Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

Don't forget the micro bubbles on the weekends and to turn off the skimmer on Wednesdays

It actually took two sentences for me to get where you were going. Slow head today

But that's is something I don't really understand. Corals are not easy to keep, why not be happy when they are looking fine and growing slow? Is it because everyone is selling frags or just inpatients?

I know I'm getting old in this game Working with it probably speeds up that ageing..

We see all the beautiful pictures of full grown reefs and new hobbyists are led to believe they can have that beautiful reef in no time.

 

[Sallstrom]

This is exactly how it seems with all the latest and greatest methods being talked about. No wonder newcomers are so confused. We need a thread called Keep It Simple.

Absolutely. But it's not that simple keeping corals IMO
You need to be pretty experienced to be able to do things simple and maybe watch the corals instead of measuring nutrients etc. So I think we all need to go that long road, do our mistakes, understand that there plenty of ways doing things, and finally plan our own "method " we are comfortable with. I think there's a lot of knowledge behind most of the great tanks, and that knowledge probably comes from earlier mistakes.

I'm not sure where I'm going here
Maybe that it hard combining the modern social media "speed" with the patience needed to keep corals. Many people want short cuts or methods they can follow by the book(and blame if something goes wrong..) instead of figuring out how things work and do their own method.

With that said, I'm guilty to all those things Tried all kind of methods, tested numerous magical addetives and done lots of mistakes. But now I've slowed down a lot.

 

[najer]

Absolutely. But it's not that simple keeping corals IMO
You need to be pretty experienced to be able to do things simple and maybe watch the corals instead of measuring nutrients etc. So I think we all need to go that long road, do our mistakes, understand that there plenty of ways doing things, and finally plan our own "method " we are comfortable with. I think there's a lot of knowledge behind most of the great tanks, and that knowledge probably comes from earlier mistakes.

I'm not sure where I'm going here
Maybe that it hard combining the modern social media "speed" with the patience needed to keep corals. Many people want short cuts or methods they can follow by the book(and blame if something goes wrong..) instead of figuring out how things work and do their own method.

With that said, I'm guilty to all those things Tried all kind of methods, tested numerous magical addetives and done lots of mistakes. But now I've slowed down a lot.

It can't get much more KISS than mine can it lol, I really can't be doing with hasty, learning how your individual "system" works appears to be the key to me, small changes, try not to over react, a kh of 6 doesn't matter if you only have xenia and zoas, finding the reason for a Kh of 6 needs finding slowly!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

For NPS ideas
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/cave-tank-build-tutorial.408/

 

[Sallstrom]

For NPS ideas
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/cave-tank-build-tutorial.408/

Thanks! Yes, I've read that thread. It's really cool, I love it.

 

[Stigigemla]

I did look through the most of the thread today and one thing confused me. Do you plan to have a degassing tower after the skimmer? After big skimmers there is often overpressure in the water of oxygen and nitrogen.

 

[Sallstrom]

I did look through the most of the thread today and one thing confused me. Do you plan to have a degassing tower after the skimmer? After big skimmers there is often overpressure in the water of oxygen and nitrogen.

No, no aeration towers after the skimmers. Isn't the skimmer a degassing filter itself?

But some kind of fast trickle filter on a bypass on the overflow. To use the height, it's 3,5 meters from the overflow to the water surface in the sump.
Still drawing the sump, it changed today again. But we're getting closer and closer to deciding how it'll be.

 

[Stigigemla]

I dont know how Your skimmer works but I have seen pumps of substantial pressure driving venturis. The air will be mixed with pressurized water so oxygen and nitrogen will be solved from the bubbles. Very small bubbles have higher internal pressure so it can occur a supersaturation of solved gas. The surface tension will be higher the smaller the bubbles are. Public aquaria often have a degassing tower after the skimmer. Strange that Lasse has not mentioned it. He is the one that first mentioned it to me. I believe Universeum had one but I wouldnt be surprised if it is out of work now.
If I remember right they often are about the same height as the skimmer but much smaller area. Filled with bioballs and air. I dont know if they need ventilation but i guess so.

 

[Sallstrom]

I dont know how Your skimmer works but I have seen pumps of substantial pressure driving venturis. The air will be mixed with pressurized water so oxygen and nitrogen will be solved from the bubbles. Very small bubbles have higher internal pressure so it can occur a supersaturation of solved gas. The surface tension will be higher the smaller the bubbles are. Public aquaria often have a degassing tower after the skimmer. Strange that Lasse has not mentioned it. He is the one that first mentioned it to me. I believe Universeum had one but I wouldnt be surprised if it is out of work now.
If I remember right they often are about the same height as the skimmer but much smaller area. Filled with bioballs and air. I dont know if they need ventilation but i guess so.

As I see it the water has first a chance to degassing inside the skimmer. Then it'll be more the ten meter for the water to flow before it comes to the inlet of the return pumps. During that way, the water will have to flow over a couple of walls, and under a couple of walls. We're really trying to design the sump so there's no small bubbles reaching the inlet of the return pumps.

 

[Sallstrom]

Orphek LED bars are up above the work station/treatment tanks. Now the fun work to get all the cables in order...

 

[najer]

Orphek LED bars are up above the work station/treatment tanks. Now the fun work to get all the cables in order...

Which colours / wavelenghs did you get?

 

[Sallstrom]

Which colours / wavelenghs did you get?

All of them are "Daylight". Or was it "Reef Daylight"? Something like that

 

[Sallstrom]

A colleague talked about the hashtag "unpacking" and if we should start using it on social media. We get a lot of packages, but it usually looks something like this when I unpack things. Not sure that would be a viral success..

 

[najer]

All of them are "Daylight". Or was it "Reef Daylight"? Something like that

I can't wait to see how they look, that is the type I was looking at.

 

[Sallstrom]

I can't wait to see how they look, that is the type I was looking at.

They look quite nice IMO. Not very strong/high PAR, but a good spectrum I guess

 

[Victoria M]

Super cool!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Sallstrom can you ID the stony coral by purple dendronephthya. Diver nice enough to send picture.

 

[Sallstrom]

Sallstrom can you ID the stony coral by purple dendronephthya. Diver nice enough to send picture.

Hmmm, feels familiar but I don't think I've ever had it in a tank. I'm sure someone else can ID it correct.
I did a quick search on Reeflex, could it be Madracis senaria or some kind of Astreopora?

 

[Lasse]

It is true that can be problem with pressure pumps and air - but the problem is mostly connected with leaks on the suction part of the pump and long pressure pipes up to the tank. The oxygen is normally no problem but just some percent supersaturation of nitrogen can give symptoms like bubble disease among fishes ( it is a form of decompression sickness, the bends) This can be caused by leaks in the suction line or air bubbles that´s been sucked in from the sump. You probably need a pressure that´s more than a normal aquarium pump gives but as fast as you use larger pumps with higher pressure - you can have a problem. The problem is normally connected to the return pump. The pressure pump to the skimmers sucks normally air through venturis and have a very short pipe before the water become to normal pressure. And the skimmer chamber becomes a gas exchanger by itself. What´s worry me is if there will be residues of bubbles that will be sucked in by the return pump or not. Therefore we have constructed the sump in that way that the water is going in a labyrint with the possibility to have baffles and/or other devises that take away bubbles. As David mentioned - the water will go over 10 meters before it hits the return pumps. I have argue for hours that the suction pipe from the sump to the pump should be totally without any chans to suck in air - taking away devices that can cause tiny leaks. We are going to have the degasser placed between the tank and the sump - using the height difference. It was that way at Universeum to - no degasser after the skimmers but a degasser tower between the tank and the sump - down streams the tank. The only problem was that I was hindered to place any material in that tower (that enhanced the degasser) because at that time - this type of equipment was seen as "nitrate factories" by some people higher up in the wage layer than me.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hey Lasse, was the materials used for tower to enhance degasser. Truly nitrate producers, likw plastic bio balls or a myth? I always wondered.