Opinions On A Setup

[Donya]

What do you guys think of this type of thing?

A - partitioned tank holding livestock, lit with hanging lights or something similar.

B - "refugium" type bin for the purpose of adding water vollume and having filtration mechanisms. Not sure what all would be in there yet. This will be lit as well.

C - heater and other equipment stuff to be kept away from part A for space/safety reasons. Not sure what all will be in there yet.

D - Water level shutoff for the canister filter. This is to prevent the canister from either running dry or overflowing the top chambers if the gravity-driven drain on the right gets clogged.

E - Canister filter or really big pump or some sort, depending on what's in part B.

To be honest this would not be for a marine setup specifically, but I based in on marine setups I've seen...and I trust you guys' opinion on this sort of thing a lot more than other folks I've talked to about the subject (since you guys actually build stuff like this). It would be to the end of selective breeding experiments to verify some genetic hypotheses, hence the partitions in the top tank. It could have 20 or more partitions to pull off the experiment. Do you guys think that mechanically/physically it would work? Anything that should be changed/improved?

I probably won't be able to do this in my house since it will be too darn big and cumbertsome...I'm guessing I'll only be able to do it if I can get some lab space set aside at my univeristy (I have an offer for it, just have to see if that carries through).

 

[crazyelece]

My opinion is that looks good, but I would change one thing. Either use egg crate or plexiglass with slits cut in it so the water level would be equal in all chambers. You could also use regular glass and hold it up off the bottom and then cover this in substrate. This would force the water through the gravel and basically add an undergravel filter (without the mess) as well. You may have to alternate lifting and sinking the panels so that it goes over one, then under one, then over, etc. That way you would never have any stagnate water and still use the substrate for filtration.

 

[Donya]

I want to avoid gravel and equipment in the livestock partitions, for the purpose of keeping track of offspring and whatnot. The water level being equal would creat a problem with deadzones in circulation...lots on one end and not much at the other since it's so long. I went to the stairstep design because all but the first chamber on the left would have roughly the same turbulance since it would be generatd by water pulled down the same amount by gravity each time (it would be a very small drop in elevation between each). The problem is the first left partition could have higher turbulance, which might prevent it from being used for anything but equipment/filtration.

 

[superman]

Use a pump to get the water up to the main tank, using a canister filter is not a good idea. Drill the sump area low for the pump intake. Introduce the water to the first chamber in the main tank via a spray bar, this will reduce the turbulance in the first chamber and would make it possible to use it in the experiment instead of just leaving it empty.

 

[Donya]

A spray bar sounds good. What is the advantage of drilling low to supply water to the pump? I realized after you mentioned it that it could give better flow in the sump than top-in-top-out, but wasn't sure if there was another reason as well.

 

[superman]

It keeps the sump pump flooded so that in the case of a power outage the pump doesn't have a chance to run dry. Also keeps less air bubbles from being sucked into the sump pump.

 

[Donya]

Thanks! Definitely a change I will put in Air bubbles are a good point (I've seen troubles with that from canister filters but forgot about it)

 

[crazyelece]

Actually the way you have it drawn will have dead spots at the bottom of each chamber. You could run a spray bar the full length of the back and then run a drain off every chamber. Also you may want to add a substrate for breeding. It is popular (at least in freshwater) to use marbles. It lets the fry hide so as not to be eaten.

Also don't be offended if it seems like I'm being argumentative, I'm only doing it to generate additional ideas. Please don't take it personally.

 

[superman]

Marbles would catch a lot of crap as well, so water quality could potentially become an issue very quickly. Depending on the amount of flow being pushed through the system the dead spots may be very small and no need to worry about them.