Jump to content

First look at the new setup


Pies

Recommended Posts

Would this be one of the biggest home tanks in NZ?

Definatly not the biggest, but its in the 'larger' tank category. Glad you liked it. Remember though that big tanks don't mean good or nice tanks, small tanks can look awesome.

Jude - Looking foward to your visit :>

Pie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 559
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Things are going really well with the new system. Spent a bit of time on Sunday dremaling out my overflow combs a bit larger. The refugium (old reef tank) needed to have the overflows 'honed out' to cope with the additional flow. In the past it was being driven by an Iwaki30, not its being fed from the display by an IWAKI100. Water is ROARING thought it.

Also had to hone out the overflows in the display. Now the the IWAKI is being fed close to the pump with a 50mm inlet, water is FIREING through the tank at an unbeleavable rate, raising the water level by over 1.5cm. Now thats a lot of water on a tank this size!

The display is a real WASHING MACHINE! 2x Sea Swirls driven from an IWAKI100. 3x Ehiem 1262s on closed loops. 3x Stream 6100s. From looking at it last night, and only time will tell, but if I can remove a Stream or 2 I will :) There is such a thing as too much flow!

Got the CA reactor hooked up and in the sump. Good spot for the c02 bottle to sit etc too, worked out perfectly. Also re-connected the Pinpoint PH Probe.

Did a full spectrum of water tests late last night:

PH 8.25 (pinpoint)

Temp 26 (electronic)

Phosphate (undetectable, Salifert)

Nitrate (0, Salifert)

Magnesium (1330, Salifert)

KH (8.0, Salifert)

Water is a little dirty from the move, but has cleared compared to the photos posted earlier! Have added a kg of activated carbon to help things along.

Few things left to do. Biggest it deciding how to do the freshwater top-off. Or more accuratly finding where exactly it will go.

Also need to add a few timers for the lights etc which are still manual at the moment. Ohhh and need to re-wire the temprature controller with a longer cable, if you look in the photo you can see its slightly stretched ;) Need to make a small collar for the sump, just to make things look tidy.

A few small things to tidy up outside, which can't happen until it stops raining!

Fish and coral upstairs looking good.

Pie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You won't know what to do with all your free time after are finished with the cleaning up. I guess there will be time for you to relax for a bit before you get into planning the house you are going to build round your next tank.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hahahaha yeah! No I think thats me for quite some time. I have other activities in my life other than the fish tank. I can't wait for it to be all finished, then just sit back and watch :)

Clownfish breeding to come.

Pie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got home last night to find the whole tank had shut down round lunchtime (2nd set of halides coming on) so its finishing the electrics for me. Adding the extractor fan must have been just one item too many.

No damage, no floods, no animal losses, so the robustness of the basic system design seems adequate. Discovered that the two outlets in the room were off one circuit breaker, so the oven grade sub main with 3 RCDs will hopefully go in within the next week or so. Meanwhile, with the aid of a long extension lead, I have split the load between two circuit breakers.

One thing on the medium term plan is to get a generator. I would hate to have the tank survive 'the big one' and then watch the animals die due to no heat /circulation. I figure a minimum of 1 weeks running with just heat, main circulation and fluorescents is a useful target to aim at.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.....

but I think a 2.2kw unit for around $600 is a bloody good deal....

It's this bit that worries me about the cheap ones

"Operational Capacity (hr): 13 hr Continuous at load"

This is somewhat short of being able to run a reef tank for a week, even at subsistence level. My brother, who has a lot more experience in this area, is looking into the options for me, but I suspect I might have to go for a slightly more robust one.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Light the fire, stir the tank with a plank. I've yet to encounter a power outage of this duration in my whole life, mind you i'm not in Auckland :)

Don't have a fire so might have to rely on internal combustion. Never had an outage like that either, just call me paranoid.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never had an outage like that either, just call me paranoid.

I did years ago in Samoa. after cyclone val. Aggie Grey's hotel the place I worked at that time had 2 generators to run all emergency power (like freezers, minimum lighting etc.. they would run one for 12 hours and then the other for 12 hours. while one was running the other one was cared for by the maintenance department. both were running for weeks without any problem. unlike the hospital's in Apia, they only had one and it died so did a couple of patients who were in intensive care at the time. so it seems that for any longer power cuts one unit may not be enough. i got a couple batterie powered air pumps (left over from Y2K scare which never happened, OK so call me paranoid) that should be enough up here in auckland as it doesn't get that cold to worry about heating and if the temp. drops a bit it will also slow down the metabolism. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Screw having a nuke plant up north. If we are going to have one it should go down south, less people :)

Of course there will NEVER be a nuke plant in NZ anyway, but if there was its going south :)

Pie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If we are going to have one it should go down south, less people :)

But then you'll all complain about a few little pylons. :roll:

I was reading about different core designs the other day, The inital design for power plants was a "pebble reactor". It's physically impossible for it to runaway and cause a "meltdown", it self regulates. Then some idiot came up with the design which is used in just about every plant in the world today. Idiot.

Layton

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...