need advice on filtering 180G x 4

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Squirtle919

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 5, 2011
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Hello MFK

So I planned to go with a sump, but I can only fit a 4.5x2x2.5 and Thats to small for the load of water i dont believe the contact time will be good at all!

Back up plan is canisters just wondering what people would suggest for 180G with large cichlid pairs in each, I want to keep the wattage down but get an effective out come without going broke.

Was thinking FX5s for each tank or a eheim 2217 with AQ 110 HOB for mech, then maybe 2 HOBs alone will work? what do you guys think is the best way? The eheims look good Wattage wise but cost an arm and a leg here without media almost 700$ with media + i believe with eheims I always have to add a power head or so to get some flow in the tank which is more $$ and watts.

Any ideas would be great! no sponges please ;P
 
id do the sump how do u not think that is a big enoigh sump for 760g? i ran 5.3g of pond matrix on my 500g and never saw ammonia and i was feeding roughly 8lbs of shrimp and massivore per month with massive catfish and ray. Im a big fan of sumps for their flexibility, and on a big system i would definately look into it a bit more before you spend thousands on canisters.
 
Squirtle919 said:
DW I did a search =P had some spare time.

Going 2260 for the heavy stocked ones and fx5 for the light stocks then if follow is required I will add some hydor power heads. all 4 together = 12$ PM pretty sweet ;)
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I would use 2 fx5 on the heavy stocked tank and a 1 fx5 on the lighter stocked. Btw if you want flow remove and replace the duel return on the fx5 with a ¾" 90° brass/copper elbow. It'll create one heck of a flow
 
brich999 said:
id do the sump how do u not think that is a big enoigh sump for 760g? i ran 5.3g of pond matrix on my 500g and never saw ammonia and i was feeding roughly 8lbs of shrimp and massivore per month with massive catfish and ray. Im a big fan of sumps for their flexibility, and on a big system i would definately look into it a bit more before you spend thousands on canisters.
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^this.

4.5x2x2.5 = plenty of sump if you design it right. Much more volume than the canisters you mentioned combined.
 
Hmmm I dont know. My friend designs all the sewer filtration system and runs them so his rather extremely smart with all the filter stuff ;).

He said that for a 4-5 turn over rate the water would be rushing threw the sump to fast giving little contact time.

So how would you guys go about doing it? I am all for sumps but dont want to bust my head over something that may not even work !

My idea seeing as 2 tanks will be pretty much the same level as the sump, was to run these too right across from the side drilled to the lower section of the sump coming out onto the filter media lower area.

sump lower area.png

then run the 2 top ones over a wet and dry area or something. so theres less flow over the bio area just in case!

kkoi.png

it makes sense what he is saying but if you do run too much flow over media it wont work as well as a lower flow. just how well it will work is the big one here !

also if the sump will work can i add the 150G to the mix also? or am i pushing it then ;P

sump lower area.png

kkoi.png
 
well look into what most people use on big tanks. i had a 100g sump half full of water with a 5550gph pump wide open. thats a turnover rate over 100 and seemed to be quite effective. the key to pond matrix is its size, water isnt forced over the surface. if there is too much flow it will flow between the matrix only a small amount actually goes through the media i believe, which is why it supposedly works on nitrates also because through smaller holes the water moves slow enough to be anerobic (supposedly). just my .02

ps many waste treatment facilitys use moving bed filters with a media such as kaldness k1/k3. look up bioreactors, those use very low flow usually and probably the reason your friend doesnt think it would be a good idea.
 
and the best thing about a sump ... add more tanks/fish and increase the bioload, add more media. id start with 20l pond matrix and see how that works. like i said that is what i was using for a very high bioload, and may not have even needed all that
 
ssorry to post a million times but do the math on a fx5. i bet volume vs flow is more turnover than a sump
 
mmmm Ideas idea lol. I would go with 40L pond matrix even if its over kill I use 20 in my 550Gs so its only right!

as for there filters he runs massive in ground drum filters that do a few million gallons a day!! massive things I want one for my fish room hehe!

Still not sure how to go about setting it all up. HMMMM!
 
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