KrazyKuch's & Michika's 180Gal Tank Build

[Phanman]

Yikes! thats going to be quite the water bill. We just replaced a hot water tank for another friends house that was leaking so it only took a total of 1hr or so. Dont know much about going "green" for water tanks but if you just want a reg one, my friend can probably save you abit of cash so you can restock your tank when the time comes.

[mike31154]

Tankless hot water systems have come a long way in the last few years. Yes, there are drawbacks including high initial cost, but if going green is the goal..... My hot water tank is having some issues and I'm certain that when the time comes, I'll be going tankless. My parents installed one last year and are quite happy with it. Their gas usage has dropped noticeably.

Newer tankless HW systems have the option of installing controls with digital readouts for each location, kitchen, bath etc., allowing you to precisely control the water temperature delivered, not just a knob with "Hot, Warm, Vacation" as on conventional HW tanks. No pilot light to worry about either, electronic ignition. You can also prioritize which location gets the hot water when multiple taps are used. The biggest thing you need to do is figure out how much flow you're likely to use for your family and ensure you buy a large enough unit so the person taking a shower doesn't get a surprise when you run the hot water in the kitchen... Starting to sound a lot like the issues we have with our fish tanks, no??

[michika]

[quote=mike31154;353616]The biggest thing you need to do is figure out how much flow you're likely to use for your family and ensure you buy a large enough unit so the person taking a shower doesn't get a surprise when you run the hot water in the kitchen... QUOTE]

And that would be hitting the nail on the head right there! How do I figure out how much we use? We are a "family" of 2 plus 2 water-guzzling dogs. Is there a calculator for this?

[mike31154]

Yes, there are calculators available to determine the appropriate size. Just Google tankless hot water systems and I'm sure you'll find some guidelines. My parents have a small unit manufactured by Rinnai. I would likely get a slightly larger one just to be on the safe side. Because these heaters heat the water through a coil/heat exchanger while it is flowing, if you have too many hot taps open at once, it won't be able to keep up. It also depends heavily on the temperature of the incoming water, which will be colder in the winter. For a family of 2 like yourselves, it shouldn't be a big issue, just takes a little coordination. Generally you wouldn't run bath water, a shower, the dishwasher at the same time. As for the water guzzling dogs... that's cold water and wouldn't affect the demand for hot water?

Here's a link with a quick rundown...

http://www.greenerbuilding.org/buying_advice.php?cid=56

[michika]

Well we are still sitting on the hot water tank issue. I think I want to go with a tankless system, but balk at the cost. Its still first on the list before anything else, and it will get done sooner rather then later.

I tested the tank this afternoon/evening and we are at the tail end of the cycle. I guess the tank wasn't strong enough to recover without a full cycle. I still plan to add more live rock in the next couple of weeks, just in case.

Right now the tank is running without kalk. or Ca. reactors, mostly because we are afraid of overloading the circuit in the basement. The lighting is solely T5s, as there is no point in running the MHs. I am also only running a seio and koralia 1 power head, again because of fears of overloading the circuit.

pH: 8.02
SG: 1.025
ORP: 268 (low)
PO4: 0.13
Ammonia: 0.50
Nitrate: Less then 0.5 via Elos test kit
Nitrite:0

We've also drawn out the first of a few options for our big system. If we go with a cube shape, the best we can do is looking like 5ftx5ft, which is less then 500g. I can't say I'm happy with that size. I think the next step is to probably look at an L-shape system. The problem we are having is balancing the space the tank would need vs. the living space required to actually use our basement.

I've lost my camera USB cord, so I can't share all the photos I have with you.

[Zylumn]

Tankless water heaters

The tankless hot water heater activates as water demand is initialized, however, hot water output is limited by production capacity. A consideration with a tankless water heater is how many degrees of temperature the water heater can raise the water passing through it. Considering a winter climate where city water during the cold season reaches the home at 55°F, a tankless water heater must be able to heat that water to 120°F (an increase of 65°).

This is true.
What I have seen is you end up here in Calgary with a very low hot water output using a TLess WH. (Calgary water 55.3 f)Forget about having a long hot shower or how about 1 hour later to fill the bathtub. What I have seen is tankless HWheaters run in conjunction with large regular water heaters turned on low. Small 6 gallon water set up for small usage. So cold water runs into a 60 g WH (set to hold water temp at about 80 f) from there it goes to a TLess WH set to bring it up to shower temp; from there it goes to a 6 gal water heater designed to be used for washing hands, face, filling up a sink.
So ie: scenario
You turn on a tap to wash hands water goes from main to 60g WH to TLess WH to 6 g WH and you get immediate hot water.
This is an effective way to get the best usage of a stong need for Hot water and the least amount of water used.
(it takes about 3+ g of water run through a Tless wh before it is hot)

Just my 2 cents worth.

[michika]

Well I think we are going to go the tankless route if we can. Although I am now just going over our tankless options and the costs associated with one. As long as I have enough water to shower with, and maybe for someone else to wash their hands it will be fine.

I figure its probably appropriate to make a tank related update as well. Last time I tested the tank, which I think might have been Tuesday or Wednesday, I had slightly elevated Ammonia, along with some nitrates, and phosphates. The tank also has some beautiful stringly green hair algae with complements the brown diatomes nicely. The tank needs a water change this week, and then, provided all my levels are still good this coming weekend, I'll slowly start restocking it. I figure by the end of the month, assuming everything continues to go well, I will have my livestock back in my system and things can hopefully continue on as they were.

[michika]

Well let me preface this with at least my house doesn't stink like clam die off anymore.

What we pulled out of the tank following the flood;


The tank on October 19th


The skimmer overflowed after getting things back up and running again. This was in a period of less the 10 hours.


The tank on the 26th


This is the surface flow now


I found a creature to live in my tank for a few days


Tank yesterday : (




The temporary return is a hairball now




So while the tank's chemistry reads fine, it obviously isn't fine. I will not put livestock in the tank as is right now. I will have to figure out what I want to do.

The basement

[Skimmerking]

Catherine its looking great kido , i see tha the hair algae is back again there must be something wrong with something there. I have never seen some one having that much problem with their set up starting out with your experience.

good on you to have the patience. I couldn't

OH YA what a great time to start dosing Vodka you wont burn anything

[michika]

Well the tank is at the point where all you can do is laugh about it.

The Dart return pump was seized again this morning when I woke up. I would also like to point out that I am getting extremely fed up with the tank.

So I am proposing that sell off the 180g tank itself, and build a sweet cube in its place.