ok so I need some help. I'll give the basics. I moved recently, about 2 1/2 hours away and will be moving my fish as well. I have three tanks setup right now. I have a 38 gallon with an emperor 400 on it with two Blood Parrots. My next setup is a 55 corner drilled with a Sealife systems wet/dry 2 chamber rated at 75 gallons with a mag 7.5 as a return pump. My third setup is a 90g drilled with a megaflow overflow. I have a 3 chamber sealife systems wet/dry rated at 150 gallons using a mag 9.5 as a return pump. Now we had a baby last year and I am finding that maintaining 3 aquariums plus a 40g breeder with a red eared slider in it has become very difficult. So I decided to do away with the three aquariums and bought a 125 gallon AGA with dual overflows. I also have a sealife systems 2 chamber wet/dry rated at 200 gallons to go with it. The Wet/dry's will be under the tank and the top of the tank with stand is right at 5ft. Now having said all that my problem is this.
1. Do I just use the wet/dry rated at 200g which has 2 drain lines going into it and run one mag 9.5 and put a T on the return to go to both overflows?
2. Do I use the 3 chamber wet/dry rated at 150g which also has 2 drains lines going into it and run the mag 9.5 with a T going to both overflows?
3. This is what I was considering. Using the 2 chamber rated at 200g on the left overflow using only one drain line and using a mag 9.5 to return the water only to the left overflow and then using either the wet/dry rated at 75g with a mag 7.5 on the right overflow or the 3 chamber wet/dry rated at 150g with either a mag 7.5 or a 9.5 as a return pump going only to the right overflow. Can I use two different return pumps rated at different GPH?
Also I will have two Phosban Media reactors with mostly carbon on each wet/dry to help with filtration.
I am leaning towards using two wet/dry's as it will maximize my mechanical filtration considering I have some very large Blood Parrots and let's face it they aren't the cleanest fish out there. I want to use the 200g and the 150g wet/dry's but don't know if I can use a mag 7.5 and a 9.5 as return pumps. I am trying to avoid having to buy another mag 9.5. If I have to I will. Please let me know if this is possible and or recommended.
4. Next on the list is the return pipe. On my 90g the return pipe is on the right side of the overflow. Now the 125 both return pipes will have the returns pointing towards the outside of each side of the tank and nothing going towards the center. I am not sure if that is normal but it just seems a bit weird that it doesn't at least have one return pointing towards the middle to make sure that the whole tank has sort of a current I guess. I figured I would use a koralia powerhead to circulate water in the center of the tank. I also will be adding air and some live plants as well.
I am really stuck on what to do with the filtration as I need to have this running before this weekend because I have to move all my fish this weekend because I am closing on that house Monday or Tuesday.
5. I know this should be posted somewhere else but instead of creating two posts I figured I would just add it on. I have a 48" Coralife Lunar Aqualife T5HO (54W x 4) on my 90 gallon anda 48" Coralife Lunar Aqualife CF (65W x 4) on my 55 gallon and a 36" Wavepoint T5HO (39W x 4) on the 38g. I also have a 36" Coralife Aqualight T5HO (39W x 2) as a spare just in case one of my current lights fail. I would love to go to LED on the 125 but I really could use some suggestions on that. Do I try to find a 72" fixture (which I am finding impossible) or use 2 36" fixtures? I want to stay away from MH because the tank is only freshwater and just a few plants and I think a MH would be overkill but I am open to suggestions. I will spend what I have to in order to do it right but at the same time I would really like to not break the bank so to speak. I would really appreciate any suggestions on which way to turn here. The lighting I can figure out later but the filtration is something I need to get going like yesterday. Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for the novel.
1. Do I just use the wet/dry rated at 200g which has 2 drain lines going into it and run one mag 9.5 and put a T on the return to go to both overflows?
2. Do I use the 3 chamber wet/dry rated at 150g which also has 2 drains lines going into it and run the mag 9.5 with a T going to both overflows?
3. This is what I was considering. Using the 2 chamber rated at 200g on the left overflow using only one drain line and using a mag 9.5 to return the water only to the left overflow and then using either the wet/dry rated at 75g with a mag 7.5 on the right overflow or the 3 chamber wet/dry rated at 150g with either a mag 7.5 or a 9.5 as a return pump going only to the right overflow. Can I use two different return pumps rated at different GPH?
Also I will have two Phosban Media reactors with mostly carbon on each wet/dry to help with filtration.
I am leaning towards using two wet/dry's as it will maximize my mechanical filtration considering I have some very large Blood Parrots and let's face it they aren't the cleanest fish out there. I want to use the 200g and the 150g wet/dry's but don't know if I can use a mag 7.5 and a 9.5 as return pumps. I am trying to avoid having to buy another mag 9.5. If I have to I will. Please let me know if this is possible and or recommended.
4. Next on the list is the return pipe. On my 90g the return pipe is on the right side of the overflow. Now the 125 both return pipes will have the returns pointing towards the outside of each side of the tank and nothing going towards the center. I am not sure if that is normal but it just seems a bit weird that it doesn't at least have one return pointing towards the middle to make sure that the whole tank has sort of a current I guess. I figured I would use a koralia powerhead to circulate water in the center of the tank. I also will be adding air and some live plants as well.
I am really stuck on what to do with the filtration as I need to have this running before this weekend because I have to move all my fish this weekend because I am closing on that house Monday or Tuesday.
5. I know this should be posted somewhere else but instead of creating two posts I figured I would just add it on. I have a 48" Coralife Lunar Aqualife T5HO (54W x 4) on my 90 gallon anda 48" Coralife Lunar Aqualife CF (65W x 4) on my 55 gallon and a 36" Wavepoint T5HO (39W x 4) on the 38g. I also have a 36" Coralife Aqualight T5HO (39W x 2) as a spare just in case one of my current lights fail. I would love to go to LED on the 125 but I really could use some suggestions on that. Do I try to find a 72" fixture (which I am finding impossible) or use 2 36" fixtures? I want to stay away from MH because the tank is only freshwater and just a few plants and I think a MH would be overkill but I am open to suggestions. I will spend what I have to in order to do it right but at the same time I would really like to not break the bank so to speak. I would really appreciate any suggestions on which way to turn here. The lighting I can figure out later but the filtration is something I need to get going like yesterday. Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for the novel.
