Ultima II 1000 or 2000 for my 1000 Gallon Setup

[MFK2009]

After running a 4000 Ultima on a 300+ Tank for a year I would concur with much of the above

-Run More than one Ulitima ( when you backwash it takes some time to rebuild filter bed)
so using two and alternating cleaning would be better, I always get ammonia spike on backwash
plus the redundancy would be nice

-Ideally if you have 1 1/2 line dumping waste water out of tank you need 1 1/2 OR larger line adding water to tank
my 4300 GPH pump will empty tank in minutes on the rinse cycle.
(I'm working on adding 1 1/2 line direct from well pump to keep up, my 5/8 garden house has no chance)

-I agree on No Niche Skimmer, I really like mine

-Don't know much about them but would check out these variable speed DC pumps so as to be able to adjust flows
supposed to be silent/very quiet, my tank also in garage and first thing I hear on entering is pump hum its not loud
but always there, it can get annoying, easy to mask with a radio or some water noise, but I would rather not have it.
Option to adjust flow with a dial would be great
http://www.rlss.ca/?_escaped_fragment_=dc-pump#!dc-pump

-Things glad I did, put Ultima on a movable platform (snowmobile dollys & Plywood)
makes aligning or changing things easy, and in a hotwater tank drip pan, flexpvc pipes, one way air vent on waste outline,
simple bucket filter on return line for days you backwash/rinse to catch any fine crud that gets stirred up and wants to go back to tank, Backwash really mix's media up.


-http://sdrv.ms/OE2E8D

 

[Albertan]

I'll put some more thought into that flow rate.

Thought about it. Gonna stick with the 10K GPH target. Several other Cichla keepers are reaching this target with large tanks with no problems. I'll be using 2" bulkheads so I don't think my tank will be as turbulent as that video. Thanks for making me think about it and dig a little deeper though.

 

[Pacuowner]

I am using 2 pool filters that are the same size as the ultima 2000's in series on my planted 570. The first filter is sand and the second has the ultima media in it. I'm still silent cycling this tank, so my set up is still in the "testing phase". I have only back washed the sand filter so far. I am using a pentair intelliflo variable speed pump. Normal flow has it at 1000 rpms drawing 120-140 watts with close to 2000 gallons a hour turn over. if i turn it on at 2600 rpms it will draw i think 1000 watts, but the turn over is close to 74 gallons a minute, which is the max flow for the filters with 1 1/2 inch pipes. Man, 10000 gallons an hour is going to cost, no matter what pump you use. Keep up the posts, i look forward to seeing your finished tank.