Throughout the years, I've kept many freshwater aquariums, a few saltwater fish only systems, and now maintain a reef system that I've been upgrading and learning with.
I'm in the process of building an addition onto my home, and part of that build will revolve around what I'm calling a reef network. Just like a computer network, you have your hub and/or switch (sump) in one centralized location, feeding multiple computers/network devices (aquariums.)
The sump I'm going to be using is going to be appx 800 gallons, lighted with skylights, and the aquariums are going to each have gravity fed overflow boxes. The sump will be reinforced with a wood frame and will have have a deep sand bed, live rock, and protein skimmer for filtration. It will house pretty much all of the equipment.
The main tank in my living room, I'm really not even sure what I want to keep in the system yet, but it will be appx 180 gallons.
The tank in my dining room will be around 220-300 gallons and will have either a bamboo or horned shark, possibly a stingray, and some larger monos (at least until the shark gets big enough to eat them) and a large columbian catshark. The monos and cat shark have been through freshwater, brackish, and slowly converted over about an eight month period to full saltwater and are outgrowing their current system. The shark tank will have at least 200 pounds of fine sand in it.
To minimize heat and for energy savings, I will be using LED and NO lighting on all tanks that don't have photosynthetic creatures.
I hope to use a single water pump with multiple outlets, ball valve switches, etc to control the flow into various aquariums as well as check valves for fail safes.
Besides the two main large tanks, there will be smaller tanks in possibly all of the other rooms.
I understand the issues of sharing multiple systems, such as if one tank gets sick, all tanks are infected, especially if (like an LFS) fish come and go all of the time without proper quarantining. My answer for this is that I will properly quarantine all livestock and don't plan to keep adding and changing stuff in the system once it is running in harmony.
In total, the system will hold less than 1,500 gallons of water, really a whole lot less when you consider 2,000 pounds of live rock and as much live sand. So, for chilling purposes, I was thinking of using a combination of a 1,000 gallon chiller and build a radiator system to work with the chiller.
I do have a few questions...
1: I understand that the ground isn't a very good insulator, because it can't disperse heat/cold very well, but with a combination of a chiller and a radiator, would burying the sump at least slow down the heating process of the water in the daytime, before it cools off at night? Would it even be a worthwhile option? Just to be clear, the sump will not be outside in the open but rather will have a small storage-building type shed built over it, with skylights for 'daylight' lighting.
2: I've heard people mention that even though setting up multiple aquariums via one sump is a bad idea, if you do it, use a UV filtration system. Is this a viable option at all on such a large scale setup?
3: I like the idea of using a fluidized bed filter in a chain that goes something like this: overflow = fluidized bed filter to convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate = macro algae/refugium to take nitrates/phosphates = sump/deep sand bed to convert the excess nitrates into nitrogen gas before going back into the system. What are your thoughts on fluidized bed filters used like this in a reef system?
This system is in no way a final design, and it will be awhile before I attempt to implement any ideas into this system.
I'm in the process of building an addition onto my home, and part of that build will revolve around what I'm calling a reef network. Just like a computer network, you have your hub and/or switch (sump) in one centralized location, feeding multiple computers/network devices (aquariums.)
The sump I'm going to be using is going to be appx 800 gallons, lighted with skylights, and the aquariums are going to each have gravity fed overflow boxes. The sump will be reinforced with a wood frame and will have have a deep sand bed, live rock, and protein skimmer for filtration. It will house pretty much all of the equipment.
The main tank in my living room, I'm really not even sure what I want to keep in the system yet, but it will be appx 180 gallons.
The tank in my dining room will be around 220-300 gallons and will have either a bamboo or horned shark, possibly a stingray, and some larger monos (at least until the shark gets big enough to eat them) and a large columbian catshark. The monos and cat shark have been through freshwater, brackish, and slowly converted over about an eight month period to full saltwater and are outgrowing their current system. The shark tank will have at least 200 pounds of fine sand in it.
To minimize heat and for energy savings, I will be using LED and NO lighting on all tanks that don't have photosynthetic creatures.
I hope to use a single water pump with multiple outlets, ball valve switches, etc to control the flow into various aquariums as well as check valves for fail safes.
Besides the two main large tanks, there will be smaller tanks in possibly all of the other rooms.
I understand the issues of sharing multiple systems, such as if one tank gets sick, all tanks are infected, especially if (like an LFS) fish come and go all of the time without proper quarantining. My answer for this is that I will properly quarantine all livestock and don't plan to keep adding and changing stuff in the system once it is running in harmony.
In total, the system will hold less than 1,500 gallons of water, really a whole lot less when you consider 2,000 pounds of live rock and as much live sand. So, for chilling purposes, I was thinking of using a combination of a 1,000 gallon chiller and build a radiator system to work with the chiller.
I do have a few questions...
1: I understand that the ground isn't a very good insulator, because it can't disperse heat/cold very well, but with a combination of a chiller and a radiator, would burying the sump at least slow down the heating process of the water in the daytime, before it cools off at night? Would it even be a worthwhile option? Just to be clear, the sump will not be outside in the open but rather will have a small storage-building type shed built over it, with skylights for 'daylight' lighting.
2: I've heard people mention that even though setting up multiple aquariums via one sump is a bad idea, if you do it, use a UV filtration system. Is this a viable option at all on such a large scale setup?
3: I like the idea of using a fluidized bed filter in a chain that goes something like this: overflow = fluidized bed filter to convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate = macro algae/refugium to take nitrates/phosphates = sump/deep sand bed to convert the excess nitrates into nitrogen gas before going back into the system. What are your thoughts on fluidized bed filters used like this in a reef system?
This system is in no way a final design, and it will be awhile before I attempt to implement any ideas into this system.
