My Hotel Room 180gl Pond

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C

cvermeulen

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,876
3
36
Los Osos, CA
OK, I started this in the setup thread, so if having two threads is some sort of problem for any reason, mods, I think the DIY area is more appopriate.

This may seem slightly ridiculous, but here we go. I'm in the middle of a 800 mile move, and for the last two months I've been in a hotel room. Now, I need to setup some temporary accomodations for my fish when I move them, because setting up their tanks in the new location will take a while, and they need a place to live while the transition happens. So, I got myself a 180gl tub, and I'm getting it fishworthy. Now... I have only the tools I brought with me to fix my car. I had no truck to bring this thing to the hotel, so I had to hitch a ride part of the way, wash it at the car wash, and carry it into the hotel through the back door. I have no idea what I'm going to tell housekeeping when they come in to clean my room.

Here it is, as it was when I just got it into the room:

MTS.jpg
 
Well for a guy with only a few basic tools, I'm not doing too bad so far.

Bought a 16 gallon bucket to use as a filter, and moved the thing in front of the fireplace:
P8150113.jpg


Cut a hole and installed the inlet fitting. This will get siliconed later (I have no silicone, or silicone gun here.)

P8150114.jpg


P8150115.jpg


P8150116.jpg


and skipping ahead I did the rest of the filter piping (just fitted, not cemented or anything.)

P8150117.jpg


The filtration will be super basic. I'm just going to put a little egg crate in the bottom of the bucket so there's a 2" settling space, and pile bio media on top. On top of the bio I'll put some filter felt. With 16 gallons to work with, filtration should never be an issue. I'm just going to put a pump in the tub to feed the filter, and let it gravity feed back into the tank. The purpose of the Tee on the return plumbing is threefold: One it will be a siphon break, so the filter can keep water in it, even if the pump turns off; second it will allow the return flow to entrain air and aerate the water a bit, and third, if the filter starts to back up, it will allow free overflow back to tank.

P8150119.jpg


Obviously the "spraybar" is not yet drilled and needs a cap put on the end of it. I didn't buy any extra fittings though, fittings here are stupid expensive for some reason. I was going to use 2" fittings for the return plumbing, but the threaded tee was almost 10 bucks!!
 
There is a brass bung in the bottom of the stock tank unfortunately. I'm debating whether or not it will be any kind of issue or not. I can always patch over it with something or cut it out and replace it with a plastic fitting, but we come back to the zero tools or materials issue.
 
flowerpower;3371075; said:
Where did you find that pond/basin?

Love the ingenuity.
Click to expand...

Thanks! The tub and bucket are from a local farming supply place. I find in different locales the farm supply places carry different brands of stock tanks. I would have liked the 300gl rubbermaid, but it would have been stupid huge in this room. This one is manufactured by "tuff stuff" (www.tufftubs.com).

I wish I could find more information on the material that it's made from so I could glue things to it with confidence, but I think I can work around it.
 
I forgot to mention, one of the other things I had in mind when I designed this filter is portability. It sits on top of the tank, so it can be moved over to my 600gl tank when I start it up. If I do indeed start cycling the tank in the hotel before I move into a rental place, I can just plug the return line on the filter so nothing spills via sloshing, and lug the whole filter, complete with media and water to the new place, so the BB doesn't die in the process.
 
basslover34;3371237; said:
:ROFL: I'm Loving it...

I'd love to be there to see the maids face the first time she comes in and see that thing sitting in there :ROFL:
Click to expand...


Haha same!
 
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