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Unread 05/10/2013, 07:58 PM   #22
o2manyfish
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Encino, CA
Posts: 6,199
SFSU,

The electricity to run almost 1000g was nominal. I used gravity to flow the water through 5 different tanks. At the time I was using a Dolphin Ampmaster 3600 as a return pump and the outlet split with 1/2 to my display tank an 1/2 to the outdoor tanks. After a couple of issues with seals and restarting I switched over to a single dart pump for the return.

For chilling I buried the 400g tank in the ground. When the temp goes up a valve opens and the water from the return switches and flows through the underground tank and then back to the above ground tanks. I also supplement with a 19 dollar box fan on the surface. Evaporative cooling is extremely effective where I live. So even on an overcast and rainy day with the outside tanks I still probably evaporate a minimum of 15g a day. In the summer time that may go as high as 40+g a day. All the top off is Kalkwasser. So I am happy to evaporate more and add more Kalk to the system.

The only other expense was in each one of the frag tanks I used a RIO pump for flow. With great luck I used up flow. I put the RIO's on the bottom of the center of the tank and pointed them straight up. This create a mushroom flow that rolls across the entire tank. It also creates waves and periodically throughout the day the upflow waves will reach a key frequency (don't know how else to describe it) and create a 3-4" wave across the tank. The 3-4" waves bounce around for maybe as long as a minutes and then settle back down to a 1" wave. I am real happy with the upflow technique and use it in my main display tank as well and have two tunzes that are midway down in the tank pointed straight up.

So that's all the electricity it took to have a very successful outdoor frag system in So Cal.

Dave B


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560g Display. 1500g System Volume. (2) 180g Outdoor Frag Tanks. 340g Sump, 30g 2 story surge tank. Dasatco EXT 9. Bubble King Skimmer. Ozone. UV. 5' Fluidized Sand Filter. Avast Kalk Mixer.

Current Tank Info: 560g SPS Dominant Reef / 1500g Total System
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