Filtration help using sump/FX5/Eheim 2217!! how do i set it up?

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Symbiosis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 22, 2007
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Brisbane
Hi Guys,

Got my 300g tank in storage and getting closer to setting it up for my monster display tank. Looking to set that up as a divider between lounge room and dining room so want to keep everything as invisible as possible. Got a few question for the time being and i know i will only have more as it gets ready to go. Just want to setup my dream tank with minimal attachment showing on the outside and as automated as i can have it.

My question is that i currently have a FX5, Eheim 2217 and looks like underneath my cabinet it has just enough room for a 4x2x18" sump so just wondering how i should go about it... looking to use the sump for a planted section (filling with duckweed), lots of bio media with drip plates and bags of seachem denitrate and i will hide all my 2x300w jager heater in there and then returning back into the tank via a eheim pump. The tank will be drilled and a weir built at the one end of the tank for the sump.

As for the FX5 i wanted to ditch all the original hosing apart from the first little part from the connectors but then i will look at connecting that to some PVC piping as i want it emerging into the tank via another weir opposite side of the tank from the sump. The input will extend out of the weir in a U shape so the pipes can collect water from the bottom of the tank to clean up the bottom. The FX5 will be filled with bags of purigen, eheim pro substrate and polishing pads.

The Eheim 2217 is the bit i can't quite figure out what to do with... so will need suggestions from fellow MFKeepers who has much more experience with the large tank setups than me. I saw it in asia that a lot of aquariums seem to split the output of the canister filters into phosphate reactors filled with i think purigen or some sort of substrate (not quite sure what its used for, so i hope someone can enlighten me with that) and then the other split outlet maybe with a UV light. But i can't quite figure out where i would place the output and input of the 2217. cos i don't think i would want to drill another hole into my tank.... but at the same time i don't want the pipes showing anywhere outside the tank.... any suggestions will be appreciate. At the moment, i am thinking maybe i can just have that draining into the sump... but not sure if thats gonna be possible.

Thanks for reading this long piece, unfortunately, i don't have any pics just yet as this filtration setup is what i have playing in my mind..... will post the pics of my tank in storage soon.

Cheers

Eric
 
Is a weir an overflow box? How about two overflow boxes with four holes in the bottom? Two holes in each overflow box for uptake and return pipes to the sump, and uptake and return pipes for the FX-5 in one overflow box, and uptake and return pipes for your other filter. The pipes would run across the top of your tank, to where they enter and emerge from the tank, but they would be hidden under the canopy. You would have to drill holes in the top of the tank for your uptake and return lines. For uptake and return lines, you can use pvc pipe painted black.

In our bare floor 300 gallon tank, we have two mechanical uptakes 1/4" from the floor--poop suckers. In the nearly three years the tank has been running, there has been no feces/debris to vacuum from the tank. The debris scuttles across the floor and is quickly removed from the tank by the poop suckers.

poopsucker.jpg



Here's a picture from the gallery of my tank builder, Midwest Custom Aquariums.



http://www.midwestcustomaquariums.com/gallery.html

With the major plumbing in overflow boxes and under the canopy, the only lines showing would be the uptake lines in the tank itself.

Also, since you mentioned a UV sterilizer, we hooked up a 40 Watt UV sterilizer to the return line of our FX-5. It has performed flawlessly for us.
 
All you need is about 40-50 liters of bio media for a 300 gallon tank.

A media compartment of about 20"Lx12"Wx12"H = 47 liters.
L*w*H*.0164 = liters

All you will need is a sump. No need for canisters. You can use multipe pumps incase one goes out.
 
thanx for the tips guys.... well i wanted the canisters for mechanical filtration as the FX5 does that pretty well and also it will be used as my main source of draining the tank during water change. I am a big believer of overfiltration hehe~ obviously with regular maintenance water change weekly.

Hey Pacu mom... have u got a wider picture of the poop suckers? thats what i wanted with the FX5 mainly as a poop sucker function and then the eheim hooked up to UV to sterilize. yes weirs are overflow box.... how come the uptake tubes are running along the top of the tank? i thought they usually gets drilled and plumbed underneath in the cabinet?
 
Symbiosis;2750782; said:
how come the uptake tubes are running along the top of the tank? i thought they usually gets drilled and plumbed underneath in the cabinet?
Click to expand...

I suggested this as a way to keep the pipes hidden under the canopy and in the overflow boxes. This would be a way to have the filtration and esthetics that you want. That would be the ideal way, but our tank is not set up like that.

If we were just using the overflow boxes, then the water would drain out the overflow boxes to the wet/dry filter. We aren't using both overflow boxes for their intended purpose, and in fact, are only using one. Tthe mechanical filter is in another room, and the wet/dry and FX-5 sit on the floor behind the tank, so we have all kinds of pipes running down the back of the tank. What we wanted was a low maintenance tank which did not require vacuuming. The idea of churning up the debris so it broke up into small pieces and floated into the overflow box was unappealing. We were newbies to fishkeeping. My husband was determined to come up with a low maintenance system. His first system was a FAIL. He put a grid of pvc pipe with holes on the floor of the tank. It was shaped like a giant E. The white pipe was very unsightly, and didn't do what we wanted it to do. We noticed that there were eddys in the tank, and the poop/debris tended to make it's way to certain areas in the tank. My husband drilled two holes in the top of the tank and put pvc pipe straight down, just off the floor. We found some black hose to cover up the white pvc pipe. (that's before we realised that we could paint the pvc) The poop suckers work just like a vacuum cleaner picking up stuff off the floor,

Here is a post I did on our filtration system
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121454&page=2


You can see the tremendous current we have in the tank as the tank is being filled during a water change
http://s148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/pacumom/Pacu/?action=view&current=WaterChange.flv


Because your tank will be a room divider, it would be ugly to have pipes showing. My suggestions were to give you the filtration you wanted with only two black uptakes showing in the tank. (The returns would be high and basically hidden under a canopy) In my filtration post, you can see how much junk we have coming in and out of the tank.
th_pipes-4.jpg


But none of the pipes show from the front of the tank, even without a canopy, since the light fixture hides everything
th_farah-4.jpg
 
'T' off the overflow under the tank. It will give you the height (head pressure) you need for the canister.

Dr Joe

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Dr Joe;2751495; said:
'T' off the overflow under the tank. It will give you the height (head pressure) you need for the canister.

Dr Joe

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Click to expand...

why do you need the head pressure for the canister? don't the canister's motor just work away? sorry i can't quite get my head around it.

Eric
 
Most manufacturers suggest the canister be lower than the water level by x amount of inches to help with priming.

Dr Joe

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