Info and the Filtration pics.... What a new experience it has been, everybody you speak to with different views about what should and should not be done... Well I have taken everything in, read books and come up with my own ideas, and the pictures below show the project in it's final stages.... My thoughts and additional information for all those marine tank owners (and wannabe's) out there: You can never have too much biological filtration Lighting of a tank is 2 parts: the part of the fish, plants and corals lighting for the observer Rely on instincts, not what is normal, particually with electricity (see bottom of page) Patience is a virtue (and helps keep fish alive) Marine specialist fish shops will try to sell you everything whether you need it or not. There is a minimum amount you have to spend, make sure you are ready for it. DIY is harder than it looks, but if you have loads of time, and the correct tools is easy Look, Listen and Learn, makes setting up cheaper and fun Remember most marine shops (in Australia at least) have a 50-100% markup on all items, haggle for discounts...! Information about my setup... Tank holds approximately 612 litres of water (not counting the sump which holds another 100 litres). 1 litre of fresh water weighs 1kg. (i.e. 612 litres weighs 612kgs - over half a tonne!) Ammonia (NH3) &lk; 0.5 mg/litre (unable to get an acurate reading for zero) Nitrite (NO2) Zero (Unreadable with test kit) Nitrate (NO3) 20mg/litre (as is tap water here) Temperature 25 degrees Celcius (77F), heated by a 300 watt stainless steel 'split' heater, mounted in the sump. (Manufacturer: ViaAqua) Main Pump, Rio 3100HP (details). Protein Skimmer Pump, Rio 2100 Tank Lighting: Two 30w 36 inch, 'Marine Glow' (actinct) tubes Four di-chloric 12v 20w halogen 38 degree spots On to the pics of the filteration system..... Sorry about the quality, but the digital camera I have is only a dolphin pocket cam, and cannot better 320x200 resolution, and is no good in low light.....
The new plenum chamber on the left this has both 'live rock' and pebbles along with some fine grade crushed shell at the bottom. It is my design and an addition to the original 'bio only' filtration system, it is an excellent mechanical filter which takes the output of the protein skimmer along with a 'feedback' from the main pump. On the right is the original trickle filter.
The left shows the protein skimmer mounted on the side of the new plenum chamber, nicely tucked away out of sight, rather than on the back of the tank as it used to be. On the right the modifications to the sump that I made to link in the new plenum chamber. This part is slightly to the right and out of view of the trickle filter picture above.
The complete filtration wiring, on the left, and a closer view of the wiring loom and panel for the lighting, on the right..... Thanks to a pair of badly designed low voltage lighting transformers, along with the highly dangerous (in my opinion) Australian wiring the cause of a small fire. Needless to say it is now modified so that won't happen again...... My bitch and whine.... Australian plugs like those of many countries, but not like the UK don't have fuses in the plug that goes to the wall.... Like many countries they also have large ciruit breakers at the fuse board.... So when you have a non short, high current fault, what happens is the wiring tends to burn through before the trip cuts the power, often catching fire in the process. The solution.... RS Components offer a fused terminal block at a cheap price here, if you know what you are doing its a life saver....!