Changing experimental tank

[ktani]

ok here are a couple of updates on the 165. This tan is for all intensive purposes a mock up of a couple larger tanks giong in my office. Basically am going away from the Sea-Swirls and the Tunze Turbelle Streams in favor of a closed loop.

Here is a rough picture of parts of the closed loop.

You can see the far left is the intake. The right shows the OceansMotions sitting on top of the ball valve. After dialogue with Paul and observation from Del (dsandfort), the OceansMotions will sit just slightly above the tank with a union for easy disconnect. Also, the outputs will all have disconnects so the unit can easily be removed if necessary.

Each line will be used for an above tank water return. This is a variance of Anthony Calfo's manifold. After talking with Amy (Tippytoex) she has had problems getting enough flow and since I tend to run a smaller amount through the refugium anyways, it seemed to make sense to allow the closed loop to handle the bulk of the flow.

I will post pictures of the lines when they are sort of complete.

Also, a side note is the pump is the Sequence Dart. I was concerned after hearing some stories on reliability and such but a great conversation with Ben at Sequence helped. He was also a great help in calculating total loss and due to friction and head. That is part of the reason I am using 1" return lines for the closed loop. I may try and use it at 1.5" and thus not reduce it, but need to calcuate the benefit. If I recall correctly, it should cut my friction by 1/2.

Anyways, enough rambling, here is the picture.




Here is a quick picture of the returns from the refugium. Going with a 1.25" return from a Gormann-Rupp 520 to this manifold. You can see the union for removal as well as the ball valves so I can adjust flow to each output or if necessary close one off.

The tank has one center overflow and the returns will be placed 3/4 of the way down the tank on each side of the overflow. Then using lock line the flow can be adjusted to whatever area of the tank needs the current.




Lastly for tonight, here is the upgraded refugium. Pretty excited about this as I am hoping the design and flow patterns will actually allow me to keep gracilaria alive.

One thing if you can see in the picture is on the right side is a frag tray. Will be putting that above and to the right of the filter so the gravity from the tank will create the flow and then it will drain into the filter. Hopefully this will minimize the need for another pump.



Kip

[ktani]

ugh did the pics wrong. Lets try again.





Second one.




last one.

[StinkyNappy]

um,..... still not workin...

[ktani]

Thanks Nappy,

lets try this one last time.

[murfman]

Looking good!!!!

[aqua_obs]

Great Kip,
It will be nice to follow along on this one. Will this tank be taken down when you put up the big one at work? I think the closed loop idea is the best way. Rids the system of other problems with internal PH, etc.

Keep the info coming and good luck!