240g Asian Arowana Tank - Modified River Tank Manifold & Hard-plumbed FX5's

[Albertan]

Well the spray bar should actually be as low as possible to duplicate the River Tank Manifold design and create current along the bottom of the tank. Keeping in mind that I will run about 2½" of sand substrate, the spray bar should be about 4" above the sand in the end. I'd like to go lower, and it may be possible to do so. But I was impatient and wanted to glue and paint the return line to get it installed.

I've become more of a fan of air pumps and air stones recently. They're a necessity when you're keeping young cichla in 90[SUP]o[/SUP]F water. I'll most likely run an air curtain along the back wall. I've also thought about running a couple of AC110 HOB's strictly for biological filtration and they would probably accomplish the task as well. An emergency battery-operated air pump is never a bad design feature in case of a power outage though.

 

[Albertan]

Are FX5 self priming?

They are as mentioned, but I'm not sure they'll self-prime through 1½" pipe. I plan to cover three of the intake ports and stuff a hose against the fourth to fill up the intake run. The FX5's will be more or less full when I connect them. I don't expect any problems from that point on in terms of priming.

 

[DDK]

They are as mentioned, but I'm not sure they'll self-prime through 1½" pipe. I plan to cover three of the intake ports and stuff a hose against the fourth to fill up the intake run. The FX5's will be more or less full when I connect them. I don't expect any problems from that point on in terms of priming.

Exactly what I do when they fluvals wont prime

 

[Joey47]

i did this exact thing years ago. It worked very well. but i used a solid piece of PVC and ran that all the way to the bottom of the tank to help clean up the bottom and it worked flawlessly. here are two videos of my tank when it was setup.


http://youtu.be/O2PzzJFJYxY look all the way to the left of the tank and see my intake

http://youtu.be/aY8lGy8Fs3Q look all the way right and see my out.

 

[Bigmeanfish]

you make a good point and i like your setup ever since i installed my diy spray i stopped using the air pump and airstones
my spraybar runs across the entire back of the tank and i have 3 intakes 1 on each end and 1 in the middle so i stopped using the airstones just incase the intakes suck in the air bubbles

 

[Albertan]

Keep in mind this setup is a little different than the typical system. Spray bars are usually employed to help oxygenate the water by locating them right at the top or even slightly above the water. The spray bar in the River Tank Manifold setup is located much further down in the water column to help establish current along the substrate, not to attempt to oxygenate the water.

 

[shookONES]

I just wanted to say thanks for the feedback. After giving it some thought, I decided to paint the parts in the tank that would be visible against the background satin black, while leaving the parts behind the back glass and those buried in the white sand substrate white. It should all make sense when I take more pictures tomorrow. I'm hoping for a clean appearance to the plumbing externally while making it as inconspicuous as possible in the tank...a task made even more difficult with the white sand substrate and the black background. I probably wouldn't have gone to all the trouble without your feedback, but now is the time to do it.

I'm a firm believer in the notion that 'that devil is in the details'. I'm a minimalist at heart so the less distracts inside my tanks, the better. It looks 100x better now that everything is painted. Once sand is in and the tank filled, I bet that new aro will POP in that tank. I can't wait to see the progress.

 

[Albertan]

I've done both painted back glass and the window tint. IMO, the tint definitely looks better, but is more difficult to install and apparently also more difficult to remove as paint supposedly just peels off in minutes. I'm sure the tint is still easier than the Oyama paper typically used on arowana tanks.

Just a note that I started/tried to remove some latex paint from the side glass of a 120g tonight and it definitely doesn't peel off in minutes. I'm guessing at least half an hour per square foot to clean it up. It definitely won't peel off like I read in some threads. Maybe the Krylon Fusion is better. Anyways, I didn't want to derail this build thread but I thought a FYI was in order. I'm in for a lot of work on that tank now...

 

[Albertan]

I had a few more items show up today. I'm tired tonight and busy tomorrow night. So it'll probably be a Friday project to plumb them into the intake.



Aqua Logic (Elecro) 1.5kW Inline Heater

Emperor Aquatics 65W SMART UV Sterilizer

 

[louguhai]

wait for more nice pics....