When 6ft Tanks go really wrong ! ;-)

[Gallandro]

Take a look at this tank. Me a a freind spend 12 months getting to this, its a 6 foot tanks, £2000 worth of large rock and £1000's worth of fish and inverts. I have a story to tell that will amuse and shock **No livestock is harmed in this story** no thanks to us idiots ..
http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/1.JPG

[Gallandro]

looks loverly dosent it .. >;-)

[Gallandro]

The whole thing is scratch built, the base, even the tank ... here we are on a dark night in the UK working on the base....

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/2.JPG

[Gallandro]

When first put together is had in each end cupboard, a Fluval 404, with chemical media, and two Eheim pumps to provide current.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/3.JPG

[Gallandro]

In the middle were a system 2000 wave machine for the four ehiem pumps, 2 either end, and two canister filters with Bio media.

It has a Berlin scimmer hung on the back, and lighting is a triple MH and double Tube System 2000 suspended light system.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/4.JPG

[Gallandro]

.. oh and two UV filters...

The water was crystal clear and the Corels and fish loved the current. Water stability was great, as were all stats except Nitrates which were high.

After some thingking and visits to LFS, we though it was the two central bio canisters. Foly filter was used for a while, but it only helped so much and is expensive.

The tank never had a sump, as we didnt trust an over flow box, didnt want the wooden floor damaging (If only we knew, but his house not mine so...) and as we built the tank we did not have the skill / tools to drill it. we could not find anyone locally either.

Sealed canisters it was. ... but we longed for a Fudge ......

[Gallandro]

Well, we are both engineers, so we set about designing the sealed sump !

and here it is :

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/5.JPG


We built a small sump, and used Perspex in the top so we could drill it, and created a sealed port hole, so the taps could be closed and the top opened for access to the algae and media inside.

[Gallandro]

We used a few pipes and joins lying around and bypassed the two exsisting canisters.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/6.JPG

[Gallandro]

There was also a lot of tubeing pipwork down the sides that we wanted to replace with ridgid pipewaork.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/7.JPG

[Gallandro]

Swapping out the pipework ...

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/8.JPG

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/9.JPG

[Gallandro]

:eek2: FIRST PROBLEM !!! I crack a stress bar forcing the pipes in !

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/10.JPG

[Gallandro]

Its quickly patched with 10mm glass and silicone ..

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/11.JPG

[Gallandro]

Disaster one over .. not the main one though !

[Gallandro]

Ok so we put the bio balls and lava rock in the sump, just to get it started. ...

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/12.JPG

[Gallandro]

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/14.JPG

Connect her up and let some water in ....

[Gallandro]

Alot of water is taken out to even half fill the new sump, surprising. Luckly we both have loads of RO sotred in the garages !

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/15.JPG

[Gallandro]

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/16.JPG

[Gallandro]

Connected the outlets and let the water run through great !

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/17.JPG

[Gallandro]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGG water peeing out all over from an outlet !!

[Gallandro]

Turns out to be a damages pipe bend, see the pic. we had another lying aroiund so replaced it and continued. water flows through great.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/18.JPG

[Gallandro]

Cut the new pipe in and U bend quick and its OK ..http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/19.JPG

[areze]

that sump is gonna explode isnt it? a pressurized sump? that thing should have as much pressure as a 5' tall tank. and it looks to be some damn thin glass... thats my guess!

[Gallandro]

well areze .....

[Gallandro]

Here it is in full flow working ...

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/20.JPG

[Gallandro]

Pumps buzzed a bit but we put some of the spong for under tanks under then and trimmed it off .. sorted.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/21.JPG

[Gallandro]

All back together .. its been a long afternoon, its 10:30 pm now, so we got back to our girls and watch a movie .. a quick check on the tank at midnight, and me and the missis are off home ....

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/22.JPG

[Gallandro]

COME ON, ADMIT IT .. WHO'S BEEN FOLLOWING THIS THREAD AS IVE BEEN POSTIG IT FOR THE LAST FEW HOURS ? ILL POST THE END LATER TONIGHT OR MAYBE MAKE YOU WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW...

[wahshk]

Nice tank... I don't see a problem so far :)

[Gallandro]

aaaww thats babies a real cute one ..

[MarkS]

Originally posted by Gallandro
COME ON, ADMIT IT .. WHO'S BEEN FOLLOWING THIS THREAD AS IVE BEEN POSTIG IT FOR THE LAST FEW HOURS ? ILL POST THE END LATER TONIGHT OR MAYBE MAKE YOU WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW...

I'd just like to see some pics... :confused:

[Gallandro]

Its 3am in the morning and I get a call from my freind ... Bring all your towls and RO ! its all gone wrong ! . . .

[Gallandro]

BANG !

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/24.JPG

[Gallandro]

After I left he decided not to trust it over night. So he shut off the outlets to stop the flow ... BUT the pumps were still on trying to force water into the sump. The presure made it explode....


http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/25.JPG

[Gallandro]

I expect about 150 gallons of water came out of the tank and into the room and floor. Luckly we have a healthy RO production plant !.. by the time I got there, lots of towels had been used and a small heater to sort thing out.

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/23.JPG

[ich_commando]

some one called that....ouch

maybe you should have trusted an overflow....

Besides the exploding sump, the tank looks really nice. I hope nothing was lost in the disaster.

[Gallandro]

happy ending ish .. the tank was qucly filled and just felt like it had a large water change, and the Canisters were left out ond the nitrates stabalised.. The sump saw the skip ...http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/26.JPG

[guybirch]

Being engineers you both should have known better...

Lucky that you seemed to have gotten away with it.

[Gallandro]

I know .. .. ah well ..

We can laugh about it now, this was all 18 months ago ..

The tank want on a bigger journy .. my freind left England and went to Germany .. the tank went with him ... its now thriving over there.

[areze]

heh actually though it didnt quite go down as id have expected. the pump pushing water in was countered by the head on the other side of the system; leading to a continuous pressure in the sump. it was about 5 or 6' of pressure. suprised it held up as is and didnt blow till the valve was shut off.

[Gallandro]

We did actually make a Mark 2 with a small nozzle with an airline going to the top of the tank. Any changes in presure and the line made sucking or blowing nosies lol .. did last to long, anfter that the tank went to Germany.

[scotty1234]

How come you put lava rocks in the sump? In all fairness marbles probably would have worked better.

[Gallandro]

we just had the stuff in the canisters... always had high reguard for the stuff. We wanted to tranfer some bacteria

[Wryknow]

That seems like an awful lot of trouble to make another canister filter! :-) Thanks for sharing. Glad nobody got hurt!

[Gallandro]

Well the idea was to fill it full of alge and put a 24/7 light on it ..

...and we mes with things ;-)

[Wryknow]

I recommend that you mess with making your buddy a big DIY skimmer and forget about the cannister filters altogether if you want to get rid of nitrate problems. The live rock should be able to support enough bacteria to support your systems nitrogen cycle needs in a well skimmed tank. Plus, giant skimmers are cool! Just a thought in case you're looking for an excuse to visit Germany..... :-) (Octoberfest is probably getting ready to start too in case that's not enough!)

[rulesmith]

I have not seen a lot of long term successful canister reef tanks. I vote for the big skimmer. Very pretty tank.

[THE GIMP]

Nice try Gents! Always good to see someone trying something different!

[Lordhelmet]

That was one of the best story telling in a thread i have ever seen. that was truly awsome, makes it even better that nothing died and he stuck with it.

[Whaledriver]

engineers
As soon as I started reading this thread I knew it was an engineer that came up with this idea. Look at how many mouse traps have been designed

[supraeli]

completely off topic - any idea how he transported the entire tank setup from one country to another? im assuming livestock was sold off?

[Gallandro]

Well being engineers thats another story ! ;-)

http://81.100.44.1/fish/pics/klaus/IMG_1635.JPG

[Gallandro]

No live stock was sold, not even any RO water lost.

We put the tank in its entirety into the back of a van.

A custom lid with breather holes was fitted to the tank top and battery powered pumps fitted.

We got it in the Van the day before, you can see in the pic the mains power ran into the back until we switched to batteries the next day for the trip.

The tank got there nearly a year ago and no livestock was lost.

[Broodingwolf]

how on earth did you move it? I hear that's really dangerous to do because of stress on the glass from the water moving.

[Gallandro]

Water out into drums. water back in, when in van. Tank was braced in the vam with custome made slings and alu frame.

[Cuby2k]

Gallandro,

Please, repost the pictures. Even if they are just in your gallery. There are so many people on other threads that would really benefit from this story.

[newhere]

I see lots of red X and no pictures. Not sure why I can't see the pictures.

Cuby2k Do you still live in St. George My parents live just south in Mesquite.

[Bebo77]

lol dude that was almost a year ago...

[akrimmel]

HEY BUD YOUR PICS AREN'T SEEN IN THE THREAD

[mikekman]

Man, I want to see the pictures!! Anyone got pics of this stored on their computer?