Dual Fuge w/Duplex Completed - LOTS of pics

[Montreal Ray]

I decided to add more water volume to my set-up. I drew up many designs before deciding on this one. Lot's of influence came from RC member tanks. I wanted something that holds macro algae and DSB in separate tanks. The macro had to be last in line, I want the least possible amount of Detritus to get caught in the algae. I also wanted to add a duplex set-up (Inspired by Mr. Wilson) and still have room for heater, reactor and skimmer.

Here is what I came up with....

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/1.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/2.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/3.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/4.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/5.JPG

I dumped my sun coral in there for easy feeding and the Conche because it keeps knocking down rocks and crals in my DT.
http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/6.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/7.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/8.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/9.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/10.JPG

More pics on the way...

[Montreal Ray]

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/11.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/12.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/13.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/14.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/15.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/16.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/17.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/18.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/19.JPG

http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/20.JPG

[Montreal Ray]

Check out the amount of sponges growing in my overflow. There are 100's
http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/100.JPG


Since im posting pics, this is my Abyssinian
http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/aby.JPG

Thanks for looking and 1000 thanks for all the great information this board has to offer!

[Montreal Ray]

err no one? Does it suck that bad? lol

[dwd5813]

i like it a lot. this is really close to what i've envisioned as a sort of dream system. i'm curious about a couple things.

1. what was your reasoning for confining the sand to only a small portion of the first overflow tank (the one with the skimmer) vs. running it all the way across the whole tank?
2. with the number of redundancies in nutrient export, i.e. dsb, macro, refugium life, etc.. do you feel like the skimmer is just a failsafe? another way of asking that is do you really feel like you need the skimmer?
3. how long has this been running as it stands in the pics?
4. in the first two pics i see a black vertical pipe running into a filter sock. is that the drain from the first overflow tank or straight from the dt? in other words, is the full amount of system overflow running through both tanks?
5. what are your test parameters?
i'm sure there are tons more questions i could come up with but that's what surfaces immediately. thanks for posting this, it's a very cool system.

[Montreal Ray]

I will try to reply with the best of my knowledge ( If I can even call it "knowledge lol). This is my first SPS tank and I'm building my set-up according to what I have learned here in a very short time. So please don't take my advice :-)


i like it a lot. this is really close to what i've envisioned as a sort of dream system. i'm curious about a couple things.

1. what was your reasoning for confining the sand to only a small portion of the first overflow tank (the one with the skimmer) vs. running it all the way across the whole tank?

I wanted the space for the duplex and skimmer. The new skimmer will fill out the first area almost entirely.

I also feel it is not necessary to have more that what I've got there.

2. with the number of redundancies in nutrient export, i.e. dsb, macro, refugium life, etc.. do you feel like the skimmer is just a failsafe? another way of asking that is do you really feel like you need the skimmer?

Yes I fell it is very nessesary, especailly with SPS. The DSB, cheato and fuge will never export what a skimmer does.

3. how long has this been running as it stands in the pics?

The tank is about 14 months old. It ran with sofies for about 10 months. This is my first crack at SPS.

4. in the first two pics i see a black vertical pipe running into a filter sock. is that the drain from the first overflow tank or straight from the dt? in other words, is the full amount of system overflow running through both tanks?

That pipe runs from the first fuge/sump. DT > Fuge1 > Fuge2 > Back to DT

5. what are your test parameters?
i'm sure there are tons more questions i could come up with but that's what surfaces immediately. thanks for posting this, it's a very cool system.

Nitrate 0 (never saw any readings with cheato)
Phos 0 (never saw any readings with cheato)
Mag 1300
Cal 400-425
alk 8.5-9
PH 8.1-8.3
Salt 1.026
temp 78.5 - 79.5



Thank you!

[dwd5813]

very cool. i see your return is teed off, is that an open pipe after the valve? for wc's i assume? have you calculated the gph through the sumps? the mag 18 is rated at 1800 but i wonder what you're losing to head pressure and plumbing.

also, do you have any fts of the front of the display?

[Montreal Ray]

very cool. i see your return is teed off, is that an open pipe after the valve? for wc's i assume? have you calculated the gph through the sumps? the mag 18 is rated at 1800 but i wonder what you're losing to head pressure and plumbing.

also, do you have any fts of the front of the display?

Yeah, I used to use that T for WC's, it never really worked that well so I stopped.

I have about 5' of head, so I'm pushing right around 1100GPH. The second fuge is seeing that across all the baffles because the water runs from one end to the other.

The 1st fuge is a little harder to calculate exactly. The water in the DSB section is defiantly not running as 1100GPH. Most of the water motion is within the first section where the skimmer is. Both in /out are located there. Know what I mean? Hard to explain and harder to calculate.

Bad FTS, sorry
http://www.raysreef.ca/boards/dual/23.JPG

[nuccadoc]

Love the clam!

[dwd5813]

The water in the DSB section is defiantly not running as 1100GPH. Most of the water motion is within the first section where the skimmer is. Both in /out are located there. Know what I mean? Hard to explain and harder to calculate.


do you think it might make a difference if you had the in/out separated more? i mean in overall efficiency, not necessarily just flow rate. what effect do you think it would have?

[Montreal Ray]

Love the clam!

Thanks

do you think it might make a difference if you had the in/out separated more? i mean in overall efficiency, not necessarily just flow rate. what effect do you think it would have?

That would not make it more efficient. I designed it this way so I would have less flow in the DSB/fuge section and max flow with the cheato. I might even add a small PH in the cheato section to get even more flow.

Thank you