Monster fish tank design advice

[hound83]

Hi all,

I am close to ordering my first truly big aquarium. It is meant to be underneath the windows of the front of my house so there is no option of putting the tank on a stand.
I came up with sort of a "side-sump" design and i would like to have feedback on it.

The dimensions are 300x100x80(height) cm and the side sump is 50 cm. The main display will be 250*100*80 cm.

I am thinking of a 3 compartment sump. The first compartment will contain sponge-mats for mechanical filtration and water will flow top to bottom, the second compartment will contain biological material and the 3rd space will be for 2 eheim 1262 return pumps and a space for a aquascape for my girlfriend.
I also have a Eheim 2260 filter that will be hooked up from the old aquarium to this new aquarium too.

I would like to know if the design would be good or that i made a terrible error in my design/thinking.

Stocking will be 4 oscars, 8 silver dollars and a pleco, but i am mostly curious about the design of the aquairum, not the stocking perse.

 

[Backfromthedead]

I would look into hamburg matten filters. You could get a slightly longer tank if you wanted and it would be a lot more simple to set up. Thats what i would go with in your tank setup.

I cant really say for sure about your side sump. I think it would work.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

How are you planning to do water changes?

 

[J. H.]

You could just use tubs or smaller aquariums and siphon/pump straight from one to the next. As long as all the water levels are equal, there will be no need to worry about overflows and stuff like that.

 

[Yoimbrian]

The general idea is similar to how they build the aquariums with a built in sump. It’ll work just fine.

Make sure you have adequate flow in the tank to get the debris to that side, and make sure you have enough bio filtration.

Like the other guy said, you could also just do corner HMF filters, which would be simpler and effective. Though your girlfriend would need something else to aquadcape.

 

[hound83]

I would look into hamburg matten filters. You could get a slightly longer tank if you wanted and it would be a lot more simple to set up. Thats what i would go with in your tank setup.

I cant really say for sure about your side sump. I think it would work.

Hi BFD,

Thanks for the feedback, the reason i chose the side sump idea is also to provide my girlfriend with a "tank of her own" (we now have two much smaller tanks in the living room, which will be replaced by this single big one).

The first stage of the filtration will be multiple 10 cm thick foam elements. This sort of acts like a HMF (though i know the setup is quiet different).

Thanks for your help!

 

[hound83]

How are you planning to do water changes?

Hi DV,

Thanks for the feedback.
I am pretty far from a drain, currently i use a Eheim pump with a long hose which i use to pump water out first, and then use to pump water back too.

I plan to do this the same way.

I know having a drain at the desired water level would be ideal, but for me i need to raise the water slightly into the kitchen sink (on the other side of my house) so i use a pump for this.

I dont know a better sollution for this to be honest

 

[hound83]

You could just use tubs or smaller aquariums and siphon/pump straight from one to the next. As long as all the water levels are equal, there will be no need to worry about overflows and stuff like that.

Hi JH,

Thanks for the feedback. The additional cost of construction of the side sump it 40 euros for me. The benefit keeping the water inside my aquarium outweighs a lot of alternatives.
Also with a lot of sumps i would be dependant on a height difference (and gravity), which is for me impossible to do.

 

[hound83]

The general idea is similar to how they build the aquariums with a built in sump. It’ll work just fine.

Make sure you have adequate flow in the tank to get the debris to that side, and make sure you have enough bio filtration.

Like the other guy said, you could also just do corner HMF filters, which would be simpler and effective. Though your girlfriend would need something else to aquadcape.

hi Yoimbrian

Thanks for the feedback. The corner filter i did investigate but really want to replace 2 aquariums, what i came up with (i think) can replace both, give me a much bigger tank and also my gf has enough space for her aquascape (the fish i plan are unsuited to a nice aquascape too, my current Oscars already have their own ideas about "renovating" the current aquarium all the time.

I do plan to add the Eheim 1260 to the main display tank to create additional flow and also i plan to add 1 or 2 flow pumps to create enough flow in the display tank.

The Eheim pumps combined should be about 3 times the total water volume in displacement. If i then add 1 or 2 flow pumps i think the total ciculation should be fine?

 

[J. H.]

Hi JH,

Thanks for the feedback. The additional cost of construction of the side sump it 40 euros for me. The benefit keeping the water inside my aquarium outweighs a lot of alternatives.
Also with a lot of sumps i would be dependant on a height difference (and gravity), which is for me impossible to do.

You can use sumps without a height difference. If anything, it is easier that way, because you don't need overflows.