We where approached by a company in Norwich (Norfolk) to survey a site that was being built to house a 6' x 3' x 2' through the wall aquarium in the reception area of their main office building. It sounded like an interesting proposal so we decided to take a look and see if we could help. Upon arrival we where surprised to find that the interior of the offices weren’t complete, (and at the time of writing the staff had only just managed to get in).

Our first sight of the site had us a little worried from the start as the space under the proposed main display had been blocked up to hold the eventual weight of the aquarium with an opening big enough to fit two small doors.

It was obvious that the architect hadn’t liaised with anyone who had the slightest idea of how to run these systems. Never the less, we could see a challenge upon the horizon straight away.

 

As we where talking about ways and means to get around this ‘little’ problem the project manager arrived and introduced himself. His name was Len, a huge man with a welcoming smile.

We then started asking questions on what the customer wanted, how much they knew on keeping an aquarium and what budget they had planned for the installation.

We where informed that the main display had already been built by a local company and when Len asked them when they could install the system he was told ‘oh, we don’t do that’. This is when he searched around the internet and found us.

We where a little surprised the tank builders didn’t want the work as the customer didn’t know if they wanted a freshwater or marine display. We asked what was the purpose for the install and were told that when the customers where sitting in reception they wanted them to have the ‘wow’ factor whilst being able to relax at the same time.

A fish only with living rock’ was the easiest way to go ahead.
Len then said ‘what about having some nice coral in there too’. We agreed that it could be done but to start with fish is the way to go ahead in our opinion.

We then measured up all the dimensions we had to play with. (not much In the sump department I can assure you).

Along with an agreed maintenance schedule we left the site with a million things zipping around the ‘vast empty voids’ we call our heads on how we where to do this.
Oh, and we had four weeks to do it in!

The nightmare we call ‘The planning stage’.

Upon our arrival back at our ‘aquatic bat cave’ we set to work.
We had a list of potential problems to overcome.

1: Time was an issue, we where turning our warehouse into a retail outlet. Due to various setbacks we where behind schedule by at least six weeks already but the job was taken and our minds had to temporarily focus on the task ahead.

2: Acess to the top and more importantly the underside of the display for maintenance was going to take up a lot of time to design.

3: Sump or sump’s had to be designed to incorporate the possibility of eventually keeping live coral as well as fish in the main display in the usual good health.

4: Fish selection was an issue because of the above. We couldn’t put Angels, Trigger’s, Puffers and the like in as in the event of live coral being added there was no hope of catching them without causing much distress to all the tank inhabitants due to the depth of the tank.

5: Lighting would have to be custom built with a light weight canopy as we only had a suspended ceiling to secure the unit/unit’s to.

6: Heating/cooling and ventilation is always an issue but in this respect it was a headache. The surround to the display was already fixed and a major upheaval and rip out of the existing woodwork/plaster wasn’t an option.

7: We hadn’t seen the tank as yet as it was waiting to be delivered, this could cause a few problems regarding where the brace bars where, overflow weirs (if any) and if any holes had been drilled anywhere for tank connectors.

8: Flow, is there ever enough?

9: Equipment space was the biggest problem. In order to run a system of this size we simply didn’t have enough to fit all the kit. However, all will be revealed later in the article.

10: Because of a relatively heavy fish load a large skimmer would be needed. Now where would we put that!

So there you have it, ouch!
And all in four weeks...double ouch!

We had to start somewhere, so listing the equipment and ordering what we didn’t stock at the time was first on the agenda.

Our first task was to design the filtration and draw it up.

Luckily we had the main components to be able to ‘space out’. This basically means we work on what we need and place it in position on a worktop to determine the minimum space needed for the equipment. We spent a full day working out the best possible scenario.

It didn’t work! Blast. So then we thought about splitting the sump in two and putting a 1.5” baffle to connect them together.

Ok so far.
Now for the real nightmare, where’s the large skimmer going to go? It couldn’t be placed above or to the side of the main display as it would be boxed in except for the R.O. header tank (auto top up). So it would have to go under the display between the two sumps, but where?

A small wooden stand was made so the skimmer could sit over the main pumps (3 in total). This worked a treat and we could then decide on the final size the sumps could be.

Here was the first idea we had regarding sump and main display. Bear in mind we hadn’t seen the tank as yet so that bit was more guess work, but you get the idea.

 

Note the relatively small skimmer space, hence the need to maximise skimmer size because of fish stocking density.
Then the task of designing two sumps which could filter out the solid debris and waste that fish produce as well as allowing for the natural type of filtration that we incorporate into our reef designs using a sand bed as a refugium for critters, algae and the pod population that we all know and love.

Because we now knew the maximum sump sizes, the pump sizes and an approximate tank turnover rate of 13000 litres an hour or 2859.6 Imperial gallons, this equated to around 14 times turnover of total tank volume in one hour. The sumps had to be able to take the return flow from the tank safely. We couldn’t go wider or longer so… ‘The only way is up’ as the song goes. The left handed sump incorporated bio balls and sponges for biological and mechanical filtration. The right handed sump was the DSB and refugium.
Here are the final designs, left handed first:

 

On sump one three holes had to be drilled in various places for the following: One 1.25” on the top left handed side panel for the auto water change and overflow. This was plumbed with a ‘U’ bend (to stop any smells) and straight to a waste drain which was situated directly outside.

One 0.5” hole for the Kent marine float valve which was attached by R.O. tubing to the header tank along side the top left of the main display and 1.5” hole which was connected directly across to the other sump as a baffle.

The right handed sump only had the 1.5” hole for the other end of the baffle.
Note the holes are not displayed in the drawing as their position was not finalised at the time of the drawing.

We usually make our own sumps as they can be a little complicated at times. On this occasion the sumps where relatively simple as we weren’t trying to fit all the components of the design into one glass box. So we sent drawings and measurements to a friend of ours who builds tanks and got him to make them up to save some time. They would then be delivered to the site when we requested them.

The last thing on the list to be fabricated at the ‘bat cave’ was the lighting reflector.
We decided on two 250 watt Metal halide lights to be mounted onto one long reflector which would be easier for us to mount to the ceiling. This would be light weight and quite easy to manoeuvre in the event of a problem.
We got a sheet of aluminium and using two lengths of wood began bending this into a shroud which would house the lamp holders and lamps.

Here is the finished product with the protective plastic coating still on the top.

Arrival on site

Once on site we set to work. Here is what we had to start with.

 

Note the lintel over the cupboard doors, also the void on the left of the display space. This is where we put the R.O. header tank. We asked that a water line be installed above the header tank; this is where we would hook up to the mains that would feed the R.O. unit.
What’s this that’s just turned up? Blimey, it’s an aquarium!
The main display had just arrived; it took six of us to lift into position. We weren’t going to work on it on this particular day but it was good to finally see what we had to work with.

Once we had put it into place we looked at each other with a knowing look in our eyes, we both rushed to find a tape measure, bloody hell its only five foot long!!
This seemed to be the mother of all cock-ups in the building trade. We explained the situation to Len and after some discussion we said it wasn’t too much of a problem. Fortunately there was little for us to change and the fact that the turnover was now 17 times per hour rather than 14 made us feel even better.

THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL

Leaving the main display until later we worked on the underside area.
As we’d planned this baby to an inch we had to draw where everything was going to be mounted to the wall so as to make sure there are no mistakes when installing the sumps and pumps. The footprint didn’t leave us anything to play with at all, so precision was the key word……?
You can just make out the blue felt tip pen on the wall.

Ignoring the jumble of electrical equipment and the UV sterilizer hanging on for dear life, you’ll see the platform for the header tank on the left hand side about half way up the display area. Also note the timber and plywood fitted topside of the block work.

This tank would gravity feed the Kent float valve situated in the left hand sump. An overflow was also fitted to this tank as the customer wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be problems while they where still building the office. I.E. Water being turned off for any reason.
This also meant that we could run the R.O. constantly without the risk of flooding. The overflow was connected to the drain pipe which led to the outside drain. (As mentioned before).

The header tank (which was built back at the bat cave) was then put in place with the 21.5mm tank connectors fitted and cemented up to the existing pipe work.

 

We had asked the onsite electrician to install the mains feed before we had arrived onsite. This was done so we started installing the electrical gubbins.
The final connection and commission was done by the electrician but heres a few pictures of what went in.

The first pic is the RCB with some pipe work from the R.O. unit and one of the electronic ballasts we used for our lamps.
The second pic is most of the equipment wired up. Note the three pumps. One to drive the Clear tides skimmer and dual reactor (that’s the one with the ‘T’ and ball valves) and two for tank returns.

The third pic shows our Blagdon 5 way switch box’s, (well, one of them!) two water seal outdoor three pin timers, an Atlantis 36 gallon a day deluxe R.O unit, the Kent float valve and the UV which looked so sad in the previous pic.
Things where starting to take shape now.

We where just waiting for the sumps to arrive which would be a day or two away. This gave us time to prepare the main display tank.