Fish Room Redesign

[ca1ore]

My basement fish room has become impossibly cluttered, and water changes on my 265 are proving to be a major pain. So, I have decided to redesign/consolidate my various ancillary tanks into a single structure. My thinking is as such:

http://i1361.photobucket.com/albums/r680/ca1ore/WC-HT_zps1149e21d.jpg (http://s1361.photobucket.com/user/ca1ore/media/WC-HT_zps1149e21d.jpg.html)

Red lines are ATO top-off, green lines are normal flow and blue lines are water change flow. Water cannot flow from HT back into display (would rather negate the effectiveness of the QT if it could).
Would appreciate any observations folks might have. I believe I have thought through all implications, but as we all know, that's rarely true :lol:

[woodnaquanut]

First off, 4 words into your post, I hate you! :) You have a basement fish room!!

The system looks good. Do you mix the SW in either W/C #1 or #2 or somewhere else?

[ca1ore]

First off, 4 words into your post, I hate you! :) You have a basement fish room!!

Well, fish room yes, but also aka the boiler room :lol: In fact, that's part of the impetus to de-clutter - too much crap too close to the boiler!

The system looks good. Do you mix the SW in either W/C #1 or #2 or somewhere else?

Yeah I just mix new water in whichever of the two 40B tanks is currently out of the flow circuit. Have a second apex temperature probe, so that ensures temp is perfectly matched to the main tank so all I have to do is ensure a salinity match, flip a couple of ball valves and presto: 38 gal W/C.

Thanks for looking!

[clay12340]

Is this stuff all purchased already? I'm looking at some of the plastic water tanks for my water change bins. Seem a lot cheaper and less likely to have issues than glass tanks when elevated.

Also what are you using for the ATO that is managing all 4 tanks?

How are you filling WC/2 with new water without stopping the main tank from draining? Are you relying on being able to do that quickly enough that WC/1 doesn't overflow before you finish and switch the valve back over to flowing into WC/2 or are you just shutting off the pump?

[ca1ore]

Is this stuff all purchased already? I'm looking at some of the plastic water tanks for my water change bins. Seem a lot cheaper and less likely to have issues than glass tanks when elevated.

Yeah, had the setup for a long time. I don't really like plastic tanks as I've had a few split on me over the years.

Also what are you using for the ATO that is managing all 4 tanks?

The wonder that is Apex!

How are you filling WC/2 with new water without stopping the main tank from draining? Are you relying on being able to do that quickly enough that WC/1 doesn't overflow before you finish and switch the valve back over to flowing into WC/2 or are you just shutting off the pump?

Water flows from my main display into W/C #1 which then overflows a pair of standpipes (two for redundancy) into the main sump. While that is happening, W/C #2 is empty and has no water entering it. So, I just fill it from the ATO reservoir (usually in two stages, since the reservoir is the same size as the W/C tanks and cannot be empty), add salt, bring it up to temperature and it is ready to go. Whenever I am ready to do the water change, I simply divert the display overflow from W/C #1 to W/C #2 by flipping two ball valves. At that point W/C #1 is no longer in the 'circuit' and the old water can be disposed of as I see fit - either to serve as a water change for any of the three QT tanks or to drain.

[Diamond Dave]

Interesting. I am also in the process of building a basement fish room. Had a similar idea in mind using 55 gallon food barrels ( which cost $15 each). Been throwing around multiple designs on paper. Current design uses three barrels. One for ro, one for salt mixing and one system barrel. The two storage containers are simple, the ro is up high so it feeds the salt mixing tank,valve for bucket filling and valve in sink for rinsing stuff, all by gravity. The salt mixing tank will be equipped with a mixing pump and heaters for making new salt water. Mixing pump will double as a delivery pump. Very similar to your design in that this last tank is plumbed in to the system. This tank is serving multiple purposes for my system. First of all it increases the volume by 50 gallons adding more stability, will house my two 20" heaters, and is an easy water change vessel. In my design the tank overflow will be diverted by turning two valve simultaneously. Researched a three way valve and was way too expensive. That pulls the reservoir offline, so after the heaters are switched off the tank can be drained, cleaned(barrel will have a bottom drain that goes to sink) and refilled with the premixed preheated saltwater. Then the two valves are switched back and heaters turned back on. Been redesigning the overflow in the barrel. I have unseals for the drain was thinking one 3" pipe. That would surely never get clogged. Attached rough sketch any thoughts?

[Diamond Dave]

Lol thumb upside down. My bad.

[RJT]

Nice design ca1ore. What covers are you using on to make sure no water from ht enters any other? What is the stand made of? I noticed no center beam on any level.

Is the ato automatically filled by the rodi?

[ca1ore]

Setup not built yet, just 'proposed'. Tanks are all currently running, but in a jumble. Good point about splash between the HT tanks. I don't plan covers, but maybe an acrylic or plywood wall between each tank would be wise. Good observation, thanks!

I figure two 40s and three 30s is equivalent to a 150, so stand will be built accordingly. I always overbuild, so probably sistered 2x4 for the four vertical legs, and then either sistered 2x6 for the horizontals (or maybe the plywood 'micro lams' that I used in my display stand).

I manually fill the ATO from my RODI. Have had all sorts of problems with that solenoid on my RODI. Float shutoff in the ATO reservoir ensures it will not overflow.

About the only other flaw I've noted is that water removal from the intro tank is not planned for. Will have to think about that one.

[RJT]

You must have a huge boiler room.

I assumed you were manually removing the water in the wc, ht and intro tanks. A mag pump or maxi jet with tubing would be an easy water removal system. Just watch the commingling.