New tank schematic

tank,
originally uploaded by Hongyee.

Upcoming dream tank!! Unfortunately, it probably will not be put into action in the near future - my guess is I'll be starting to save up for it in 3 years' time, and it'll be about 4-5 years before the completed product can be shown to the world.



Remember: This is a DREAM setup. I probably will never get most of these, but heck. "I have a dream ..."

First, the brains of the system: I'm actually looking at a Neptune Aquacontroller Pro unit.



What it does:

1) Temperature regulation: connected to 2 AC fans in the lighting hood, which are turned on when tank temperature reaches more than 29C. Switches off metal halide lamps when temperature exceeds 32C due to whatever reason (chiller failure, for example)
2) ORP (oxygen redox potential) control: connected to an Enaly corona discharge ozone generator which pumps ozone into the protein skimmer. Switches the ozone generator off when ORP is too high (ozone kills off EVERYTHING)



3) pH control: connected to a solenoid valve on the CO2 tank, to switch off the CO2 input when the pH of the effluent from the calcium reactor dips too low.
4) Lighting control: Will switch my lamps on/off sequentially to simulate sunrise/sunset, and controls a dimmable tungsten blue bulb to simulate moon cycles.
5) Integrated modem and Aquanotes software: automatically logs graphs of various water parameters and pages when something's wrong.

Infrastructure (Tanks and cabinets)

Main tank
Dimensions: 4'L x 2'W X 2.5'H
Material: Choice of normal glass tank, or acrylic bowfront tank (curved front panel to create panaromic view), or Starphire front panel (sapphire glass to show true colours - thick normal glass imparts a nasty green tinge). The latter 2 are extremely expensive.
Overflow area: 8"L x 4"W black internal overflow box with 2 x 1.5" diameter holes. 1 attached to a DIY Durso Standpipe (to reduce gurgling water sounds) for water to travel from tank to sump, 1 with piping from the main water pump that sends water from sump to tank.

Main lighting:
2 x 150W 10,000Kelvins metal halides on the sides
1 x 250W 20,000Kelvins metal halide in the middle
Supplementary lighting (to even out the colour and make it crisp white):
2 x 54W T5 flourescent tubes at the back, actinic blue
2 x 54W T5 flourescent tubes at the front, actinic blue
Moonlights:
1 x blue tungsten lamp connected to Aquacontroller, OR
8 x LED blue lights connected to Lunar Tracker unit
Cooling:
2 x AC fans connected to Aquacontroller

Side tanks, aka Open Top Tanks (OTTs):
Dimensions: 2'L x 2'W X 1.5'H
Material: Normal glass tank
Overflow area: 4"L x 4"W black internal overflow box with 1 x 1" diameter hole for water from OTT to exit back to sump via gravity.
Lighting: 1 x 150W 10,000Kelvins metal halide suspended on pendant

Cabinets: too structural so not going into it in detail. Basically using chenggai wood (saltwater-resistant) with tonnes of vertical support pillars to distribute the weight of the tank.

Refugium: I know I drew a refugium to be set up under OTT 2 (right), but I realise this imposes many problems. Firstly I have to make sure the refugium is higher than the sump water level so that water can flow passively back into the sump. And this, in turn, means I have less space to install the lights. A refugium is just a fancy name for a tank filled with macroalgae (aka seaweed) and run on a reverse lighting cycle. The macroalgae is harvested and thrown away at regular intervals as a means of nutrient export, and the reverse lighting cycle serves to prevent the usual nighttime pH dip due to plant respiration.

So for now, the OTTs will serve as refugiums themselves.

Auxillary equipment

Chiller:
currently using a Resun CL650 (1/4HP) which is just enough for my tank. Dream chiller is a 1HP or 1.25HP titanium coil chiller. Thermostat set at 26C.

Return pump:
Iwaki Mx100 output that is tee'd off via a Y-tee junction (reduced frictional loss) and water if fed from the sump tank back into the main tank from opposite ends. Intend to attach the ends with a penductor each to increase flow rate. Iwakis have never been known to fail, so no backup pump is necessary I think.



Service pump:
Resun MD55 to feed equipment like the chiller, skimmer and fluidised reactors from the sump.

Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS):
A small black box that can supply a pump with enough electricity to run for a couple of hours in case of a mass blackout.

Water control equipment

Deioniser unit: To produce D/I water for water top-ups

Protein skimmer: Currently using a Macro100 which will definitely not be enough for the big tank. Thinking of either an AquaC EV240 or a miniature Beckett (which surpringly is cheaper). Skimmer input is from Resun MD55 pump drawing water from sump, and output goes back into sump. Venturi valve is hooked up to Enaly ozone generator to maintain ORP in the tank. DIY carbon chamber will be attached to the outlet valve of the skimmer to absorb residual O3, and also another such chamber in the collection cup for the same purpose. The skimmer functions to remove proteinaceous waste before they can break down into nitrogenous compounds and foul the water.



Nilsen reactor: Looking at the Reef Maniacs (locally-made by reefers!) magnetic stirrer design, attached to a TUBBY top-up float switch. A Nilsen reactor is an airtight chamber filled with anhydrous calcium hydroxide (kalkwasser) and with freshwater. The magnetic stirrer activates several times a day to mix the kalkwasser well and saturate the water with calcium. When water levels in the sump tank falls due to evaporation, the TUBBY float switch is triggered and a small pump draws water from a freshwater reservoir tank into the Nilsen reactor. The freshwater is pushed from the bottom of the reactor while calcium-laden water exits through the top of the chamber into the tank. Functions as automatic water top-up and maintains calcium and carbonate levels.



Calcium reactor: Looking at either a locally-made acrylic unit or a commercial Korallin 1501 reactor. Hooked up to a CO2 tank controlled by a solenoid valve, which in turn is controlled by the pH controller on the Aquacontroller unit. Calcium reactors are also airtight containers but are filled with aragonite (natural calcium carbonate). CO2 is slowly infused into the chamber and the resulting carbonic acid dissolves the aragonite to release free calcium. The pH controller shuts down CO2 dosing into the reactor when the effluent pH is too low.



Fluidised reactor: Currently using a modified fluidised filter made by Resun. Looking at the dual-chamber version made by Ian. A fluidised reactor is a chamber filled with resins (I use Rowaphos, to absorb phosphate) or activated carbon. Water is forced from the bottom through the resin so as to agitate the resin slightly and improve efficacy and efficiency.



Dosing pumps: Looking at the ones made by AquaMedic, these are small peristaltic pumps that are set on internal timers to slowly dose additives into the tank. Thinking of at least 3 of such pumps - one to dose trace elements, one for carbonate buffer, and one for strontium.



Monitoring Equipment

Aquacontroller Pro, as above, for pH, ORP and temperature
Pinpoint salinity monitor
Pinpoint calcium monitor



All the monitoring probes will be situated in the sump, and the display units fitted into a small box on the top left corner of the main cabinet. The body of the display units are hidden inside the box, while appropriately-sized cut-outs will be made in the boxes so as to show the values through the tank. If I were to be even more fancy, I'd cut such windows in the cabinet doors too, so that I can walk right by the tank and look at one glance the water parameter values.

Water movement/wave action

2 x Penductors attached to the return pump output for increased tank-sump-tank turnover



Tunze TS12 controlling unit for wave simulation - consists of Tunze multicontroller and 2 x Tunze Turbelle 6060 powerheads which are electronically-controllable for variable water pumping in the tank. Can then be set to ebbs and flows of natural water motion in tank.



1 x Seio M820 (using this currently) attached to a rainbar running behind all the rockwork. This ensures circulation behind the rocks and so that food (or dead stuff) don't get trapped there and rot.

Biological filtration

I plan on using deep sand beds (DSB) and live rock (LR) as per my current system. However, thinking of making the main tank more fancy by using BLACK sand! The 2 OTTs will be filled with aragonite oolitic (diameter <1mm) tank =" 7" ott =" 6" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Planned livestock - FUN FUN FUN!!!

Main Tank:

Chevron tang
Powder blue tang
Flame angel pair
Regal angel (red sea variety)
Potter's angel
Goldflake angel
Filefishes (if these 3 I have now are successful .. sigh)
Firefish
Yellow neon goby
Crocea clams (at least 3)
Giant squamosa clam
Most of the tank to be dominated by soft corals and large-polyp stony corals. Only notable small-polyp stony corals of interest to me are Seriatopora (pink bird's nest), staghorn acropora and Montipora capricornis.

OTT1 (left) - aggressive tank
False percula clown pair
Rose bubble-tip anemone
Miscellaneous anemones
Non-reef safe wrasses
Caulerpa sp. macroalgae as part of refugium

OTT2 (right) - quiet tank
Griessengeri goby pair (these are SO lovely!)
Janss' pipefishes
Soft corals
Chaetomorpha sp. macroalgae as part of refugium