Show me your AIO temperate tanks

[sango]

Hi all,

 

I have just started cycling my temperate tank in a 6 gallon cube. I'm thinking about moving it to a 24 gallon AIO tank. Anyone out there running a temperate AIO tank? If so, please tell me about your setup and post some pics.

 

Thanks!

[C-Rad]

I have just started cycling my temperate tank in a 6 gallon cube. I'm thinking about moving it to a 24 gallon AIO tank. Anyone out there running a temperate AIO tank? If so, please tell me about your setup and post some pics.

 

I've been running a 55 gallon temperate octopus tank for two years, and I think it qualifies as an AIO. I keep my tank at 56 degrees, to keep the strawberry anemone happy, and I wanted the chiller to run as little as possible to save electricity, so I designed everything so as to add as little heat to the system as possible. I wanted to use local rock instead of live rock because of the expense, and because live rock just looks wrong in a Southern California biotope tank. Local rock is not porous like live rock, and so provides no bio-filtration. I designed in a wet/dry trickle filter, and a deep sand bed to reduce nitrates. The main design principals I kept in mind were:

1) Use the minimum amount of glass surface area per gallon, because heat from the air in the room comes in through conduction where cold surfaces meet warm room air. a cube tank would be optimum, and a sump is a bad idea, so an AIO makes sense for a temperate tank. Also keep the plumbing short.

2) Minimize the use of equipment that adds heat to the water. submersible pumps add much more heat to the water than external, air cooled, pumps, and use as few as possible. If your external return pump doesn't give enough flow, Korallia type pumps are not bad for water motion (very few watts per GPH) but try to avoid power heads. Few temperate animals use light to make food so you don't need intense reef lights, which saves heat, and saves money.

3) insulate as many exposed cold surfaces as possible.

4) Since temperate animals don't make food with light, you'll need to feed a lot more than you would feed a reef tank, so design your filtration to handle a bio-load about double that of a comperable reef tank. A big skimmer is a very good idea.

 

My tank:

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I started with a 36" x 18" x 25" tall tank, and installed a glass wall about 5.25" from the left wall of the tank. That divided the tank into a main section that was about 55 gallons, which overflowed into the 5" wide section which was about 10 gallons (lets call that section the "overflow", but it acts like an attached sump). There are two holes drilled through the bottom of the overflow section (drain and return). I put an AquaC Urchin skimmer (sump version of the Remora) into the overflow section, and filled the rest of the overflow with bioballs, so that the top of the skimmer pokes up through the bioballs. I like the Aqua-c skimmers because they can be driven using an external pump, and don't depend on a submerged pump which adds heat to the water. I should have used the larger Urchin "Pro" skimmer (at least) for a 55 gallon temperate tank. I installed a single Iwaki 40, high head, pump just under the drain hole (in the stand). It pushes water through the chiller (also installed in the (ventilated) stand) and then up through the return hole in the bottom of the tank, into a length of PVC pipe (which is also buried in bio-balls, inside the overflow.) I put a "T" fitting, then a gate valve, and then run water back into the 55 gallon section of the tank. From the pvc T fitting I run a piece of flexible hose to the AquaC Urchin skimmer. So the Iwaki pump pushes water through the chiller, and then splits to feed both the AquaC skimmer, and return water to the tank. The skimmer uses a high pressure jet of water, and so I crank down the gate valve, which is located AFTER the T-fitting, I'm choking off the output of the pump, so the pressure increases to the skimmer. I can adjust the feed to the skimmer this way, and whatever water makes it past the gate valve, is returned to the tank. I added a couple of small korallias for added water motion in the tank, and used pipe insulation on all the plumbing.

I cut pieces of 2" thick 3M Styrofoam brand rigid insulation board to put under the tank, and on the back and one side. I wrapped the insulation board like a present with black vinyl, held with duct tape, so it looks nice, is water proof, was cheap, and insulates super well (R-Value of 10). The weight of the tank works out to less than one pound per square inch over the whole bottom surface area of the glass, so the piece of Styrofoam under the tank can easily support the tank weight without being crushed.

I had 3/16" thick glass cut to size to cover the front and the uninsulated side of the tank, and made double-paned glass with 1/4" air space to insulate and prevent condensation.

 

The water that overflows the divider wall in my tank falls into a tray lined with batting material from the fabric store (filter floss) to act as a particle filter, and then trickles through the bio-balls before draining into the Iwaki pump for the return trip. Bio-balls are NOT A NITRATE FACTORY, if you use a pre-filter to prevent particles of detritus from collecting in them and replace the pre filter every day or two. Since live rock converts some nitrate to nitrogen gas, and bio-balls don't, nitrate will build up faster in my tank, all else being equal. That's why I also run a deep sand bed (DSB), but a remote DSB would be much better. I don't have a nitrate problem (I can quit any time I want ).

 

I've recently read that Carbon Dioxide insulates 40% better than air, so I'm making plans to replace the air in my double paned glass with CO2 (I know I'm getting fanatical about it, but it's fun)

[AquaticEngineer]

I was thinking about it and I guess my tank is also considered an AIO, I have one of the marineland commercial 110 gallons.

 

Its kind of like an AIO with a big closed loop plumbed into the bottom. There's no sump on it, the built in overflow dumps onto a filter pad with a trickle filter below and then into a resevoir that is built into the underside of the tank. That feeds the closed loop in the stand that houses the 1 large external pump that powers the return spray bar, the skimmer, and the water to the chiller coil resevoir. There is also a UV filter plumbed inline and a couple drains for water changes plumbed into the bottom of the system.