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The Maroon Lagoon V2.0


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Some more progress made today, I built my very first set of drawers! Pretty proud of them too [emoji56]

Hoping to get the floor of the sump sealed and painted soon so I can attach the support beams and the drawers. Once that is done I can begin staging the sump and actually make some real progress on the tank!ba08e694e6ed9babf9d0761fda1c5fef.jpg

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Would water around the gas pocket reduce the concentration of N though? If nitrogen bubbles did collect in the trap, I could understand it being diluted with other gases like CO2 or O2 present in the area, but only if they were creating bubbles. O2 probably wouldn't be a factor in this scenario with the lack of photosynthesis, and the ratio of CO2 and N gas would remain fairly constant (assuming the rate of CO2 production isn't more rapid than N, diluting the gas composition of the trap). The nitrogen probably wouldn't react with other gases in the sample atmosphere since nitrogen is relatively inert, allowing it to be fairly well preserved in the collection container.

Or perhaps you're afraid that N bubbles would dissolve back into solution from the trap leaving behind other gases skewing the composition of the atmosphere. However, I don't believe the physical properties of nitrogen would allow this. Nitrogen fixation is more difficult than simply dissolving into water (i.e lightning, certain legumes, and important microbes like Nitrosomonas and Azotobacter). Ian is much better suited for this discussion than I am since I only took a undergrad courses in micro years ago. Still, fun to talk about! I feel like I'm a student again punk.gif

BACK ON TOPIC. Water around the gas pocket would probably dissolve the gaseous nitrogen and carry it away, giving a low bias.If the container is tightly sealed enough to give a representative sample, its probably too tight to get a sample under representative conditions. This isn't actually directly related to work I'm doing (I'm working on biogenic soil gas in surficial aquifers, not marine settings), just an interest because now I can really accurately quantify :)

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Thanks for getting us back on track Ian. So I did some reading and N2 does dissolve in water regularly, but so does oxygen and CO2. Question is then, what is the rate of each? If they all dissolve at similar rates then the ratio would remain fairly consistent over time. I can see if oxygen or CO2 does not dissolve more readily then the nitrogen content would be diluted over time.

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I don't think ratios is what we are focusing on for this experiment. Aren't we just looking for pure volume of nitrogen released while being disturbed as minimally as possible to reduce interference of the reading?

The issue I see is the nitrogen gas being diluted at all. We need to measure it with minimal to no water flow as Ian said or else risk dilution via dissolution into the water. I don't see where we need to consider oxygen or CO2 at all in this experiment unless I'm missing some sort of interaction between the gases that may skew the data. That is very well possible since my official Title these days is Realtor and not the "S" word anymore. [emoji4]

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The rate of any gas dissolution into a fluid is described by Henry's law, and is a function of the partial pressure of the gas and the temperature. It's more about biological production of N2 and N2O by various denitrifiers than than the rate that atmospheric N2/N2O can dissolve into the water. Tank water will already be at equilibrium with the atmosphere, thus any additional N2/N2O generated will outgas.

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I don't think ratios is what we are focusing on for this experiment. Aren't we just looking for pure volume of nitrogen released while being disturbed as minimally as possible to reduce interference of the reading?

The issue I see is the nitrogen gas being diluted at all. We need to measure it with minimal to no water flow as Ian said or else risk dilution via dissolution into the water. I don't see where we need to consider oxygen or CO2 at all in this experiment unless I'm missing some sort of interaction between the gases that may skew the data. That is very well possible since my official Title these days is Realtor and not the "S" word anymore. [emoji4]

Ah, see being in air quality measurements I'm used to looking at gas concentrations in the environment and I rarely work on quantifying amounts. My mind is currently biased toward searching for the concentration over volume.

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Thanks. Due to my tight fitting space and design, I cannot attach the drawers until I completely finish them, sand them, stain them, and seal them. The drawer rails have stop tabs on them to prevent you from pulling them all the way out. These tabs also prevent me from sliding them in without tilting it up. Since there is 1/16 of an inch clearance between the floor, drawer, and steel, it's quite impossible. So I have to take the sump support beams out, attach the finished drawers, and then lower the stand frame over it. doh.gif Sheesh, this tank will never get going at this rate!

I also did a test stain of some scrap birch with different stains and realized fairly quickly that birch really does need to be primed first. Stain without primer looks absolutely terrible on birch, so that will add another day of work to the skin of the stand.

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So your telling us that building a system that has a cabinet grade skin and drawers is a ton of work. I could have told you that smile.png

Sad thing is I'm not even aiming for cabinet grade anything! I just decided to build drawers to appease the wife. Other than that I was aiming for Ty's "Slap a board in front of it" approach rofl.gif

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So your telling us that building a system that has a cabinet grade skin and drawers is a ton of work. I could have told you that smile.png

Sad thing is I'm not even aiming for cabinet grade anything! I just decided to build drawers to appease the wife. Other than that I was aiming for Ty's "Slap a board in front of it" approach rofl.gif
Good thing I used a cabinet grade board to slap in front of it. [emoji12]
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So your telling us that building a system that has a cabinet grade skin and drawers is a ton of work. I could have told you that :)

Sad thing is I'm not even aiming for cabinet grade anything! I just decided to build drawers to appease the wife. Other than that I was aiming for Ty's "Slap a board in front of it" approach :rofl:
Good thing I used a cabinet grade board to slap in front of it. [emoji12]

I just don't have the heart to tell you the truth.......

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I haven't posted these pictures yet, but in December I cooked my old rocks in an acid bath a couple of times, rinsed well, and they are curing in a brute trash can with seed rock. I didn't want to risk bringing ANYTHING in from my old tank and I always thought my old rock was leaching PO4 into the water. I'm hoping cooking the rocks a couple times will help solve my phantom PO4 source.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not a whole lot of progress has been made, sticking firmly to the "good things take time" mantra [emoji1]

I have painted the floor of the stand with a high gloss oil based paint. I know how much water will be spilled on this floor, so I made sure to put a few coats on and a coat underneath.

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I also went through all my dive photos from Tahiti and did my best to match the blue color that is in the background of my photos while diving on the reef. I want it to look as natural as possible. So I've spent the past couple weeks putting a new coat on every other day so no light will bleed through. No clue what the color will come out as when there's water in it and LED/T5 lighting, but I like it so far.

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I'm hoping to take some time today to finish the trim of the drawer fronts and finally get them attached so I can get the sump floor installed and the construction on the sump started.

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I'm curious what it would look like if I had layered blue and a aquamarine or blue-green. Considering it took me a few layers before it was a solid blue, I imagine different colors would show through in different areas and look pretty cool. Perhaps something to try on a smaller tank...

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Went to Lowes this morning with one of the drawer fronts that has been stained and sealed. Trying to decide between brushed nickel or oiled bronze handles. I'm leaning towards oiled bronze, but I can be so indecisive when it comes to builds...

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