N00B to plumbing beyond Fluval 405...need some direction

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

Chris_LCMNH

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 22, 2008
30
0
0
New Mexico
As the title says, I’m a noob to plumbing. The most extensive I’ve done is setting up Fluval 305 and 405 canisters. I return to MFK for some help/guidance.

The tank: glasscages.com 336gallon tank (measures 36x60x36/l x w x h in inches) with one 1 ½” drilled bulkhead (this [bulkhead] may come back to haunt me).

Tank occupant: ~16 y.o. common snapping turtle

Location: Las Cruces Museum of Natural History

Details: “Zilla” our common snapper currently lives in a 125 filled with about 14 inches of water and filtered by 2 Fluval 4Plus units; not very clean on the filtration, but it gets the job done and keeps the water mostly clear and clean. For some years now we’ve been trying to get him a larger tank and have finally done such. His new tank is going to be filled to approximately 20 inches of water depth with some form of artificial landmass made. This is quite a set above my mere 10-75 gallon tanks housing lizards, snakes, and amphibians native to the Chihuahuan Desert and/or NM, let alone the 40 gallon tank with White Sands Pupfish or 125 with Rio Grande Silvery Minnows.

An acquaintance, the owner of BlueRegion.com, from a forum of personal interest recommended I go with Ocean Clear filters and Blue Line pump. My concern however is I’ve never done any filtration as extensive as this, though I have been googling and reading here regarding plumbing. I’d also like to have a UV sterilizer tossed into the line-up to help with limiting algae. While I’m here, I’ll also point out we got the tank with only 1 bulkhead and as I read I should have gone with 2 – we’ll write it off as an amateur mistake.

I guess what I’m after more specifically is where’s the plumbing aquariums for n00bs beyond Fluvals/Eheims/etc post? So are there posts here that I may have missed while searching that covered closed systems, maybe other fish forums, website how-tos? I could possibly be being a little too specific in my goggle search terms.
 
Bump....

After much reading, and more reading, here's where I'm at.

First off, many thanks to Chompers for the Pipe Sizing Charts and flow Rates and How to Size a Pump posts. Things are making sense after reading them for, I think, the 3rd time and playing with numbers.

Back to where I'm at. As stated above, tank is 36x60x36 inches. However, the tank will only be filled to about 20 inches (going with a head of 24 inches). So my actual volume of water is roughly 36x60x20 (W x L x H), giving me 43,200 cubic inches (187.013 gallons). Since the snapping turtle is a slow water species I've gone with a turnover rate of 3 or ~561 gallons/hr. Gallons/min = 9.35.

Now here's where I get a little foggy, over to the Pipe Sizing post. I'm looking at filtering the tank with Ocean Clears. I have in mind the 380 w/ 18W UV sterilizer, 325 Mech filter, and 354 Poly-Bead mech & bio filter. Each of these units has 3/4inch fittings for plumbing. That said and looking at the Pipe Sizing thread, am I to assume I want to go with either 3/4 or 1 inch piping? And would the Little Giant 2MDQX-SC Water Pump work for what I've listed, or do I need to go stronger on the pump factoring in gate valves and unions? Other pump recommendations?

And some specs on the above pump...
Specifications:
115 Volts
60 HZ
110 Watts
1.5 Amps
1/30 HP
3.5 PSI
1" FPT inlet
1" MPT outlet

Size:
5 1/4" x 9 1/8" x 4"

Head (ft)
3'-640 gph
6'-370 gph
12'-shut off
 
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