Aquaculture Rack System Build Log

M

matt_longview

I've been planning my SPS Aquaculture Rack System for several months now. I have all of the equipment now and I'm beginning to put pieces together. Here's the list.

Tanks - All tanks have drilled returns and are placed on metal rack systems.
8' tall rack system with three 48"x12"x12" 33g tanks.
5' tall rack system with two 48" long x 20" wide x 16" tall 56g tanks (the bottom tank will be used as the sump)

Lighting - Each 33g tank will be lit in the center by 18 Cree LEDs from RapidLED... the ends of the tanks will have powerheads and live rock. This will give areas of high light directly under the LEDs and lower light for birdsnests, digitatas and monti caps towards the edges. The top 56g tank will be lit by two of these 18 LED fixtures. Frags will be placed 8-10" below the water surface with live rock below the frag racks.

Filtering - Biopellets via NextReef SMR1. Precision Marine Bullet 1 Skimmer run by an Iwaki WMD40RLXT 1200gph pump. Will also have a fuge with macro in sump & run carbon.

Flow - Reeflo Dart main return. In tank flow provided by K3 & K4 powerheads on wavemaker from Reef Angel controller.

I made a few graphics today to give an idea of what I'm looking at.

I'm designing these using Google Sketchup... which is free but was honestly quite difficult to learn and is a bit quirky to work in. Hard to argue with results though.

Not everything is perfect to scale... the skimmer I know is 1 inch taller than shown, but it's pretty darn close. Next I'm adding in plumbing (which is why I'm going through the trouble) and asking for input and advise.

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Here's the sump... a few interesting things to note:
1. The dry area to the right. I'll house two external pumps in this dry area. The Reeflo Dart return pump, and the Iwaki 1200gph pump for the skimmer. The three holes are for the bulkheads.
2. Biopellet Reactor and Skimmer. The biopellet reactor will get water right after the filter sock and will feed into the skimmer intake. The skimmer intake will suck in some more water of course, but will get all of the water from the biopellets.
3. Skimmer output is going to have a bulkhead through to the other side, skipping the fuge. This means that the fuge will get only water that was not processed by the biopellets and skimmer, and... it'll have reduced flow. :)
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Thanks for checking it out. Offer any input you have, but know that I already know a few things... such as that's less lighting than each tank needs. I'm not trying to light the entire tanks currently, but I build them for future additions.
 
Looks great! I have the same system that you have drawn. Two things i would have done diffrent on mine, i would add a ball valve or some other adjustment to control the flow through the refugium. Also i would add a back up overflow drain (third hole) into the tanks just in case one gets clogged. Its never happened to me but there is the chance for it and it always nags at me when im away for more than a few days. Good luck, Ian
 
Thank you for the input. The tanks on the right with the dual holes drilled I'm good on. The piping for those is large enough that a single one could handle the entire flow if the other got clogged. The top one on the left though I'm worried about. I was just thinking today about setting up an external overflow and keeping it siphoned on that one... just in case. I will have sensors on the floor (and inside the dry area of the tank) setup to kill the return if they get wet... just another reason to LOVE tank controllers. :)

For adjusting the flow through the refugium... a second bulkhead right beside the one for the skimmer just allowing water to pass through to the other side would give me that flow adjustment. Great idea!
 
I have a couple of question's on the setup. Are you concerned with the pump's having enough air flow across them in the closed in area to keep them from possibly overheating? On the fuge and biopellet's... a lot of folk's have seen that their macro's simply stop growing after long term biopellet use, have you considered this?

Cheers,
 
I'm planning a fan to be blowing across them. I have a three thermometers, I was planning on placing one in tank, the second on the leds heatsink and the third on room temp, but I think I'll keep the third on the return pump... that's a great idea. If it gets too hot it can email me an alarm and shut the pump down.

I'm not too concerned about growing macro, I'd just like it to be available to take up extra nutrients if they are there. If they're not there great!!!

More good ideas! Thanks guys!!
 
Alright, new plan.

With enough consideration I decided I could make it work with the external pumps being out of the tank. I'm going to go with a simple three section fuge now (with a divider to lower flow through a fuge) so I'll update the sketchup later. The two rack systems will be switched, taller on the left, and I'm considering building a box around my TDNW-300 to keep it from the kids and use that skimmer instead.

Possible changes ahead... we'll see how it ends up but either way I'm excited! :)
 
Do I need to drop by and help move the tanks again? LOL.. just though I'd pop in and follow along.
 
Moving forward with the project. I've got the large 3.25" hole drilled in the sump for the Reeflo Dart external pump. Some of the plumbing is getting put together as well. I've got to decide a couple more things. Should I go with two 1.5 inch drains on the large blue tank above the sump or three? It's only 56 gallons... so three seems overkill maybe. Still haven't fully committed to either skimmer. I believe I'm going to hook up the Precision Marine Bullet first... and if I'm not pleased with it plumb in the TDNW-300. That's the simple solution it seems. I'd like to keep the TDNW off of this setup for a future 200g+ build I'm hoping for. I've read some really great things about the Bullet skimmer when run with the Iwaki pump... which is what I'll be pushing it with... so I'm optimistic.

I've also got a 35g trough setup on the rack system below the three tanks separate from the system for curing rock in. Also a 24x24x12" cube for zoa prop.
 
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