry, I will probably change my mind again next week!

[dave w]

Here's a nice mountain/valley look that I'd like to emulate.

 

I like the clean sand, the valley, the shoal of chromis and the cauliflower coral.

 

Oops, I couldn't get the pic to show up. Can someone please help my computer illiteracy?

Edited September 3, 2011 by dave w

[Chad]

Dave, check out the picture Dr. Mac's posted that I highlighted: http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/45358-behind-the-scenes-at-macna/page__gopid__379740entry379740

 

It looks like you are tying to link a picture directly on your hard drive. Try uploading it to your gallery and posting it.

[dave w]

Dave, check out the picture Dr. Mac's posted that I highlighted: http://www.wamas.org...40entry379740

 

It looks like you are tying to link a picture directly on your hard drive. Try uploading it to your gallery and posting it.

 

Chad, that picture is absolutely gorgeous! I was so fixated on an open topped grotto that I didn't understand your description of enclosing part of the top into an open tunnel. I think it would be easy to cast a thin arch from concrete with lots of styrofoam "knockouts" in it. When the concrete is cured the styrofoam is removed so there are holes which corals and rocks are attached to cover the arch with natural texture. Great idea.

 

I will try to repost the picture, but like yours better.

[dave w]

Okay, a few updates for those with the fortitude to still follow this thread after so long. It was wisely pointed out by fishman65 and coralhind that solenoids draining the settlement chamber would get stuck in an open position and drain the whole tank. My thanks to those who are mechanically gifted, which I am not. So solenoids are out, sump pumps are in. Sump pumps will also start grinding detritus to feed brine shrimp and create plankton.

 

I'm going to try a "bluetooth walrus" to recycle brine shrimp waste water back into algae culture water, so I don't have to make a lot of new salt water daily. This apparatus uses a sand filter and UV to filter up old salt water down to 5 microns while it doesn't remove nitrates or phosphates for the algae culture. Based on another good idea by Chad, I will take one 84" corner and have an open valley like the Steve Weast tank (oregonreef.com), and another semi-covered tunnel in the second 84" deep corner like his attached picture above from Dr. Mac/Macna. I will modify the sawtooth "mountain/valley" concept to mix in a bunch of tables. I will raise the reef several inches off the substrate and use water flow as a leaf blower to move detritus. With luck, it will help to automatically clean the tank. I am leaning toward using an electric diaphragm pump at 500 gph as the leaf blower and to bury the outlet pipes under the sand. The pipes come to daylight under the reef where a flat nozzle blows detritus clockwise to the settlement chamber.

 

I have finally given up on large angels in the display tank so I can fill it with fans, whips, rods, tall sponges and gorgonians that sway to the wavemaker. This was a tough decision for me because I love regals and majestics, but I can still keep them in one of the 300 gallon legs adjacent to the main display tank. The wavemaker will be moved to a corner of the system. With enough small adjustments the wavemaker should find a natural frequency where waves going out are timed with waves bouncing back in a pattern which should cause ripples in the sand and move all the tank water through the invertebrates every few seconds, back and forth.

 

In keeping with the philosophy of using detrivores to recycle nutrients, I would like to balance the fish load with as many nutrient absorbers as I can get. 1,000 gallons of brine shrimp, then the 1500 gallon refugium filled with xenia, macro algae, leathers and other soft corals, sponges, aiptasia, etc. I don't know if 2,500 gallons of recycling will balance 2,000 gallons of display tank but will let you know in a year. I will soon start fiberglassing and also start pouring concrete pieces to act as the bones of the reef and I will ask who wants to join any work parties to get this thing ready for water before the one year anniversary. I read that red macro algaes in the refugium give a crisp ocean smell instead of the swamp pukey smell of masses of green algaes under insufficient circulation. I would like to start a bunch of reds in several hundred gallons to be ready to fill the refugium when it is ready.

 

If you have kept up with all these boring details you have my eternal gratitude. Many thanks, and it's never too late to give me advice or join the conversation. And I'm sorry too because I'm sure this post reads like a monologue. It's actually just the current evolution in thought from all the good advice given so far. How can I ever repay WAMAS?

Edited September 10, 2011 by dave w

[Chad]

Dave, not sure if you have seen this one, but you may find some ideas in there

 

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f254/20-000-gallon-tank-construction-62008/

[Vadim]

holy moley that's an awesome tank on that site. 20,000g geez

[dave w]

Dave, not sure if you have seen this one, but you may find some ideas in there

 

http://www.reeffront...truction-62008/

 

20,000 gallons is huge and I hate to be critical of a fellow reefer, but why would he fill it with a bunch of big grey fish and a pile of rocks? I know this just reflects my personal bias, but I don't see the beauty of his tangs. Although necessary for algae control, they are kind of like cows with fins.

 

I know I'm guilty of anthropomorphising, but angels seem so much more inquisitive and intelligent than tangs. To me the mating behavior of pygmy angel harems is so much fun. Also, large shoals of anthias and wrasses roaming through the corals is a lot more exciting to me than those 2 feet long grey fish swimming around mostly dead rocks. But I overstate, they have a little black on the fins also for contrast. To each their own, hope I'm not sounding too arrogant.

 

Oh and one more thing. That guy's got a garage full of Ferraris. I've got a garage full of used plumbing parts.

Edited October 3, 2011 by dave w

[dave w]

Please give (or sell) me your refugium harvest! I am putting several 400 gallon tubs in the basement to grow enough macroalgae to fill the DT and refugium. After using a heavy load of baitfish to cycle the tank, the inverts will go in, and lots of algae will help with ammonia spikes and if any corals that have diebacks from shipping. After the display tank is filled I will use the tubs for quarantine. After quarantine I may put in lots of fish at once and the heavy algae load will again help offset any spikes affecting water quality.

 

So will anyone have a bunch of chaeto and other refugium junk in the next few weeks? I will pick up from your place. Thanks for anyone that can help.

[dave w]

This week is the one year anniversary of tank building. My arm if finally healed to where I can work without much pain.

 

Last week we put on the first layer of fiberglass panel. Today we will caulk it with 1,000 psi caulk, then the second layer of fiberglass goes on and we cloth all the corners. There will be a lot of custom work on the connecting tube and such.

 

I'll post a pic of the first layer of fiberglass as soon as possible.

[dave w]

 

Here's a view of the west corner of the tank with the first layer of 4' x 8' fiberglass sheets over thinset. I needed the coat of thinset to even out the floor and walls from the stainless steel gussets made from flatbar. Even though the stainless was only 1/8" thick, I needed smooth surfaces.

[tightline]

This pic was taken just before excavation. The door is in the master bath and used to lead out into a greenhouse that was destroyed by the heavy snows last winter. The bobcat is one of my favorite toys.

 

 

 

 

yep luv my bobcat well case 1840

[zygote2k]

good job on the project. looks like water should be in by April?

[dave w]

yep luv my bobcat well case 1840

 

You just can't beat them for great toy fun, can you? There are so many optional pieces of equipment you can put on them. I'm going to put in my geothermal heating/cooling lines with a trencher. Even after I've owned it for 5 years I still enjoy operating it.

[dave w]

good job on the project. looks like water should be in by April?

 

April of which year? Just kidding, we'll see how fast it happens. I'm tired of being wrong on my predictions so I will quit while I'm behind.