My husband and I want to build a custom tank. We currently have a 75 for my daughter but I really want a custom one. I started doing research and found some helpful stuff. We are looking to make one around 8 or 9 feet long. I found a company that I can get a filter for it (I was thinking of getting the filter and helping to design around it). He said to make sure it was built with overflows. What exactly are those? What is a sump pump and would I need one? Does anyone have plans and a list of everything we would need to build it including filtering and stuff? I can only seem to find the tank itself. Thank you so much in advance.
DIY questions
- Thread starter Sweets57
- Start date
I'm also having a hard time finding illustration for integration of a filtration system on a custom tank. I'm thinking of building a 100 gallon plywood tank with a fiberglass interior. I have 1 oscar and 1 pleco, and will take on my friends oscar which outgrew his tank when complete.
The biggest benefit of building a custom tank is your choice of cutting holes for filtration in the back or sides of the tank but, not there's much info out there on others experiences with placement, preferences or methods.
These may help. Sorry I haven't seen anything as detailed on this site but, I'm having a hard time using the search feature here... Come up with very random things.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_plywood_aquarium.php
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diytanksrefugiums/DIY_Do_It_Yourself_AquariumTank_Plans.htm
The biggest benefit of building a custom tank is your choice of cutting holes for filtration in the back or sides of the tank but, not there's much info out there on others experiences with placement, preferences or methods.
These may help. Sorry I haven't seen anything as detailed on this site but, I'm having a hard time using the search feature here... Come up with very random things.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_plywood_aquarium.php
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diytanksrefugiums/DIY_Do_It_Yourself_AquariumTank_Plans.htm
First off... never design you tank aroung your filter. You need to decide what you want with the tank, and then configure you filter to work for the tank.
When tanks are built with overflows, they have a chamber that is siliconed into the tank to allow water to overflow into them and then the water drains into the sump or filter.
There are many people that have built custome tanks, custom filters and everything else involved. Please just take some time and search around the forum for different ideas. What you want to do is look at all the different designs and then decide which one will work best for your situation and then go for it.
When tanks are built with overflows, they have a chamber that is siliconed into the tank to allow water to overflow into them and then the water drains into the sump or filter.
There are many people that have built custome tanks, custom filters and everything else involved. Please just take some time and search around the forum for different ideas. What you want to do is look at all the different designs and then decide which one will work best for your situation and then go for it.
If the search doesn't get you the information that you want. Just start thumbing through the pages under the DIY section. A lot of the good stuff in only a couple pages back. There are plenty of DIY builds on this site to just about cover it all.
with Pharaoh, except if you are planning to house large fish, decide which ones and build the tank and filtration system to suite them at their adult age requirements.If you have already decided on the occupants let us know and maybe we can give specific help.
benjamc...I typed in plywood tank and got these http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/search.php?searchid=4185374 what info wasn't here?
Dr Joe
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Nothing came up on that link Dr. Joe. Well we werent sure if we needed a sump pump or not. We mostly are going to keep a bunch of smaller fish in schools in the tank. Nothing really big at all. We called a company and they said they had a filter that would work for a tank the size we are thinking. It was a trickle filter. Since I only have ever used ones that were hung on the side I didn't know what was needed that is different. I saw nice plans on here for a tank but it was just the tank and the guy didn't say anything about his filter and he didn't show how he put it in there. Then another one I found seemed to do a HUGE plumbing job when he did his. I guess since I am sooo bad at searching I was just wondering if anyone had an all inclusive website with the information on it. Thanks
LOL!! That is funny...frankenfilter line.
Hey Dr. Your search resulted in failure. Thanks anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevilDon2005
thats because the frankenfilter looks like it can end your life
Hey Dr. Your search resulted in failure. Thanks anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevilDon2005
thats because the frankenfilter looks like it can end your life
Sweets57;2713038; said:
You need to have adequate filtration for the size of tank you build and what you stock it with. Whether you use a sump to do that is up to you. On most of my tanks I only use a sump for filtration I find that for the price I cant get better filtration with any other options. Sumps have some benefits over things like canisters like increasing total water volume, place to put heaters, can build in refugiums, larger space for biomedia, etc. On the downside they take up a lot of space and depending on how you do it and the type of pump you use they may be louder. Personally I would recommend nearly anyone use a sump for larger tanks if they have the room, but if you going to DIY it (or even if not really) you really need to do quite a bit of reading on MFK or other sites to figure out what you are doing first. Just do searches like DIY aquarium sump or something like that.