Jacob’s Blog

The Tank

I decided that this tank would be primarily fish and soft corals. I have been keeping stony corals for the last 4 years and honestly they stress me out a little. The thing with stony corals is, they’re beautiful, but they’re more demanding. I ran the gamut of keeping “run of the mill” to “exotic”, and eventually decided it was enough for me. So, getting back to the tank… in order to keep a lot of fish I would need a large tank, and to keep large fish I would need a large tank, so I found one!

The delivery truck pulling up

The driver has an aquatic supplies business, here’s my tank in the back of his truck amongst lots of fish food and other fishy stuffs.

The stand wasn’t too heavy. It’s all 2×4 & 2×6 construction, but only has a 1/4″ plywood skin. Built well and lightweight, meets my guidelines for a well engineered design. Oh, and the previous owner had to remove the doors and some molding to get it out of her house.

Another shot of the stand

Thayer, Scott, and Nathan (Monkei, Plankton, Seaskrap) moving the canopy, also very lightweight, but well built. It also came with a pulley system to raise and lower it from the ceiling.

A friend (Lak) gives a hand as the driver and I slide the tank out. This tank is heavy!!

You can almost hear the groan! It took all 6 of us to carry. More friends helping (Paul, Thayer, and Lak on the left, Nathan, Scott, and me on the right)… if only we could bring it inside and set it in place. For now I decided to put it on the side of my house until I’m ready to bring it in.

Almost there… Scott’s son in the fore ground doing what teenagers do best.

Whew! Good thing we didn’t have to go up any stairs with this beast. I’m the guy in the background with the look on his face that says “oh lordy… what did I get myself into…”.

And finally a picture of it in its temporary resting spot. I have just enough room to work in and around the stand and tank.

The footprint is 86″ x 33″ x 29″ tall. It’s an acrylic tank that I bought second hand. A new tank of this size would have cost about 3-4 times the price, so it was not in the budget. I like the fact that acrylic is lighter than glass, perfectly clear, and less prone to breaking. The downside is that it does scratch - and this tank has a lot of scratches that will need to be removed.

Aside from scratch removal I’ll be re-finishing the stand, and most likely building a new canopy.

Stay tuned for more…
- Jacob

(you can see all of the Project 360 blog posts here)

P&ID

The P&ID (Process and Instrumentation Diagram) is the road map of any process. It shows the flow of all product and utilities, location of instruments, pumps, tanks, and other equipment. The Project 360 P&ID is below, click the image for a larger version.

(Click for Larger Version)

(more…)

It’s no secret that I love process design. It’s not only how I earn a living, but to an extent it’s a hobby.

Project 360 allows me to combine 2 of my passions; process design and saltwater aquarium systems, in this case a 360 gallon captive reef aquarium. If you’re wondering what a reef aquarium is, I’ll briefly explain. A reef aquarium is a saltwater tank that contains fish, living corals, invertebrates, and substrate that serves as a home for the inhabitants and also a natural biological filter. Lighting, water flow, water chemistry, and all other aquarium parameters are meant to simulate (to the extent possible) those of a natural ocean reef.

There are about as many ways to design a reef aquarium system as there are to make a pizza, and like pizza it’s really hard to go wrong. This particular reef system is going to be set up in my office and because of this I have 2 specific goals:

1. The system must be as energy efficient as possible.
2. The system must be as automated as possible to reduce maintenance time and increase system stability

Designing this aquarium system will be similar to designing a process system. The initial concept is mapped out, process and instrumentation diagrams are created to identify all of the components, a functional description is written out, all of the components are purchased, drawings are generated for the physical assembly, and eventually the system comes together piece by piece.

Of course this is much a smaller scale than most process systems but the concepts are the same. Every step of the way I’ll be updating the blog with pictures and the latest news on the project, some check back often to see what’s going on!

Stay tuned for more…
- Jacob

(you can see all of the Project 360 blog posts here)