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PNW Temperate Tanks Using Marineland Commercial Systems


AquaticEngineer

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AquaticEngineer

Update as of 9/18/11

Video I took of my tank today while I was testing out some lighting options.

 

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I'll give you a brief rundown and then get to the pictures ;)

 

I bought a 110 gallon Marineland Commercial tank back in April off of craigslist for $300. Went and checked it out and the guy had water in it and was running all the systems. Everything works and is in almost new condition. This model has a built in skimmer, UV filter, 3/4 horse chiller, dual overflows......its slick B) Got it moved into the garage at my new house and started slowly refurbishing it. Working on painting some of the ugly white plastic and figuring out placement and such.

 

Then earlier this month I was cruising craigslist again and happend to stumble across an even better deal! I found a smaller system, a ML 22-SS, which has a tank measurement of 27x27x13 and an overall height of 50 inches............for $50 :bling: It was a in a lot worse shape than the larger tank but I couldn't resist it at that price.

 

It needed some work done to it since all the power cords had been chewed off by the previous owners dog, and the stand was pretty beat up. But a trip to a local hardware store and $8 later I had new cords re-wired on the system and was water testing it the next weekend. $15 in black Krylon Fusion took care of all the discolored white plastic. The Little Giant pump on it works awesome, the chiller took the water down to 40F, the UV filter on this one was a total loss though, completely chewed by a labrador :lol: I spent the next few days re-painting the plastic on this one and thats where I stand so far.

 

I hope to get both systems painted, have the lighting finished, and get water cycling in them by the end of the month. I think I am going to end up plumbing both tanks together so I can utilize the filtration of the bigger tank on the smaller one since it doesn't have a skimmer. It will also allow the smaller chiller to be more of a backup. I'm going to try and set the smaller tank up as more of a refugium with bivalves, small fish, macro algea and other livestock that would be eaten in the larger tank.

 

Any comments, questions, tips, anything you want to contribute to help me along in this endeavour would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have a couple different threads going on a few websites about these tanks I am setting up, someone suggested I should make a thread here as well because I may get more input :)

 

Here is the links to the other threads if anyone is interested:

THREAD ON TEMPERATEREEF.COM

THREAD ON PNWMAS.ORG 27x27x13 Tank

THREAD ON PNWMAS.ORG 110 gallon tank

 

Oh yeah, here's a few pics too :D More to follow as things progress.

 

This pic is of the smaller system after it had been all cleaned up and painted.

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This is all of the larger tank.

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AquaticEngineer

One cool thing about these tanks is that they both have large contained areas sitting above the coolant coils that are designed to hold carbon for filtration, or dolomite for buffering. I'm going to use them as an area for tropical live rock rubble and large coral aggregate as a place for bacteria to build and to buffer the PH of the tank. Maybe nylon bags with crushed oyster shell?

 

The tanks will only have a small amount of rubble sized rock on the bottom with larger rocks as the main features. Both tanks will essentially be a bare bottom type setup since small substrate would just work its way down to the coolant coil area. Not going to use anything smaller than say, dime size probably. Maybe some type of pylon in the middle of the smaller tank like you'd find holding up a dock. Only time will tell :)

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AquaticEngineer
Neato! I see you found your way over here :)

 

Oh yeah, Been on here since 2007 when I had my 12 gallon NC DX with the HQI mod :D

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AquaticEngineer

I had been looking for these types of tanks passively since 2001, but never really found a deal at the right time and place in my life. Then BAM, 2 killer deals less than a month apart, right when I buy my own house that I can have what ever I want for aquariums.

 

I have less into these 2 tanks right now then I do into my tropical reef, and its only a 15gallon with a big sump :eek:

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Lol nice. Hey if you find another one let me know, I could use another, and we are pretty close to each other :)

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AquaticEngineer

There is one on Craigslist right now, but it is a funky colored old model with undergravel filtration, that needs the coolant recharged, and they want $300 for it. Not the greatest deal.LINK TO TANK ON CL

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AquaticEngineer

Well the small tank is finished with paint now. I painted all the visible plastic to black with the exception of the return pipes. I just painted the white caps on those and left the tubes clear. Still gotta figure out how to plumb it into the larger system.

 

I've now started painting the large tank. I have the interior overflow/background painted and I've decided to leave the bottom of the tank white. Reason for this is that on the smaller tank the krylon didn't stick so well to the silicone at the edges, which shows the white underneath anyways. Not a big deal since there will be substrate over it anyhow, and it saves me the hassle of more painting :lol:

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Very cool. :) If you're interested, I have to get rid of my coldwater stuff soon, and could hook you up with some free stuff since you're in the area. Also, if you want any advice on places to collect, animals that do and don't work, etc, let me know. You're off to a great start, good luck!

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AquaticEngineer
Very cool. :) If you're interested, I have to get rid of my coldwater stuff soon, and could hook you up with some free stuff since you're in the area. Also, if you want any advice on places to collect, animals that do and don't work, etc, let me know. You're off to a great start, good luck!

 

That would be awesome :D I live just outside of Clackamas before Damascus. Let me know when you have to get rid of you stuff I should have water in tanks soon. The Krylon paint says its good within 15 minutes, but takes up to 7 days to fully cure so I'm waiting on that right now.

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Pretty much any time during the summer is fine. I live just west of nw Portland, just north of hwy 26 (forest heights, if you're familiar with the area) so it's a bit of a drive, but not too bad. Maybe we could meet halfway. Let's wait till your tank is set up and running smoothly, though. :)

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AquaticEngineer

Just got a price quote from marineland for the 2 parts I'm missing, the Bio wheel for the big tank, and the upper false bottom on the small tank..............$411.23.

 

Guess I will make my own bottom piece and do without the biowheel. Lol, that's more than I have into them total right now.

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AquaticEngineer

Question for anyone who may have an opinion on the matter.......

 

I know normally temperate and cold water systems develope bacteria at a much slower rate. My 110 gallon tank has a HUGE biowheel in it normally, however the gentleman I bought the tank from threw it away thinking it was a dirty filter. Come to find out, these things are expensive to replace...........like over $300 for a new wheel alone.

 

I am going to have plenty of bio media in the tank for bacteria, does any one think I would really need the bio-wheel or that it would be a benefit at all?

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I am going to have plenty of bio media in the tank for bacteria, does any one think I would really need the bio-wheel or that it would be a benefit at all?

 

AFAIK, the main benefit of a bio-wheel is to give the bacteria on it plenty of oxygen, because while the wheel remains wet all the time, its damp surface is exposed to air. I would think that oxygenation for the bacteria is not such an issue in cold water, where as you must know, oxygen is much more readily dissolved in the water.

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Biomedia is great, but it's never going to take care of all your nutrients in a coldwater system. So it wouldn't be bad to have a biowheel, but if you're going to be spending that kind of money, it would be a much better idea if you found yourself a nice protein skimmer instead.

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AquaticEngineer

It has a protein skimmer built into the filtration in the back, so I'm going to see how that skimmer works out first, but yeah I've come to the same conclusion that I could spend the money better elsewhere.

 

Update with some pics.

 

Filled the big tank up in the garage yesterday and cranked the chiller up on high to see what it could do. Yesterdays weather had a high of 84F and a overnight low of 60F, the tank water went in at a temp of 45F and this is the temp this morning.......close to freezing.

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Here are some pics of the tank running, still gotta get salt in it though :blush: No sweating yet yesterday or today, guess the double paned glass will do the trick :)

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AquaticEngineer

After a little over 12hrs today with no chiller running on the system it only crept up about 5 degrees.

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I drained the system to make sure all the valves on the drain for water changes were working and not leaking. Also going to paint that clear round porthole, its there so you can make sure the biowheel is still spinning and since I'm not going to use a biowheel I'd rather have it blacked out I think.

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AquaticEngineer
very cool. I am excited for this tank.

 

I may need to get some rock from you to get my tank going here pretty soon :)

 

Ok here comes another update :)

 

I painted off the one area I wanted and let the tank sit for a couple days and today I filled it back up.

 

I decided to keep better records this time about the temperature and how fast the chiller works.

 

@1:45pm, temp 62.3F water went in at this temp, outside temp was 75F

@2:57pm, temp 57.4F

@3:40pm, temp 54.9F

@4:16pm, temp 53.2F outside temp was up to 82F by now.

@4:55pm, temp 52.0F at this point I turned the chiller off and set it to chill at 54/55 degrees.

 

So within 3 hours it was able to take over 100 gallons of water down 10 degrees and maintain it while the outside air temperature was in the high 70's and low 80's.

 

Right now I'm adding the salt to the tank so I should be ready to start cycling it tomorrow. Its holding around 53F now, I may still bump it up a bit for the cycling. I still gotta find a few things like some large nylon bags and some plastic screen mesh. But I may get antsy and go grab some sacrificial clams to get the tank going :lol:

 

Here's some pics ;)

Start Temp

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FTS filling up

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All filled and holding steady at 53F

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Built in Protein Skimmer

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Shot of just the chiller

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Shot of the plumbing / UV / return pump

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Back of the tank showing were the filter/skimmer/pumps/chiller all sit

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