DIY tank water change questions.

[Chevyfan]

Well, I'm planning my future build.First ever diy tank and first tank over 100 gallons. I've drawn it out,lots of reading and so on. I've got a quote on glass. I would really love to build it 8'x4'x4' plywood build with 1/2" tempered glass front. I'm scared ****less of having glass break with my children near it. So me and the wife decided tempered is a must, even as expensive as it is. So 1/2" may not be thick enough as tall as I want the tank. Viewing window will be 92"x40". I may go thicker on the glass won't bother me if I have to. My question is. This tank would be nearly 1,000 gallons, over with plumbing, filtration. I'm on city water and I don't want to have to store and treat my water for changes. If I have to I will be decreasing the volume of the tank. Is this a problem anyone else has run into? Even if I reduce the height and cut the tank down to 30" inches that's still 600 gallons I could possibly store/treat 100 gallons at a time but that's still less than 20% water changes. I've thought of using a constant drip system in place of WC. I have a sump in my basement I could plumb the overflow into but how would I treat water then?
Any pointers to similar diy threads would be appreciated. The wife gets frustrated when I spend several hours reading through old threads thanks.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

You can run a drip by running the water through a carbon filter to remove the chlorine. However, unless you drip warm water you will need to have the heating capacity to keep up with the constant addition of cold water.

If you want to consider storage tanks, you can usually find large 300 gallon storage containers on Craigslist pretty cheap. They are cube shaped and have a metal rack around them. If you got two or three of these you could hit a 60-90% water change and the water can be heated while aging it via the use of additional aquarium heaters.

As for the glass, I think 1/2" will be too thin. I regularly see people talking about 1/2" being borderline for 30" tall tanks so I think you will probably be in the 3/4-1" range. I do think it's plenty feasible to reduce your height to 3' instead of 4'. I could be wrong but I don't think there are very many fish in the hobby where the extra foot would make a difference. Mostly, I think it's the footprint that matters, not that the extra height isn't nice though.

 

[Chevyfan]

From what I've read. Carbon will not remove chlorine and that is what I'm most worried about. I could easily get one the tanks your talking of there common in my industry however I won't have anywhere to store this indoors and outdoors it will surely freeze. Hopefully I can figure something out.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

Carbon does remove chlorine, where did you hear this info from

 

[pops]

there is no reason to run carbon in a tank unless your water has heavy mettle's and the such. Some folks say removes , ammonia, chlorinates, nitrites. and to some extent this is true, but if you are doing proper water management its not needed, space best used for more bio media. and certainly should never be used as am excuse to do less on your water/tank/filter maintenance.

 

[Chevyfan]

I read it on another forum. When I google it I must have read it wrong cause I just checked again and you are correct. Thanks I would have never looked it up again if you hadn't said something.

 

[pops]

carbon has no place in chlorine removal, SeaChem prlme/safe for that.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

carbon has no place in chlorine removal, SeaChem prlme/safe for that.

Pops, we are talking about using a carbon filter for the drip system, not in the filter. I think that most would agree that carbon is not necessary in the filter.

 

[pops]

If you are running a drip system, the amount of chlorine to tank volume is negligible, IF you are worried about it then an inline carbon cartridge system would make sense, just make sure to change the cartridge regularly.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

From what I've read. Carbon will not remove chlorine and that is what I'm most worried about. I could easily get one the tanks your talking of there common in my industry however I won't have anywhere to store this indoors and outdoors it will surely freeze. Hopefully I can figure something out.

If you have a shed, or preferably a garage spot that you can keep the 300 gallon containers in, then I think you would be ok getting them up to temp, provided you use enough heating power. Keeping them out of the wind will allow them to retain a lot more heat. Insulating them with I nice wrap around foam will make heating them up even better.

I'm planning to run some of my 55 gallon water change barrels in my garage with 500W heaters in them. I will be keeping them next to a wall that borders living area in my house (actually will be right next to my water heater, which is also in my garage). Just throwing it out there as an option.

The drip will be better overall but with a tank that large, you will not be able to do a significant water change in the event you ever need to.