180 g Acrylic set up

[twentyleagues]

View attachment 1476159View attachment 1476160

If the water level was rising in the tank at higher flow rates it probably means that you were over coming your drain capacity or weir capacity. You can create flow in tank with power heads or wave makers. If the drain was keeping up but not the weir you could try making the weir slots longer or wider. If it was drain capacity there's not much you can do, but if you did surpass the drain you probably don't need that much flow.

 

[clm08k]

If the water level was rising in the tank at higher flow rates it probably means that you were over coming your drain capacity or weir capacity. You can create flow in tank with power heads or wave makers. If the drain was keeping up but not the weir you could try making the weir slots longer or wider. If it was drain capacity there's not much you can do, but if you did surpass the drain you probably don't need that much flow.

Thank you, twentyleagues !

I was planning on getting some wavemakers but was a little nervous about the substrate cloudiness. I still don't know if the W/D is set up correctly....or if the pipes are set up correctly either tbh. Nothing is glued yet. I'm not really sure what would be a good first step to getting everything started again. Should I try to set up the pipes and stuff first?

 

[twentyleagues]

Thank you, twentyleagues !

I was planning on getting some wavemakers but was a little nervous about the substrate cloudiness. I still don't know if the W/D is set up correctly....or if the pipes are set up correctly either tbh. Nothing is glued yet. I'm not really sure what would be a good first step to getting everything started again. Should I try to set up the pipes and stuff first?

Yes. Try to keep them as straight as possible. (Up down). I was rereading your posts on this the other day and was thinking maybe the u shape was slowing your drain also. Water drains into the wet dry and is filtered and pumped back to the tank, it's really that simple. I like hard plumbing everything myself, that way no weird bends. As for the sand storms, what sand are you using? I've used some pretty fine sand with no issues on a set up like this with probably more flow. You'd really have to have some crazy flow or super light sand to kick it up alot.

 

[clm08k]

SOMEONE FINALLY CAME TO LOOK AT/WORK ON THE TANK. The guy converted it back to a durso. It's quiet, there is a 1inch gap at the top, but we have it pretty low speed right now on the pump. Therefore, I'm not positive if the flow rate is enough. He said he could always switch up the drains if I didn't like the durso. At this point, I'm happy the tank has water in it again and is running. Obviously, the polys are not going into the tank until it is cycled. I'm hoping the guy will come back and work on it. He was very nice, knowledgable, and professional.

Some questions:
1. How do you know if there is enough dissolved oxygen in the tank? How do you measure it without putting the fish in?
--The current is very low and there are not any bubbles in the tank. The loc lines are submerged now. I'm used to the AC110, and seeing bubbles/current. The guy said we could do powerheads/wave makers, which I am on board for. Heck, I'll throw in some airstones too. However, I've read that these do not incr the dissolved O2 much and that the best way to incr O2 is surface agitation. Is this true ? Any advice? The filter is a wet/dry.

2. Are bioballs worthwhile? I listened to a podcast stating that they are basically pieces of plastic (duh) that do not help with the bacteria colonies. Is ceramic media better for a wetdry? Again I have a AC110 with ceramic, so I'm used to that, but am wondering more about what would be the best to use for this tank.

 

[Lepisosteus]

Don’t use vinegar for pumps. It’s a penetrating acid that causes rust and eventual magnet failure use citric acid and all pumps will come out spotless with no damage caused to the pumps.

 

[clm08k]

Don’t use vinegar for pumps. It’s a penetrating acid that causes rust and eventual magnet failure use citric acid and all pumps will come out spotless with no damage caused to the pumps.

Thank you! The pump I have in there is the brand new one that the company sent me. I have yet to clean it though. lol.

 

[twentyleagues]

SOMEONE FINALLY CAME TO LOOK AT/WORK ON THE TANK. The guy converted it back to a durso. It's quiet, there is a 1inch gap at the top, but we have it pretty low speed right now on the pump. Therefore, I'm not positive if the flow rate is enough. He said he could always switch up the drains if I didn't like the durso. At this point, I'm happy the tank has water in it again and is running. Obviously, the polys are not going into the tank until it is cycled. I'm hoping the guy will come back and work on it. He was very nice, knowledgable, and professional.

Some questions:
1. How do you know if there is enough dissolved oxygen in the tank? How do you measure it without putting the fish in?
--The current is very low and there are not any bubbles in the tank. The loc lines are submerged now. I'm used to the AC110, and seeing bubbles/current. The guy said we could do powerheads/wave makers, which I am on board for. Heck, I'll throw in some airstones too. However, I've read that these do not incr the dissolved O2 much and that the best way to incr O2 is surface agitation. Is this true ? Any advice? The filter is a wet/dry.

2. Are bioballs worthwhile? I listened to a podcast stating that they are basically pieces of plastic (duh) that do not help with the bacteria colonies. Is ceramic media better for a wetdry? Again I have a AC110 with ceramic, so I'm used to that, but am wondering more about what would be the best to use for this tank.

Depends on how you use the bio balls. In a typical wet dry they are perfect, kinda what they were designed for. Once you start trying to submerge the bio balls there are better options. If you are using this as a typical wet dry there will be plenty of oxygenation.
What is the pump rated for and at what head? Pipe size/drain will dictate how much "flow" from the return pump you can use. That tank has two overflows right? A 1" drain is safe for about 600gph normally. Under syphon you can get more, but I was talking safe. I'd go no more the 500gph for 1 1" drain. If you have 2 then 1000gph as long as they both entirely separate, ie. not tied together into one drain by piping. I was running 1200-1400 on my 180 with two 1" syphons and 2 1" emergency drains. Everyone seemed fine with that level of flow. Polys are adaptable remember they also breath air and do fine in low oxygen content almost stagnant water. I, like you prefer my water to be well oxygenated for most of my fish but there are some that don't do well in high flow, Bettas, most anabantinoids don't like a lot of flow and do much better in low flow. If possible using a wet dry filter properly with low flow for these types of animals will take care of biological filtration with little issues and keep oxygen levels very high compared to most other types of filtration.

I believe a properly setup and used wet dry with bio balls will out perform most hobs, canisters, and most forms of simple submerged biomedia in a sump. With my old house setup the wet dry was by far better then any of the other stuff I tried. All my fish and plants were"happiest" with that setup and my stocking density was very high. Plants and water changes kept nitrates under control. Never saw an ammonia or nitrite spike.

You can get an orp meter they are not cheap. I have one from my salt days and between standard sump, canister ,hob or wet dry the orp level is much higher with wet dry. Orp meter measures the oxidation reduction potential of water. The higher the orp the higher the oxygen content.

I've been messing around here at the new house a little trying different things out. I have a couple 10g tanks with fry growing out in them and I was using sponge filters with quite a bit of air running in them. I checked orp it was kinda low fish looked ok but not great. Had some issues if I didn't stay right on water changes at least 2 times a week. I switched one to an overhead sump, another to an overhead wet dry and the third I made a diy overflow and set up a bucket sump below it. 1st off orp went up on all three by a large margin but the overhead sump and overhead wet dry were way higher then the "traditional" sump. The over head wet dry was the absolute highest increase. I was able to do once a week water changes with no ill effects on the fish. I've added some pothos and some anacharis elodea where possible in the last month. (The elodea doesn't die in my hard water) I'm going to water change 2 or 3 weeks apart I think next. I'm on week 2 now and I'm just starting to hit 20ppm nitrate in the heaviest stocked tank. But it's also the lowest plant mass, they destroy anything that goes in the tank.

I set up a overhead sump/wet dry on my 65b and took off the ac70. The sump is a 7g tote with a 3 drawer desk organizer as the wet dry. Again orp more then doubled. I had lots of hair algae on the walls that's mostly gone now, I didn't do anything to remove it. The tank is mostly synodontis lucipinnis they seemed to like the algae so I didn't care.

I'm done rambling....lol hope something in that helps you out.

 

[esoxlucius]

1. How do you know if there is enough dissolved oxygen in the tank?

This is something I never measure. I just ensure good surface agitation and the rest takes care of itself. It may be a good idea to have your submerged lock lines nearer the surface.

the best way to incr O2 is surface agitation. Is this true ? Any advice? The filter is a wet/dry.

As the water trickles through the wet/dry filter it will be getting loaded with oxygen. Incorporate surface agitation too on the waters return to the tank and I'd say you're creating more than enough oxygen.

2. Are bioballs worthwhile? I listened to a podcast stating that they are basically pieces of plastic (duh) that do not help with the bacteria colonies. Is ceramic media better for a wetdry?

Bio balls are great for wet/dry filters. The water flows over the outside of the media where the surface clinging BB do their thing. They're not brilliant for submerged media though. Anything really porous is more beneficial for submerged.

 

[clm08k]

This is something I never measure. I just ensure good surface agitation and the rest takes care of itself. It may be a good idea to have your submerged lock lines nearer the surface.



As the water trickles through the wet/dry filter it will be getting loaded with oxygen. Incorporate surface agitation too on the waters return to the tank and I'd say you're creating more than enough oxygen.




Bio balls are great for wet/dry filters. The water flows over the outside of the media where the surface clinging BB do their thing. They're not brilliant for submerged media though. Anything really porous is more beneficial for submerged.

Thank you! What do you do for surface agitation?

 

[clm08k]

Depends on how you use the bio balls. In a typical wet dry they are perfect, kinda what they were designed for. Once you start trying to submerge the bio balls there are better options. If you are using this as a typical wet dry there will be plenty of oxygenation.
What is the pump rated for and at what head? Pipe size/drain will dictate how much "flow" from the return pump you can use. That tank has two overflows right? A 1" drain is safe for about 600gph normally. Under syphon you can get more, but I was talking safe. I'd go no more the 500gph for 1 1" drain. If you have 2 then 1000gph as long as they both entirely separate, ie. not tied together into one drain by piping. I was running 1200-1400 on my 180 with two 1" syphons and 2 1" emergency drains. Everyone seemed fine with that level of flow. Polys are adaptable remember they also breath air and do fine in low oxygen content almost stagnant water. I, like you prefer my water to be well oxygenated for most of my fish but there are some that don't do well in high flow, Bettas, most anabantinoids don't like a lot of flow and do much better in low flow. If possible using a wet dry filter properly with low flow for these types of animals will take care of biological filtration with little issues and keep oxygen levels very high compared to most other types of filtration.

I believe a properly setup and used wet dry with bio balls will out perform most hobs, canisters, and most forms of simple submerged biomedia in a sump. With my old house setup the wet dry was by far better then any of the other stuff I tried. All my fish and plants were"happiest" with that setup and my stocking density was very high. Plants and water changes kept nitrates under control. Never saw an ammonia or nitrite spike.

You can get an orp meter they are not cheap. I have one from my salt days and between standard sump, canister ,hob or wet dry the orp level is much higher with wet dry. Orp meter measures the oxidation reduction potential of water. The higher the orp the higher the oxygen content.

I've been messing around here at the new house a little trying different things out. I have a couple 10g tanks with fry growing out in them and I was using sponge filters with quite a bit of air running in them. I checked orp it was kinda low fish looked ok but not great. Had some issues if I didn't stay right on water changes at least 2 times a week. I switched one to an overhead sump, another to an overhead wet dry and the third I made a diy overflow and set up a bucket sump below it. 1st off orp went up on all three by a large margin but the overhead sump and overhead wet dry were way higher then the "traditional" sump. The over head wet dry was the absolute highest increase. I was able to do once a week water changes with no ill effects on the fish. I've added some pothos and some anacharis elodea where possible in the last month. (The elodea doesn't die in my hard water) I'm going to water change 2 or 3 weeks apart I think next. I'm on week 2 now and I'm just starting to hit 20ppm nitrate in the heaviest stocked tank. But it's also the lowest plant mass, they destroy anything that goes in the tank.

I set up a overhead sump/wet dry on my 65b and took off the ac70. The sump is a 7g tote with a 3 drawer desk organizer as the wet dry. Again orp more then doubled. I had lots of hair algae on the walls that's mostly gone now, I didn't do anything to remove it. The tank is mostly synodontis lucipinnis they seemed to like the algae so I didn't care.

I'm done rambling....lol hope something in that helps you out.

Thank you for reassuring me about the wet-dry. The pump is rated for 1900gph at max power and on about 60% power right now. The returns are 1" inch and the lock line pipes are 3/4 inch. There are two separate overflow boxes, but all are hooked up to the same wet dry. The returns come together into a T and then go through the wet-dry. Water is pumped out through the pump and then splits to each overflow. How do I figure out what the flow rate is and how much I need? So if they are 1inch drains hooked together, then no more than 600 gph? Sorry I just want to make sure I understand. Thank you for taking the time to look at this with me.