320 gallons of Serenity, Sea Monsters & Aquatopia

mvsjrs · 04/02/2015, 08:15 PM

After 6 years of lurking, this will be my first build posting. I hope to get four tanks totaling 360 gallons water running on a central system in my home. A corner reef, a FOWLR, an invert refugia, and a small specialty tank.

These are some pictures of the setup before converting to a reef.

Back story (i.e.- not critical to build): Three years ago, my 92 corner was happily running as my first saltwater effort. Along comes “family priorities” and the family is off to Cincinnati. Fortunately, I had 3 months to meticulously plan the move. Everything in containers. Five or six fish warm & cozy, lots of crazy colored invertebrates, modest soft corals & mostly mushrooms, a couple hundred pounds of live rock, live sand rinsed & containerized, and all equipment lined up. Five hundred miles later in July heat, we go to closing only to find that the sellers left their cats alone in the house for three weeks leaving urine damage down to the subfloor.

Bad, very bad. We setup emergency accommodations in the garage to limp along a few days and head for a hotel while ripping out all the floors & getting disaster relief cleaning.

Yup, doom. A summer thunderstorm trips the power and the skimmer pump magnet fails to restart and just generates heat while sitting in the Rubbermaid stock tank. By the end of the 80 degF night, we arrive to a horrendous stench of stewed marine death.

Two years later, a new start…

__________________
Jason

Current Tank Info: Getting there...

"You cannot allow any of [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad."
General "Mad Dog” Mattis

mvsjrs · 04/03/2015, 12:22 PM

These are the tanks that I would like to bring together in the system.
• 92 gal corner (reef ready Oceanic) – REEF DT in Home Office.
• 105 gal xtall (reef ready Oceanic) – FOWLR DT in Master BR.
• 90 gal (reef ready Oceanic) – refugium in basement.
• 40 gal stretch HEX (Oceanic) – novelty DT in hall way.
• 65 gal sump (All Glass) – in basement
• 65 gal plastic barrel – extra volume in basement.
The gives around 320 gal of display and 430 gal active volume.

These are the parameters:
(1) No new investment in capital. Re-use, re-purpose or DIY.
(2) Dead silent DTs. No motor noise or water rushing. Only “soothing” levels of cascade in overflows allowed.
(3) No visible equipment (i.e. powerheads) in the DT’s. A discrete nozzle or otherwise camouflaged bulkhead or pipe.
(4) No introduction of heat from the REEF DT (esp lighting) into the Home Office. I sweat my job too much as is…
(5) Ability to meet high flow demands of SPS corals and high pods supply to keep 1 or more mandarins fat and happy.

Everything should fall in place from there.

__________________
Jason

Current Tank Info: Getting there...

"You cannot [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis.

"Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

mvsjrs · 04/04/2015, 05:27 PM

The basement is where I would like all the noise. Therefore, there is one floor head to the fish tanks. Also, the 92REEF is right above the location in the basement and the 105FOWLR is about 15 feet away horizontally.

Planning SPS flow, I need much higher flow and turbulence than an 800 gph overflow can handle. Worse is that the corner tank has a 1” drain and ¾” return. Herbies, Dursos and BeanAnimals oh my! But none will provide sufficient flow in this setup. No visible powerheads leaves me few options other than a closed loop. I have five external pumps to choose from.
• BlueLine 70HD – 1750 gph, 39 ft max head
• TurboSea 1740P – same
• Dolphin Diamond Amp Master 6250-T3 – 6258 gph, 23 ft max head
• TurboSea 1090 – 1090 gph, 13 ft max head
• Danner Mag-Drive Supreme

I propose using the BlueLine to run the sump for the 92REEF and 90REFUGIUM filtration and the TurboSea for the 105FOWLR filtration. That leaves the Amp Master humiliated with closed loop duty. Real flow rate would be useful so I will start running pipe.

__________________
Jason

Current Tank Info: Getting there...

"You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis.

"Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

mvsjrs · 04/04/2015, 07:28 PM

I did not want to drill through the hardwood floors so my only choice was to run through the wall and sole plate. Things looked good as the location of where I needed to run the pipes coincided with being between the studs and below the fire block. However, not so good in the basement ceiling. The load bearing beam, septic lines, hot and cold water lines, and central air return all converged on that one location. Literally any other spot in the ceiling was OK except for there.

Enter drill, chisel, hammer drill and sawzall. Several bloody knuckles later and I had negotiated a roughly 4x4” hole and partially drilled through the adjoining room molding. A quick patch & prayer that the wife doesn’t find it. Moving on to flow rate testing.

__________________
Jason

Current Tank Info: Getting there...

"You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis.

"Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

mvsjrs · 04/05/2015, 07:01 AM

Flow Rate Testing
(yes, I could use a calculator but I really like actual measurements)

Supply rate:
BlueLine 70HP @ 14’ head = 1215 gph = 20 gpm
8.3 ft/s via 1” flexible pipe

Amp Master @ 14’ head = 3900 gph = 65 gpm
>20 ft/s via 1” flexible pipe

Mag Drive Supreme @ 14’ head = 720 gph = 12 gpm
<6 ft/s via 1” flexible pipe

Drain rate:
14’ siphon @ 1” flexible pipe = 905 gph

Conclusions:
(1) The BlueLine can be split between the reef, refugium and reactors without problem.
(2) The TurboSea can run the FOWLR quite nicely.
(3) The Amp Master would have to have its flow divided for reasonable outlet velocities.
(4) The MD Supreme does not have a sweet spot in this application.

I probably need more testing of the closed loop because RULE #2 (no noise) and all these pumps run with some motor noise. Unfortunately, that means I will have to run multiple lines to divide its flow. I would like an Oceans Motions but that would violate RULE #1 (no investment) and potentially RULE #2. I do have a 1” inlet/outlet SCWD but it would definitely violate RULE #2.

__________________
Jason

Current Tank Info:
Single system of three tanks:
• Serenity: 92 gal corner REEF
• Sea Monster: 105 gal FOWLR
• Refugium: 90 gal

"You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis.

"Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

mvsjrs · 04/05/2015, 02:19 PM

Candidates please...

mvsjrs · 04/05/2015, 04:27 PM

Closed Loop Testing

Drain line = 1.5” using a drilled bulkhead, approximately 2/3 of the way up the back wall.

Supply rate:
TurboSea 1740P via one (1) 1” flexible pipe @ 14’ head = 913 gph = 15 gpm, ~7 ft/sec (10x turnover)
TurboSea 1740P via two (2) 1” flexible pipes @ 14’ head = 818 gph = 13 gpm (1636 gal total, 18x turnover)
TurboSea 1740P via three (3) 1” flexible pipes @ 14’ head = 545 gph = 9 gpm (1636 gal total, 18x turnover)
Amp Master via three (3) 1” flexible pipes @ 14’ head = 621 gph = 10 gpm (1862 gal total, 20x turnover)
(didn’t do 4 pipes because I only could fit three right now.)

Conclusions:
(1) The BlueLine and Amp Master perform almost the same at around 20x turnover.
(2) Including the approximately 8x turnover of the filtration is still far too little water movement in the tank.
(3) The Amp Master is really being hindered by the outlet size of the three (3) pipes (maybe as much as 4400 gph or 70% of capacity!). This will require attention to detail to allow the additional outlet volume and should probably be reviewed for the gravity feed rate of the 1.5" pipe which is around 2100 gph.

__________________
Jason

Current Tank Info:
Single system of three tanks:
• Serenity: 92 gal corner REEF
• Sea Monster: 105 gal FOWLR
• Refugium: 90 gal

"You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis.

"Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

mvsjrs · 04/06/2015, 08:15 AM

So, it required more than a week to get the plumbing up from the basement through the floor. I hope I don’t undertake such an endeavor again. Here is the pictorial.

__________________
Jason

mvsjrs · 04/07/2015, 06:47 PM

This thread was moved to http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5#post23653965 because the blog doesn't give any postings credit and I need to build up some posts.

This thread is about the build for four tanks operating on a central filtration system. I don't name my fish but I do name my tanks...

"Serenity" - a 92 gallon REEF corner tank
"Sea Monsters" - a 105 gallon FOWLR of aggressive fish
"Sanctuary" - a 90 gallon REFUGIUM
"TBD" - a 40 gallon STRECH HEX which will have variable occupants.

Here goes...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5#post23653965

04/02/2015, 08:15 PM	#1
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	320 gallons of Serenity, Sea Monsters & Aquatopia After 6 years of lurking, this will be my first build posting. I hope to get four tanks totaling 360 gallons water running on a central system in my home. A corner reef, a FOWLR, an invert refugia, and a small specialty tank. These are some pictures of the setup before converting to a reef. Back story (i.e.- not critical to build): Three years ago, my 92 corner was happily running as my first saltwater effort. Along comes “family priorities” and the family is off to Cincinnati. Fortunately, I had 3 months to meticulously plan the move. Everything in containers. Five or six fish warm & cozy, lots of crazy colored invertebrates, modest soft corals & mostly mushrooms, a couple hundred pounds of live rock, live sand rinsed & containerized, and all equipment lined up. Five hundred miles later in July heat, we go to closing only to find that the sellers left their cats alone in the house for three weeks leaving urine damage down to the subfloor. Bad, very bad. We setup emergency accommodations in the garage to limp along a few days and head for a hotel while ripping out all the floors & getting disaster relief cleaning. Yup, doom. A summer thunderstorm trips the power and the skimmer pump magnet fails to restart and just generates heat while sitting in the Rubbermaid stock tank. By the end of the 80 degF night, we arrive to a horrendous stench of stewed marine death. Two years later, a new start… __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: Getting there... "You cannot allow any of [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis

04/03/2015, 12:22 PM	#2
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	These are the tanks that I would like to bring together in the system. • 92 gal corner (reef ready Oceanic) – REEF DT in Home Office. • 105 gal xtall (reef ready Oceanic) – FOWLR DT in Master BR. • 90 gal (reef ready Oceanic) – refugium in basement. • 40 gal stretch HEX (Oceanic) – novelty DT in hall way. • 65 gal sump (All Glass) – in basement • 65 gal plastic barrel – extra volume in basement. The gives around 320 gal of display and 430 gal active volume. These are the parameters: (1) No new investment in capital. Re-use, re-purpose or DIY. (2) Dead silent DTs. No motor noise or water rushing. Only “soothing” levels of cascade in overflows allowed. (3) No visible equipment (i.e. powerheads) in the DT’s. A discrete nozzle or otherwise camouflaged bulkhead or pipe. (4) No introduction of heat from the REEF DT (esp lighting) into the Home Office. I sweat my job too much as is… (5) Ability to meet high flow demands of SPS corals and high pods supply to keep 1 or more mandarins fat and happy. Everything should fall in place from there. __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: Getting there... "You cannot [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis. "Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

04/04/2015, 05:27 PM	#3
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	The basement is where I would like all the noise. Therefore, there is one floor head to the fish tanks. Also, the 92REEF is right above the location in the basement and the 105FOWLR is about 15 feet away horizontally. Planning SPS flow, I need much higher flow and turbulence than an 800 gph overflow can handle. Worse is that the corner tank has a 1” drain and ¾” return. Herbies, Dursos and BeanAnimals oh my! But none will provide sufficient flow in this setup. No visible powerheads leaves me few options other than a closed loop. I have five external pumps to choose from. • BlueLine 70HD – 1750 gph, 39 ft max head • TurboSea 1740P – same • Dolphin Diamond Amp Master 6250-T3 – 6258 gph, 23 ft max head • TurboSea 1090 – 1090 gph, 13 ft max head • Danner Mag-Drive Supreme I propose using the BlueLine to run the sump for the 92REEF and 90REFUGIUM filtration and the TurboSea for the 105FOWLR filtration. That leaves the Amp Master humiliated with closed loop duty. Real flow rate would be useful so I will start running pipe. __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: Getting there... "You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis. "Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

04/04/2015, 07:28 PM	#4
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	I did not want to drill through the hardwood floors so my only choice was to run through the wall and sole plate. Things looked good as the location of where I needed to run the pipes coincided with being between the studs and below the fire block. However, not so good in the basement ceiling. The load bearing beam, septic lines, hot and cold water lines, and central air return all converged on that one location. Literally any other spot in the ceiling was OK except for there. Enter drill, chisel, hammer drill and sawzall. Several bloody knuckles later and I had negotiated a roughly 4x4” hole and partially drilled through the adjoining room molding. A quick patch & prayer that the wife doesn’t find it. Moving on to flow rate testing. __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: Getting there... "You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis. "Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

04/05/2015, 07:01 AM	#5
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	Flow Rate Testing (yes, I could use a calculator but I really like actual measurements) Supply rate: BlueLine 70HP @ 14’ head = 1215 gph = 20 gpm 8.3 ft/s via 1” flexible pipe Amp Master @ 14’ head = 3900 gph = 65 gpm >20 ft/s via 1” flexible pipe Mag Drive Supreme @ 14’ head = 720 gph = 12 gpm <6 ft/s via 1” flexible pipe Drain rate: 14’ siphon @ 1” flexible pipe = 905 gph Conclusions: (1) The BlueLine can be split between the reef, refugium and reactors without problem. (2) The TurboSea can run the FOWLR quite nicely. (3) The Amp Master would have to have its flow divided for reasonable outlet velocities. (4) The MD Supreme does not have a sweet spot in this application. I probably need more testing of the closed loop because RULE #2 (no noise) and all these pumps run with some motor noise. Unfortunately, that means I will have to run multiple lines to divide its flow. I would like an Oceans Motions but that would violate RULE #1 (no investment) and potentially RULE #2. I do have a 1” inlet/outlet SCWD but it would definitely violate RULE #2. __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: Single system of three tanks: • Serenity: 92 gal corner REEF • Sea Monster: 105 gal FOWLR • Refugium: 90 gal "You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis. "Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

04/05/2015, 02:19 PM	#6
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	Candidates please...

04/05/2015, 04:27 PM	#7
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	Closed Loop Testing Drain line = 1.5” using a drilled bulkhead, approximately 2/3 of the way up the back wall. Supply rate: TurboSea 1740P via one (1) 1” flexible pipe @ 14’ head = 913 gph = 15 gpm, ~7 ft/sec (10x turnover) TurboSea 1740P via two (2) 1” flexible pipes @ 14’ head = 818 gph = 13 gpm (1636 gal total, 18x turnover) TurboSea 1740P via three (3) 1” flexible pipes @ 14’ head = 545 gph = 9 gpm (1636 gal total, 18x turnover) Amp Master via three (3) 1” flexible pipes @ 14’ head = 621 gph = 10 gpm (1862 gal total, 20x turnover) (didn’t do 4 pipes because I only could fit three right now.) Conclusions: (1) The BlueLine and Amp Master perform almost the same at around 20x turnover. (2) Including the approximately 8x turnover of the filtration is still far too little water movement in the tank. (3) The Amp Master is really being hindered by the outlet size of the three (3) pipes (maybe as much as 4400 gph or 70% of capacity!). This will require attention to detail to allow the additional outlet volume and should probably be reviewed for the gravity feed rate of the 1.5" pipe which is around 2100 gph. __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: Single system of three tanks: • Serenity: 92 gal corner REEF • Sea Monster: 105 gal FOWLR • Refugium: 90 gal "You cannot allow [yourself] to avoid the brutal facts. If [you] start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad." General "Mad Dog” Mattis. "Physics is a b!tch. She's always right no matter how sure you were about your plumbing." Me, standing in a puddle of water...

04/06/2015, 08:15 AM	#8
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	So, it required more than a week to get the plumbing up from the basement through the floor. I hope I don’t undertake such an endeavor again. Here is the pictorial. __________________ Jason

04/07/2015, 06:47 PM	#9
mvsjrs Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 162	This thread was moved to http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5#post23653965 because the blog doesn't give any postings credit and I need to build up some posts. This thread is about the build for four tanks operating on a central filtration system. I don't name my fish but I do name my tanks... "Serenity" - a 92 gallon REEF corner tank "Sea Monsters" - a 105 gallon FOWLR of aggressive fish "Sanctuary" - a 90 gallon REFUGIUM "TBD" - a 40 gallon STRECH HEX which will have variable occupants. Here goes... http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5#post23653965