How to go about filtering 600 gallon tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
220g with a standard 75g sump. 100% no baffles on mine. 100% wouldn't do it any other way. At one point I had it way overstocked with messy cichlids and huge Panaque species plecos and it was never an issue. I robbed my design from J Jc1119 years ago. ragin_cajun ragin_cajun has a similar design. I have never seen anyone with this setup have any filtration issues. Simple is better imo.
 
Whoops meant to write a reply I really like this design I'm going to go with a open plan sump it's simple and effective and I really like that I may add a small 10 gallon k1 section for extra filtration I'm thinking a 5x14x20 Tank with about 30 kg of bio rings noodles balls ect and 3 to 4 pre filter socks and a ton of scrubbys/bio balls with some sponge here and there basically using what I have and buying the rest seems like a good plan cheers again everybody
 
For the k1 I'm thinking a 10g bucket with hundreds of little whole to allow water flow through and having a small moving bed filter in there :) seems simple enough
 
If you have heaps of matrix, and other stuff, in the sump, you probably won't need K1. You're only gonna have as much bacteria living in your system as the nutrients from the fish will support. You can add bio media and K1 all you want, but you'll still only be able to support X numbers of bacteria.

You'll just be keeping rocks and K1 wet. unless you have some serious ammonia spikes from may rays in the tank, I don't think overdoing bio-media is gonna help anything. And if you have that many rays in the tank that you're having big ammonia spikes when you feed, you need a bigger tank, and a HUGE infusion of constant fresh water probably.

I really think we're all going way overboard on the amount of bio-media in our systems, just like we all probably overfeed. I started my tank thinking "that's not enough pond matrix". But I read advice from people here, and I decided to listen and go with 12 Liters and wait until I saw a REAL REASON to add more matrix, or go with some other bio-filtration strategy.

That real reason hasn't happened yet.

I know it sounds just too simple, but it works. A few bags of pond matrix will do ya.
 
I have like 4lbs of rings and over a gallon of matrix. I also have an Fx6 crammed with more matrix. I probably have enough bio for 1000g of overstocked tank. The important part is making sure it is used properly. I have 0% bypass with my setup. I have high turnover rate. And I have my returns and powerheads creating no dead spots. This means all of my water gets fed through my bio media. This means all of my water gets filtered. Lots of people have their sump poorly setup and run into parameter issues. They think the solution is to add more bio. Don't be that guy...
 
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OK I'll ditch the k1 then I'm thinking and about 30 to 40 gallon of matrix and ceramic rings and filter socks in a open plan sump I just want to over do it though just to be safe I'll build a sort of wall of bio media so the water has to pass through it and get filtered maybe a little sponge here and there just to be safe and float a few bio balls sounds good I draw up a design when I get the time :)
 
Change of plans 1 gallon of matrix and and 1 gallon of ceramic noodles and about 500 bio balls for extra satisfaction I think this will be sufficient
 
Just an idea but if wanna use sponges some where you can get poret foam from swiss tropicals and make a wall from a cut sheet of the foam. I did it in auch aller sump but to be honest i dont see any benefits to doing it.
 
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