320 gallon display with equipment shed

[cilyjr]

I live in the Central Coast of California which means we pay a ridiculously high amount for electricity. Don't want to get into all of the problems with the California government but there are many and high electricity rates are a side benefit...

I work for a large heating air conditioning and plumbing outfit in our area that employs between 10 and 12 plumbers at any given time and 8 to 10 HVAC technicians. My job here for the last year is inventory management which means I am in charge of all the purchasing and vendor relationships etc. so, I can talk to industry professionals about unique situations.

This just got me thinking about using a tankless water heater to heat the fish tank. I started a thread about it in the DIY forum and then found an individual who's been doing exactly this for well over 10 years. If this project goes forward, I will document the process here.
Here is a link to the individual that's already doing this.

Dedicated Tankless Water Heater

My plan is too use a titanium heat exchanger. I posted a picture of my plan in an earlier post. I'm going to use a DC pump to control the flow through the heat exchanger. By changing the flow, I can control the amount of heat transfer to the aquarium water. I'm sure it will take some testing...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[cilyjr]

My crappy 36 w coral life twist UV sterilizer Died. Water was getting into the quartz sleeve. It's fairly common for these units. I bought it a couple of years ago cuz I needed something quickly. Well I finally got a good 56 w aqua UV to replace it. I 3D printed the brackets because the one I bought didn't come with them.

The other big project I had been wanting to get done was to get underneath the cabinet on the tank cleaned up. Ever since install. Most of the wires were pretty much just hanging there and it was unused wasted space. I will put shelving under there in a week or 2.

 

[cilyjr]

For the first time in 15 years, I've decided to try running without a calcium reactor. This is a pretty big shift in philosophy.

I have always used a calcium reactor with kalkwasser. Last Saturday I took it off line and upped the kalkwasser reactor dosage. As the need grows I will supplement with soda ash and calcium hydroxide.

The goal is a higher pH.

 

[cilyjr]

A few months ago, I brought in an adult checker wrasse that was roughly 7 inches long.
It was quite happy and was an amazing fish. It also decided to start eating all my shrimp. I knew it was a possibility but thought unlikely. Stupid me.

I finally set up the fish trap and got it out. It took 3 days which is pretty good time in my opinion.

Took it to the store and traded it for 2 skunk cleaner shrimp.

 

[cilyjr]

I'm thinking of switching the lights for radion g6.
I have 8 hydra32hd currently and they came with the tank, which I debated when buying it. I was told by a reliable source (the guy who was taking care of the tank before I bought it) that they had about 6 months on them.

If I changed, I'd move 4 of the hydras to the frag tank and sell 4 while they were still worth something.

The hydra26 on the frag tank are from 2017 and have about 7 years on them. 1 has a broken fan ect so they will need replacement in the next year or 2.

 

[cilyjr]

It's always bothered me that the top trim on the tank was black while the stand and floating hood was white.

Also, this tank has a strange wire height where the waterline was below the black rim. I tried raising the water line with little plugs and that I had printed and put in the weir, but what would happen is the center braces would go below the water line when it would splash.

I tried using vinyl tape at the top but it looked pretty cheezy. My wife suggested wood trim.

Just used simple door trim and the same kind of tape that holds command hooks on. I'm quite pleased with the result.

 

[revhtree]

Beautiful!

 

[cilyjr]

Beautiful!

Thanks. It's funny to me how something very simple really helps complete a and look.

 

[Jimbo327]

Another top brace FTW!

 

[cilyjr]

Another top brace FTW!

I am super happy with it.

 

[cilyjr]

I did some par testing, which is something I've never done. Even with eight Hydra 32s and four 4-ft t5s I was a bit surprised to see how low the numbers were.

This resulted in me really cranking up the Hydras which in turn made them really noisy.

I decided to change the lights. Especially since the hydra's are only a year and a little bit old I can sell them.

I decided to go with 6x reefi Uno 2.1 pro.
I will have to completely take down the canopy to mount them. I will use 2040 extruded aluminum rails. I'm going to use six 18 inch pieces and mount them directly to the canopy top. That way each unit will be on its own 3-ft rail. It will be adjustable but also easier to remove then the current system which has one rail for four lights.

 

[Raptor72]

I did some par testing, which is something I've never done. Even with eight Hydra 32s and four 4-ft t5s I was a bit surprised to see how low the numbers were.

This resulted in me really cranking up the Hydras which in turn made them really noisy.

I decided to change the lights. Especially since the hydra's are only a year and a little bit old I can sell them.

I decided to go with 6x reefi Uno 2.1 pro.
I will have to completely take down the canopy to mount them. I will use 2040 extruded aluminum rails. I'm going to use six 18 inch pieces and mount them directly to the canopy top. That way each unit will be on its own 3-ft rail. It will be adjustable but also easier to remove then the current system which has one rail for four lights.

Show us a top down picture when you’re done. I’m interested in the configuration. I’m also putting a canopy together.