| Substrate Free Tank Husbandry (Bare bottomed) This forum is for the discussion of the care and husbandry of substrate free tanks. |
06-18-2006, 01:17 PM
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#1
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Upgrade-Fever
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 574
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Leonardo's BB ShallowCube
Hello,
I'm new here, and I'm glad that I found the new home of the BB-tank keepers. I'm Leonardo, 22 years old and I live in The Netherlands.
I'm setting up a cube-shaped tank, bare-Bottom of course...
System:
86 Gallon Shallow Cube
15 Gallon Sump
MTT1 Skimmer
Tunze 6110 (3170 G/h)
250 Watt Aqua Medic Pendant
4 x 24 Watt T5 from ATI + Giesseman Bulbs
1532 G/h Return Pump
Turnover sump - Tank 16x
Turnover tank 51x
Please leave a comment...
-Leonardo
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06-18-2006, 03:57 PM
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#6
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Just some guy, you know?
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Phoenix AZ
Posts: 17,365
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Quote:
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Any suggesions about the setup?
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Remember your export is the most important part of your system. I don't know anything about your skimmer but I can offer a few tips.
You want your overflow feeding into a small chamber that is the pickup for your skimmer, then you want the skimmer to drain into the next chamber down the line. You want your skimmer to get raw overflow water, and not recycle already skimmed water.
You want your overflow to run at a slightly higher pace then your skimmer feed speed. example, if your skimmer pulls water at 1300 GPH, you want your overflow running at 1400 GPH so very little water bypasses the skimmer, but your small drain compartment never runs dry.
You want to get waist out as fast as possible, this is why I feel Beckett skimmers are most up to the task, they process water at a much faster rate then recirculating needle-wheel types, to clean the water up faster.
It is important to run your skimmer wet so it can pull out large particles of detritus before they rot and re-release the phosphate/nitrate they have locked up.
Could you give some more details on your skimmer?
HTH,
Whiskey
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06-18-2006, 06:14 PM
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#7
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Upgrade-Fever
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 574
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Thanx for the reply Wiskey, I'll try to explain a little more about the skimmer.
The skimmer is a Venturi-type skimmer, with a 528 Gallon/h pump. The Return pump is 1268 Gallon/h
Is this turnover rate good in combiantion with the skimmer capacity?
Over here and in Germany some call this skimmer a "little bubble king", maybe a skimmer better known to you
I love this skimmer, because it takes in a lot of air and water. You can let it skim wet very easy too.
We don't know the Beckett skimmers over here in Europe. Most skimmers are Needle-wheels or Venturi skimmers. (or combined) The're mostly placed IN the sump.
-Leonardo
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Please vote for my Formosa-Forest!
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06-19-2006, 05:14 AM
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#9
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Upgrade-Fever
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 574
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Ofcourse not  I won't build a "Berlin Wall" I've been studying Japanese BB-tanks carefully. I think those tanks are the most aestheticly balanced. I'll post some pictures that I keep as a guideline for my tank.
-Leonardo
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06-19-2006, 11:12 AM
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#13
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Just some guy, you know?
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Phoenix AZ
Posts: 17,365
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I agree with Little Luey, Tang's like allot of open swimming room, and long tanks, they may not be appropriate for this tank. I would also not put 2 yellow tangs in the same tank because chances are good that they will kill each other.
On the skimmer, is this a needle wheel skimmer? Does the air enter before or after the pump? (meaning does the air get chopped up by the pump's impeller?)
For a 90 gallon tank it sounds like it will work fine if you can wet skim that well, passed through the skimmer at a rate of around 6X per hour, but if it is easy to upgrade that pump to get more water through that sucker it might be worth thinking about since allot of your overflow water will bypass the skimmer with your current setup.
The way I would do this, is get the tank setup with coral, then slowly approach the fish thing, one at a time, and a month in between, let your coral, and test results dictate how many fish you can keep.
HTH,
Whiskey
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One of God's own prototypes; too weird to live, too rare to die.
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06-19-2006, 01:29 PM
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#14
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Upgrade-Fever
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 574
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The skimmer is, as I mentioned before, a Venturi-style skimmer. It's NOT a needle wheel. There have been mods on this skimmer with larger pumps, but they all had a negative effect. The manufacturer said because the venturi itself is designed for this exact amount of water, and pump more trough it only make it work less effective. The skimmer is rated up to 400 Gallon tanks, so I'll leave it like this for now.
Yellow tangs are kept in tanks of 25 Gallon over here... I think it's cruel. But I did't expect you guys to say that my tank was to smal also  Do you have any sugestions about other algae-eating fish? (that are beautiful too  )
The school of Blue-eye cardinals are cute, aren't they?
Thanks for all the comments btw!
-Leonardo
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06-19-2006, 02:51 PM
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#15
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Just some guy, you know?
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Phoenix AZ
Posts: 17,365
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Leonardo's Reef
The skimmer is, as I mentioned before, a Venturi-style skimmer. It's NOT a needle wheel. There have been mods on this skimmer with larger pumps, but they all had a negative effect. The manufacturer said because the venturi itself is designed for this exact amount of water, and pump more trough it only make it work less effective. The skimmer is rated up to 400 Gallon tanks, so I'll leave it like this for now.
-Leonardo
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Okay, I just got confused because you compaired it to a bubble king,.... Cool deal, I will be interested to see it work, I have never used a regular venturi skimmer that skimmed anything at all, but I haven't touched one since the Red Sea Berlin, so it's been awhile.
Post pictures of it running when you get the tank up, I would be interested to see it.
Thanks,
Whiskey
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Cool show on
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For anyone who has ever owned a EuroReef 8-2.
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Kaizen
One of God's own prototypes; too weird to live, too rare to die.
|
|
|
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