Dez' Tank Journal

Joshua Jones · #1 09-18-2009, 04:29 AM

I need to stop by and appreciate this in person! I still haven't seen it since you got those new fixtures and bulbs in there! Pictures look incredible, and pictures never even come close to serving justice..

Dez · #2 09-19-2009, 04:27 AM

It's been about a month since my 100% water change, so I did one today. Actually it wasn't so much a water change, but added 75 gallons to my system.

Here is what I plumbed up. This is my 75 gallon reservoir that holds my RO/DI water. I plumbed up a pump to pump to the 75 gallon tank that I hooked into my system today.

Here is the 75 gallon tank that I have hooked up to my system, this makes my system about 325 gallon total water volume. This tank is run inline with my whole system but it will always remain with nothing but the water running through it. There'll be no fish or rock ever in in.

So here is my process for a water change now. Turn off a valve to the 75 gallon tank - shutting it off from the system. Then drain that entire tank into the toilet right beside the fish room. Then turn on the pump from my 75 gallon reservoir and pump fresh RO/DI water to the now empty 75 gallon tank. Put the approppriate amount of salt and other additives in. Let mix for a few hours. Then turn the valve on a little bit to let the water change happen overnight. The next day turn the valve back on full. I'm quite excited about this system. No buckets!

I finally hooked up my bathroom fan in the fishroom to a dehumidistat. When the humidity hits a certain level in the fish room, then the bathroom fan will vent that humid air straight outside. Here's a picture of it.

I am quite pleased with this build so far. I have not yet regretted anything that I've done and I wouldn't change anything yet. So hopefully that's a good sign. Now I'm done with plumbing for a while - maybe I can start cleaning my basement and go return the unused plumbing parts...

Thanks for looking.

Skimmerking · #3 09-19-2009, 04:40 PM

the setup looks great man well done can you explain the water change part thou you just turn on the 75 gal and it will slowly do a water change for ya

hillegom · #4 09-19-2009, 05:38 PM

excellent build thread. Halfway through!

Dez · #5 09-20-2009, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asmodeus

the setup looks great man well done can you explain the water change part thou you just turn on the 75 gal and it will slowly do a water change for ya

Okay Mike,

I'll try to explain it clearly.

1. Get motivated to do water change
2. Turn valve off so the 75 gallon on top is off-line from entire system
2. Drain the top most tank (which is hooked up to my tank at all times running through the same salt water as everything else). To drain it, I just stick a siphon tube on and drain it to the toilet right next door.
3. Turn on pump from 75 gallon reservoir to pump all 75 gallons of fresh RO/DI water to that tank that I just drained.
4. Add salt and magnesium to that water and turn on powerhead to mix
5. Wait a few hours - then test parameters to make sure everything is good (the only parameter that will be off is the temp, my fresh water will be cooler)
6. Turn the valve back on and that freshly mixed water will be part of the system again, I just turn it on very little so the temp doesn't drop fast.

It's only a 75 gallon water change out of 325 gallons (about a 23% water change). Last night I put the freshly mixed salt water back into the system and my temp went from 79.5 degrees to 78.7 degrees overnight. So that's not bad for temp fluctuation. Everything seems to be happy with that new 75 gallons of water last night.

So now water changes will be super easy - no buckets. Just mixing and measuring parameters. This was the part of the whole system that I wanted to be easy was the "regular maintenance - aka water changes" part. I found that in the previous years I just dreaded hauling buckets and buckets of water just to do water changes and I found that I didn't do it frequently enough.

Hope you get it now Mike.

lastlight · #6 09-20-2009, 04:06 AM

Great idea Dez that's pretty much how my system works but on a smaller scale. The 20 gallon tank under my stand next to the sump always slowly circulates. I turn a valve to isolate it, throw a switch that turns the pump on that is in the tank which drains the 20 gallons into my basement drain. Other side of wall I have previously drained 20 gallons from my topoff tank into the mix tank. change a few valves up and the mix pump now pumps through the wall into the 20 gallon under the tank.

You gotta love not messing with buckets anymore I hated that!

Dez · #7 09-20-2009, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

Great idea Dez that's pretty much how my system works but on a smaller scale. The 20 gallon tank under my stand next to the sump always slowly circulates. I turn a valve to isolate it, throw a switch that turns the pump on that is in the tank which drains the 20 gallons into my basement drain. Other side of wall I have previously drained 20 gallons from my topoff tank into the mix tank. change a few valves up and the mix pump now pumps through the wall into the 20 gallon under the tank.

You gotta love not messing with buckets anymore I hated that!

I know - if it aint easy, you'll tend not to do it. I think that's the most important part of keeping a long term reef is regular water changes - especially with sps. With a softy lps tank it can be more forgiving.

My tanks in the wall so I'm kinda stuck with it through thick and thin. It won't be easy to quit the hobby anymore unless I move. So I might as well make the regular maintenance easy!

Good call on the drain to your basement with your system. I was too lazy to jack hammer my floor to add a drain to my sump room. I could drain it into my sump pump, but then I'd have salt water all over my lawn/garden. I don't think my wife would be too happy with that.

So the hardest part for me is sticking that u-tube on the tank, and starting the siphon

. I guess that's one regret of the build so far - lack of drain in fish room. But if I ever have a flood, it all goes down to my sump pump, so I'm safe from floods at least.

PS - Brett, you better get some updates on your build. When I started my build, I thought Tony would for sure beat me. I thought my build was slow - but I'm almost done now. One day I'll clean up all my fish garbage all over the house!

lastlight · #8 09-20-2009, 04:24 AM

Hey If I hadn't gotten laid off man I'd maybe have salt water in that tank by now! I'm trying my best to get things back on track trust me!

When we built the house I had an extra drain roughed in (besides the one for the bathroom) for my planned fishroom but I decided against that for this build. As sick as it may seem I have rough ideas of what I want my NEXT tank to look like already and those ideas will include a fish room down there! Of course my wife never hears about these ideas =)

Forget that siphon. Toss a cheap pump in there and put it on a switch! By the way great work on that added system there. You'll have quite a few gallons more than me now. Hmmm...