My 150 ish here..tag along

[cjsrch]

( if you decide to tag.. juct click subscride. i dont want any of those " TAGGING" messages. any besides saying yout taggin.. feel free and say it)

I Am starting a 150 gallon tank. Alot has changed sinc ei first started planing it. It was orriginaly gonna be shoved up against a wall some where BUT

Now i have knocked the lower half of a closet wall out .. destryed the room behind it . ran TONS of new electric lines ( acutaly all the electric in house passes right over head so i taped into everyone of them to distribute teh load.) I mounted wood on all the walls so i can hand batterys , ballast, piping.. all the good stuff..
The tank itself wull sit in the closet and will have a sheet of plexiglass infront of it to protect it from my mother.. ( i wasgonna electriifi chicken wire but... decided no to since its near salt water)the plexi glass will only be from the top of the stand to the bottom of teh canopy so the tank wont get scratched.

Under teh tank will be a 55 gallon tank ( 2/3's refuge 1/3 will contain a home made rotating ats filter ( eccowheel is what some know it as)
In the room behind it will be the 20 gallon long sump. ( i would prefer 55 but it wont work

Will use 880 watts of vho.
2 plankton feeding tanks.. ( phyto plankton drips into zoo plankton drips in to tank.)
this will be done using a dosing pump to pass the water throu a uv sterilizer then in to the phyto tank.

Will be using a closed look with a hayward electronic ball vaulve. and for return a om 8way

I am having autotopoff.com building me a custom top off.
more will be posted later.. everything looks good so far. .. i like the way the room looks.


Is a tank ever really done?.....

( www.directphish.com/mytank.html if you want to see picts... they are far to big to put on this site :/ )

 

[reefann]

I am really interested in your homemade ecowheel ideas,
Any links for a reference or a link that gave you the idea? I would love to see how you do it!

 

[cjsrch]

I Was surfing a ummm nother fourm.... yeah that one...
WELL i saw an ecowheel and i started thinking 3k to buy that iu could make it...
then.. i just started thinking about it and i stil am. ill probobly make 3 prototypes ( one using bigpvc center with acrilic. one with big pvc center and pvc blades.. and one with small pvc and acrilic.. blablabla)

I thank ocd ( not bad type .. like the type where people cant have food touching. but once i get on an idea.. IT HAPPENS.!!!) so ocd and adhd LOL Ill draw up some plans really soon aight.

 

[Len]

Why'd you decided on a echowheel type filtration?

 

[cjsrch]

Oh Well i decided on a small eco wheel because.. it cant hurt lol
i will still have all the other stuff like protine skimmer ( very weak one) and a refuge and your good old everyday sump


BUT i wanted as much possiable algae as possiable in my fuge. so.. logicaly more surface area right>< Also i like how the eco wheel's theaory works... basicaly a protine skimer with algae in the top .

Well its late for me . ill be awake more around.. 10 pm ><

 

[Anonymous]

I think you will find your system works just fine.

Awesome and you have done a lot of work. Keep us posted.


I hope you also bubble the water water through aragonite sand or oyster shells, kingda like a fluidized bed filter. that should even help buffer calcium.

 

[cjsrch]

way ahead of ya


currently im considering making a SURGE device ( siphon type) but cant decide on how many gallons.. ( i was thinking 5 -10) and having it go like once a minute. (300-600 gph pump to surge device)
only problom i see is 1. tomuch current... 2 to much water dumping in tank. 3 noise ( even if i place the poutput of siphone mostly underwater ( with a siphon break hole right above water) 4 my autotopoff will already be pushed to the limits with the small slow change of height in the sump .



ok btw TANK IS IN PLACE!!!!! now waiting for more cash. please feel free to paypal cash to [email protected] ... yeah like that will ever happen lol

oh an here is my favorite part....
A GE TFC 10 GPD 3 STAGE RO SYSTEM WITH AUTO SHUT OFF AND STORAGE TANK FOR!!!!! $9.89 yes only ten bucks!!!! Sadly it was"used" some idiot tried to install it and toatly f'd up he messed up so bad that no one would buy it and the only way it could be saved is by a cheepass DIY reefer... (thank you home depot for the 150 doler mark down) only a few fittings were busted.

EXPECT DRAWINGS!!!!! if what is to come

 

[Mihai]

I don't know much about ecowheel but if I were you I'd trade it for a skimmer: if I understand correctly a ecowheel does the same as a wet/dry filter: transforms the nutrients into nitrates (while it keeps them in).
A skimmer on the other hand removes them.

Just my oppinion.
M.

 

[cjsrch]

nope. an eco wheel = a awsome refuge / ATS filter
and it does process some foam because foam builds up and since it is concentrated CRAP the algae just love it


protine skimmers are annoying.
working at an LFS and working with many different types i found they all suck. to much fiddling if tank conditions change at all. or even if they dont. expensive.. and if you dont have a drain nearby and go away for a few dayesyou come home to a smelly house.
i find eco wheel to be a lot more nature like as well


btw if you dont know much about somthing you cant recomend anything. so ask for more info befor making your self look dumb
ECO WHEEL is yeah what i said befor
the bio filter taht has water sprayed on it as it rotates ( marineland makes them.) is called a BIOWHEEL and that is what you were thinking of.
( also i think if you read the entire thread you would know more about the ecowheelfilter)

>>>>>>>>>>>hates it when people only read first and last post<<<<<

 

[Mihai]

btw if you dont know much about somthing you cant recomend anything. so ask for more info befor making your self look dumb

Gee... you're a nasty one. These forums are for people to learn and give advice - you seem to have missed the point. If you would re-read my post I'm admiting that I don't know what an ecowheel is, and you're right, I was thinking about the bio-wheel. I think I'll keep my mouth shut and just tag along.

>>>>>>>>>>>hates it when people only read first and last post<<<<<

Actually I did read the entire post before answering, but there are no clear explanation of an ecowheel anywhere. Anyway, just forget it, I'll just file you in the plb folder.

 

[Maximus1]

You need to learn some manners. Btw, the ecowheel is a waste of money.

 

[Maximus1]

btw if you dont know much about somthing you cant recomend anything. so ask for more info befor making your self look dumb

Gee... you're a nasty one. These forums are for people to learn and give advice - you seem to have missed the point. If you would re-read my post I'm admiting that I don't know what an ecowheel is, and you're right, I was thinking about the bio-wheel. I think I'll keep my mouth shut and just tag along.

>>>>>>>>>>>hates it when people only read first and last post<<<<<

Actually I did read the entire post before answering, but there are no clear explanation of an ecowheel anywhere. Anyway, just forget it, I'll just file you in the plb folder.

I totally agree. This guy is nasty and needs some help with his approach.

 

[Unarce]

Let's not let this get out of hand and keep everything civil :wink: .

I would like to here more about the ecowheel, cjsrch. Sounds interesting. Do you have any links?

Thanks, everyone.

 

[Anonymous]

btw if you dont know much about somthing you cant recomend anything. so ask for more info befor making your self look dumb

:?
Hardly what happened here.

This is nothing more than a "Bio-wheel" that aquaculturists have been making and using for decades. I made several for catfish and tilapia ponds back in 88. This is old news. I made mine out of various materials, but the filter area was constructed from corrugated fiberglass panels. Basically, wet/dry methodology with a bit of algae scrubbing thrown in.
A waste of time, money and effort on a reef tank IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

cjsrch, you have been warned before about attitude. Again, please tone it down. We are interested in your ideas, please make it easier for us to hear them.

 

[cjsrch]

btw if you dont know much about somthing you cant recomend anything. so ask for more info befor making your self look dumb

Gee... you're a nasty one. These forums are for people to learn and give advice - you seem to have missed the point. If you would re-read my post I'm admiting that I don't know what an ecowheel is, and you're right, I was thinking about the bio-wheel. I think I'll keep my mouth shut and just tag along.

>>>>>>>>>>>hates it when people only read first and last post<<<<<

Actually I did read the entire post before answering, but there are no clear explanation of an ecowheel anywhere. Anyway, just forget it, I'll just file you in the plb folder.

Yeah. i miss read it. sorry...

BUT STILL NO REASON FOR EVERY ONE TO JUMP ON ME> IT IS 20 TIMES WORSE THEN WHAT I DID.

Any who. I dont think the site admin would be happy if i posted the link to the info page. this one guy had great succsess with it. so why not use it. Wet drys are nitrate "factories" but they do a great job at cooling the water. my refuge will cancel out the effects of the wetdry that i will be using.i will deffinitly be called an idiot for saying that but i know it to be true. my tank (old 55) ran so much hotter with a single florecant strip..
i added in vho and then added bio balls and it was 5 degrees cooler then when i just had the strip. any one wish to explian . ok then...

 

[cjsrch]

<<what the first guy said was ok.. after him the comments were pointless. i mean the parts about me... things only need to be said once. ever consider that peol have bad days... if i find any of you doing osmthing i will jump down your throught asap>>


Maximus why did you call it a waste of money? can you support this in any way? personal experiance or no?
The Eco wheel is a compac ATS. i think that some of the julian sprung books have info on them in it. They have a tendancy to yellow the water if not maintained properly .. but anything not maintaing will mess somthing up.

Any who. i have a few more ideas that are gonna make ya all go WTH is this guy thinking. followed by the best coral ya ever seen lol

 

[cjsrch]

hers the story..
150 gallon tank using a 8 way ocean motion on a 1200 gph pump..

a closed loop that alternated from each side of the tank( like a sqwd) every 3 minutes. at 950 gph


another closed loop that alternates every 10 hours ( or what ever the tide does) at 950 gph andon the same loop another 950 gph pump that turns on randomly everyday for an hour or 2 to simulate current picking up


i scuba dive and this is what it seems like actualy happens in nature. especialy the back and forth motion every 3 minutes or so.

to much current. I AM DOING THIS but think i have to strong of pumps???

 

[Anonymous]

Please feel free to post the link.

 

[magicman76]

http://www.aquaticengineers.com/ecowheel%20unit.htm

from reading Dynamic Aquaria.. I dont feel the wheel design is exactly the best but go for it..

Adely discribes a 50% growth loss from the lack of wave formation in the tray design that tells me that a wheel design is at a distint disadvantage..

Ive looked into ATS filtration.. I would like a big skimmer on the system to fight the possible negitive effects of using miro algae as a filter..
I understand that the system doesnt run as eutrophic as macro.. with the enormus amount of light used microalgae still consume nutrients and the system runs pretty clean..
Im planning on doing a try design but it will be in no way nessisary in my system design.. At first it will just kick start the system. (they take about 2 weeks to seed themselves) after the LR cures and I have a suffecent skimmer, I dont think the ATS will be all that nessisary just a good way to get O2 up after a while.. LOL
besides.. DIY is fun..