Chris Wirth of Blue Planet Waterworks spent many hours over the weekend and yesterday installing a beautiful Acrylic & Glass Exhibits Starphire 375 gallon aquarium for Dr. Sean in the Tahoe Keys subdivision of South Lake Tahoe. We have gone through many changes with filtration, chiller and pump locations, but have come to a final design and things are going together well.The most unique device that is going to be used on this aquarium is the GHL Profilux II Elite controller. This controller is specially designed for high end aquatic systems, and has many more monitoring and control points than competing controllers.
It also gives the ability to dial into the system from any internet access point to check on the system, receive alarms, view historic trends, or make adjustments.This controller has standard features of lighting timers, temperature control, water topoff, salinity monitoring, CO2 dosing, LAN access, pH, ORP, Cloudy day simulation, and a plethora of programming possibilities. It also controls various wave pumps, New LED light fixtures, 1-10V dimmable fluorescent lighting, dimmable metal halide, and the optional Moon / Flash stick for moon phase changes and simulated storms.
With the 48" height of Sean's aquarium, a high flow turnover rate will be extremely critical. Blue Planet Waterworks has designed the aquarium to exact specifications to accomplish the task with a large overflow box, two inch bulkheads and two four-way closed loop Oceans Motions return. Underneath the staircase in Sean's home will be the filtration room. Although it will be a tight working environment, it will certainly suffice to contain all the necessary equipment to produce a beautiful showpiece.
The following equipment will be in this room; Heavy Duty ¾” x 2’ x 4’ Acrylic Sump, with refugium, T5 growth lights, de-aeration baffles, and level sensor mounts, Adjustable FRP baseplates for reservoirs, skimmer, and sump, Reeflo Marlin Return Pump, 58W Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizer with wiper system, Reeflo Orca 250 Protein Skimmer,Phosphate Media Reactor, Carbon Media Reactor, Calcium Reactor, 75GPD RO/DI System, with TDS meter, test port, and pressure gauge, Automatic DI Topoff System with poly reservoir and anti TDS creep system, Plastic Rack Mount System for all filtration and reactors, 250 watt Heaters, x 3 with controller.
Many more photos to come as this project progresses.
(Click on photos to see larger.)
With less than three weeks away, I am really looking forward to attending the Marine Aquarium Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds, April 3-5. I attended the Expo last year and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. With over 100 vendor booths in a 30,000 square foot showroom that includes retailers, coral farmers and manufacturers, there is something for everyone that attends. This year I am looking forward to seeing many of my Southern Californian suppliers and friends. Including Randy, Gresham and Jake with Reef Nutrition (Northern California), Leng from Eco Systems, Trevor with Bayside Aquarium Supply (Marine Depot) and Chris with RK2. I am also looking forward to hearing Bob Fenner, Marc Levenson, Eric Borneman, Tulio Dell Aquila, Joe Yaiullo and Adam Blundell's intriguing talks.
