99 Gallon Tank Journal

[Luc]

Hmmm, you might have a point there, though the pumps are under water and there is free airflow after a shut-down (the syphon-breakers connect with outside air).
So theoretically, the air that comes down during a power-shutdown (and really bubbles out of the pump-inlets), should disappear in 1 or two seconds after all water flow stops, levelling with the water in sump (about 30cm on top of the pumps) since there is no air-pressure buildup.
If there are design-flaws in the pump-chamber, then we'll find out in due course but I hope to be able to find 2 check-valves that will stop the backflow and keep water in the pump-lines...
(Check-valves are safer for smaller fish as well ;-) don't want them to get sucked into the water-lines with a powerdown....)

 

[Luc]

Just some pictures after today's start of testing.

For the sump and water the goal is to have it 100% silent and with no cavitation at all. Seems that the way I'm running it now, I don't have any sound at all, no bubbles in the sump at all and running it on full power.

If this really maintains, then I'm a very very happy man. One downside currently is that I have the tank filled up to maximimum, but that can be changed by adjusting the height of the water-inlet (in the overflow box).

I noticed that the art of getting no suction of air down in the drain is to add more syphon-tubes. As you can see from the pictures, I'm running 4 tubes. 2x 1inch and 2x 0.5inch. These are enough that the drain is under water while there's no issue with that because of the second drain being fully open and catching any extra water that goes down in a trickle.

Both scenario's of over capacity and of shut-down/restart are thus safe.
No toilet sounds and no bubbles, so no CO2 loss.

I've connected the CO2 again, still running sweet, no bubbles at all from the outlet in the tank that I can see, (start to doubt if there's no leak somewhere lol.)
The last picture is of the sump where the water comes in from above!
That's a 1 inch hose draining down there at full throttle and hardly and movement of the water. With those two pumps at 2800 Liter p/hour each, there's some serious water-movement without sound.

Happy man here...cheers.

 

[Rbishop]

Nice!

 

[Nolapete]

Looks very cool.

 

[Luc]

I'd call it official. Have it running for 2 days now and no problems. Yesterday I lowered the water-intake in the overflow. Made for a half inch lower level in the display-tank which I really like.
The waterflow in the tank is great, from all corners nicely going to the middle.

Noticed that with the lower water-intake it's also easier to adjust the water level and ensure that everything is 100% under water meaning that it is silent. There's a 10 Gallon QT-tank next to it and the very small HOB-filter makes awful lot of noise when you try to hear if there's any sound from the 99.

Silence has also killed off any turbulence and cavitation. So I'm not worried about any CO2 loss anymore as well. My guess is that I can reach an almost 100% CO2 dissolved, no loss in the process and thus save substantially in time before a bottle is empty.

I've got a bunch of guppies and 2 angels in there right now, and it looks like I've got to think about adding a small airstone at night to make sure they don't run out of oxygen.

Everything is holding up nicely, think I'm gonna pop open the canisters on the 79G and get the filter seeded to kickstart the bacteria.

The other thing I will start is the hood and electricity. Might be a couple of weeks, once done, the next step will be to try some colors of gravel.

 

[Luc]

I can't wait to see it finished! Don't forget to post some pics of the 79g along the way!

Thanks for your compliment BoCoMo.

I hear you, did a water-change on the 79 tonight. It's growing like crazy and I'm starting to feel the pressure for doing something about the plants.
But I'm still holding out on that because I'd like to pull out everything and clean and split it out with the 99.

See if I can last another 2 - 3 weeks to get light on the 99.

Playing with some thoughts on the 79 and how to continue with that one. But count on it that you'll see a separate thread on that one once the 99 is fully up and running.

Pretty sure that one will get a sump as well, but only after the 99 is getting up to speed. Might even get another concrete background but very likely towards a specific biotope with only the plants and fish belonging to it.

 

[Nolapete]

Congrats!!!

 

[Luc]

Thanks Pete, can't wait to see your tank coming off the ground.

Found some room for improvement in the syphon-breaks, gonna play with that a bit.
To avoid snails and rubbish getting in those breaks, I want to have them in an area with minimal rubbish and under water at the same time. (There are airbubbles getting into the outlets of the returns, which again, I don't like as being 'artificial').

By putting the breaks way in front, just before the return-lines dive down to the pumps and connecting all 3 with a common airline that goes into the overflow, I think that I can stop those bubbles and at the same time have it pretty much fool proof (put some sponge over that tube-inlet as well. No more worries on loosing water. There's no problem with getting too much in the sump, the emergency drain works flawless, but starting up after that the system runs on a much lower level which I don't want of course.

Will update on this once I've tried some.
Still enjoying the sump and how silent it is. Pumps are doing a nice job as well, minimal vibration and no sound. Will drop some review soon. Resun 6000 pumps fyi (as mentioned way back in the beginning of this thread.

Cheers.

 

[Luc]

Well, finished the necessary parts on the filtration.
- Added water-change line
- Seeded the filter with Bioballs from one of the canister-filters
- Brought down the level of the display-tank and it's stable.
- Changed the syphon-breakers from the bottom of the return-lines (prone to snail/rubbish block) to the top with a piece of airline-tube to a snail-safe spot.

Room for improvement, but that can wait for later. The sump is running and seems to do a great job on getting crysal clear water back up.
Aside from a very soft and low hum from the pumps, there's no splashing or any other sound.

What else done this weekend? I wanted to get some light on top for the time being to see how it will look like. So I cleaned the old hood, put in 3 lights and just placed that one on top.
Turns out great, as I'd imagined it from the start. So quit the talking, here's some pictures (I've taken some without flash that give a better impression on how it really looks with colors):

 

[Luc]

I've put again some pictures in of the sump. The water-movement at the intake (you can see the outlet of the pipes) is 100% without cavitation and therefore CO2 loss should be close to zero except for the normal surface-water exchange.
The other note, in the pictures without flash you might notice the water in the equipment-sump (left side) to be very clear.
I'm still playing with the idea to put some kind of section in there that would hold additional filter-materials or just carbon when necessary...Currently I'm at roughly 9 gallon of pure filter-material, compared to maybe 2.5 gallon on the 2 canisters on the 79. Big improvement, expecting to see some very happy discus in there once the hood and substrate is done.

I've started putting in some groundwork for the electricity. This weekend at least I hope to have the mains connected and into the cabinet with a mains-splitter.
Then slowly start to work on the hood, which will add a maximum of 1.5 ~ 2 inch on top of the white wooden frame.

Cabling will be sandwiched between top and bottom. Top will be glued, bottom will be screws with a rubber seal to avoid water getting inside.

Cheers..
Luc