First mega tank planning stages

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Goonie

Goonie

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 8, 2019
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Northern Virginia
Biggest I have now is a 185 and it is running 2x fx 6s and a couple AC110s with some big sponges.

I'm working on planning out a 500-700 gallon tank to go in in the next year or so.

I would like to get all things needed for this tank beforehand, such as the stand (diy) the substrate, some very large drift wood, as well as get a lot of my anubius grown out.

So the big question is filtration, I run canisters on all of my tank above 40gallons, I am familiar with maximizing them to the tank, but I know on a tank this size I do not want to run that many FX6s lol its just cost prohibitive. I am not AT ALL familiar with sumps. Could I use a pond filter on a tank this size? If so what type should I looks at ? I was thinking of one of the waterfall types and run a shorter stand, then use something like gutters for the water to return through with porthos planted in crushed lava rock. Kind of like the filters feeding a tank length wet dry filter before finally returning to the tank its self. My concern on something like that would be balancing the flow with the pump. Is this doable of am I in the land of unicorn fish and dragon shrimp here?
 
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id worry about the gutter mostly just overflowing at the entry point. maybe an egg crate box with lava rocks and pothos right under the waterfall?
 
If your in the planning stages of this build then why not get familiar with how sumps work. A tank that large would benefit from a sump, and they are alot cheaper then a ultima, but would also be a great addition to one. Plus they are a great place to hide all your equipment. They also can be setup as a planted refugem for all your daughter plants, or with pothos in the top of them.
 
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Thats not a bad idea, any sites yould recomend for fresh water sumps? The bulk if the info i find on them is for saltwater.
 
Goonie said:
Thats not a bad idea, any sites yould recomend for fresh water sumps? The bulk if the info i find on them is for saltwater.
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It's basically the same, just no skimmer. You can use a skimmer but ones typically made for salt won't work well in fresh. Think of a sump like an open canister filter......more or less. Mechanical filtration in the first section (I like filter socks), second is biofiltration, third heaters and return pump. You can have more sections to house plants or chemical filtration or whatever else you want. Sumps can be as big or small as you'd want just need to make sure there is adequate space for water from your overflow to fill in a pump off situation. With any filters all you need is enough room for biofiltration to convert ammonia into eventual nitrate. That depends on fish load naturally. You can't really over filter a tank but you can create to much flow with to many power filters. Sumps are adjustable and very adaptable for a variety of uses.
 
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Goonie said:
Biggest I have now is a 185 and it is running 2x fx 6s and a couple AC110s with some big sponges.

I'm working on planning out a 500-700 gallon tank to go in in the next year or so.

I would like to get all things needed for this tank beforehand, such as the stand (diy) the substrate, some very large drift wood, as well as get a lot of my anubius grown out.

So the big question is filtration, I run canisters on all of my tank above 40gallons, I am familiar with maximizing them to the tank, but I know on a tank this size I do not want to run that many FX6s lol its just cost prohibitive. I am not AT ALL familiar with sumps. Could I use a pond filter on a tank this size? If so what type should I looks at ? I was thinking of one of the waterfall types and run a shorter stand, then use something like gutters for the water to return through with porthos planted in crushed lava rock. Kind of like the filters feeding a tank length wet dry filter before finally returning to the tank its self. My concern on something like that would be balancing the flow with the pump. Is this doable of am I in the land of unicorn fish and dragon shrimp here?
Click to expand...
I’d definitely look into sumps you won’t go another canister with the ease of cleaning and available media Space the options are limitless really. You can make them as basic as you like no baffles just filter socks some media and a pump or more complex with moving bed, reactors, multiple chambers. You could still set up a water fall to the tank with one too, have your return pump feed into it even if it’s split between the tank and only taking half the flow you could make something quite ornamental with it.
 
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