Help! J-P's Set up

[RTR]

My 300 gal circulating range is topped up daily if i am in the tank room, but it only really needs alternate-day topping off.

J_P: is your reactor inverted flow (water in at top and out the bottom, CO2 the same) or upward flow?

[J-P]

hummm... I'm going to say upward flow. The top tanks are always the same and the bottom is the one that needs the topping off.

I am going to assume that because of the cascading action of the top section, that is where I am loosing the most due to evap.

I have panes of glass that I can put on the bottom (mentioned previously for the fahaka that wasn't meant to be). That will help with the bottom. Just a little befuddled as what to do with the top. If the tank were acrylic I wouldn't have this problem

download.php?id=2666&mode=view

that's a copy pf the pic I took when we were just starting to set it up.

I know it is a big tank ... but 35 gals a week in evap at the moment. Not very good for the window frames.

[CarmenH]

My 90gals are losing about 2 liters per day recently. I've started topping up 1 liter twice a day. 9am and 9pm, which works out perfectly cuz it reminds me to dose the vitamin c

[Brandon8521]

My 90gals are losing about 2 liters per day recently. I've started topping up 1 liter twice a day. 9am and 9pm, which works out perfectly cuz it reminds me to dose the vitamin c

HAHA.... I do the same thing. I top off twice dailey and it helps me to dose VitC. I forget to dose when I forget to top off.

[J-P]

Posted after deleted:
RTR:
by RTR on Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:49 pm
Exposed surface area (when warmer than the ambient air temp.) is perhaps the largest evaporator, especially when it is moving - even w/o surface breaks. Cascading water loses more when broken up (i.e. natural waterfall like), but when smooth flow (certain overflow boxes) it loses only a bit more moisture from the surface, which is related to the rate of flow. Broken surface flow loses more (turbulent with surface breaks) White water loses more than smooth flow. The same applies to gas exchange. Highly turbulent broken flow off-gases or in-gases best, but likely is not required for normal tank operations. I avoid it like the plague - I hate the spray/splatter and the noise. and the salt/mineral creep.

Circulating ranges and tank + sump or refugium combined tanks lose water for me directly related to difference between the ambient and air temps., and the relative humidity of the air above the tanks. My tank room tries to be the humidifier for the house... a PITA. The big range has ~28 sq. ft. of semis-exposed moving water surface. That give a minimum of about 1.5 gallons per day evaporation. The lowest water level can function easily within the range of +/- 2x that amount,and still safely within +/- 3 x that range. Outside that things become risky. From that, my practice is to top up daily if I am there anyway, fish-sitters are required to do so alternate days - which still gives a margin of error of one day.

Most fish rooms are nor linked directly to the house's air circulation, but mine is. There are advantages and disadvantages to either option. The second room used as a tank room at times is independent. It is used in the winter to store tropical plants at near-dormancy, so operates for several months per year well below the house temps. If I must winter over tanks in there, they are as close to air-tight as I can get. Excess humidity would be an issue there otherwise. If a dehumidifier is used there, the output must be pumped up one level to daylight easily - that room is largely earth-sheltered. And even the smallest dehumidifier units can add quite a bit of heat - If the room warms up, I have to add more light. That in turn adds more heat - the wrong kind of positive feedback.

HTH

by RTR on Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:49 pm
The question I asked earlier really was about the CO2 reactor. There is no problem w/DIY there - most folks I know use such.

The best operation seems to be with the water input at the top, outflow at the base - both of those being centered, but both may be out one side . Most folks seem happiest with some sort of baffle/turbulence in the flow path. This is usually some sort of hard plastic bioball - they.create turbulence in the flow and help break up large bubbles of CO2 into smaller ones - remember that gas solution is related to surface of the bubbles. The gas input is either high or low, and I do not see a lot of difference in that, but is always at the side, not into the center water flow.

That flow arrangement tends to keep CO2 gas inside the reactor better, as the bubbles break up and are pushed down in the turbulent flow - giving more time to dissolve. Especially if you use DIY CO2, you may have air in the reactor, not just CO2 gas. That may need to be burped periodically. CO2 is pretty soluble - many gases (O2 for one) are not.

Also remember that "air" does not dissolve. Its component gases dissolve individually. Ditto when air off-gases after release from pressurization. The microbubbles tend to be pure gas when they form, but other gases tend to come out of solution into existing bubbles, so they re-mix to some degree - the larger the bubble the better the mixture, but it will not quite match the standard "air" mixture due to the varied solubility of the component gases.

HTH



by J-P on Thu Oct 28, 2010 7:11 pm
=) Always appreciated!

To answer the CO2 Q.. the reactor is in the bottom of the tank near the overflow input. This allows the draw straight through to the other end of the tank. Then forced up into the top section. I'm not too worried about it off gassing in the top section. The plants in there are minimal (mostly java moss and a few other low light plants).

[RTR]

LOL! Both of those posts I had backed-up myself, but thanks for restoring them.

Also, I was spouting figures without checking them carefully - my daily evaporation volume is 2x what I said - it should have been ~3 gallons per day. I only based it on one tank at the lowest water level (there are five different levels on three racks) and there really are two, so five square feet of tank surface, not the 2.5 sq. ft. I used. !% daily loss is non-trivial, but the system can handle 3x hat without serious risk (the circulation rate slows a bit).

Sorry about the miscalculation... but the exact numbers are relatively trivial so long as you know where the danger line applies.

[J-P]

Well the end of this chapter has finally come. The remainder of the tank has been broken down and will be shipped off to the dump tomorrow.

[sevenyearnight]

[xrayjeeper83]

what happen?

[J-P]

it wouldn't fit in the new house, the buyer of the old house didn't want it, and I couldn't even donate it to the schools.

It is a shame really because that tank belonged more to the forum members and I than it did to my wife. She had almost no involvement in it and didn't help maintain it or feed the fish even.

You guys and gals here put more into it than she did.

[xrayjeeper83]

That sucks

[J-P]

It does. In time I'll get another monster tank. Once we get a bigger place. Will probably go acrylic but first I'd like to try my hand at a complete build from scratch