Monster 822 gallon (ext) aquarium build thread

[pacu mom]

Oh my, and I thought I was behind the set-up curve at 8 months from ordering to on the stand. WOW! Your into your second year, you have great patients, but I can see where thing may have been out of your control. I am sure once setup though its going to be well worth the wait. I can't wait to see the beast up and running. Speaking of filtration, does someting that large actually use a sump for Bio filtration or someting more commercial?

For bio filtration, I'm going with two Ultima 4000s. I was going to use my 405 gallon sump tank strictly as a holding tank, but that's kind of a waste, so just ordered 20 L of Pond Matrix and a bunch of 5 gallon filter socks to put in the tank. Have ordered six Pentair Rainbow RTL-100 filters for extreme mechanical filtration. Will use Hammerheads and Barracuda Golds to run everything. Platform behind the tank being built right now. We need the platform to access the top of the tank.

 

[ChiPerf]

Gotcha. Would it have been cheaper to go larger on the tank while having the boxes on the inside? Or is this way cheaper?

 

[anarekist]

holy

 

[pacu mom]

My only reason for having external filter boxes is so that I will have all 10x 3 foot print of the tank. When you think of overflows inside the aquarium depending on their location they tend up to take up space. I noticed this when I had my old 300 gallon, the boxes were mounted internal on the back of the of the tank about 6 inches from each side panel. Well as the fish got larger that 6in space between the side panels and the overflows boxes was useless becaue none of the fish really hung out there or could use that space. And the 5 or so inches the boxes took up from the front of the overflow box to the front glass made for less foot print in width. So as the fish were getting to up to the 15- 20 inch range their abilty to turn around in those parts of the tank became a problem to me. Now even though the overall tank was 24in wide, in the area were the two overflow boxes were, the space/width was more like 19-20 inches. When overflow are mounted to the internal side panels of the tank, they can take up as much as 5 to 6in on each side of you tank, so now you 8ft tank is around 6.8 to 7ft or that 10 ft tank is actully 8.8 to 9ft, well you get the idea... So if you have the space, I'd always recommend mounting overflow boxes external either back or sides of the tank...

I agree with you on the external overflow boxes. Internal overflow boxes not only take up room in the tank, but they run the full depth of the tank and usually drain from the bottom so you have to do plumbing underneath the tank, through the top of the stand, etc. External overflow boxes have got to be easier to plumb, being more shallow and easier to get to.

 

[doviiman]

Gotcha. Would it have been cheaper to go larger on the tank while having the boxes on the inside? Or is this way cheaper?

Well even if you went with a larger tank, you still have the same results, you'd be paying for a tank of a certain size and not really getting the full foot print of the tank. For instance my last tank was 8ft long and 3ft wide, so becasue of this i went larger to a 10ft long 3ft wide tank, but had I got the overflows internal, then in reality I would end up with a smaller foot print tank than the designed 10ft becasue of the overflows wolud still take up the space. not to mention the larger the tank the larger the overflows will be.
Now considering there is no cost difference to have the builder mount the boxes external or internal, its come down to preferrence. One gives you more tank foot print, but takes up more house space (external) and one gives you less tank foot print but uses less house space. The only draw back to external boxes is hidding them, but considering my plans are to attempt an build a false wall around the whole tank, with an access door to the boxes and top and bottom of the tank, you won't even see them...

 

[doviiman]

For bio filtration, I'm going with two Ultima 4000s. I was going to use my 405 gallon sump tank strictly as a holding tank, but that's kind of a waste, so just ordered 20 L of Pond Matrix and a bunch of 5 gallon filter socks to put in the tank. Have ordered six Pentair Rainbow RTL-100 filters for extreme mechanical filtration. Will use Hammerheads and Barracuda Golds to run everything. Platform behind the tank being built right now. We need the platform to access the top of the tank.

Oh my, that some insane mechnical filtration, all of a sudden I feeling like I need more as well. lol I will research the Pentair Rainbow RTL-100 filter, never heard of this.
A platform for access, sound so Sea world, you be able to do feeding shows for guest,

 

[ChiPerf]

No additional cost? Interesting. Yeah that would make sense, especially if you are putting it behind a wall. Plus I was thinking about nice backgrounds. You have a flat surface instead of a jagged one. Do they just put the louvered holes on the back of the tank at the top so the water flows over into the external boxes then?

 

[doviiman]

No additional cost? Interesting. Yeah that would make sense, especially if you are putting it behind a wall. Plus I was thinking about nice backgrounds. You have a flat surface instead of a jagged one. Do they just put the louvered holes on the back of the tank at the top so the water flows over into the external boxes then?

Yes, you are excatly right, water flow through louvered groves to on side panels and into boxes. Then plumbing goes from under the box to the bottom of the stand where wet/dry sumps will be sitting. See MFK member Pacu mom's tank set-up, their is a picture of the overflow boxes mounted in the back of their tank externally, really nice...
Yes if you chose to do a background, then it much easier to install as well.

 

[anarekist]

one thing about external overflows is that air bubbles get trapped in the siphon over time reducing the flow. requires regular maintenance of the siphon. even with cpr style overflows that had the powerhead connection to keep the siphon, random food pellets would go through and clog it.

 

[doviiman]

Not really sure about that as of yet, but considering this will be plumbed just like it an internal, I am not sure what is the difference, but this is a first for me..