home made filter

[RLHam3]

ok so my friends have a 75 gallon aquarium. they have a tube that is constantly siphoning water to a 10 gallon aquarium. the water first travels through the foam pieces and then through a bio bag of carbon, and finally through, some of those white stone things (his words, not mine). The pump going back to the aquarium is going at 660gph.

now they are thinking of adding a 125 that will also be filtered through this set up. collectively the tanks will have a young silver arowana, 3 5-7in oscars, 2 common plecos (7in and 4in), and maybe a full grown senegal bichir.

is this enough filtration?

 

[fishloaf666]

Ok first off 10 gallons for the 75 is small but also depends on the amount of media stored in the tank. I would move the sponge down and add some kind of floss for mechanical filtration first. If he wants to upgrade to the 125 gallon that type of filtering is sufficient, but i would upgrade sump size.

He can cheaply upgrade the sump size by just buying a larger rubbermaid container or even small garbage can ect.Also on that note, does he have any type of overflow box at the top of the main tank? If not i would suggest looking into that or the tank can overflow if the power goes out due to loss of siphon.(this box can also be home made)


Hope this helps,, first post on MFK woot!

 

[KaiserSousay]

If you can keep on top of the pleco poop and the oscars messy eating habits, you might not need daily water changes to control nitrate levels.
I suppose the sump could handle the ammonia load of the 2 tanks, just barely though.
200 combined gallons being handled by 660gph gives about a 3 times an hour turnover rate. Pretty meager rate even when done through superior media. Would hope there is enough intank surfaces for bacteria.
At the very least, added in tank water movement would be needed.
Considering the size and number of fish, not to mention their $$$ value, I think it a bad idea.
Increase the sump size and up grade the pump.

 

[Jgray152]

I can't calculate a safe tank size below 20 gallons for a 75 gallon tank. I would change your sump size because with media and a 1" level drop in the main tank with 4-6" water level in the 10 gallon tank, it will over flow.

If you have limited space, get a canister.

 

[bitteraspects]

as a general rule, you want your sump (the lower tank with the pump) to be around 1/4-1/3 the size of the display. the bigger the better.

10g is already far too small for the 756, and it not providing enough filtration. adding another tank at 125g would be a very bad idea.

also. oscars and plecos create a massive bioload. these species alone will require more filtration than usual.

 

[Austin]

125 is about 1/3 big enough for that aro...

 

[nfored]

I agree the sump will over flow first power outage. You could do it with a well designed 55 gallon sump. I have 220 gallons running through a 55 gallon sump and still have a wide margin for error during power outages. also if the pump says it pushes 660GPH at the height you have it you need to consider the friction loss from splitting it between two tanks. I would say you need to at least buy another small pump for use just to feed the 75 and move the current pump to the 125.

How wide is the 125 seems like the Aro might be cramped a bit.