Tank Journal Archive

[Meller]

Introduction:
Time for a bigger tank and some improved features ;)

System Objectives:
My aim is to create a Top shelf SPS reef to showcase to the best of my abilities the corals natural beauty and provide a better platform for continuing my reefing education.

System Type:
KZ Zeovit SPS dominated display reef.

Display System:
Strike up Date:
June? 2012

Display Tank: Display tank specifications.
1500x750x500 OR 5' x 2.5' x 20" in the old terms. 12mm Starfire eurobraced with external Coast to coast (Calfo) and Conventional Bean Animal plumbing arrangement. 3mmm Black acrylic internal with laser cut comb for background.
18" water height to keep it fairly shallow and allow maximum light penetration.

Display Lighting:
By the time its wet i'll have the Choice of ATI 8x54W or ATI 10x80W

Stand:
1540x850x1000h DIY steel stand with 2-pac House of Kolor poly cladding. Sleek and Modern and ultimately functional. Recessed rear top of stand to allow pipework to be installed behind tank.

Hood:
Open top, dislike the look of hoods generally.

Sump:
900x600x400 2 section DIY acrylic sump, and a ATO resevoir built in.
Only need a sump to house the skimmer, passive carbon and Zeovit reactor.

Refugium:
Not happening. Zeo reef so no necessity for Refugium.

Support systems:

System Water:
Artificial Salt Water utilising KZ reefers best salt when i can get it.
Otherwise Red Sea Salt (blue bucket) in interim periods.

Display Water circulation:
Closed Loop Gyre like system :) 2x Panworld 200 MD-R70's aiming for 30cm/s laminar flow.
This is an important area and one area I continually underachieve in previous tanks. I have been researching and researching this area in detail and now realise that I really need to improve the flow dynamics in this system. With an increased understanding of the demands of SPS keeping, i aim to be providing my SPS with the correct flow rate and an environment far more condusive for coral health. Should i achieve this then i should maximise the best potential results for my display that I can. Michael Galleri, Rod the Reefer, and Semillion's tanks (from RTAW forum) are huge inspirations for me in this regard.

Some light reading on flow found here: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature/view

Return Pump:
To be Decided. Eheim, Red dragon, New Sicce and Tunze Silence pumps are all in contension for this important job.

Skimmer:
KZ Revolution S skimmer from the old tank. Love this skimmer, its service so far has been exceptional.

Evaporation Top Up:
Auto Top-off via Tunze Osmolator OR Profilux controlled.


Chemical Support:

Calcium Addition:
Randies Recipe 1 via Kamoer Dosing pump.

Alkilinity Addition:
Randies Recipe 1 via Kamoer Dosing Pump.

Other Chemical Maintenance:
Full Korallen-Zucht Zeovit system, utilising any supplement from that range as may be required.
Undecided on KZ Zeovit reactor S or Vertex ZF-30 zeovit reactor at this stage. Probably KZ to match the skimmer.

Current Water Chemistry:
Will be maintained at close to NSW levels to the best of my ability.

Nitrates:
Phosphates:
Alkalinity:
Calcium:
Salinity / Specific Gravity:
Magnesuim:
Kalium


Images:

The Concept:

:banana:

 

[Meller]

Some more concept renders:

Stand design remains semi-fluid as far as gussets and bracing. My engineering brain wants me to add cross members to prevent collapsing of the stand due to torsional stress at the rear legs. eg. house of cards or dominoe style. Because i used a narrow cross section steel i will need to work out some compression loading ratings for the legs and then model them, run a load simulation and work out load bearing factors and incidences. This is something my structural engineer father is giving me grief over.

 

[Meller]

Some stand build progress pics:

All corners are mitred to fully seal the weldments and prevent moisture getting inside and rusting the stand internally. No penetrations will be made through structural members.

 

[MTG]

This will be awesome :D
what zeo range are you using meller the full range?
love a nice closed loop setup, :worship

 

[192k]

Going to be a good tank.

I had a brief play with the Panworld pumps and think they are very good quality.

You will be surprised at how much water they can move. I was.

 

[Meller]

This will be awesome :D
what zeo range are you using meller the full range?
love a nice closed loop setup, :worship

Thanks Matt, Will be full zeo after getting the hang of it on the 3 ftr.

Going to be a good tank.

I had a brief play with the Panworld pumps and think they are very good quality.

You will be surprised at how much water they can move. I was.

Yeah, Im looking forward to getting my hands on em. I have a couple of Iwakis that i have been playing with in the past So it will be good to be able to do a comparison on the two brands ;)

Have some more photo's of some stand progress that I will put up once they upload.

 

[NiCd]

If your tank builders skills are 1/10th of your 3d rendering skills this is going to be a freakin AMAZING set up.

 

[MTG]

:poidh

 

[NiCd]

Who are you looking at using to do the build?

 

[Synodontis]

Going to be a great looking tank :)

 

[Meller]

Who are you looking at using to do the build?

At this stage just waitingon Dave from Extreme Reef to come back with his price, then will go from there. So far there has been a fair difference in the prices from the other builders...like >$500 difference :O :O

Going to be a great looking tank :)

Thanks mate, I certainly hope so!

 

[MTG]

star-fire all round or just viewable sides?

 

[Meller]

It'll be all 3 viewable sides and braces on this one. Although after the last tank, its hard to justify really. I dont think it that makes that much difference, and is probably more of a wank factor.....but i dont want to be the kid who doesnt have the kool stuff at school!

 

[MTG]

i feel the same way, it realy is a bit of a wank. if you like to photograph your tank alot it helps but other then that most people wouldnt notice

 

[NiCd]

Dave does seem to be the go to man at the moment, lang used to be up there on my list but after everything that has happened to Jamo I kind of feel scared to utter his name.

I love my toys and I love my starphire, I think its one of those things that you don't think is that big of a deal when you have it, but when you go back to having a tank without it you can tell the difference straight away, the tank really turns out to be the cheapest part of the whole set up in the long run anyway, it would have to be sacrilege to due a set up of this quality without it :D

How are you looking at doing the bracing? are you going to do butt joins or overlap in the corners?

 

[Meller]

Yeah, Dave is certainly the flavor of the month (like Laurie used to be is suppose)! Lang built my last one, and he's quoted on this one too, but like you, What happened to Jamie has given me pause.....

Bracing will be 80mm? Euro flush with the top (beveled + polished ;) ) edge and sealed at each end to prevent those annoying little dribbles, The braces will be butt jointed and not overlapped at the corners. I'm about to run the 3D model of the tank through some fluid dynamic simulations using Solidworks 3D as soon as i finish mud-modelling some rockwork. I want to do this to calculate pane stresses and flexion rates. Being only relatively shallow and using 12mm glass i shouldn't have to worry about the corners needing reinforcement. Another reason to run the simulation is so i can model the low dynamics of the closed loop, check for laminar flow characteristics and check spot velocities at various points around the rockwork. I want an average of 30cm/s to hit my aims regarding circulation rates.

Im also going to get a price comparison on Laser cut one piece euro brace..... doubt i'll bother though.

 

['vspec']

Well done brother. Its good to see a flash of talent.

Closed Loop Gyre like system

Explain for me dude, not heard it and sounds interesting.

Bracing will be 80mm? Euro flush with the top (beveled + polished ;) ) edge and sealed at each end to prevent those annoying little dribbles, The braces will be butt jointed and not overlapped at the corners

Your cutting 45's?

Also dude, your running it structural analyst fashion with fluid dynamic simulations, surely you could have blown my skirt up with a table top honey comb biscuit package, and completely dispensed with that middle leg. ;)

We're starting to see some raw talent on this site. God help me if I come out of retirement and go head to head in a build off with you guys. It's incredibly dangerous to spool up the V-ster!

~ I'd need to masturbate just to think normal..lol


...............on a lighter note, if comp ever hits the cards, better to team up and organise a state thereefuge build-off battle.
Victoria takes Taz obviously, them people down there are still counting how many steps to the letter box :)

Impressed dude. And welcome to the club!

 

[Meller]

Hi V ;)

"Increased flow generates better coral respiration and artificially inflates the point of photo-saturation. It also increases moment resistance to photo-inhibition." Nicholas B Glover et al February 2012

Ben will jump in should i get to far from the point, but basically My flow system will be composed of two key parts. The closed loop side of things will be a pair of pumps (panworld 200's), each pump has a water inlet which draws water from the bottom of the tank and pushes it out under pressure from 2 outlets with flow enductors. The flow enductors increase the point velocity of the outgoing water, roughly in the order of a volumetric conversion of 20,000l/hr per pump. The flow from these enductors (which will be hidden behinf the rockwork) will be not only a strong velocity but also a very narrow Jet, with a laminar form. Only one pump will be on at a time, except for certain times where i may run them both temporarily. These closed loops are getting pretty common where people are looking to move their flow mechanisms outside of the DT and keep them hidden ;)

They Gyre part is where most closed loop systems fall over and people get it wrong.
Simply put, the gyre system will be a single Closed loop pump running for a longer period of time, so as to create essentially a whirlpool effect through-out the whole tank. This would run for a period of say 3-6hrs, before the pumps would change over and opposing flow will reverse the direction of the flow, or rather gyre as it would be by then. The aim is to generate a more natural tidal or current type flow, representing both a high, turbulent and then low-slack tide scenario. The tricky part is getting the flow at the right velocity...... for SpS growth and health we need to aim for 30cm/s velocity over the coral surfaces (reef crest scenario). Where people get it wrong is trying for to much turbulent flow (think vortech MP40s etc) with they're closed loops, rather than Laminar flow. By using a high point velocity outlet from the enductor, the narrow jet will have a knock-on effect that will create water movement around it through disturbance and displacement. This flow will be very laminar, causing a greater body of movement in the water column in a general direction. This laminar flow will then be broken up by interference with the glass walls, rocks and corals, thus generating its own turbulence and other flow varieties..... and the end result should be a natural type of flow more condusive to SpS health and growth.

Ideally, flow needs to be centered around the principles of the correct flow rate of 23-30cm/s and correct lighting. The emitted light spectrum needs to be correct to allow for photo-conversion of the emitted energy and adequate PAR for photo-saturation and photo-stimulation, whilst combined the lighting and flow methodology are essential for the conversion and exportation of all undesirable nutrients in order to maintain as close to possible NSW conditions.


further reading: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature/view

Tanks running similar systems:

A good explanations of gyre:
http://www.reef-eden.net/2006_reef_9.htm

Two of the best ever Aussie SpS tanks:
Rod the reefer: http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=194986&start=0
Nicest bloke in the world, Michael Galleri's: http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=213274

HTH? More diagrams etc regarding flow will follow as the simulations finish up and i finalise the plan.

 

[Meller]

Extra horizontal brace across the rear legs to prevent torsional loading

Means no more leg at the front ;)

All cross braces, gussets and tabs in place now.

Waiting on panworlds to arrive so i can install captive bolts for pump mounting.
Will start to mock up the cladding this week hopefully.

 

['vspec']

Nice bud, thanks for taking the time.
I'll sit down and have a sqizz at your links at some point, bring myself up to speed.

Your initial render didn't display such a large offset regarding your front stand legs, it there a mechanism utilising this space?
If your mounting your pumps to the framing, how do you go about dampening them so it doesn't translate?