580 Gallon Aquarium Filtration Ideas

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Rayne said:
I was planning on doing both a closed loop filter system like the Ultima, except I was going to go with the glass bead filter Wlim makes, and running a sump with a drip system. It's the best of both worlds. Massive bio-filter in the sump and great mech filter in the bead filter. WC are taken care of in the sump, and if you need to drain the whole tank you could with the backflush of the bead filter. Both systems complement each other well IMO, and both bring their advantages. Of course two filters bring additional costs and for now the budget cant afford to do both for me, so I'm going to go with the sump and drip. But I'll pre-drill the tank for the bead filter down the road and just plug the holes for now.

Filter socks will NOT filter our your beneficial bacteria. 99/9% of the BB is in the media, on the substrate, glass, etc. It is not free floating in the water. Smallest micron rating I would go I think is 50microns. I think that'll be the sweet spot. Depending on your stock levels and how much you feed you would probably have to change them out every 3-4 days.
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Ya true, so I think ill do a sump. I'll just go to the store and get a 150ish gallon stock tank. That way ill have a large bio chamber for my bioballs and just hang the 50micron filter sock on the pvc piping. Then ill have the drip system running into the filter sock, but I will have a 5gallon bucket that has a mixture if prime and RO water, so as my drip is doing my water changes for me the solution in the five gallon bucket will condition the water at the same time. so all I have to do is pretty much change the filter sock watch my fish enjoy them and occasionally fill the five gallon bucket again with prime and new RO water. Is that a good idea?

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Joey822 said:
Ya true, so I think ill do a sump. I'll just go to the store and get a 150ish gallon stock tank. That way ill have a large bio chamber for my bioballs and just hang the 50micron filter sock on the pvc piping. Then ill have the drip system running into the filter sock, but I will have a 5gallon bucket that has a mixture if prime and RO water, so as my drip is doing my water changes for me the solution in the five gallon bucket will condition the water at the same time. so all I have to do is pretty much change the filter sock watch my fish enjoy them and occasionally fill the five gallon bucket again with prime and new RO water. Is that a good idea?

Sent from my ADR6350 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
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There is no reason to Prime RO water, it already has removed everything. You don't want to use RO any ways unless you want to dose to replace the minerals and such. Just use a chlorine Chloramine filter as such http://thefilterguys.biz/ro_systems.htm look down at the drip systems. It's what I use. I would go with 60 or 80 GPD and adjust from there.
 
Since the drip is such a small amount of water any chlorine off gasses quickly so I don't think there is a need for Prime. I'd keep it simple.
 
Joey822 said:
Maybe I’lljust do a sump with a drip system. But with the drip, what would be a good GPD.I was thinking 45GPD nothing too much, the reason why I would think 45 GPDwould be ok, would be, the drip would do my 50% WC weekly for me. All I wouldhave to do is replace the filter sock in the sump,
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Consider doing a sulfur denitrator instead of a drip. More money up front, but saves you money on water (especially if you are using RO water). No worries about chlorine, and the your nitrates will stay below 1.

45 gallons a day on a 590 tank is about 7% water change per day. If the tank has a heavy bioload, that's not going to make a huge difference.

On my tank, I put a drain on the bottom. I can open a valve and drain water quickly. That saves a ton of time on water changes. I also ran hot and cold water lines to fill up a 75 gallon tank to mix dechlorinator in. There's a pump in that tank with a long hose, so I can fill all my tanks with it. Highly recommend. Greatly reduces the time required for water changes.

But honestly, the best thing I ever did on my big tank was the sulfur denitrator, since I have a heavy bioload.
 
Rayne said:
Since the drip is such a small amount of water any chlorine off gasses quickly so I don't think there is a need for Prime. I'd keep it simple.
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You're probably right if the city of Tracy treated their water with chorine, but they treat their water with chloramines which does not off gas like chlorine does. Not treating the incoming drip would eventually lead to elevated chlormine levels that could get to lethal levels pretty quickly.

I also saw that the tank is back up for sale the other day: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/for/4152745392.html

Man, the stand looks flimsy. It almost looks like the stand was made to just to move the empty tank acound since it's on wheels.

OP, if you are still thinking about getting this, you would need a new stand.
 
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