New fish room setup

[David MC Lee]

This is my first try at how the basement will be setup in the new house.



I'm wanting to get ideas of how to plumb everything together. I think I am going to cut out the current overflow/sump so that the tank will have about 6sq feet of more room on the inside. I will still leave the back area for the fancy wave maker. (the wave maker will be larger). The current tank has four 2” drains in the bottom. I only use three of them right now. I would like to run one drain to each of the two clam tanks. The third drain will go to a return pump that feeds some of the spray bars just like the current setup.
The clam tank will be elevated about 2 feet and they will drain into a 100G tub/sump. From this the two primary pump will get there water and feed half of it to the skimmer and the other half to spray bars much the way the current system does. Only difference is putting the clam tanks in series with the drains. The outputs from the skimmers will go to a 500g remote DSB / refugium. From here the water will gravity feed back into the main tank.

Main tank->
Clam Tank->
Sump->
Pumps->
Skimmers->
Refugium->
Back to main tank.

Feeding the skimmers into the refugium will allow all of the extra bubbles to dissipate before they make it into the main tank. It will also allow lots of pods to get flushed into the main tank from the refugium.
Some of the thing to keep in mind here is the 500G refugium will need to be elevated by about 3 feet. The clam tanks will have to be elevated by about 1.5 feet.
I will try to get some drawing up as to how this would all look.



Ventilation:
I’m going to switch all of my MH fixtures to the Lumenarc with the 3” fan hooks. This way I will be able to blow air across the bulbs and keep the heat from going into the tank.
During the summer I will bring air from outside in through furnace filter. I till split off to each lamp. The output side of the lamp will go to the blower and will blow the heat outside the house. I want to put in two computer controlled damper valves that can switch states for the winter. During the winter I will suck air from the basement into the fish room and blow that air across the bulbs. The output will then go to the blower and then get redirected back into the basement to warm it up.
For the primary cooling on the tank I want to setup a vent system over the refugium like tschopp did where a second fresh air intake goes to one side of the covered refugium and the air goes across the water. Then it exits the other side to the second blower where it is then ejected out side the house. I believe by doing this I will not have to run either chiller. But they will be in a back up systems.

[JMeesh]

good lord. i cant even begin to imagine the work you are about to go through here!! good luck, god speed, and keep us updated with pictures!

meesh

[Brooklyn8]

Needs plasma tv.

[David MC Lee]

After designing broadcast HD video products working with uncompressed video, any of the consumer stuff looks like crap to me and I can’t bring my self to buy one.

[webbstock]

With your ventilation, have you thought how that will affect the "draw" on the fireplace if/when you use it?

[lglamb]

It looks like he's going for a net 0 pressure difference in the room.
(at least in theory)

outside air --> lights/sump --> outside
and/or
basement air --> lights --> basement.


I'm wondering about humidity, at least in summer. Will some of your
lighting ventilation also exchange some tank/setup air?

[ScottCooper]

Perhaps you should build a new one on-site, and convert the old one to stay with the old house into Philo Illinois first Playboy grotto.

Congrats on the move! Enjoy designing the new plumbing setup.

[BrianD]

All I can say is:

WOW

[webbstock]

It's too bad that the clams are so sensitive. It would be cool to use a clam tank with a raised glass top as an end table.

lglamb Oops, you're right about the net flow...I read/thought that air was then exhausting out of the room.

[David MC Lee]

If I thought someone would buy my house with the tank in it I would build a square 10 foot x 10 foot tank visible on all 4 sides. The hard part would be getting it back out of the new house next time I move

And yes the tank room has zero pressure diff. I have a problem with my current fireplace so we have to shut off the vent when its going. The doors don't seal well around the fish room.

[seldon]

sure, thats all you need, a ~2500 gallon tank. It would have one benefit though, you could sell tickets to it: "The Lee Aquarium"...

[RocketSeason]

lovely. I like it when a room is designed around the tank.

[UH_OH_5_OH]

Any updates.....?

[medic29]

I think these plans have changed for the room, but I believe it is another thread.

[David MC Lee]

Its going real sloooooooooooow
I have the 500G tank in the basement and it has about 75G of water in it right now and will have 150 with in two hours. I'm making the water in philo and moving it in my truck. I think the water is better in philo so to do a new fill I want to use the best. I had really wanted to move the fish and coral this weekend but is not going to happen. Just takes too long to get the water made and moved down here. Maybe May 12 for a fish&coral move date.

[lglamb]

Shoot. There goes my lawn mowing excuse.

Lowell

[David MC Lee]

I have about 300G in the tub. Mixing salt now. Will bring one of the two skimmers down this weekend and connect it in. Going to have to get some more heaters for the tank. One 300W heater only made a 6Degree change in the water. It at 67 degrees right now.

[David MC Lee]

Down the hole it goes


And through the doorway.

[DrBDC]

Those are a couple of REALLY REALLY BIG clams!