[nyfireman3097]

Cali I have heard that from others about his tanks yet he has amazing stuff

[lfsmarineguy]

Tyree's zonal approach (even if looked at only in theory) should work based on high school science principals. The nutrients should diffuse through the barrier between the zones into the cryptic zone housing the filter feeders and other organisms that feed on/process DOC, lowering the overall nutrients in the tank. Our tanks strive to acheive homeostasis. If we have high nutrients, bacteria and other organisms will flourish and populate to a point that the existing levels can support. As the nutrients are depleted by the growing population of organisms the organisms numbers will level off and finally balance out with what the nutrient source will support. Techniquely if the proper ratios can be acheived in a tank and kept in balance over time, a tank could require no skimming and minimal filtration beyond the natural processes it conducts on it's own. It would take awhile for a tank like that to mature but once it did it would remain stable mostly on it's own.

[fritz]

Where's Paul for this conversation?

I agree and disagree. I agree with the principals but in reality your source water will never be at a stasis which will in turn prevent your tank from achieving the same.

As a kid I helped many of my friend's and their parents build ponds in their backyards. Ultimately each pond would succumb to algae. I would always be asked how to deal with the "green water". Usually something as simple as a tufa rock or sea shells would solve the problem. By placing something that will raise the PH in the direct path of the return water the water parameters were ever so slightly changed so as that another algae would out compete the current dominant one. As this new algae began to take a foot hold the said piece of tufa rock or sea shells would be removed. By constantly changing the parameters no single algae could dominate for long enough to reach pandemic (and ugly) proportions.

The same is true in a tank, your IO salt may contain more iodine than your current batch does, more phosphate or trace elements of nitrate. A star may die of old age, etc. These slight variations in our closed system will have very magnified effects. A slight bloom of one type of algae, or sponge etc. This boom will cause the decline of a semi competitor or neighbor.

While Paul's tank is relatively "stable" it is victim to constantly changing cycles.

[lfsmarineguy]

the larger the tank the easier it is to come close to achieveing stasis. However, even in a small tank that has reached maturity, the death of an inhabitant shouldn't throw off the entire ecosystem so much that it can't metabolize the excess nutrients. Nature is always working to sustain balance and it is no different in our tanks. Unless you have a full grown angel in a 30g and it dies, a properly stocked tank shouldn't have any serious problems when an inhabitant dies (barring the release of toxins or pathogens). I'm also talking about the filtration portion of Tyree's zonal approach. I understand that chemically a tank is always in flux and natural processes are using and releasing trace elements. With respect to bioloads though, if the tank is properly setup and matured reaching a balance over time is a natural occurence.

[kimoyo]

I came up with some designs for my new tank. The fuge/cryptic area won't be too large so I'm not sure how effective it will be. I'll start my tank thread soon but I thought the designs are cool.


(click to enlarge)







The fuge teeth are about 1/4" taller than the intake area of the sump section. So water shouldn't flow into the fuge from the display but even if it did its not a big deal. I made a sorta external overflow but I will be using it for calc/alk additives (0.5G sections each) and top off water (2G section). The display is a little more than 40G measuring 30"*24"*14". And the entire tank measures 48"*24"*15".

Some of the panels will be black acrylic but its hard to see if I do it in the designs and the entire tank is made from 1/2 acrylic and braceless.

[masterswimmer]

I was from the understanding that the dirtiest water should flow through the fuge section first. You seem to be running it from the skimmer to the fuge. Exact opposite of generally accepted reefing principles. Why?

Oh, nice design work btw.

[kimoyo]

Hey Russ,

There's two answers to your question. First, I don't believe a skimmer can pick up everything out of the water. So hopefully the stuff that doesn't get caught by the skimmer will be caught by the small fuge (with the fuge so small I'm not sure it will help with filtration at all).

The second is I'm going to be running a das ex-2 skimmer in the beginning. So I was planning on putting a pump to the skimmer in the intake section and splitting it to the fuge. But even if I didn't and I plumb the fuge off the return I wouldn't have an issue with it. If nothing else the fuge will be a great place for pods.

[cali_reef]

Paul, how will the water flow from the fuge to the display? 2G top off is kinda small for a 40g display?? Do you think you need that large of baffle area for a tank\sump this size?

[lfsmarineguy]

The whole basis for this design is the ratio of cryptic fuge:display area. By building a tiny fuge area it kind of defeats the whole purpose of even doing it this way (not that the design isn't impressive). I would have gone with a much larger fuge partitioned from the main tank and maybe an overflow behind that into a small sump area for chemical filtration and maybe a small hang on skimmer. I like the top off sections you built in though. Were you planning on using a dosing pump to run the different sections?

[cali_reef]

From my memory, Tyree's tanks have about 1/4 of it sectioned off as this "cryptic zone". Come to think of it, I think I have an autographed copy of his sponge book, you can borrow it if you like. I never read it. Most tanks' aquascape have this "cryptic zone", you unwilling create this when you built a wall of rocks without considering flow behind, below and in between the pile of rocks.