Banner image

Riley's 1000 gallon fish room build (1 Viewer)

acharpenter said:
This is awesome - when can I come over??
Click to expand...

Riley said:
Anytime you're going to be by my side of town, give me a heads up and feel free to stop by. It's been a few years since I've last seen you.
Click to expand...


Miss ya too buddy - you have a PM- I gotta see this!

Thank you for the forced invite - hee hee sorry couldnt help it dude!
 
Last edited:
Flow Monitoring: I am going to be pumping around 50gpm through the filter loop out to the displays. Flow is monitored by a GF Signet paddlewheel flowmeter so I can dial in the flowrate. I will also be able to see changes in flow, such as when the bead filter is due for backwash, for example. I will be installing one in the skimmer loop as well. I will be able to see exactly what my skimmer dwell time is.

Here are the components- 8512 flow transmitter, 515 series paddlewheel, and the saddle:


I found these later and will be using them to display the flow instead of the 8512. They are battery powered so it will keep things simple. They came with a large label sheet of all the different units that can be displayed. I will probably be using the GPM ones:


Here it is installed in the filter loop: (sorry the photo is crooked)
 
Enough plumbing posts, here's the electrical.

The filter room butts up to a hall closet and in that common wall there are two spare house circuits at shoulder height. Each is on a separate 20A breaker. I wired them into the filter room so that the heater is on one, and the pumps are on another. I also wired the main pump that feeds the bead filter and blower for backwashing so that they each go through their own switch. That will make maintenance easy.







 
Why do you have your skimmer in front of your bio filter? I would think you would want to reverse it to feed the biofilter bacteria into the skimmer.
 
Just read through this for the first time. This is an amazing piece of work. I noticed you live close by. If you ever need help let me know, I love this stuff. Can't wait to come over for your first meeting.
 
Bodegus said:
Why do you have your skimmer in front of your bio filter? I would think you would want to reverse it to feed the biofilter bacteria into the skimmer.
Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter because the skimmer and biofilter are on a closed loop together with the sump. Also because the biofilter is gravity fed and sits lower than the top of the skimmer, if I were to adjust the water height in the skimmer for good foam, the biofilter would then flood.
 
Here's a shot of the whole filter room mostly completed. The sump is full for wet testing the closed loop filtration.


I also filled one of the main tanks for testing of the open loop as well:


I will be in the test phase of a little while to make sure everything is working flawlessly before switching it out for saltwater and cycling.
 
what RO/DI unit are you using?
 
That hose is filling it up with tap water. I will be using a run of the mill 150gpd ro/di unit. The first fill will be the worst, and then I'll evaluate my needs afterwards to see if I need to step it up or not.
 
I keep waiting for pics with Sharks!!!
What gives?
 
You're right, it has been way too long without an update. Here's the update: I'm very behind schedule. I pretty much lost the entire months of November and December where I didn't even go into the room with other stuff going on.

Filling the system went fine with tap water went fine - zero leaks, and everything worked the way it did in my head. One big issue I had was noise. My living room sits directly above the filter room. The living room has a vaulted ceiling which gives it amphitheater qualities to the house. There was an audible hum that was just a little too loud on the main floor. With all the many feet of plumbing running the system, a little noise here and there can really get amplified.

The first thing I did was switch out all the pipe struts to the vibration isolating type. This didn't solve the issue:


The next thing I did was order expansion joints for the pumps. These turned out to be too heavy and too tall with the fittings required and I didn't really see it working so I returned them. Then I decided to (which I did NOT want to do) was put a length of flexible pvc after the pumps to isolate vibration. I hate flexible pipe and this seems like a sh** fix, but I thought I'd try it anyway. I found this "super flex" pvc to not be very flexible and it really didn't do much. I'm going to switch it back to the way it was as I can't risk this being a point of failure in the system:


I noticed the sump seemed to act like a speaker and the noise changed when I pushed on the tank. I reinforced the tank with wood beams. They sell plastic tanks with reinforced ribs for use in plating, but I thought this might save a couple hundred dollars. This seemed to have worked the best and eliminated the noise upstairs to a slight him. This hum even passed the "wife test."
 
Here's a shot of the flowmeter displays. I have just one of the ponds filled at a time and am running it at 30 GPM. The skimmer loop was being run at 12 GPM which equates to a 2 minute dwell time in the skimmer which is ideal. The skimmer plumbing chokes out at around 30 GPM, but I won't need to run it that high as I will be in the 12 - 24 GPM range. The set of numbers below the flowrate is the totalizator. I ran 500,000 through the loop for the display, and 250,000 gallons through the skimmer loop with zero issues.


While I was running the system, I filled the other tank with sand. I don't remember how many pounds of sand this is, but it is a lot. Mainly sand from different times I had past tank setups over the years. I spent a lot of time thoroughly cleaning and then drying this sand. The cap in the middle is just a temporary thing so I didn't full the drain with sand. I thought about going bare bottom, but all the animals that will be going in here are benthic and will appreciate it.


Here's something I though you all might get a kick out of. I forgot to order this small fitting when I placed my plumbing order with my supplier. I was ordering some stuff on amazon anyway and saw they carried Spears pvc as well. My books came in one box, and this fitting came in this box.
 
Riley this is just an amazing build already even without livestock its an awesome thread.

The picture with the fitting is hilarious. That is why Fedex and UPS are going to dimensional weight now. lol
 
Jonty said:
I keep waiting for pics with Sharks!!!
What gives?
Click to expand...

Here's a shark pic for you. I recently acquired a male coral catshark a couple months back. I had been looking for an adult male since last March (10 months) with no luck, unless I wanted a juvenile in the 8 - 12" range. This one came from NY Aquatic and was sold as 20 - 22 inches (should be mature), but I measured it at 17" (immature with very small claspers) which was disappointing, but better than nothing. I think NY Aquatic's tape measure has different sized inch increments than mine.

Acclimation took about 2 months. He didn't eat for over a month and after a few weeks I intervened with tube feeding Mazuri liquid diet for sharks with some b12, and sedated the shark each time with MS-222. After a couple weeks of doing that, he started to show a little bit of interest in food and I was eventually able to get him to swallow a couple small pieces each time. The next week there was more interest (normal behavior) and I was able to get him to take from the tongs so I moved him with the other shark in the temporary system. Now he eats very predictably.

 
Fragtastic Reef said:
Riley this is just an amazing build already even without livestock its an awesome thread.

The picture with the fitting is hilarious. That is why Fedex and UPS are going to dimensional weight now. lol
Click to expand...


Thanks, I really appreciate the kind words. The system has been completely drained as of this past week. I am going to fill it after I hang the lights, which will be much easier to do with the tanks empty. Lights will be ordered this week. I am getting in the home stretch!
 
Riley I think you have it backwards, THANK YOU for posting this thread. I am an equipment nut so I love seeing all the goodies. Do you talk with Steve at all from the forum here, he is big into sharks also?
 
I can't wait to see it in person! ... Your fitting reminds me of the plumbing part I special ordered from the Menards website for in-store pickup. It came in a small box and was the only thing on the pallet!
 
Last time I contacted Steve was a few years ago to see if he wanted to split an order of Mazuri vitamins with me, but he uses another means. They want $100 for 1000 tabs I'd never be able to use by the time they go bad. I haven't seen a post from Steve in a long time so I wasn't he was active or not.

Kevin, you win. I don't think I could top having one plumbing fitting come on a pallet. That takes the cake.
 
A few updates:

I installed a vent for the skimmer and bioreactor. With two Alita 40's pumping, there's a lot of humid air that has to go somewhere. That somewhere is straight outside. The bioreactor will also be off gassing CO2, so having that vented should help the ph. The red lines are pvc air hose that I swapped the clear vinyl tubing for.


I also installed a couple lights to make viewing easier and give the animals a light schedule, instead of just only turning on the room lights when I'm in there. These are just vaporproof T8 fixtures with twin 5000K full spectrum bulbs. I was surprised how bright these are with being half the lumens of a T5 fixture, and since this is just top-down viewing I should be okay. I'm also setup to add two more additional fixtures if need be and I'll still come out ahead with cost.


Lighting is controlled by this Omron industrial timer. It has two channels, so the lights will work independently. Once everything that goes in this box is in place, I'll clean up the wiring.


I made a cover for the sump with some 1/4" clear pvc sheet.


This is the part where I see how painfully slow a 150 gpd ro/di filter is. The filtration will take 100 gallons of it once it's primed and I'll have to add more water. Good thing I'm only filling one of the tanks for now. If all goes well, I will be ready to turn everything on next weekend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top