200g Wetsuit Tank
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Have you filled it with water yet? How is the shoe box full of water holding up? What are your or the manufacturer’s expectancy of the life of the product on a tank like this?
fishsticks1010;4834109; said:
I have the tank set in it place but have not finished the plumbing yet so I have not filled it with water yet. I am hoping to get this accomplished in the next week of so. I have been so freaking busy lately
I did get the sump built and have build the bio-tower, I still need to build the algae filter and finish the plumbing.
Funny you ask about the shoe box as I just checked on it last night. It is still holding water with no problems at all.
So far the tests and trials the manufacturer has done indicates Wetsuit will hold up under water for 20+ years. They are at about the 15 year point in most trials and the product shows a deterioration similar to a typical EPDM liner after 2-3 years in the same use. So the actual expectation is 30+ years but is hard to say at this point. But 15 years is no problem.
The other day, I was talking with one of the first certified applicators of Wetsuit. He has done several koi ponds and told me he personally knows a few people that he lined there pond with Wetsuit. He said the ponds are still doing great with no problems and all of them are several years old.
OK, I filled the tank with water last night. No leaks so far. The sump I build was leaking so I ended up sealing it with Wetsuit as well.
I built the sump out of 1/2" polycarbonate that I got for free form a friend. I was under the impression that working with polycarbonate was just like working with acrylic and that was not quite the case. The joints got allot of bubbles and I figured it would leak. The solvent melted the poly much faster than it does acrylic and caused fogging and bubbles in the joints. The joints seem plenty strong, just not water tight. So it was pretty easy to just coat the inside of the joints with Wetsuit. Worked like a charm.
I have the pluming mostly finished and I am just tuning the water level and trying to make everything as quite as possible. I have a 2000gph pump running the entire tank. I have built the system to use one pump to run the bio-tower, algae filter and for general circulation in the tank.
I will try to get some photos this weekend and post them Monday.
I built the sump out of 1/2" polycarbonate that I got for free form a friend. I was under the impression that working with polycarbonate was just like working with acrylic and that was not quite the case. The joints got allot of bubbles and I figured it would leak. The solvent melted the poly much faster than it does acrylic and caused fogging and bubbles in the joints. The joints seem plenty strong, just not water tight. So it was pretty easy to just coat the inside of the joints with Wetsuit. Worked like a charm.
I have the pluming mostly finished and I am just tuning the water level and trying to make everything as quite as possible. I have a 2000gph pump running the entire tank. I have built the system to use one pump to run the bio-tower, algae filter and for general circulation in the tank.
I will try to get some photos this weekend and post them Monday.
Nice! I like the biotower/algae scrubber combo. Do you have an emergency drain in case the filter material on top of the bio tower gets clogged?
Also, did you make that bio tower yourself (the acrylic part) or did you buy that/have it made somewhere?
Also, did you make that bio tower yourself (the acrylic part) or did you buy that/have it made somewhere?
Conner;4876898; said:
Thanks, I can actually shut off the flow to the bio-tower and/or the algae filter and I will have no problems. There are 2 drains in the tank (1.5" and 2"). I designed the system to run 1 large pump for the filter system and for general circulation in the tank. So the 1.5" drain goes to the filter system and the 2" goes strait to the sump to be pumped back to the tank. I can adjust the amount of flow going to the bio-tower and to the algae filter or I can shut them off all together and the 2" drain can handle all the flow.
If you are referring to the bio-tower overflowing over the drip tray when the filter pad gets clogged, than that is not a problem either. I cut out a section of one side of the drip tray so if the filter pad gets clogged it will just start pouring into the bio-tower bypassing the filter pad.
I made everything myself. I always make everything so it is easy to maintenance. The algae filter is only connected by the 1.5" union, so I can unscrew the union and the whole thing can easily be removed and cleaned. The filter pad is very easy to get to and changed and the drip tray is easily removed for cleaning as well.
I seeded the filter system with an old filter pad form another tank and it has been running for a little over a week, with no problems. I just put a couple guppies and platies in the tank the other day (I breed them for food for a few fish I have). It is funny to see just a couple 2" long fish in an empty (no decorations) 200g tank.
I am going to get some tilapia this weekend to start my tilapia project. I found out a local HyVee grocery store sells LIVE tilapia supplied by a local state fish farm. They are supposed to be about 1-1.5lb fish. Not sure if I will be able to get a female and a male because often times commercial fish farms will only grow out males because they don't want uncontrolled breeding in there systems and the males get bigger faster. I am hoping to get the contact info from the grocery store, so I can check out this fish farm.
