Tank Design ... tell me what you think

[Shaqinwi 65]

After admiring reef tanks from afar for many years I am finally at a point in my life where I can take up the hobby.

It will still be a few months before I can begin but until then I can do more research and perfect my system design.

Below are some 3D models of my first design. Tell me what you think will not work or how it can be perfected.

I have access to just about any tool to cut, form, machine, bond acrylic, glass, whatever.

The plumbing below the tank is just for pictorial purposes. I'll refine that later.

I call it "The Beyonce Tank" ... sleek and sexy.

My goal is to have no pipes or equipment showing and to take up as little footprint as possible with the overflow.

[Jflip2002]

The plumbing is in a weird position. For it to be how you designed, youd have to have a hole below the tank, through the stand. Youd be better off going behind and under. But you knew that, based on your warning lol.

I like the width of the overflows. It seems like itd be able to skim a bunch of scum off the top.

Also, if just those slits are going to the CLS, I dont think you'll be able ot pull in enough water to make those useful. And if you have too much flow, those little slits could have a lot of suction, making fish or inverts stuck.

Seems solid overall, kinda a weird sized tank though. Make sure its somthing easy to get lights and a stand for like 24" or 36".

[Fly Guy]

You dont ever want a cls feeding from a overflow. The water that goes into the overflow is what has been skimmed off of the surface. recirculating this back throuhg the tank via a CLS defeats the entire purpose of surface skimming in the first place.

I suggest drilling seperate intakes for the cls. You can cover them with spa intake covers. this is what i use as I am likeminded int he sense I dont like to look at equipment. spa intake covers only stick out 1/2", and distrubute the flow great so critters wont get stuck against their will

[Mizer67]

If I'm seeing it right, the CLS is not skimming. It is going into the narrow box in the middle, fed from the holes in the front. Since there are multiple holes, suction shouldn't be a problem, a fish covering one hole would just divert flow through the other holes. I would however put the suction for the cls at the bottom instead of using a riser. With all those holes, the level should stay up high enough to keep you from having waterfall effect, but if you use a tall riser and algea or fish / snails cover enough holes, you could suck air yielding micro bubbles and ultimately a burned up pump. Also, how will you get into the cls suction are to clean if all the panels are glued to the back wall? Ditto for the return areas.

Altogether a rather ingenious design. I'll be following this one.

[Fly Guy]

thats what I get for only looking at the second pic. Now that I look at the first pic too.......agreed Mizer

What pump are you planning on feeding this cls with shaquinwi?? Unless its huge, you might find a whole lot more benefit to using less cls outputs. I think we talked about the omniflex nozzles in another thread and you liked........you will find its best to use larger ports and put some power to them, then you cna actually move some water in the tank. I do like lots of ports, but thats only if you have the pump to drive them, otherwise a few that really do soemthing is better than lots that do just a little.

Ill also add that now that I see that cls infeed program a little clearer, I really like it as well.

[Shaqinwi 65]

Thanks for your replies.

The tank is a 65g ... 36"x18"x24" high

Yes, I was going to use 4 1" Omni-flex for the CLS and 2 for the return. I was thinking Eheim 1260 for both CLS and return. I'm SWAG'g around 8x per hour on the CLS and just a little lower on the return.

Do you think 4 1 inchers would be to low of a flow? Maybe just one on each side?

The pipe in the CLS inlet is in case something bad happened to the plumbing, then only an inch of water would drain out. I would use check valves on the return lines.

[Shaqinwi 65]

Originally Posted by Jflip2002

Also, if just those slits are going to the CLS, I dont think you'll be able ot pull in enough water to make those useful. And if you have too much flow, those little slits could have a lot of suction, making fish or inverts stuck.

I never thought of that. The area of the slots is 15X the ID of a 1" pipe but I didn't take into consideration sucking critters. More slots are easy, I will alter my design ... thanks

[Shaqinwi 65]

Originally Posted by Mizer67

Also, how will you get into the cls suction area to clean if all the panels are glued to the back wall? Ditto for the return areas.

Oh, oh ... never thought of that. I'll have to clean those areas? The water flow wont keep them clean?

[Fly Guy]

How big is this tank??

a 1262 for the cls isnt even enough, unless its a tiny tank, and even then its questionable. For the return its fine. You will want to put a ball valve on the output side of the return pump and then taper it back to whatever it is your skimmer can process. The whole point is roughly matching flows and sending as little unskimmed "dirty" water back to the tank as possible. Dont even count the return flow as part of your turnover. There wont be enough coming out of those pipes to do much. Even if this is a softy tank i wouold shoot for 20x minimum out of your cls. Sequence dart would probasbly do nicely. You could put a ball valve on the oputput of it in case it is too much, and you will want a ball valve and union on each side of the pump anyway so you can take it off line for maintenance without having to drain the tank.

I would also suggest having the sump return lines as high as possible in the tank. Lose the check valves and just set the returns up so the water falls away from the outlets breaking the siphon. this will never fail nor need maintenance to ensure they will work....unlike check valves

edit- I will just add I think you have pletny of holes there for the cls intake.......you will want your holes to be greater than or equal to a 2" pipe which it appears you have covered although, you dont want them as low as you pictured. the lower they are, the harder they are to get to to clean, and the more crap you will be bringing in. On this note, it still may not be a bad idea to ue one of my spa intake covers. they cant be noticed as it is on the back wall, running one of them there will be hidden by rock most likely anyway.....

[Shaqinwi 65]

3600 GPH! Jumpin Jehosaphat! I had no idea reef tanks had that much current. Wait, that's 55X, you must thinking a bigger tank. Mine is going to be a 65g.

Fly Guy, I did a search for spa intake covers and hit a thread from back in 2006 where you were answering the same question for some other shmuck you must feel like a broken record some times!

I'm liking the idea though, saves all that machining time too. Thanks for the advice.

[Fly Guy]

lol..those spa intake covers are seriously sweet as far as what they can take without holding critters agaisnt their will and how low profile they are.

Darts cant handle head pressure whatsoever. Even though its aCLS so there isnt any head pressure from a lift, there is still frcition and head pressure from every bend and every fitting and you are looking at 2500-3000 on most cls designs with the dart.........throw an OM 4 way on there and its much less yet. Its always better toi have more flow at your fingertips by simply opening up a valve a little more, than needing to replace the pump to do so. Tapering the flow back like that is actually less wear and tear on the pump and less electricity used in the process as well.

besides......30x is as little as any reef tank should have IMO anyway. As long as you set things up so its nice wide flow, and not pure velocity, tanks can take a whole lot more than people realize without being overpowering and its all for the good of the system

[Shaqinwi 65]

I'll take your word on the 30X then. Your experience is better than my logic.

What do you think about having to have cleaning access to the flow chambers in my design? Is it necessary? Could bad things start to build up there?

[Fly Guy]

everybody should clean out their overflow boxes. they collect crap just like any settling area of your sump which should be cleaned out every water change or so anyway.

I dont see it as an issue. simply make a little attachment out of 1/2" flex pvc to go on the end of your shop vac and you just made a tool to deal with it. I cant reach my overflows on either of my tanks without one of these little rigs.

You will want to put that suction cover up high enough that you can get to it to. You will need to soak it in vinegar every 3-6 months to get the coralline off of it and open all the holes back up. Its ok to lean a rock up against it or in fron of it, you just dont want to set it up so you need to move the entire reef to get to it....one rock is ok

[chrischris]

that looks great
i agree with flyguy on most the points
what lights / what are you going to keep

[Shaqinwi 65]

Originally Posted by chrischris

what lights / what are you going to keep

I haven't pinned down the lighting other than I want to stay aroud 4W/G.

I hate heat ... I mean hate it. I keep my house at 67 in the summer so I'm a little nervous about 100's of MH watts cooking in the corner of my living room. Nice when it's -10 (like last night) but not nice in August.

I plan on keeping mostly softies and inverts. Not many fish.