Advice! Custom system with Large Reservoir

[superphi]

I realise garra rufa is a sore subject but here goes;


Hi, i am opening a beauty salon for my girlfriend and would like to include garra ruffa fish. Having had my own aquarium for a number of years I am aware of the complications when dealing with fish and the water eco system. I have looked into what most garra ruffa spas are doing (more or less a 30 gallon tank at your feet with a hidden fluval fx5 external filter in the chair)
and know this is a disaster waiting to happen. Infact, my girlfriend's current work place have had half their fish die
after barely 3 months.

I want to go oversize. Just like a big aquatics shop. I have modelled a system
on what they have, overstocked tanks with large reservoirs to dilute ammonia/nitrite
with an oversized filter.

Projected water volume (UK gallons); 210(6 tanks x 35)
450(Reservoir)
110(filter water volume)
Total; 770 gallons
Stock; 600 3-4cm garra ruffa

Filter; Nexus Eazy 210 using Kaldnes bio

Would appreciate if you guys looked at the model and give me any advice or complications i should be aware of.
eg. Would I need a pump to bring the water back up to the tanks from the filter. If so, what output would you advise.
eg. Is the UVC strong enough
eg. Should the reservoir be bigger
eg. mods to the reservoir/system to ensure debris is overflowed from the tanks efficiently.
eg. flow rate, will this supply adequate aeration to the tanks?

thank you

PS; kind of jelous of the garra rufas, my clown loaches would love a system like this

SPEC:

Tank 1-6; 2x1.5x1.5 feet (approx 35 gallon each x 6 = 210 gallons combined)

Reservoir; approx 450 gallons. built from plastic or wood. Size open to suggestions, could go upto 700 gallons but dont know if neccessary

Nexus Eazy 210 pond filter using Kaldnes moving and static technology;
Max flow rate - 2200 UK gallons/hr
Kaldness media - 50 ltrs bio/30 ltrs Eazy
Max Pondsize - 4000 UK gallons
Volume of water in filter - 112 UK gallons

 

[justin guest]

In theory the system should work but I would personally modify a few things. This is because your system is a hybrid between a pond filter system and an aquarium filter system which makes the plumbing more complicated.


Firstly I'm a bit concerned that the nexus filter may not give you the water clarity you want. biologically it should be ok but there are simpler ways of building such a system. A lot of people on here have their mechanical and biological filters in the large reservoir itself (also called a sump). Doing it this way will make the plumbing easier and you won't need the nexus filter at all.


Firstly as a mechanical filter I would use some filter wool in a tray or better still you could use filter socks as these can be easily washed and reused. The more filter socks installed in the sump, the less often they have to be swapped out. see this thread...

For filter sock infohttp://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=406140

The filter socks or filter wool would be best placed in the sump where the water first trickles in from the 6 tanks (I'm assuming the sump water level sits below the water level of the 6 tanks).


I would then add some biological filter material into the sump like a couple of bread trays filled with plastic pot scrubbies or half a dozen airpump driven foam filters...

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142347&highlight=pot+scrubbies&page=5
(see post 42)

http://discuslovers.biz.ly/About_Discus_Fish.html


If you follow the above recommendations then the pump will best be placed in the sump. As for pump sizing you will need to specify the height difference between the water surface of the tanks and the water surface of the sump as this height difference affects how much water a pump actually moves around.


The UV lamp is too small. you need something with at least 55 watts and better would be 110 watts. change the UV bulbs at least every 12 months even if they still emit light. This is because after 1 year a UV bulb only emits about 30% of the UV light that it does when new.


I wouldn't recommend an inline heater like on the diagram but would put a couple of submersible heaters into the sump itself.


Finally IMO adding activated carbon into the system is necessary. Normally I'm not a fan of using activated carbon permanently but there may be toxins added into the water in such an environment and activated carbon can remove most of these toxins. You will need to be generous with the carbon and change it every 3-6 months. You can also add this into the sump.


There you go. Hope you can make sense of all that. Hope you find some useful tip

j<><

 

[Oughtsix]

I would add a continuous water change system to the above suggestions. Add a trickle of fresh filtered water to the sump and add an overflow to the sump that lets excess water go down the drain (or water the lawn???).

 

[justin guest]

thx forgot that

j<><

 

[brich999]

Trickle would def help and i would go with biomedia in the resubmit to basically make it a huge sump. You can have a chamber for kaldnes in there and also add ceramic media and something like seachem pond matrix

 

[brich999]

And heater is too small my 500g has 1400w and much less surface area. I'd say heat the sump, that's the idea of a resivoir. Do all filter and heat in your resivoir and it will be much more simple.

 

[Oughtsix]

For this application I think I would make the small tanks with a steep V bottom. Like 45 degrees steep so the fish poo collects at the bottom and can be sucked away quickly by a drain mounted in the bottom of the V. You could put a grid in above the V so no one falls in too deep. I don't think I would even filter this water, I would just flush it so you don't have to worry about breaking down the poo.