10x3x2.5 filtration

[Wantsbig]

Wow awesome advice from everyone! Thankyou

Now Aldiaz, your post is a great help for me, hopefully I can answe your questions so everyone can help me create the right setup.

I was always told to aim for approximately 3x turnover per hour. I guess a lot of this determans on how heavy I stock the tank. Which I can't even decide what I want to keep in it.

As far as head height goes, I was hoping to have the stand at approximately 40" so there's plenty of room underneath and like you mentioned the tank will have a different appearance if up higher. I will be using steel for the stand 2" box with a heavy wall and the sump will be about 6 inches up off the ground.

Now as far plumbing goes, like you mentioned I think best bet will be 2 2" drains will be the go, I don't know how I want to set them up weather I just drill the tank and run a hose straight to the sump, or weather I drill the bottom of the tank and have an "overflow" type, once agin really unsure of what to do, the tank will be in the living room in the corner of the room (I'll put a photo up tomorrow to better explain the location so I can get the best information). As its a display tank I wanted to keep ugly pipes etc to as much of a minimum as possible.

What do you think is more beneficial, 2 medium sized pumps working 3/4 power or one big pump running at 100%?

And what would be the best way/place to have the return to the tank?


Sorry for all the questions!

 

[HULON]

There are so many options it's tough to provide specific advice. Also, I'm not sure what your level of experience with this stuff is, so forgive me if I'm saying things you already know.

Plumbing tips:
Step 1: Determine your desired turnover. Some guys on here claim the world will come to an end if you run anything under 10x per hour, yet my water parameters are always on point and I only turn my tank over 2x per hour. Granted, my bio-load is probably less than most on here.

Step 2: Determine head height (how high does the pump need to push the water? Elbows and other fittings will add some but head height is the most important).

Step 3: Determine which pump(s) you would like to use that push your desired GPH at your given head height. Choosing the right pump is important because buying an inefficient pump can cost you a lot of money in the long run. Pumps run 24/7, so if you are running an energy hog, you are going to feel it every month on your electric bill. Laguna and Reeflo are typically among the most efficient pumps you can buy.

Step 4: Determine what size plumbing you will need to handle that type of flow.**

** Oversizing your plumbing (especially drains/overflows) is ALWAYS better than undersizing. You can always restrict flow with a ball valve or with a reducer fitting, but you cannot easily increase your drains/overflows. If you decide you want more flow and you are stuck with 1" drains, it's going to be a real headache to install larger drains to accommodate more flow.

Check this calculator out: http://reefcentral.com/index.php/dra...flow-size-calc

Enter your desired GPH and it will provide the minimum drain size required to achieve that GPH.

1" drain will typically handle ~600GPH
1.5" drain will typically handle ~1,300GPH
2" drain will typically handle ~2,400GPH

On your tank, I would go with two 2" drains. If the pump you decide on pushes more than 3,000GPH, I would use 2" plumbing for your returns. If you choose to run two smaller pumps that push less than 3,000GPH (some people like to do this for redundancy, in case one pump fails, the other will still be doing it's thing) you could use 1.5" plumbing. If you use smaller plumbing in either scenario, you will not be mazimizing the pumps potential, due to the increased friction/head pressure of trying to push water quickly through undersized pipe.

The location of your returns should be at the water's surface, or through the top of your tank. This is to prevent a backsiphon that could overflow your sump if the return sits too low in the tank.

In regards to the sump, a 180G is plenty big.

Stand:I would recommend making the stand at least 40" tall so that you have room to work in the sump (especially since your have a tall sump). My sump is 20" tall and my stand is 36" tall and there isn't too much room to work when I'm changing out filter socks. Having a tall stand means you will have to overcome more head pressure, but the extra room to work underneath the tank is worth it. Plus, IMO a huge tank on a tall stand makes the tank look even bigger and more awesome. If you can, I would go with a steel stand; it'll give you more room under the tank, since a wooden stand will be a lot bulkier and take up a lot more real estate down there. Either would be fine, but IMO, steel is better.

Heating (assuming you are keeping tropical fish):
If the room temps stay at or above 70F, you should be fine with 1 to 2 watts per gallon. If temps drop below 70F, you might need a bit more wattage. There are lots of variables when it comes to heating, so it's tough to give advice without knowing more details about your proposed setup. If the room is cold, covers and insulating non-viewing panels are definitely going to help keep heating costs down.

You can check out my setup for some ideas (see link in my signature below). I'm not saying my setup is perfect, but it works ok. One thing I don't like, is the 3 internal overflow boxes. I prefer external overflow boxes...I know Pacumom has them on her huge tank. The benefit of external overflow boxes is that they do not take up space inside your tank, but the downside is that the tank cannot sit flush up against the wall (if you're doing an in-wall build like Pacumom, this wouldn't matter).

I think the most important thing is to take whatever budget you might have for the tank, and triple it to determine what you will actually end up spending on it. Big tanks are expensive!

Alot of above stated is on point !!! That said turnover rate has very much to do with your desired load of fish !!!! what kind of feedings you like and plan on if you have a couple pounds of fish in 700 gallons of water it wont be a problem if you have 60 pounds of fish in the same water pooping all over Well then you want that moved away from the animal as quikley as possable and so on

 

[aldiaz33]

Wow awesome advice from everyone! Thankyou

Now Aldiaz, your post is a great help for me, hopefully I can answe your questions so everyone can help me create the right setup.

I was always told to aim for approximately 3x turnover per hour. I guess a lot of this determans on how heavy I stock the tank. Which I can't even decide what I want to keep in it.

As far as head height goes, I was hoping to have the stand at approximately 40" so there's plenty of room underneath and like you mentioned the tank will have a different appearance if up higher. I will be using steel for the stand 2" box with a heavy wall and the sump will be about 6 inches up off the ground.

Now as far plumbing goes, like you mentioned I think best bet will be 2 2" drains will be the go, I don't know how I want to set them up weather I just drill the tank and run a hose straight to the sump, or weather I drill the bottom of the tank and have an "overflow" type, once agin really unsure of what to do, the tank will be in the living room in the corner of the room (I'll put a photo up tomorrow to better explain the location so I can get the best information). As its a display tank I wanted to keep ugly pipes etc to as much of a minimum as possible.

What do you think is more beneficial, 2 medium sized pumps working 3/4 power or one big pump running at 100%?

And what would be the best way/place to have the return to the tank?


Sorry for all the questions!

I know you haven't decided on your stock yet, but what type of fish do you have in mind?

In regards to your pump options, the redundancy of 2 is always a good thing. Running 2 smaller pumps sometimes actually uses less electricity than running one large pump, all else being equal. In those cases, IMO it's a no brainer to go with 2 smaller pumps. In my situation, that wasn't the case, so I'm only running one pump (although I keep a spare for emergencies).

I like returns coming in from the top:

 

[cordero01]

A flexible setup its very important IMO so you could change your turnover rate with a quick change of pump or if one pump fails so with a quick tweak you can completly change your tank flow!


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Wantsbig]

I know you haven't decided on your stock yet, but what type of fish do you have in mind?

Well I'm split on a decision, I spend my weekends driving around looking at aquariums for ideas.

My main thoughts are

1: massive moba colony of frontosa

2: tanganyikan community with a few frontosa, 2 groups of trophues and I guess just a big array of fish from the lake.

3: a group of peacock bass

4: an earth eater setup with orange head tapajos and similar.

5: a mixture of peacock bass, a silver arowana or 2, and I guess I need to research more what gets along.

All in all, I just want some nice fish that are enjoyable to watch and enjoyable to keep so really I'm also open to suggestions as to what people think would go together.



I do like your returns coming in trough the top of the tank, but I don't know if I mentioned it or not but my tank will be glass, will these be achievable
On a glass tank, and how should I do my drains, just holes drilled in the side?? I'm really unsure how to set it up the best.

 

[Wantsbig]

To give everyone a better idea this is where the tank will be located, the coke bottles indicate tank length (10 feet)

 

[aldiaz33]

I like the idea of the Frontosa colony or the Eartheaters. Everyone has a different opinion on this, but I think 4' width is better for keeping Peacocks and aros...they get pretty huge.

Question in regards to the tank placement: is that area on concrete slab or is it over a basement?

 

[Wantsbig]

It's on a concrete slab

 

[Wantsbig]

It's a split level home, so the top level is just like a normal house slab. I can get a hold of f1 moba fry. Guessing I would need about 20 or so. Should I go with species only or a mixture???

 

[aldiaz33]

Glad to hear it's slab...I saw the stairs and though, uh oh!

Check out this Moba colony. I like this setup a lot. I've never kept them before, but they look really nice.

[video=youtube_share;FglFiifNZAE]http://youtu.be/FglFiifNZAE[/video]