That devil of a question: will it be enough

I've been planning on using two Eheim 2128's for filtration rated at about 260 gph each, and then also using a Mag 350 with the micron sleeve for water polishing. Now I'm concerned on whether or not that'll be enough flow after I get everything all piped in.

I recognize that according to manufacturer's information, that's 870 gph of total flow. However, once I fill it all up with media, an inline Hydor, and inline UV, and all the bends and turns, I'm hoping it'll still be in the 500 gph range. I could be happy with that.

Just in case, I think I might build the plumbing in such a way that I could add a back-up pump inline later on down the road if I need to.

Too much to think about...

2 plugs for you!

I acquired my Tek 6x54w T5HO fixture about 6 months ago, used. I got it along with 75g setup from an SFBAAPS member that was moving and didn't have the space for such a large tank. And I got it for an AMAZING deal.

The Tek fixture was either an older Tek or he purchased as a hydroponic light...either way it only had one cord to power both ballast. This just wouldn't do. I want to be able to time my lights independently, so I wired in a separate cord.









I'd love to say the brown cord served a purpose, but no, it was just cheaper. 

Water Treatment

As I mentioned before, I'll be incorporating an automatic water change system into my setup. This means I will have to figure out a way to remove any potential chlorine/chloramine from my water automatically.

One possibility is to assemble a separate water treatment area. For my purpose, this has a many downsides. It would require me to dedicate space in my house to a separate water treatment reservoir, something like a 55g trashcan. It would also require a separate pump to pump the water from the reservoir to the tank at water change time. The pump would be pricey and it would require the use of one of my control channels. I only have 6 control channels, so every one of them is precious. Finally, it would require a peristaltic pump to dose Prime automatically into the reservoir and another control channel. It would likely require at least one, but maybe two float switches. To make it fully automated, like I desire, this option would simply require too much equipment. I must say, however, that to completely remove chlorine and chloramine, this is the best option.

Another possibility is to take said peristaltic pump from above and hook it up to the tank, so that I'm dosing Prime straight into the tank as the water is being refilled. This would require a peristaltic pump and a control channel. The major downside of this is that I can't just treat the new water, I have to treat the entire tank...every water change. Since I'm considering doing 10% daily WC, this would mean I would have to treat 120g of water every day. Prime is cheap, Pond Prime is cheaper, but treating 120g of water daily would really add up. Additionally, it would still require a control channel.

The solution I've decided to go with is inline carbon canisters. A decent amount of thought went into this decision. Carbon cannisters can completely remove chlorine from water, but they aren't as effective at chloramine removal.  I read through the Atlanta Watershed Maintenance 2008 Annual Water Quality Report to see if Atlanta used chloramine or just chlorine to treat the water. The report was inconclusive, listing ppm of chlorine in the water as required by the EPA. The EPA has guidelines for what must be included in an annual water report, and chloramine levels and usage is not among them. I then turned to the local club. It appears that Atlanta, like many cities, may primarily use chlorine but at least adds chloramine every once in a while at random. This presented me with a problem. Carbon canisters remove chlorine, not chloramine, or so I thought...

I stumbled upon the article "Chlorine and Chloramine" by Chuck Gadd. It turned out to be most insightful. Chucks sources mostly involve discussion on the Aquatic Plant Central forums, so while not completely scientific, they were good enough for me. Chuck pointed out that when used at the correct residence time, carbon canisters can remove chloramine, not all of it, but significant levels.  He also stated than in many people's experience, small water changes, 10% or less, where the refill water contains chloramine, seem to not cause any problems with livestock. I believe that between my carbon canisters and 10% water changes, I will effectively eliminate and risks associated from chloramine. The best part about this is the low cost. The carbon canisters I will be using cost $5 each, and treat up to 1500 gallons of water. It comes out to be about 4 cents per water change. The other big advantage is that it won't require any pumps or control channels.

It's important to point out that Prime is cheaper per gallon of water treated, but in my specific case, it is not cheaper per water change because Prime would require that I treat 120g of water EVERY water change, whereas the carbon canisters will only treat the 12g for the top off.

And after a few shakes from the money tree...

I ordered all of the supplies for automation. I've opted for the Wasser-Controller Pro. Materials include:

  • DIG 5006 Drip Irrigation Controller ordered from Sprinkler Warehouse for $65.
  • 4 120 VAC, 3 Amp relays, part number Tyco KHAU-1711-24 ordered from ebay, $4/each
  • Technical Pro PS-S8 rack mount power supply ordered form ebay, $20/shipped
  • 2 Rainbird irrigation solenoids, 1" NPT, from Sprinkler Warehouse, $11
  • 1 "miniature" float switch from Fish Bowl Innovations, $12 plus shipping
I'm starting to get excited now.

Not to overflow...

Removed the overflow.

It's gonna work out the best for me. I may end up with a float valve in the tank, but I've read about kind of a "mini" float valve that hopefully won't be so visible.



Since that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, I went ahead and painted the back of the tank. 4 coast of paint plus touch up later I was done.




You'll notice some Styrofoam insulation under the tank. It's 1/2". I would have loved to have 1/4". The 1/2" makes the rim of the tank stick almost a 1/4" over the stand. I don't think it's gonna be an issue. I have a feeling that stuff is going to compress a lot once I put 1200 lbs. of water in it!

To overflow or not to overflow....

I've really been going back and forth on removing the overflow. It shouldn't be such a hard decision, especially since it would be easy to put it back in.

I have two thoughts:

1) Remove the overflow. All equipment would be inline, including all probes and whatever mechanism I choose to control the fill cycle of the automatic water change system. The main hiccup here is that last part...figuring out a way to control the fill of the tank. Scolley chose pressure swtiches....that's a bit out of budget for me. I think in this scenario, where I remove the overflow, I may just have to end up with one piece of equipment in the tank which would be some manner of float switch.

2)Leave the overflow. Probes could be in the overflow, float switch, and I could use the dursos. This would be the cheaper option. Making inline probes isn't expensive, but certainly it would be less expensive to not have to make them. The overflow occupies the back corner, an arc with about a 9" radius. Since I so dearly want the entire 24" of tank depth to play with, this would be a problem.

I'll have to ponder this further.

An Outline

As I mentioned, I started the early stages of the planning for this tank over a year ago. Therefore, in that time, I was able to do a lot of reading. I'll be stealing shamelessly from a lot of people on different forums, but why reinvent the wheel, eh? I've done all that reading, but now was the time for decisions. This is what I'm planning on for the tank:

  • I will most likely be removing the overflow and simply using the exisiting holes as the intake and output for my filtration system. There will be one input from the overflow hole. Output will either be entirely by a substrate level spray bar similar to BryceM's, or the substrate level spray bar plus two glass lily outputs.
  • The stand is maple, custom built. I've built plenty of stands before, some that even passed as decent(see the first post here), but for this I wanted professional furniture grade. After getting the thing home, it's apparent that I could have easily done the stand because most of the trim is prefab from a woodworking store like Rockler, but the canopy was the real gem du jour. The canopy is very solid, and incorporates a nice design to minimize light from shining through the seams. That was important to me and I couldn't have duplicated it unless I blatantly ripped off the cabinet maker.
  • The filtration will be a closed loop system similar to Scolley's, but incorporating three canister filters instead of his seperate pump/filtration modules. I will also be incorporating an auto water change similar to Sergio's.
  • Lighting will be a 6x54w Tek T5HO with 3 Giessman Middays and 3 Aquafloras. 
  • CO2 pressurized with a pH controller.
  • I'll be installing a single dosing pump for dosing prime during the water changes, but I will be building the piping to allow for an additional two dosing pumps for micros and macros later on.
  • Finally, the whole thing will be controlled by a Wasser-controller. 

These projects will be completed in the very near future. 

I've taken a year to plan this out, so when I say "near future" that means, hopefully, before December 31. I'm patient and planning to build everything perfectly. I'm heavily leaning on the learning and experience of others.

Distractions

Well, things have been a bit hectic around here, what with the holidays and all. We had some of my family and some of my wife's family over for Thanksgiving, so the 120 got bumped down on the priority list. We hadn't really decorated much since we moved in, but Thanksgiving was kind of our hard deadline to have the house in presentable shape. That required staining and polyurethaning of furniture, hanging pictures, and multiple, extensive honey-do lists from my better half.

The week after Thanksgiving I allowed myself another minor distraction: an ADA 60-P.


I purchased this tank before our move from the west coast, but like the 120g, it required some patience. Again, like the 120g, I purchased a custom cabinet for the stand but I stained this myself. The stand is made from maple and stained with a Jet Mahogany.


Equipment for this tank includes:

  • Eheim Ecco 2236
  • Coralife 2x55w PC fixture
  • Bulbs:1 GE 9325k, 1 AHS 7800K
  • ADA Aquasoil Amazonia I
  • 10 lb Pressurized CO2 with Milwaukee pH controller
  • Coralife 6x Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizer
  • Hydor ETH 300w Inline Heater
  • DIY Inline pH probe and CO2 injection

The  pH probe was my only real DIY on this, aside from the piping. It uses a simple PVC tee, Heyco liquid tight cordgrip for the pH probe, and an irrigation drip connection for the co2 injection.

The plumbing looks like this: 


It's pretty simple, but gave me a good opportunity to get back in the swing of things before I dive into the 120g.

A quick shot of the hardscape:


And then we move onto the scape.
 
It's rough now. I threw it together because I wanted to get things cycling.I got pretty much all of these plants from Phil Edwards. He's moving to Dallas and is doing a bit of restructuring of his own. I needed to get these into some water/light/co2 so no time to waste on some pretty scape.

It's been a long post, and if you made it this far, I apologize because there's no good full tank shot to be seen. I'm not ready. I need to tweak the scape a bit. Give me a few days and you'll be rewarded.