The Challenge !!!

Hey Guys Greetings,

i was not sure what to name this topic as soo just named it randomly.
we are shifting to new house soon and my main plan was to keep the aquariums in the basement and slowly convert that basement into a fish room but with majority win situation in my house i was not allowed to reason being dad and sister wants to make a home theater and mom to make mandir room over there soo i was out of basement then option came to keep the aquarium on first floor gallery where i get indirect sunlight for 2 hours from 8 to 10, but water change was difficult. Dad was firm not to make aquarium in the house it should be outside, so finally after lots of debate and convincing i finally blocked the garden way which was open to sky and covered it with rcc and making the aquarium there. i think the name also does the justice a challenge you will come to know what all challenges i faced and will face till i complete this project

some pics where the aquarium will be placed







some pics of the plan and elivation along with the sketch that i made






currently i am working on the details of plumbing and lights

i also need help regarding the Solar tube lights.
here is the reference link
Solar tube lights? - Page 2 - The Reef Tank

thanks for reading
please feel free to make any changes and correction i will not feel bad, as i am building whole stuff new want to go slow and avoid errors and make it as simple and as possible so working can be easy in tanks. I also have space constraint over there.

 

ohkiee guys one more effort
went to house and clicked few snaps and tried to label it. i am not very good at it but still gave it a try

this pic is from the entrance, the first vision of house when some one enters the house



this pic is a view from first floor of the house



view from garden



in the fish room



distance between both the house is less else would be possible to keep the direct solar tube out



now guys please chime in and shoot for the suggestions !!!!

thanks !!!

 

soo hers a quick update
keeping in mind Matrix's point i discussed with my Architect and he was positive that it will not damage the roof or make it weak. we worked out on the design and i explained him everything that i want. then i went to the society to take the permission but to my disappointment the society does not permit any external changes to the house and as such much civil work was done without their permission so the idea to use the natural light was dropped

to the good news is instead of getting a 12 feet cabinet i am not getting a 14 feet long cabinet to work on the tanks
as per the Matrix's suggestion i am trying to work on the drawings of the tank

also planning for the permanent line to gutter for salt water and freshwater both.

now need some idea on the hoods and lights any suggestions

 

greetings,

the work has been slowed down as i am busy working and traveling and waiting for the stand to be made according to carpenters need. hopefully by next week it shall be done.

the marble is laid on the floor and the drainage system is drilled with 2 outlet and 1 inlet near the garden where the RO unit will be placed. (will try to upload the pic soon)
the outlets will be made with permanent pipeline so that with just a knob on the water is drained out till the desired level and new water from RO storage tank is pumped in.

soo now the question is
the person who will be taking care of the RO and other water related supplies for house doesnt carry RODI unit. i searched a lot regarding which is better and got more and more confused. soo please suggest me getting RO is better or RODI is better. i would look forward for RO unit as dont want to involve one more team in house and again one more maintenance contract. so it is better that i go for RO and the single guy can take contract of everything.

looking for the light ideas . what to keep and how to keep. need some thing very neat as the tank will be in the living room and dont like bulky roofs

new sump design is done and the glasses are ready. need to go to LFS to tell him where to drill the holes. i have sketched the stuff on papers ll try to scan it and upload it here.

it is planned that the storage tank is 2X2X2 feet any suggestions on that ? the thinking behind that
1) will be used as auto top of on 2 main tank freshwater and saltwater
2) will be used to change the water in both the buce tank every day around 10% and in freshwater tank every alternate day 10%
3) the water change in the marine will be manual as i dont have space to manage another tank to make salt water.

regarding the RO unit, it is 12 LHP but the guy who will be fixing is asking me to go for 25 LHP capacity RO unit. what do you guys think ? any special things to ask the RO unit guy in specific ?

lights are ordered and at friends place. just the half set now waiting for him to ship it ti India.will be here any time soon....


mean while i am planning for a controller for all the tanks
here is what my plan is
please have a look and let me know if any changes/suggestions
thanks

here we goo

1 main Controller
5 for plug boards each with 8 plugs so this makes 40 plugs
3 tanks will be equiped with the PH probes and there will be total 15 temperature probes that will help to maintain temperature and control the chillers...

planning for allocation of equipments

BOARD 1 (in sump) (marine)
Plug 1 – ATS (on timer)
Plug 2 – skimmer
Plug 3 – Moonlights (on timer and sunrise sunset mode)
Plug 4 – wave makers (on timer) (on feed mode)
Plug 5 – sicci pump 2 nos (on feed mode)
Plug 6 – chiller pump (connected to temperature probe)
Plug 7 – heater (connected to temperature probe)
Plug 8 – chiller (connected to temperature probe)


BOARD 2 (in sump) (or may be on table, depending on kessil wires) (ALL AMERICAN PLUGS)
Plug 1 -- Kessil (on timer)
Plug 2 -- Kessil (on timer)
Plug 3 -- Kessil (on timer)
Plug 4 -- Kessil (on timer)
Plug 5 -- Kessil (on timer)
Plug 6 – Kessil (on timer)
Plug 7 – kessil (on timer)
Plug 8 – Kessil (on timer)

BOARD 3 (in sump) (connected to Floats)
Plug 1 – Plug of RO unit
Plug 2 – Pump for ATO sump
Plug 3 – Water change in Planted
Plug 4 – water change in buce 1
Plug 5 – water change in buce 3
Plug 6 – water change in QT
Plug 7 – air stone and water circulation on storage tank
Plug 8 --

BOARD 4 (in sump) (Freshwaters)
Plug 1 – Eheim Pro 2 (feed mode)
Plug 2 – chinese filter (feed mode)
Plug 3 – moon light for planted / buce
Plug 4 – eheim 2217 buce 1 (feed mode) (connected to chiller)
Plug 5 – eheim 2217 QT (feed mode)
Plug 6 – fudge light (timer)
Plug 7 – heater (connected to temperature probe)
Plug 8 – chiller (connected to temperature probe)

BOARD 5 (on table)
Plug 1 – LED for buce (sunrise and sunset)
Plug 2 – filter for buce 2 (feed mode)
Plug 3 – LED for buce 1 (sunrise and sunset)
Plug 4 --
Plug 5 --
Plug 6 --
Plug 7 --
Plug 8 --

 

I may have missed it, but how big are the aquariums? It looks to be huge with all of the lighting =).

As for RO. It is usually recommended to use RO + DI so that you can get 0 TDS. I am not sure why you would need an additional contract just to add 1 more stage to the RO unit, however? I must be missing something.
All it involves is a simple container to hold the DI resin, the DI resin itself, and to place the output of the RO so that it goes to 1 more stage.

Is the lighting the kessil a150, 350 or 360's? Just curious here.
One other quick question is why an ATS and a skimmer? I'm just wondering because I usually see 1 or the other for marine tanks. Maybe the skimmer is for the reef and the ATS is for the FW tanks? Again, just curious.
Once the house gets constructed, it looks like it is going to be gorgeous! Please keep us updated as I want to see the tanks setup!

 

Yes hope soo
Thanks for the kind words
Will keep this thread updated

For the RO its complicated as the person whom i am giving the contract for house maintainance is not keeping RO so might add it on a later stage. He said that from this RO what he is selling will be 0TDS

Kessil is 2 nos A350W for my marine and 2 nos amazon sun for planted...
For my tanks this are not enough i am pretty sure about but in near future will plan.... Also planning for CREE DIY setup

For the skimmer ATS earlier it was not planned that i will shift and here no place for RO soo to fight for algae kept both. Now the plan is just to use ATS for 2-3 hours at night if required....

Comming to main point
At present i have 4 tanks
1 - 72X27X24(H) marine with 5 feet sump
2 - 48X18X24(H) planted anubias tank
3 - 24X12X12(H) bucephalandra tank
4 - 12X12X12(H) bucephalandra tank

Soo all this tanks will be shifted there and now once i shift my plans are to add a QT tank, 2-3 more nano tanks and a storage tank for RO water.... (Subject to i dont get married soon) LOL or as long as my parents tolerate my MTS decease.... Hahaha

Thanks for reading waiting for more comments...

 

its been very long that i have updated.... held up with personal and office life....


Here you go...



lots and lots of efforts to get this monster tank in the house....
congrates to me... ) )

had a fantastic arguments with dad :-@ :-@
but after all the stand was ready 8-} and he was not gonna do any thing about \/

there is Rajubhai the sole member of my house who helps me out in aqua stuff my driver...




Lots of changes gave been dont and this place from open to sky a great fish room ....

Shutters were laid



Sump came inn


After lots of confusion and double mind
Finally decided to go with the colour white
Architect was suggesting different shades of blue to resemble ocean but i stuck to white with a friends advice



The monster got shifted
My old marine tank ....


Today my second 4 footer tank got here....
It was previously a very low tech planted tank with anubias and blue angels
I am pretty sure i ll continue with anubias, cardinals and WC scalares


Today light stand also came inn
It was a very tough time asking the fabricator of what i wanted....
Still this is not that i asked for but near to what i demanded


Stand set on monster


kessils are on the stand fired up and checked



and here is the sad part need to cut 2 of the kessils blue to pass through the pipe did loads of try to pass it but all efforts wasted...





the plumbing done for the outlet but removed it totally today as the plumbing was taking extra place and was surfing and finaly got the hold of union joints....


chiller at its place



Water filled up in the display tanks to check any leaks...




the storage tank



aaaahhhhh

this is getting more and more tedious and i am getting restless so does my parents :LOL as always.....

system is in freshwater run and few leaks appeared, soo getting it fixed
the major letdown for me was the overflow box lots of leaks soo had to get it fixed many times.... but finally removed it as the noise was too much


old house... where my tanks use to be...the tank getting ready for travel....


my buce tank with half water emptied


chiller and filters....


my 10 minute scape for the buce tank....


water flooded in


here comes the exiting part.....
cleaned all the live sand, it was stinking as it was lying in a barrel with no circulation soo all the beneficial bacteria must be dead and foul smell coming
cleaned the rocks aswell

here are the pics
after much cleaning can still see the green algae on the rocks from the old tank




took 2.5 days to fill up the system from RO

Kessils fired up and running


tanks from the drawing room, sit down,, relax with a chilled beer and my little piece of underwater ocean


view from the living/enterance


the panorama of the tank






hey guys update time.... (TANK AS ON JULY 3rd 2013)
today changed the water of the cliff and buce tank around 50% hopefully tomorrow ll get time and change the water of goldie tank and keep water to fill for marine to change...
i am finally bit happy that everything is up and running but still lots more to invest and lots and lots of work to be done

let the pictures speak why am i not able to take good pics ?? any good photographer... please comment
My Hippo tang ...





isnt he handsome ??

my banana wrasse... very active fish and always love to roam out in the open... and when ever the hippo is seen near he runs as if some dinosaur is coming to eat her :LOL





other inhabitant of the tank are yellow tang, sailfain tang and the mistake, hunbuck damseal... few snails...

the view of the tank from the living room....



the view from the garden door...



the buce tank



the cliffs



the algae in buce tank... any suggestions ? pleaseeeee



tomorrow for sure planting christmas moss it pending since many days.... also waiting for coral pellia hopefully will be in hands in a day or two...

problems
1) what should be the height of skimmer level.... reef octopus has a great built and works soo awesome but i would say the instruction manual is just pathetic...
2) in less that a year broke 3 sunsun wavemaker... soo want to buy something better and durable any suggestions ?
3) suggestions on getting rid of black beard algae in planted tank... ???

 

Wow, just wow!!!!!!

I need to come back to this thread when I have a little more time.

Too Cool.

 

thank you very much hope my little reef comes out like what i have planned....

can you please guide me skimmers water level....

 

I would not be much help but I will find someone that will be of more assist.