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#1 |
Registered Member
![]() Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nottingham, NH
Posts: 7,251
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My new lagoon
Well I've been a little hesitant to start this my first new tank thread and I'm a little nervous not really sure why. I'll start with a description 100 gallon stock tank sump, 100 gallon (dimensions 72"x18"x18") 4-5 inch sand bed for seagrass and seagrass/lagoon inhabitants no lighting yet considering T5, 30 gallon breeder for clownfish and anemone, 35 gallon fuge for cheato and possible partiton for caulerpa as well if cheato is enough I'll keep only that. Some suggestions appreciated on macro type. Currently I have a 90 gal mixed reef eventually this will be connected, and alittle further down the road I would like to split the soft and stony coral by connecting a 200 + gallon tank for sps. Here are some pics of my setup so far.
![]() Here's the 100 gallon and the 30 gallon no water yet. ![]() Looking the other way you can see the sump ( plumbing not done yet ) and the skimmer. ![]() Abetter shot of the skimmer a Lifereef VS3 72". ![]() Looking down at the sump you can see a divider I installed to seperate drain/skimmer intake from return.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#2 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Westerly, RI
Posts: 4,989
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I'm new to planted tanks but I think it looks like a good start.
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Mike Reefcentral [email protected] team 37251 - Click my little red house to learn more and help medical science! Current Tank Info: 2, 20-gal low tech tanks |
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#3 |
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Location: Nottingham, NH
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For the substrate I had two 5 gallon buckets of stuff left over from a prevous setup this was a mix of caribsea reef grade, and crushed coral. I probably wouldnt have used it in a reef setup but given that this will have seagrass I thought the extra nutrients would be beneficial. On top of that I placed 2 5 gallon buckets of southdown from a previous setup, this stuff was well rinsed. On top of that I poured in 3 or 4 fresh bags of southdown. In the 30 gallon breeder I have a couple bags of southdown. The refugium is not set up yet as you can see space is tight in this room, and I still need to get top off and change water barrels, and eventually at least temporarily my 90 gallon tank. The details for fuge will be worked out this week I havent decided on whether or not to place a sand bed in there as I do not plan to feed this tank with anything other than phyto. Heres a shot with salt and substrate in.
![]() Man thats cloudy next time substrate goes in first. I turned my return pump off and used powerheads to circulate individual tanks to reduce silt in sump as well as adding hang on filters to each tank to reduce silt. Once the tanks started to clear I turned on return pump and started wet skimming. The tanks are still alittle cloudy but I suspect that once the bacteria kick in it will quickly clear up. I just tested ammonia and its at .25 so the wait begins.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#4 |
retired algae slanger
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Sac ra men to!
Posts: 4,883
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looks great! keep us updated
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half man / half algae ... true story Current Tank Info: tankless, on hiatus until further notice |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 2,930
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Your skimmer is taller than I am! Where are the beautiful lights?
![]() >Sarah
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"Seaweed is cool, seaweed is fun, it makes its food from the rays of the sun!" |
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#6 |
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Location: Nottingham, NH
Posts: 7,251
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See the clamp on light fixture I hear that the newest rage so I thought I would give it a shot now I only need 99 more.
![]() ![]() Hey Blue is your avatar Jenna from survivor. I think it is, my kid disagrees.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#7 |
Moved On
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SLC
Posts: 1,691
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Wow! This is going to be very TotM!
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#8 |
Registered Member
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Location: Nottingham, NH
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TOTM wow sounds very prestigious
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#9 |
Premium Member
![]() Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Jacksonville Beach Florida
Posts: 49
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I like everything looks great! But I love that skimmer, oh how I love that skimmer!
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#10 |
Registered Member
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Location: Nottingham, NH
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Skimmer is awesome I've never seen more bubbles in my entire life. I just checked some params.
Ammonia 0 Nitrate 0 Phosphate 0 Silicate 0 This doesnt seem possible -scratching my head- Only 2 days in and after 2 5 gal buckets of old sand bed which had sat wet for almost a month without rinsing. Could the age of test kits be a factor? Nitrate kit is at least a year old, Ammonia kit about a year old, Silicate kit about 8 months old, Phosphate kit about a month old. Ammonia read .25 a couple days ago so I dont know. I thought the cycle would get going from old sand maybe I should drop something in to rot? Any suggestions?
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#11 |
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Well I woke up this morning and the skimmer cup had gone from maybe a half pint of skimmate last night to almost 2 quarts and man did it stink. I emptied it stirred the silt in the big tank and now at lunch another 2 quarts of smelly skimmate. So I turned the skimmer down a bit to hopefully dry it out a little.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#12 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 361
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graveyardworm-
I can also ask around the equipment forum for this, but if you have a minute maybe you can consider some questions. I am curious about your plumbing: 1. How big are those bulkhead fittings--what diameter holes did you need in the tanks and what diameter PVC do they match? 2. How many GPH can your overflows return? 3. Is there any particular advantage to having those (DIY?) overflow boxes over just using screens on bulkheads? 4. If you made those overflow boxes, how did you cut the slots? |
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#13 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Las Vegas
Posts: 1,462
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looking good! keep posting pics
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#14 | |||||
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Quote:
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#15 |
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Location: Nottingham, NH
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Sorry nothing really new yet, waiting on lights, I have LR from old setup cooking. I did perform my first water change 30 gals. Oh and I added some bristle worms and amphipods that I picked from another tank. I've also been dropping in food for worms and pods occasionally. The rock is probably ready and I may add some by the end of the week. Really I've been concentrating on my 90 gal display trying to erradicate bubble algae prior to hooking into this system. I need to move my 90 so that home renovation can continue, and I'm planning on hooking in first so that the water will match prior to temporarily moving livestock into this while the 90 is moved and set back up, but I do have some sensative coral so I wanted to wait for tank to completely cycle, and mature a little to minimize stress. Plus the fuge part isnt set up yet and I wanted some macro to compete with possible bubble algae prior as well.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#16 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 361
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thanks very much for your thorough response.
wow i'm surprised that 1" inch bulkheads could return that much. i had kind of a dissapointing experiance with 3/4". i had a tank drilled with just one hole and found that the 3/4" was overwhelmed with just ~75 gph. i had to replace the small submersible pump that was lifting water to the higher tank with an even smaller one. it didn't really matter too much for the system but i was surprised how little flow it could take. are those bulkheads available at HD? i have only ever gotten them from F&S? what will your intake for closed loop be like? will you just drop a screened pipe into each tank? i am curious about this because I am pondering a set up somewhat like what you have (sans the great big tank and the great big skimmer) with two benchtop 30 gallon tanks. |
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#17 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New Braunfels, Texas
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keep the updates comming
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#18 |
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Location: Nottingham, NH
Posts: 7,251
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OK just went to the overflow calc here's what I got.
I bought BH's from LFS, I havent seen them at HD. Closed loop intake will be over the top set up like on melevsreef.com
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#19 |
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Location: Nottingham, NH
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Right now I have a throttled back Dolphin 2000 GPH sending water up to the 30 breeder which drains into the 100 then down to the sump.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#20 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 361
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excellent, thanks again
you know i entered "100" into that calculator and got drain pipe diameter of .4. i think that the problem with my bulkhead might be that the slip barb fitting goes with 3/4" vinyl tubing, but has inside diameter of only ~1/2". |
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#21 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 361
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just to be on safe side i think i might go with one 1 1/2" of these.......
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113786 .....in one corner of each tank. does that sound OK? |
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#22 |
Registered Member
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Location: Nottingham, NH
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Sure each drain will handle like 1200 GPH no worries there. Amazing how much more or less flow you get with just small change in pipe diameter. What size tank/sump are you planning? Part of my reason for going with 1" BH's was the LFS where my tanks were drilled didnt have a larger drill.
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-David- President - New Hampshire Reef Club There値l be no one to save, with the world in a grave Current Tank Info: 100 gal lagoon/seagrass, 100 gal sump, Lifereef 72" skimmer, 180 inwall, 125 inwall seagrass/lagoon in progress |
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#23 |
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Gresham, OR
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Something that hasn't been addressed yet, but the only reason I can think to do a refugium would be for plankton output. The chaeto would be competing with your seagrass for nutrients.
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O'Malley: They will all taste oblivion! Which tastes like Red Bull! Which is disgusting. Red vs Blue Current Tank Info: Planning stages on a Gulf/Carribean nano |
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#24 |
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 5,101
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That is very true. In fact, the cheato is better at using nutrients that seagrasses do, so you may want to either skip the refugium or plan on adding fertilizers (or more fish).
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Limit 1 stupid question per day Current Tank Info: Mr. Aqua 7.5g bowfront |
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#25 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 2,930
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Really? In my tank there is way more Seagrass and Caulerpa than Chaetomorpha. In the very very very beginning, yes, Chaeto was a better nutrient sink. But now, sheesh, its just barely there. Definitely not growing much, but still serving its purpose as a nice habitat for pods and the local grass shrimp hangout. The larvae hide in there too.
In a tank like this I would expect to have a pretty decent bioload and possibly some nutrient additions to keep up with all the plants needs. So, still have competition (ie. Caulerpa over Chaeto, or seagrass over Chaeto) but all the plants can coexist - or at least they have so far. >Sarah
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"Seaweed is cool, seaweed is fun, it makes its food from the rays of the sun!" |
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