All Geared Up!

[calihawker]

Here's a pictoral overview of the equipment for the challenge discus.


60 gallon cube, sponge filter, 500w titanium heater, compact flourescents,full auto water change system.




Aging barrel contains another titanium heater, airstone and is plumbed for a mix of hot and cold water set to temp and hooked up to a solenoid as part of the AWCS. (note: I don't use the RO/DI)





10 gallon hospital/QT. just in case.





Aquacontroller controls the whole mess. Display and grow out.





I had the tank all setup and ready yesterday and then came up with a whole new idea for the AWCS so I tore the whole thing apart and this is what I came up with...



This a Sea Swirl. For you non reefers, it's designed to rotate the flow of water across the reef and create turbulent and variable currrents. It rotates back and forth 90 degrees in about a minute.





It's hooked up to what looks like a spray bar but the flow is reversed so it sucks instead of blows.





The sea swirl just sweeps the suck bar back and forth while draining the tank. It covers more than 70% of the tanks bottom. Will there be spots that detritus settles? We'll see.

[kirkp]

Hey Steve,

Looks pretty slick. So, the Sea Swirl is controlled by the controller to come on at a predterminded time every day? My guess is that there will be a few areas where detritus collects but it may not be a significant amount. Do you have a dosing pump to add your dechlorinator? Also hope your air pump is tied down so it doesn't fall in your water tank.

Can't wait to see it working.

Kirk

[Eddie]

Killer set-up Steve!

I second the air pump might fall, is it attached?

Eddie

[Ben75]

Hi Steve,
Love you setup mate, the challenge fish are going to thrive
in there i am sure. Great design on the awc unit.
Can't wait to see how it all goes for you.

[calihawker]

Hey Steve,

Looks pretty slick. So, the Sea Swirl is controlled by the controller to come on at a predterminded time every day? My guess is that there will be a few areas where detritus collects but it may not be a significant amount. Do you have a dosing pump to add your dechlorinator? Also hope your air pump is tied down so it doesn't fall in your water tank.

Can't wait to see it working.

Kirk

Yes, the air pump is quite secure. Things like that (and autofeeders) have a tendency to fall in, don't they? The sea swirl comes on at the same time as the pump. It takes about 12 minutes to pump out around 80% while the thing is sweeping back and forth.

The water we get here is pristine. No ammonia no chloramines I'm just going to age 24 hrs. with an airstone. It may come to a point that I want to up the water changes to 75% twice a day. I don't have enough storage for that much water so I would use an autodoser with prime.


Thanks Eddie!

[calihawker]

Hi Steve,
Love you setup mate, the challenge fish are going to thrive
in there i am sure. Great design on the awc unit.
Can't wait to see how it all goes for you.

Thanks Ben! I appreciate it!

[rickztahone]

looks great Steve. will you use the RO for breeding only, down the line of course.

[calihawker]

I haven't thought about breeding, yet, but even so my tap water is so super soft, RO would be redundent.

[calihawker]

I second the air pump might fall, is it attached?

Eddie

I looked back at the pics and see that your talking about the air pump on the barrel. There's a board that covers the barrel and serves as a table, I removed it to shoot the pic.

It does look rather catywampus there dosen't it.

[brewmaster15]

Very very snazzy Steve-O...

Boy oh boy these discus are moving into the lap of luxury!!

-al

[ApacheDan]

Steve;....can hardly wait to see how that Sea Swirl works....how do you reverse the flow? So if it syphons rather than push water, then where is the water going? or is it part of your water change sequence? I'm thinking for larger tanks like mine (300ga) I could direct the water flow to push most of the debris to collect in one area and then have the Sea Swirl working on that area...that might work ...I hope

[AquatiCreations]

Awesome!

I must ask, where did you get the cube at? I find that they are hard to find especially in smaller sizes.

[seanyuki]

hi steve,

a 500 watts heater for a 60 gallons tank...just curious


cheers
francis

[calihawker]

Very very snazzy Steve-O...

Boy oh boy these discus are moving into the lap of luxury!!

-al

I sure hope they like it! The menu's pretty good too.

Steve;....can hardly wait to see how that Sea Swirl works....how do you reverse the flow? So if it syphons rather than push water, then where is the water going? or is it part of your water change sequence? I'm thinking for larger tanks like mine (300ga) I could direct the water flow to push most of the debris to collect in one area and then have the Sea Swirl working on that area...that might work ...I hope

The siphon bar/sea swirl goes to the inltake of the pump then it goes to a drain and eventually ends up watering my hop garden. The really hard part was creating an anti-siphon, constant priming setup.

Depending on where pumps are placed, detritus will settle in specific areas. I did a water change yesterday on my display and I pulled the pre-filter sponges that are on either end of the tank. One was just about caked with mud, the other rinsed clear right away. I think your on the right track.

I must ask, where did you get the cube at? I find that they are hard to find especially in smaller sizes.

I bought a complete reef system. Display, sump and the cube was a refugium. It's nice because it came plumbed with overflows. Perfect for what it's setup for now.

I don't know what they offer these days but it came from these folks.
www.lifereef.com

hi steve,

a 500 watts heater for a 60 gallons tank...just curious

I try to make use of things that I already have and my other heaters were too small. I've got a couple more actually. Good backup. The titaniums have been flawless.

[SriAngel]

Steve,

If the discus dont work out, id like to move into that 60 gallon cube! Thats an amazing setup, im in the process of planning out and designing a new fish room. I would love to see a vid of the way that sea swirl thing works as it would elminate me having to siphon up crap, which takes up most of my time. Here in nyc, we get pristine water much like you. I just tested the water a few minutes ago it was 84 microsiemens out of the tap with no chlorine nor chlorimines. I dont know if i missed it, but do you have a system to harden the water. Since my water is supersoft i had trouble growing out juvies when i was a newbie. Al had suggested i use crushed oyster shell in my sump, and that did the trick.

Best of luck,
Angel