love peacock bass. my favorite. thats a beauty. i would drill and bulkhead one per top corner of eurobrace. one for intake one for return for the canister. easy peasy
Canister Filter Plumbing Acrylic Tank
- Thread starter Jon M
- Start date
your eurobrace along the back looks a bit small. so i would avoid drilling there. but the corners of the top look like prime locations for bulkheads.
I use the FX-6 basically for the UV sterilizer we run on the return end (plus we get a little redundant filtration) Don't most canister filters have hose uptakes and returns? (I'm only familiar with FX-5, 6s) I suppose you could hard plumb the whole thing, but why? We just shoved the uptake and return lines into the holes on the top of the tank. After all these years, I haven't finished the big tank, so the fish are still in the small tank. They are such brutes, that they have hit my mechanical filtration pipes so hard, they have broken 3 bulkheads. The last one they broke, we did a jury rig fix and put the PVC pipe into the hole without using bulkheads. There is a little movement, but there is nothing to break now. But back to your question. Again, my fish are big brutes. I was having trouble with the FX-6 continuously losing prime, because the fish swam under the uptake and shoved it out of the water. Solved that problem by putting the FX-6 uptake in a capped off overflow box where the return line from the wet/dry filter is. The return line from the FX-6 is just shoved through a hole.
I am a big proponent of drilling the top of the tank. When our big tank was fabricated, I had them put 11 holes on the top for my mechanical filtration.
Unfortunately, I made the pipes before I realized that they work better without bulkheads. Am going to make three more to use without bulkheads, and if/when a bulkhead breaks, the pipe will be replaced without a bulkhead.
I will have a 405 gallon sump for redundant filtration. The return will be via an Ultima II 4,000 with a 120 UV sterilizer, through 8 locline returns. One of the locline returns will be very close to a mechanical pipe. The small pipe tree I will be remaking without a bulkhead will be a much better fit than the fatter pipes I have already made. I happen to love vertical pipes (my poop suckers) and will use a vertical pipe for sump return to the main tank. After the fish breaking 3 bulkheads, I am scared spitless to drill the back or sides of my tanks. If a bulkhead breaks on the top of the tank, the most it will do is suck air, it won't drain the tank.
Thanks man. He's still a baby. Spider Kelberi. Got him not too long ago. He's growing fast! That seems like a decent idea. Do you have any suggestions for the actual parts inside the tank? The reason I say that is because I know the basic clips that come with any canister are not going to clip onto the tank, and just shoved in a hole they'll look pretty poor and I'm not cool with that. I really try for the cleanest look possible.
Ya. Now I will say this. In the picture that back area you're referring to does look much thinner than it truly is, but I agree the corners seem to be the prime spot to drill. As I mentioned in my previous response above, any suggestion on in tank setup? My thoughts are a bulkhead with inner threads, and I could simply thread loc line?.... But for the return I dunno.... Maybe Just another threaded internal bulkhead and a pvc pipe with some sort of piece at the end preventing it from being one big open intake? I'm referring to the filter-ish pieces on the ends of OEM intakes I simply dunno what they're called?....
Most canisters have all those sure, but what I'm picturing you saying is you just have a hose hanging in the water inside your tank for the water return and intake? I'd prefer a much cleaner look. Like black loc line? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you though. What does the actual inside of your tank in the water look like at your canister return and intake?... Those pipes look so natural btw! Very cool. Curious what brute fish you have. I'm not sure who keeps moving my pretty damn heavy rocks and stuff cause they do it over night, but pretty sure it's my darn fire eel. But he doesn't really do any damage, just shifts things here and there.
I would use 3/4" pvc. You can paint to your desired color using krylon fusion spray paint. I usually keep the last fitting not glued so you can twist and and direct flow.
Any recommendation on the prefilter end for a pvc intake? So I'm leaning towards drill top corners, threaded bulkheads so I can thread black loc line for return. That's easy. The other end simply threaded adapter and pvc, but any suggestions on what to use at the end for prefilter? I've fine tuned the plan in my head. The one thing I couldn't wrap my head around was going around the top pane and you guys opening my eyes to being able to drill the top with minimal effort solved that. I actually hard plumbed an eheim canister to a 55 a while back experimenting with this kind of project. I'll try to find a pic and post it. It's DEFINITELY rough, but it was also my first time and I feel like I could really clean this idea up a lot for the 240.
I drilled the top panel of an acrylic tank to plumb in an fx6 return while it was running. This can be accomplished on a side or back wall as well. I just lowered the water level and taped a cup underneath the hole to catch the shavings. 1" bulkheads with barb fittings worked great for me, 1" vinyl hose seemed to fit the fx6 valve fittings perfectly.
You absolutely could use PVC/bulkheads/loc line returns. Or you could use the uptakes and returns that the filter comes with.
FX-6 uptake/return
Initially we had the return nozzle in the tank, but our pacu, being inquisitive, curious rascals chewed it up and destroyed it. They also managed to knock the uptake off when it was in the tank. Since the current tank is a temporary solution which has become long term, we have the return line just shoved through a hole and into the tank. Unsightly, but temporary. When the big tank is running, one of the Ultimas will be returning the water from the sump tank through 8 loc line returns. The other Ultima will be returning water to the tank via a "tree" pipe with a venturi return nozzle.
The venturi return is on the left, (I have decided against high uptakes as pictured on the right)
I love venturi returns. They increase the flow, and the nozzle can be turned, so the direction and angle of the flow can be adjusted. The venturi return nozzle in our small 300 gallon tank actually spits out air....so much that the tank needs no other source of aeration.
Sorry, I got off track. My point was that while I have an ugly hose shoved through a hole "temporarily" right now, the big tank won't have hoses shoved in, everything will be hidden. Venturis work well in closed loop system, but require 1.5" PVC. Your plan to use loc line returns should work well with your canister filter. And some loc line return nozzles can have a small venturi effect.
