Lagoonal Reef
- Thread starter bang guy
- Start date
marinemarty
Member
please bang guy more on the weekends my lame ass has nothing else to do 
....
....
bonermeister
Member
More more more!
bang guy
Moderator
Here's the outside of the sump. I keep the cover closed to silence the splashing and keep the heat in.
To the right is my Limewater doser. Well water (not recommended!!) is regulated with a toilet float. A pound of Agricultural grade Calcium Hydroxide is placed in the back bucket. When the water gets low the toilet float opens and a gallon of water enters under force and stirs up the kalk. Airline tubing connects the mix bucket to the settling tank.
The settling tank is sealed with no air in it to prevent CO2 from reacting with the limewater. Water slowly enters the settling tank and any precipitates fall to the bottom of the bucket. The airline tubing visible in the picture collects limewater from about 1/2 way up the bucket.
The airline tubing enters the sump and is held above the waterline with styrofoam. This avoids contact with saltwater and prevents clogging. As the water level in the sump drops the limewater drips into the turbulent sump water.
5 - 20 gallons of limewater are dosed every day in this fashion to replace the evaporated water from the display and the lagoon.
Once a month I dump the precipitate from both buckets and start fresh.
To the right is my Limewater doser. Well water (not recommended!!) is regulated with a toilet float. A pound of Agricultural grade Calcium Hydroxide is placed in the back bucket. When the water gets low the toilet float opens and a gallon of water enters under force and stirs up the kalk. Airline tubing connects the mix bucket to the settling tank.
The settling tank is sealed with no air in it to prevent CO2 from reacting with the limewater. Water slowly enters the settling tank and any precipitates fall to the bottom of the bucket. The airline tubing visible in the picture collects limewater from about 1/2 way up the bucket.
The airline tubing enters the sump and is held above the waterline with styrofoam. This avoids contact with saltwater and prevents clogging. As the water level in the sump drops the limewater drips into the turbulent sump water.
5 - 20 gallons of limewater are dosed every day in this fashion to replace the evaporated water from the display and the lagoon.
Once a month I dump the precipitate from both buckets and start fresh.
moopiespoo
Member
I'm happy to see this post wasn't lost. This is Awesome!
bang guy
Moderator
The left & right overflows from the display tank are seperate. The Left goes to the surge buckets and the right goes to my DIY Skimmer.
Here's a pic of my DIY Skimmer before the Lagoon was built:
It operates by using gravity to mix water & air & churn it up on the way down to the basement. It's a downdraft design and uses no other pumps. It worked so well that my "real" skimmer (Berlin XL) stopped functioning completely so I just sold it.
The skimmer normally has a bucket hanging on it but I had to remove it for the picture.
Here's a pic of my DIY Skimmer before the Lagoon was built:
It operates by using gravity to mix water & air & churn it up on the way down to the basement. It's a downdraft design and uses no other pumps. It worked so well that my "real" skimmer (Berlin XL) stopped functioning completely so I just sold it.
The skimmer normally has a bucket hanging on it but I had to remove it for the picture.
bang guy
Moderator
These are the Surge buckets.
32 gallon Rubbermain roughnecks. The are plumbed so that they fill with about 25 gallon of water and then a siphon starts and dumps the water into the Lagoon. The two are not synchronized so once in a while they both let go at once and this actually makes a wave that breaks on the far wall.
32 gallon Rubbermain roughnecks. The are plumbed so that they fill with about 25 gallon of water and then a siphon starts and dumps the water into the Lagoon. The two are not synchronized so once in a while they both let go at once and this actually makes a wave that breaks on the far wall.