CREATING THE ULTIMATE FILTRATION AND EVOLVING WITH YOUR FISH!!!!!!
- Thread starter HULON
- Start date
Im loving this thread more and more everyday lol.
Im a big fan of my drip system to stabilize things and help prevent spikes after feeding but I still try and do a medium to large water change on the tanks every couple weeks.
Egon, I found alot of info about prefilters and settlement tanks on some of the larger koi forums. The problem was there were very few examples I found/understood to go off relating to the application to large tanks (500gal +). The bottom drain was another thing I personally am a little apprehensive about.
Im a big fan of my drip system to stabilize things and help prevent spikes after feeding but I still try and do a medium to large water change on the tanks every couple weeks.
Egon, I found alot of info about prefilters and settlement tanks on some of the larger koi forums. The problem was there were very few examples I found/understood to go off relating to the application to large tanks (500gal +). The bottom drain was another thing I personally am a little apprehensive about.
If the plants in the system are terrestrial in nature, then oxygen consumption at night is not a problem.
It seems like drip systems are the way to go. That's what I eventually went to on my 400g pbass tank (I have a drip system thread somewhere out there). Before the drip system my nitrates were always high, like 80ppm even when doing 75% weekly water changes. That was unacceptable. After running the drip (48 gallons per day) nitrates went down to about 20-30ppm. Better, but still not good considering nitrates in the wild are non-existent. Not happy with the way things were going and feeling bad for cramming large cichla in a small tank I threw in the monsterfish flag.
With regards to chlorine and chloramine, I only had chlorine in my area. But I still ran a chloramine filter. It was a dual stage canister filter using granular activated carbon from The Filter Guys. It was cheap, easy to set up and worked great. I used a chlorine/chloramine test kit to verify that no chlorine was making it to the tank. There are other options for chlorine/chloramine removal on drip system. Li/Neoprodigy uses a dosing pump which automatically pulls in set amounts of Prime and mixes it with the incoming water. That's a nice option too, a little pricier though.
So yes, I think drip systems are the way to go on large tanks with big fish. But it can get complicated to setup on indoor tanks that can't take advantage of gravity drains or have anywhere to dump the water. That's the issue I have with my 190g right now.
I'm in the process of trying to setup an auto water changer with the tank sitting smack dab in the middle of the house. My approach will be to install a float valve in the sump and use a small submersible pump on a timer to drain water from the sump a few minutes every hour. The float valve will then refill the sump after the pump drains a few gallons out. The issue I have is where to drain that waste water without having to cut into walls and run piping throughout the house.
Subscribed.
I just read everything. New info for me personally is the "settling tank" concept. My next set up (hopefully very large) will have this if possible. From what I understand the settling tank may take up a lot of space to slow the water enough for it to work properly. Flow has to slow way down for "dirt" to settle out. Also, how would this get cleaned? It seems a cone shaped tank bottom with a valve at the bottom would be great or tilt a tank on it's side slightly to collect everything in the corner? Just open the valve once a week and flow the crap out until the water runs clean. I'm very lazy.
Good stuff guys, keep it coming
Yeah, a traditional settling chamber would be cone shaped with a drain on the bottom. You'd need to take advantage of gravity to drain the waste water out. Otherwise you'd need to siphon it out manually. This can get challenging on indoor tanks with limited space under the stand. On koi ponds, settling tanks are set at the same level of the pond and are gravity fed.
Setting tanks aren't perfect though. Think of it as a pre-filter for your pre-filter. Not all debris will sink. It's effectiveness depends on the buoyancy of debris and turdballs. That is why a super slow flow through the settling chamber is so important. The slower the flow, the more time debris has to sink to the bottom.
This is also why I inquired about parabolic screen filters (aka Cetus Sieve) like this: http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/1773/Parabolic-Screen-Filters
If you had the space, I think using two sumps would be best. The first sump will act purely as a pre-filter. Use matala mats, brushes, coarse foam, etc. The stuff you see used in koi ponds. That water would then feed into the second sump that had even finer mechanical filtration (I still like filter socks). And the last stage of course would be your bio media.
Similar to the way David R sketched up in his diagram.
Yes, it is. It's the closest thing to nature, just like when water in a river is constantly replaced with clean one from up stream
^ Or if you opt to go for a closed-loop system, a few canister filters for mechanical filtration (Ocean Clear, etc) followed by a bead filter and lastly a glass filter. That's what I would do I wanted to run closed loop and had extra cash in the budget
Not at all, it's my "Fortress of Solitude".
Seriously, though, it doesn't bother me. I have easy access from outside the house, so I don't have to worry about the wife disapproving of me hauling buckets of dirty filter socks through our home. Also, I have a sump in the floor so i don't worry about spills. Overall it has worked out really well.My list might make it sound like it adds up but all this stuff has been aquired over the last 5-6 years all while supporting rays on this venture from AC110s on a 125 to the current systems.Can't wait to see what stuff looks like years from now. Maybe it will be just like Hulon's.....
I never said it was pretty, but seems to work.
The big tank is a 10x4x2.5. Pumps are a pair of Darts. A few Characins, silver aro, few Irwinnis, fire eel, and a 4.2 goup of Marbles 10"-17". Downsized significantly from about 12 rays.
Pick of my lil growout tank filter too..... 120 gallon sump, 2 Dolphin 3Ks, a 20 gallon wet/dry and like 20lbs of ceramic rings. Tanks are a 6x3x1.5 for a trio of Falks and an Aimara and on bottom a 180 with a trio of black ray mutts.
Both tanks are currently ran with 200/100 socks.[/QUOTEAwsome DB keep the controbutions coming for this thread!!!
thanks for the pics Dan stop by from time to time to answer any questions members may have!!! about your system
Cool thread, I will certainly be stopping by!
That is exactly what I do and it has been working well (no issues after four+ years). Another advantage to this is you aren't restricted by gravity, so you can run your waste line through the attic/walls if your house is built on a slab and you can't go through the floor.
The downside with that system is the mechamical filtration get clogged, reduced the flow when it gets to the bead and the glass filter. Once, I thought I would improve by puttting two Ultima back to back, but I also thought about whether the flow came out from the first one will be sufficient for the second one. Also, when it comes to backwash, all the crap from the first filter will enter the 2nd one, and who know whether all of them will get out. With those two thoughts, I decided just to stick with one filter, and backwash. I still have an Ultima 2000 sit and collect dust^ Or if you opt to go for a closed-loop system, a few canister filters for mechanical filtration (Ocean Clear, etc) followed by a bead filter and lastly a glass filter. That's what I would do I wanted to run closed loop and had extra cash in the budget
Another method that has always intrigued me is the Bakki Shower system for biological filtration. I think somebody setup one a while back here on a pond, can't remember who. Would be nice for you guys with big tanks / DIY ponds. Think of it as a wet/dry trickle filter on steroids. High flow, lots of media, tons of oxygenation = lots of surface area for maximum bacteria colonization. This is something I may consider whenever I build my next koi pond. Seems simple enough to create a DIY version
The best of both worlds. Imagine the nitrate-sucking ability of this thing
The best of both worlds. Imagine the nitrate-sucking ability of this thing
