Jessie

It's stunning! I love this tank!

taekwondodo

I'm thinking through my 120G build, and am (a reefer) thinking of a closed loop.

Do you have a picture of how yours is set up (I will liberally steal if enabled).

Thanks.

- Jeff

BryceM

Did you look at the photos from the first part of this thread? Steal all you want.

Basically I have a 1" PVC drain that comes up & over the back wall. I got a strainer from MarineDepot that fits the end perfectly. This goes through a reducer to 3/4", across a union, across a tee for the fill line, and into the Eheim pump. The pump outflow goes through a union, up to a tee (drain vs return), and then into the CO2 reactor. The reactor is made from about 18" of 3" PVC wtih appropriate reducers, unions, etc. The flow then goes up to another tee which directs flow either directly back to the tank or through the UV unit. This way I can service the UV system without taking the CO2 reactor off-line. The flow then goes up to the tank, over the wall, down to a tee and out holes drilled into a 3/4" spray-bar across the entire back wall at the bottom of the tank.

To do a WC I open the drain line valve for about 5 mintues, close it, close the regular 1" inflow line valve and open up the valve to the 100g RO storage reservoir in the next room. A WC takes about 20 minutes or so. I have accidentaly drained 80% of the tank on one occasion (last week) and slightly overfilled the tank 4 or 5 times. I need to add some alarm sytems that will jog my easily-distracted short-term memory.

The two Hydor heaters are plumbed in-line with the return from the Eheim cansiter filters. One Eheim takes its inflow from an Eheim surface skimmer.

If I did it again, I'd probably put the Eheim pump in the room behind the wall to minimize noise. It isn't bad, but it could have been perfectly silent in my TV room. I'd also consider drilling the tank to allow the return inflow pipe and outflow pipe to be hidden. As it is, it's a bit of an eyesore after a trim until the plants cover them up again. Then again, bulkheads can leak, and 180 gallons of tank water in the living room would be an issue with the Mrs.

Also, consider flexible PVC tubing. The connections are easier to make, it's easier to modify when you're done, and you'll shorten the total length of pipe in the closed-loop. It might be theoretically more prone to leaking, but those who use it swear by it.

One thing I don't know is how often I'll need to clean out the pipes. There isn't really any filter on the closed-loop other than the intake strainer and I wonder if the spraybar is slowly filling up with debris. It's been running over a year now, and so far circulation is still ok, but maybe not quite what it was at first.

BryceM

One thing that you should keep in mind if you decide to keep a huge tank full of stemmies is energy required at trim time. I did a slightly larger-than-average trim this AM. It took about 3 hours and resulted in the mess you see below:



Cool huh? The tile around the stand was perhaps the smartest single thing I did when setting up the tank. All of the plants you see are the leftovers after everything was done. I was going to organize and sell some of them, but I just don't have the time or patience today. The tank needs a trim like this every two weeks with a little touch-up trim on the weekend in betwen. I'm sure I'll burn out of this someday. By then it will probably be an anubias, fern, moss, HC, crypt, and Blyxa tank.

Questin

That is a lot of trim you have. Should just have a "frag" tank to keep the extra until you get it to someone. A 33 long tank with a 350 magnum filter should just about do it =) Just have to get 48 inches of light over that.

I love the tile around your tank, I have done something like that as well, and it is one of the best things for a tank in a room of carpet. Great Tank!

BryceM

It's been a long time since I've updated anything here. I added some new fish from the QT tank yesterday. There are now 18 cardinals, 5 celestial pearl danios (galaxy rasbora), and 6 sidthimunki loaches to go along with 15 congos, 32 rummies, 10 harlequins, 8 corries, 3 rams, 3 SAE, and a mess of ottos & amano shrimp. That's now well over 100 fish!! The sidthimunki are about 1/3 the size of the largest amanos. The scale thing looks a little odd when they're next to each other. The school of cardinals is great and they're schooling independently from the harlequins and rummies which is a relief.

I'm a little nervous about the little danios with the congos, but so far the galaxies chase the congos and not the other way around. I really didn't have any other place for them since 5 full-sized angels are going into their old home.

I'll try to get some pictures of the sids and the C. calamistratum that is ready to bloom.

apistaeasy

Where did you get your sidthimunki loaches? I've been thinking hard about doing these in my next scape.

BryceM

Fish 4 U actually had them in. Ever been there? . They were tucked away in the aquarium next to the heavily planted show tank on the top shelf. Expensive little boogers though. I was quite impressed with the owner(?)..... forget her name....... I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. She only let me buy them if I agreed to get no fewer than six. She really wasn't sure she wanted to sell them at all. There were still a few left a week ago.

They've mostly been in hiding so far. Hopefully when they settle in and get a bit bigger they'll be out more. What has really surprised me is how boisterous the little galaxy rasboras are. They spend all their time front and center zipping around with reckless abandon. They pay absolutely no attention to the 15 full-grown congos. So far nobody is missing.

Yesterday my daughter said "Mom, the cats are trying to get behind the aquarium. I think a fish jumped out!" Sure enough a huge SAE was rolling around in the dirt and cat hair behind the tank. By the time my wife put him back in he was about done. He rolled around for a few minutes and then went looking for food like nothing happened. He did have cat hair stuck to him for a couple of hours.

What really stinks is that she put him back in! I've been trying to catch the big lazy guys for several weeks now. Oh well. AFAIK, that's the only jumper I've lost over the back wall except for a few random Amanos that have gone for a walkabout from time to time. They never seem to make it very far though.........

apistaeasy

So, you just got them recently then? They just got a large school of them, and I have some reserved for my re-scape in early January. I'm thinking a school of 8 or so in a 45-C would be awesome. Kris and Karey are really good about taking care of the people they know and who are experienced aquarist.

Questin

I have 10 congos and am down to around 4 amano shrimp. Before the congos I had near 15 amano shrimp, and about the same time I had added 8 or so amano shrimp.

My congos ate almost all my amano shrimp, I am surprised now that you have them in the tank together with no problems. How is that working for you?