Lagoonal Reef

bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
OK, I've had an overflow of mail about my Lagoon. I don't have time to answer all of the questions at once so I will make several posts in this thread over the next few days to describe the setup.
If you have questions please feel free to post them but please keep the questions relevant to items already posted and not questions about things I'm probably going to go over in the future.
Keep in mind that it still has at least a year to go before it's finished....
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
This first post describes some of the research I did before starting the design.
I set up three 30 gallon refugiums plumbed in parallel. Water flowed from the display tank upstairs and was split between the refugiums & the sump. The first refugium received about 240 gallons/hour, the second about 120, and the third about 60 gph. They all drained via a common line to the sump.
They were all lit using the same bulbs (literally), 6 GE 40 watt NO daylights.
These were setup in July of 2001 and ran this way for about 6 months.
 
scottnj

scottnj

Member
I just want to know when I can come snorkling. Gonna be a long cold winter her in NJ with very little diving I think. :-(
-Scott
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
This experiment told me that 4X & 8X grows Caulerpa faster than 2X. More importantly, the bug populations were identical in all three refugiums.
I decided that 4X turnover would be better but only slightly better and that starting with 2X was a good solution if I wanted to wait to add a high volume pump at a later date.
so... next I was concerned about sand. I filled each refugium with 4" of sand and reduced waterflow to a consistent 60gph for all.
#1 - Fine grained Silica sand.
#2 - Caribsea Sugar sized Aragonite
#3 - Southdown
I ran this setup for another 6 months. These were the results:
#1

#2

#3
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
The Southdown appeared to be a more appropriate sand for a refugium. The price of Southdown was more than Silica but a whole lot less than the other. So I purchased a bit more than a ton of sand. About 2500 pounds.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
OK, so now I shove all the basement clutter to the West side, alter a support beam so it's not going through the middle of the lagoon.
The refugium experiments are still continuing. We are now beginning 2002 and the weather is really nasty outside. Working next to the furnace is a blessing and my wife begins to wonder what I'm doing for hours on end in the basement. She hates spiders so she never comes down to check it out.
I begin laying out the floor support, 34 8" X 16" cinder blocks. I need to elevate it to keep it away from the cold floor. I know that keeping this much water warm is going to be a problem because of the surface area (evaporation quickly cools water). I also plan on working on the inside a lot over the next several years and I don't want to have to bend down to do it.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
I want to see the expression your wife had when she realized what you were planning :D... Can you stick this post for a while?
BWT, speaking of spiders... Do you have much trouble with bugs getting into the lagoon? sorry if I'm jumping a head.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Next comes the Plywood frame. 2X4's inside & out. I want a little bit of bowing to help waterflow but I don't want the wood to crack or give out. I used 4 sheets of 1" Marine. In truth, the 8' X 8' X 2' size was chosen because of the minimal # of cuts.
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member
WOW - keep it up!!
NOTE: You don't have to reply to this post to be updated. Just clikc on the link below that says SUBSCRIBE TO THIS THREAD and check your USER CP when you get in and it will show when there are replies.
(stepping out of teacher mode now).
WOW!!
 
j-cal

j-cal

Member
this is prolly a dumb question, but how did u tell from the sand pics which one was actually better?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
It was more than the worms although that's the most obvious. The sand was also a lot cleaner with the Southdown, the cyanobacter layer was lower so I know there were more microscopic critters in the sand as well. The cleaner sand was the true deciding factor.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Next I added insulation. As stated before heating the water is going to be a problem so I want to keep the heating bill as low as possible.
 
harlequin

harlequin

Member
Cool idea Bang, you know when you get that part done and filled with water, the next step is to build a deck around it, cover it with sand, grab one of those airfield level brightness spotlights and mount it on the ceiling. Next plant a palm tree or build a second big tank for mangroves. Pull up a lawn chair and a Corona and you are good to go. oh yeah you need one of those mood tapes with waves crashing going 24/7. Since its a lagoon turn it down a little so that it is playing in the distance.
Cant wait to see the finished pics of it, what do you plan on putting in? Is it going to be a true lagoon biotope or a generic reef tank put in godzilla sized. Not that there is anything wrong with that since 99% of our tanks including both my tanks fall into the generic reef tank catagory.
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member

Originally posted by Harlequin
Cant wait to see the finished pics of it, what do you plan on putting in?
LOL - he has finished pictures in other threads - is lagoon is a work in progress but I think he plans on detailing everythign out - if we can all be patient .... :D :D
He better be planning on detailing out everything in it ... :mad:
Though I like your idea of the palm trees!!!
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
The Black object in previous picture is the pond liner. It's Firestone 60mil EPDM and has a 20 year warranty. I bought a pre-sized 14' X 14'. I figured the extra material could protect the top of the plywood from getting wet.
It was a lot easier to form that I thought it would be. After adding a few inches of water I was able to easily remove all the wrinkles.
 
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