210 gallon of procrastination

[drunkenmastera]

I have posted this on at plantedtank as well, but thought my mini monster would be nice here too.

so its been almost a year since I move back to Atlanta. Time to resurrect the thread. Lost 3 of the fish due to harsh winter because i was only able to put the fish in the garage. Don't ask...sad.
I'm doing the plumbing next week. Trying to make sure the structure will support the tank on the second floor. I will post pics of the structure for you guys' judgement on this.
I have someone building a new stand since mine was ugly.........
Hopefully I can get this done in about a month.

Tank dimensions is 72X24X29
Lighting: 2- Catalina 36 in light fixture. I went with this for longer bulb length instead of the 72 in and the bulbs are more easier to find. It will be 4 6700k bulbs and 2 10000k bulbs

Substrate: Aquasoil amazonia (does it need cover soil or can I use this by itself). I think 10 bags of 9 liters should cover it?

Filtration: Hard plumb into drain lines and water line. Going to attempt the beanimal sump.

Plants: Mainly dwarf HC front and hairgrass back. Some other plants here and there, not sure the name

Fish: Mainly the 9 discus out of 12 since I lost 3 due to winter.
Here's one picture of them:

ok, so here are the pictures of the structure beneath the tank. Any concerns? I'm estimating about 2500 lbs.
This tank is going on second floor. Bottom floor is what most of the structure are, then there's the big concrete floor which covers the whole house.













Got the drain line ran and two water line ran. Ran into an issue where I'm not sure what method to use to run water into the tank... any ideas?
I was thinking hot and cold line into a Y connector which splits to the spray bar. How do people plumb water line into tank with sump?






Ok, 3 hours later.
I nail #4 2x4 top plates against the load. Those are 2x9.

Another #4 2x4 bottom plates on the concrete floor. Don't ask why i couldn't do a long one, it was already done...couldn't yank it up.

Then I place #4 2x4 studs from top plate to bottom plate.

Another few blocks from the concrete studs to the new 2x4 studs.
I'm very sure this can handle my tank.
Note to self:
Finish all framing first before doing plumbing, not the other way around lol.
Off to finish the stand, will report back in a few hours.




Its slowly getting there...



Got the two doors done. Doing the middle ones tomorrow. That one will be closed.



Got all the doors done. Sanded all the surface. Going to paint tomorrow. I ask for help, but the wife said she already was helping....

 

[drunkenmastera]

I attached a sketch of my sump design. Thanks to this forum for the help and info I've gather.
I'm going drill a 1'' bulkhead on middle of show tank for siphon to drain.
1. I was thinking of putting a refill line to that drain line as well (not sure if refill line and drain line together will work?)
2. Other method is to leave drain bulkhead in middle of tank (put refill line in sump with float line where it'll fill tank and water is reduce from sump, float valve comes on, refill sump again)
It'll do it till it fills up the main tank and float valve stop. Any issues with this?
3. Not sure if there's a third method.

I need all the advice I can get guys, this is my first monster, I'm sure many of you have already done it.
First time building a tank at all, I have only use canister filter and that's it...

 

[drunkenmastera]

anyone have any comments on filtration and sump?
Will a 30g sump be fine? Having trouble locating 55g.

 

[Drstrangelove]

Your discus are stunning. Sorry you lost 3.

And wives are incentive. That's helping!

It's kind of hard to follow the water flow in the sump. Just brain storming for your setup, so a lot below won't be too useful...

1) Ideally, you want some mechanical filtration other than socks before you route water to the bio media. Socks are great, but at some point they clog and will over flow debris. A secondary media like poret, a low micron screen, or other suitable mech media would be a great backup.

2) I can't determine the flow into and out of the second chamber of the sump. Is it over one baffle then over the next baffle? Is it under a baffle then up and over the next baffle? Vice versa? If the eggcrate is simply at the top of both baffles and that is how it flows, how will the water flow down and through the media?

3) I'm not sure of using both K1 and pond matrix at the same time. I thought they did the same thing basically.

4) Doesn't K1 need forced flow rather than just passive flow to work efficiently?

5) Are you going to add heaters to the sump? What about UV? Could be very useful to put those in the sump, no?

6) Is your water already soft? Will you be adding some material to the sump (e.g., oak leaves) to soften it, or is that not an issue?

7) You could use a refill and drain line on the sump rather than the tank. You could have a bulkhead with a standard faucet attached and then you should be able to use it for both functions. I'm not sure if an auto change drip method will work with that if you want to go that way, but otherwise that should work. You could modify differently off the sump to have a passive drain (via over flow) and use an auto drip into the sump. There are probably many options. Personally, I don't like adding water directly to the tank, given an option like a sump. I can heat it before restarting pumps, can run extra tests, can avoid disturbing the fish, etc.

8) beanimal basically has 90% of the flow through one full siphon pipe, no? You might want to use a T to route the main pipe to 2 socks, rather than using 1 sock each pipe.

9) I'm not sure I know what 'fresh water line' means. Line could be either the level of the water, or a source for the water.

10) Is the K1 media really physically higher than the filter socks and the fresh water line?

 

[drunkenmastera]

It's kind of hard to follow the water flow in the sump. Just brain storming for your setup, so a lot below won't be too useful...

1) Ideally, you want some mechanical filtration other than socks before you route water to the bio media. Socks are great, but at some point they clog and will over flow debris. A secondary media like poret, a low micron screen, or other suitable mech media would be a great backup.

2) I can't determine the flow into and out of the second chamber of the sump. Is it over one baffle then over the next baffle? Is it under a baffle then down and then over the baffle? Vice versa? If the eggcrate is simply at the top of both baffles and that is how it flows, how will the water flow down and through the media?

3) I'm not sure of using both K1 and pond matrix at the same time. I thought they did the same thing basically.

4) Doesn't K1 need forced flow rather than just passive flow to work efficiently?

5) Are you going to add heaters to the sump? What about UV? Could be very useful to put those in the sump, no?

6) Is your water already soft? Will you be adding some material to the sump (e.g., oak leaves) to soften it, or is that not an issue?

7) You could use a refill and drain line on the sump rather than the tank. You could have a bulkhead with a standard faucet attached and then you should be able to use it for both functions. I'm not sure if an auto change drip method will work with that if you want to go that way, but otherwise that should work. You could modify differently off the sump to have a passive drain (via over flow) and use an auto drip into the sump. There are probably many options. Personally, I don't like adding water directly to the tank, given an option like a sump. I can heat it before restarting pumps, can run extra tests, can avoid disturbing the fish, etc.

1) ok ill add some other mechanical filtration
2) there's no baffle, just eggcrates to hold the media in that middle compartment. water will flow across to return pump. There will be air pumps there to disturb the k1 media
3) I just had K1 laying around so I'm use both so I won't waste it
4) air bubbles
5) yes, heaters and all that as well
6) I'll just add the chemicals during waterchange
7) I don't understand drain on sump because I want to do 50% water change and the sump wouldn't be able to handle that.I don't need auto drip method. Can I use float valve with that faucet to sump for water change? It'll refill pump, return pump push new water to tank, then sump gets refill again and same process repeat until main tank fill?

 

[Drstrangelove]

7) I don't understand drain on sump because I want to do 50% water change and the sump wouldn't be able to handle that.I don't need auto drip method. Can I use float valve with that faucet to sump for water change? It'll refill pump, return pump push new water to tank, then sump gets refill again and same process repeat until main tank fill?

Yes, I see your point. Large WC won't work especially well with just the sump. Possible yes, if you can fill the sump as fast as it pumps into the tank.

You still have lots of options off the tank depending on what is already there (drilled) and the choices you want to make. E.g., if you had a drain built in already, yes it could function as a drain and a refill if you had faucet fittings. Water could drain (the same way as we drain hot water heaters) and then a hose attached to a main line in the house could force water back through to the tank. (Not sure on the back pressure in that case!)

You could also just add water over the top of the tank. Auto drips could still work into the sump with an overflow to negate the need for a regular WC. Tons of options, I think all with various advantages and disadvantages.

I'd seek lots of opinions as I don't have personal experience with some of the available options.

 

[drunkenmastera]

Yes, I see your point. Large WC won't work especially well with just the sump. Possible yes, if you can fill the sump as fast as it pumps into the tank.

You still have lots of options off the tank depending on what is already there (drilled) and the choices you want to make. E.g., if you had a drain built in already, yes it could function as a drain and a refill if you had faucet fittings. Water could drain (the same way as we drain hot water heaters) and then a hose attached to a main line in the house could force water back through to the tank. (Not sure on the back pressure in that case!)

You could also just add water over the top of the tank. Auto drips could still work into the sump with an overflow to negate the need for a regular WC. Tons of options, I think all with various advantages and disadvantages.

I'd seek lots of opinions as I don't have personal experience with some of the available options.

well i have a hot/cold water line ready, along with drainage line. the tank has 3 holes drilled for beanimal style already.
i like the idea of having the fresh water line go into sump with float valve. Return pump will stay on, it'll keep pumping water into main tank, float valve keeps going back on to refill water. It'll be a semi-auto changer which I'm looking for. Anyone see any issues? I don't see any issues, water runs out of sump, float valve refill new water to be pump to main tank.

 

[drunkenmastera]

no one?