Hi Mitch

Interesting posts! - I've been working through some of the same challenges. There are some notes on how I suspended my rock for my new tank in my build thread (post 31). For my 90G I used the large PVC idea and it worked well enough. I have some good pictures of the setup process if you would like to see them.

I am very interested in this as well. From what I could tell, ipsf.com doesn't ship to Canada. It's in their fine print:

"Sorry, we do not ship outside the mainland USA or to any international destination."

Inland Aquatics has shipped to Canada in the past, but it might be a question of what day of the week you call? I think it's far from a sure thing.

Who is in Indiana?

- Brad

Hi Brad,

Neither Inland Aquatics nor Indo-Pacific will ship to Canada, but they will ship to an address in Sweetgrass, Montana. I can drive down there to pick up the shipment and an LFS here has offered to help me through the permit process.

I'm not expecting many of the actual worms to survive the trip (although I'm told they do) but I am looking to get a fair bit of larvae and eggs in the "mud" I receive.
It's a 4 hour drive from my place, so I'm holding off until the weather is a bit warmer.

Where have you got those PVC pictures, Brad?

edit...(Got your PM, thanks)

The tank is in a bit of an extended cycle and maturing period.
We came up against some unexpected vet bills for one of our dogs, so the funds got depleted a bit.

In the meantime I have taken some of the live rock I already have (about 250 lbs) and placed it in the tank with a couple of large LPS corals, a favia and a few euphyllias. I haven't suspended this rock above the sandbed, I am waiting to purchase some larger dry flat ecorocks so I can drill them, give them some legs and use them for the base pieces.
I have the bidirectional tidal flow working with the Profilux controlling 2 separate Dart pumps. It's working well and I'm able to play around with the rock placement and watch how it changes the water flow. I've been able to create areas where the water flow will shoot through a channel quite fast and areas where the water will swirl and food particles can accumulate. Those swirling areas are where I will probably place some larger polyp corals.
The only drawback with the 2 separate pumps is the gurgling when about 40 or 50 gallons of water drain back into the sump.
Oceans Motions is close to finalizing a 4 way set up for me and I am expecting the drain back to be much slower and less volume.
Other than that the whole system is really quiet and the herbie drain setup is working well.

I had bought 2 new 300w titanium heaters that turned out to be defective, one of them the top came right off, flipping a breaker in the night and exposing the copper wires inside to the tank water.
The favia is not doing too bad from the brief electric shock plus copper exposure but the euphyllias are still recovering. They're bleached and retracted.
I guess I'm lucky it didn't fry one of the $250 Profilux powerbars.
I've replaced those heaters with a couple of 500w Jalli titanium heaters.

With the tank covers on, and the sump covered except for a 2' x 2' open top portion, the tank is only evaporating about 2 - 3 cups/day. Pretty happy with that.

The tank's not looking too clean these days, going through the startup diatom and algae blooms. I've gone through 2 Prodibio dosing cycles, not sure if it's making much of a difference yet.
The sandbed is really looking scarce for any life migrating down from the live rock, but this rock did come from basically a FOWLR (with some corals) bare bottom setup, so I didn't really expect a lot of sandbed animals.
I'm looking forward to getting some mud from some suppliers.

Would be interested in seeing videos of the flow if you can somehow arrange for that ? I realize video of water moving is probably not the easiest thing to capture since water is all transparentish and stuff.

Can I use this quote:)

When the cycle comes out of it's rest period, there are a lot of air bubbles that get pushed around, but other than that I can only spot the odd few particles and follow their path.
Maybe once I start feeding the tank more I can capture the action in a few specific areas.

After 1 year of letting the sandbed mature and another year of unsuccessfully getting a reliable supply of sandbed critters, I'm changing direction and going with the Zeovit method.

I've removed the sand, changed over the dart pumps to Speedwave.
I bought a few Mitras but wasn't completely happy with the spread. I would probably have to go with 6 units to cover the tank properly.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6211


As luck would have it, the old Aquamedic fixture over my freshwater Amazon tank burnt up (literally) so I put 2 of the Mitras over that.

I purchased 2 4' ATI LED/T5 powermodules and got them up and lit this past weekend. I also purchased 100 lbs of fresh live rock that you can see in the tank now and I'm treating my old 400 lbs of live rock to a bleach then acid water bath over the next few weeks. The old live rock is probably about 15 years old now and full of junk.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6210

The spread is definitely better with the ATI's! Although, I have to say I'm impressed if you thought that only 6 Mitras would have worked over a tank with these dimensions. That's no small feat to get coverage of that magnitude..

15 year old rock! :lol: I tip my hat to you, sir.

But seriously? Hurry up and put some reef into this tank! :lol:

1. Holy crap that's a lot of sand!
2. I love the simplicity of your new aqua scape. I would be tempted to leave it as is, add some fish and call it a day :-)
3. See #1 above.

Tony, what's the rush? :lol:

Thanks kien, it almost took me a full 20 minutes to design that.:smile:

The spread does look good on those ATI's. - and yes, 6 Mitras may have not been enough - another reason I went for the ATI's

In the sump I'm replacing my electric heaters with a coil of PEX that will be heated with a hot water recirc loop controlled with the Profilux.
There are plastic PEX fittings available for corrosive environments.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6212

Interesting ... where would the water for the loop get heated?

I tap into the hot water tank and run domestic water through it.
A 25W recirculation pump pulls hot water in a loop from the hot water outlet pipe and returns it to the cold water inlet pipe on the hot water tank.

So the heat comes from the normal operation of the hot water tank.

What material are the pex rings made of ???

Stainless steel

I've learned that there's a different system available that uses plastic crimp rings - Propex.
I'm looking into that to see where it's available.

Other than the cost of buying a conventional heater (if you didn't already have one) and the (remote) possibility of the heater breaking, what's the advantage to doing it this way ?

Seems a bit of "Six of one, half dozen of the other"

The primary benefit is using less electricity.

For a water volume of around 700 gallons, I would need probably 600 - 800 watts of electric heat. I've read articles that suggest heaters should be replaced every couple of years.

We also have a hot water solar system that sometimes produces excess heat, so it makes sense to dump the excess heat somewhere useful.

And...

-Saves space on the Profilux power bar
-Don't need to run as many electrical circuits


It may not make sense for smaller tanks, but I think it's a great idea for larger ones.

Quick and easy
 

Mitch,
Look into these fittings. All plastic, very reliable.
The system is called quick and easy by uponor.
By far one of the best plastic systems.
If you need any info lmk.
Thanks,
Bob

Thanks Bob

Uponor
 

If you need or want, lmk, I'll mail you what you need.
If you need the tools, I'm sure we can figure something out as I could mail it out as well.

Thanks Bob. Very generous offer.
I'll try a couple of places in Calgary this week. If they won't sell retail or something, I'll send you a PM.

Nice to see you publicly back at it. Do you currently have livestock anywhere or is a from scratch sort of deal at the moment?

Thanks Brett.
I have moved what livestock I had into other tanks for now. A blue tang, rectangular trigger, sea hare, a number of corals, LPS and SPS.
The tang, trigger and sea hare won't be going back into the main display. The tang is at the size where he just picks ups frags and plays with them.
The sea hare likes burying himself in deep sand and there will be minimal sand in the new setup. With no hair algae, he is being fed a diet of spirulina tabs.
The corals will be going back into the main tank, after some pruning. I have a branching euphyllia with about 100 heads.

Got the recirc pump mounted under the tank stand.



http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6226

Hi Mitch, exciting build!

I was wondering why you changed out the Dart pumps for SpeedWaves? I'm working on a build with 2 closed loops and still struggling with pump choices. I like the Dart gold pumps but was looking into the DC pumps as another option.

How do you like them so far and what was the motivation to swap out those expensive Darts?

Francis

Hi Francis,

I really like the Speedwaves. I prefer submersible pumps because I like to have things effecient where I can.

Speedwave pros for me:
-lower electricity usage
-submersible means that the heat that is generated is transferred to the aquarium water
-simpler plumbing hookup (barbed connections for flexible hose that's contained in the sump so if there's a leak it stays within the system)
-soft start, so when the pumps start up in the middle of the night there's no splashing noise

Dart cons:
-higher electricity usage
-external, attracts dust with their cooling fins so exterior needs to be cleaned often
-more complicated hard plumbing, need to drill access holes in sump. Leaks are not contained within the system

I am using 1 Speedwave externally, because of how my closed loop is configured. No cooling fans on the Speedwave to attract dust.

I'm just going to clean the Darts and store them away. They work fine. They've been operating steady 5 hours on/6 hours off without a problem for a couple of years.

I've also changed my sump turnover rate to 1 X system volume/ hour. I'm going to increase the circulation only within the main display itself with powerheads and the closed loop. That saves some energy.
( that I can put into those T-5's, lol)

I've had the recirc heating running for about an hour now.
Incoming water temp is 91.9 F, outgoing water temp is 77.9F
Present water temp is 75.6 F, so the aquarium water is taking almost all the heat that is being put through the coils. I didn't do any calculations to arrive at how many coils, just my best estimate. I put in 5 coils with a 20" diameter.
We'll see how long it takes to bring the 700 gallons up to the target temp of 79 F.

Quick question are those copper fittings on the pump?

Brass.

Here is the hookup to the hot water tank:
Hot water exit is coming out of the top middle of the hot water tank. The red PEX pipe attached at the "T" fitting is leading to the recirc pump which pumps to the coils in the sump.
The cold water supply line to the hot water tank runs down the front of the tank out of the picture. The white PEX pipe at the "T" fitting is coming directly from the coils in the sump.
The loop follows: hot water tank -> red PEX -> recirc pump -> coils -> return line to the cold water supply -> water gets reheated and goes through the loop again as needed.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6227

It took 5 hours to raise the temperature from 73F to 79F.
I'm happy with that.
The gas boiler didn't turn on today so that means that the heat came from solar.:smile:

I've bleached 2 40g pails of LR and let them sit out in the sun and rain for a couple of weeks now.

Today was acid dip day. I have about 50 pieces of live rock to do.

I bought some nitrile gloves, muriatic acid from Canadian Tire and had some baking soda on hand in case I splashed something on myself.
I put 10 liters of water and 1 liter of acid in an old salt pail and had a rubbermaid container full of tap water for rinsing.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6254

It was actually a pretty tame procedure. The smaller rocks foamed a bit but didn't overflow the bucket. I left the rocks in the acid dip for 3 minutes each. I tried to put in about the same mass of rocks each time. I did about 10 batches per bucket of acid dip then I dumped it out and started with a new batch.
After 10 batches, the foaming was minimal so the PH had risen quite a bit and the solution was close to neutral.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6255

For the larger rocks, 11 liters didn't cover them, so I did them at the end. I just added additional 10 liters of water plus 1 liter of acid. That covered the rocks, but also overflowed the bucket.
Definitely an outside project!

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6256

Tomorrow I hope to start drilling and stacking the live rock with some acrylic rods.
Gotta get this show on the road.

I got the tools ready for tomorrow and tried out a test piece. It worked pretty well. I'll put an old towel in between the rock and the workbench so the rock doesn't get vibration from both sides and break apart.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6257

This is how far I got today. The lights are a little bit askew because I had to lie right on top of the tank to adjust the rock.
It looks like the ATI's won't be sufficient to provide light to the whole tank. I'll probably end up putting my 3 Mitras along the front and moving the ATI's back a bit.
I've ordered a PAR meter that will hopefully be here in a week or so.
(The iphone pics make it look a lot bluer than it is. I have a Nikon D70, but only with a 105mm macro lens.)

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6260

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6261

I started out thinking I would be using a lot more rock, but the more I thought about it, the less I wanted a wall or pile that created a lot of detritus traps that I knew I wouldn't be happy with.

I kept thinking of CingChai"s setup and thought I would set it up similar. I like the idea of corals being viewed from a couple different sides, not necessarily the front only.
My tank doesn't have the height that his does, my tank is only 30" tall, so I decided to make a few more columns instead. I also want to leave as much room as possible for corals to grow until I need to prune them.

There's a couple of new little rocks in the lower front that I saw had some life on them (maybe some corals that survived the trip), I left them in there with the lights to see what becomes of them.

To help with the stability of the columns, I made some 1 1/2" high feet out of 4" PVC. This will also help prevent detritus from accumulating directly underneath the rocks.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6258

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6259

I may still add some arches reaching from column to column, I'll leave this for a while and see.
There are2 MP60's on the far end of the tank, synced together, but unfortunately they can't be directed anywhere other than perpendicular to the tank wall they are mounted on. I'll probably add a couple of Tunze 6255's in the future.
There will be some sand at the bottom, very little. Maybe some Caribsea pink, coarse.

Of course any criticisms or suggestions are welcome!:smile:

There's a LOT of rock left over!:lol:

For the last 3 weeks I have been waiting out what I thought was a bacterial bloom, except bacterial blooms only last around 3 - 4 days.
If it is algae, I thought my 200 micron filter sock would have picked it up.
I stopped any further Zeo dosing or adding more rock and I started up a diatom filter today to see how that works out.
Over the last couple of weeks the cloudiness hasn't gotten any better and hasn't gotten worse than what it is here.

My Tunze 6255's came in so I added those.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...pictureid=6408

My cloudy bacterial problem is just now clearing up. I couldn't see 6 inches into the tank for most of the last 2 months.
I would try one thing, wait a few days/weeks, try another thing, wait a few days/weeks....
What finally worked was changing out all the filters in my RO/DI unit, after I noticed I was having ongoing cyanobacteria problems in my freshwater tank which also gets the RO/DI water.

I want the last 2 months of my life back, lol.

good to have you back Mitch. PS my Mitras light is working flawless now after the update.

Thanks Mike, good to hear about the Mitras.