150 Gallon Major Project Begins.

[Liam]

Hers a close up of the Deltec,nice small bubbles.Its still early with this skimmer but so far i am very impressed

 

[JayG]

What model Deltec did you purchase?

I have the APF600 on my 120 and love it!

 

[Liam]

What model Deltec did you purchase?

I have the APF600 on my 120 and love it!

AP 600,glad to hear you like yours.I will definitely be adding a remote waste container though,the cup fills quickly on a wet skim,mine is not broken in yet and i will eventually be aiming for the driest skim possible,i just like the back up of the extra container.
-Liam

 

[scavdog]

Looking awesome Liam!

 

[Kevin McG]

So it can overflow back into the main display,avoiding plankton shear

I am very interested in the way you are going to plumb that fuge. I have almost the exact same place I can locate my fuge.Won't there be issues with overflow directly back into the display tank? such as bubbles.

 

[Liam]

I am very interested in the way you are going to plumb that fuge. I have almost the exact same place I can locate my fuge.Won't there be issues with overflow directly back into the display tank? such as bubbles.

Yeah,no doubt,i will try to cross that bridge when i come to it depending on how bad they are.We will probably end up designing some contraption to try and stop them .
I am dividing the fuge into two one half will be for frags and the other the fuge.I will be pumping up there from the sump with a mag 12,through my chiller and then through a manifold so i can keep flow lowish in one side and higher in the other,this will give me a lot of overflow into the tank and bubbles.It will be trial and error.
Let me know how you make out

 

[Liam]

OK the lights are in position ,i only have one of my halides on right now due to a ballast that got damaged in shipping
I used two rails to allow the system to slide back when i need to climb in the tank.

 

[Liam]

Hers the fuge all drilled and baffled.I used three overflows in an attempt to cut down on bubbles by reducing the flow through each bulkhead

 

[Liam]

I used two different grades of sand in the fuge,southdown on the right and coarse aragonite on the left,each is about 45 lbs of sand.The section on the far left will be bare bottom because this section will be a frag tank.

 

[Liam]

Here,s a pic taken today from the front,diatoms galore
100lbs of live rock still to go in so the aquascape is not finished yet but this pic gives an idea of how i am laying out the rockwork.You can also see the penductors.

 

[wrassefan]

Looks good Liam....how you goin' to fit more rock in there with all the corals you been buying?

 

[Liam]

Looks good Liam....how you goin' to fit more rock in there with all the corals you been buying?

I could always trade some live rock

 

[wrassefan]

.10 on the dollar and it's a deal!!

 

[chuck]

Anything New Liam???

Can't wait to see some more...

 

[Liam]

Anything New Liam???

Can't wait to see some more...

Hi Chuck, i am playing the waiting game at the moment,ammonia is now down to zero but nitrites and trates are still very high.I hope to get the top off,water change sytem all plumbed and wired this weekend so should have some more pics then

 

[NateHanson]

Tag. This thread has been linked in the "DIY Useful Threads" Sticky.

 

[Liam]

Tag. This thread has been linked in the "DIY Useful Threads" Sticky.

I figured it would be useful to go into a little more detail on some aspects of the set up
Here are the overflows,they come from a linear skimming box in the display that is the full length of the tank,this skims a very thin layer of the surface which is where the highest concentration of pollutants can be found,this makes it very efficient.Each overflow is 1 1/2 inch pipe and is currently carrying around 1000 gph(each overflow) this will be increased to around 1300 each when i add another pump to the sump which will feed the above tank fuge and frag tank via the skimmer.I built in two air control valves
to the overflows incase i had noise/gurgling issues but they have turned out to be totally silent

 

[Liam]

The overflows head down to the sump.I tee'd into one overflow fo feed my skimmer.I am using a recirculating skimmer with a needle wheel and venturi.Plumbing this way has several advantages.
1.No need for a feed pump
2.The skimmer recieves the most polluted water possible for skimming making it more efficient.When a skimmer draws from the sump it is drawing cleaned water as well as dirty,this makes it less efficient.
3.The skimmer is totally unnaffected by fluctuating sump levels,making it more effiecient.

The skimmer requires around 130 gph and this is easily provided by the overflow,i continued the 1 1/2 inch pipe down a little before changing down to the 1/2 inch pipe,this gives a resevior preventing fluctuations in flow rate due to fluctuations in flow through the overflow.The flow to the skimmer is controlled by a true union valve ,it then returns to the sump via gravity through a carbon chamber because i use ozone.

 

[Liam]

Here's where the overflows empty into the sump through 2 filter socks.

 

[Liam]

Here are my 2 return pumps,i used 3 for two reasons.
1.If a pumps fails i will still have circulation.
2.i can remove one pump at a time for cleaning and i don't have to shut the tank down.
3.By using 2 pumps i can have 2 individual return lines with zero tee's etc.Using one larger pump requires lots of plumbing which takes away from its efficiency.
Plus i will get great heating from 2 T4's in the winter

All of my pumps and skimmer are controlled by X10 modules so they can be turned on and off via remote control.This save crawling around working out which plug is which.