Filtration On a Big Plywood Tank. Help?

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Steveo McNello

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 30, 2010
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SW Burbs of Chicago
I have been doing some research and I am interested in building my own plywood tank, the problem is I have NO idea how to go about the plumbing. I see everybody's home builds with all kinds of tubs and huge sumps and blue barrels with pipes everywhere... I was wondering what is the biggest size I could build that I could effectively filter with 2 FX5's on opposite sides. I was hoping for an 8x4x2.5, I think that's 500 gallons. If I have to go smaller, oh well. Does anybody have any suggestions? Or is the plumbing I would need actually not too difficult to construct?

Thanks!
 
The plumbing is very easy to do. All you need is some PVC pipe, connectors (ie elbows), bulkheads and some PVC cement. The hardest part (which isn't hard by any means) is determining how you want to place your inputs and outputs.
 
So if I do decide to do the plumbing, how do I make it work? Like internal overflow and a pump to send it back? Is there a formula to figure out sump size? Grrrr lol
 
Steveo, once you figure out just how many gallons your tank is going to be you will need to decide how many times you want to turn your tank over through the filtration per hour. Once that is known you can find a pump that will suit your needs and you can design a fitration system based on the pump size. On a tank that size, I would look into overflows and a wet/dry of some design. FX5s are good filters but I wouldn't go any bigger then a 220 with 2 of them.
 
Oh really, 220... hmm, less than I wanted to hear haha. The 8x4x2.5 sounds like a solid build. How exactly do I go about figuring out sump to tank size and how much will flow and whatnot? lol
 
"How exactly do I go about figuring out sump to tank size and how much will flow and whatnot?"

Research.
 
If your tank is going to be 500G and you want it to turn over 10 times every hour you will need a pump or pumps that will move 5000G per hour. Once you know that you need to figure out how you are going to get 5000GPH from the tank into your sump. Are you going to use overflow boxes, bulkhead fittings? There are charts all over the place that will tell you what size fittings you need to move a given amount of water. The plumbing on my 315G tank uses 4 bulkhead fittings that are inside overfow boxes that are on the back of the tank. These overflow boxes feed to 50G totes that are under the tank. Each tote contain poret foam for biological filtration, a 300W heater and a return pump. The totes are joined with a section of PVC to keep the water level even between the totes. I do have an FX5 for mechanical filtration as well. It is a nice filter but I would not use a single one on a tank bigger then 125G, but thats me!
 
Wow sweet, great info! I have been researching this nonstop for the past 3 days. Not sure how it will fly in my parents basement, but we'll see.
 
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