I am setting up a fish room in my house but not sure what I should use for filtration/heat. I will have 10 500 gallon tanks. I would like to set up some type of system that will allow me to use one pump/filter (and lots of pvc pipe) to take care of all these tanks. Does anyone have anything like this or have any idea how I could do this? How about filtering each individual tank (would this be a better idea?). How about heating the tanks? They will be in an unheated garage so I will need some beefy heaters to get the job done. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
need help with new setup
- Thread starter drumgod24
- Start date
to start off with, if you want to have one system to filter all the tanks at once, your going to need one giant sump filter. And for heating it will probably be necesary to put a heater in each tank. It would be an idea to head the water in the sump so that it spreads around to all the tanks, but then your sump would need to be even bigger to ensure that a large enough body of water is actually heated to be spread around. That would be unrealistic because then youd be lookin at 1000 gallon sump 
so just heat each tank seperately. But I think making a big sump to filter them all is a good idea.
so just heat each tank seperately. But I think making a big sump to filter them all is a good idea.
let me be first to welcome you to MFK!!
um people on here will tell you to pool heaters and pool pumps so thats what i will tell you!
um people on here will tell you to pool heaters and pool pumps so thats what i will tell you!
With over 5000 gallons to heat, I'd be looking in heating the garage, not the water directly. Even at 2 Watts/Gal, you're looking at least 10000 watts, even more so if there's a big temperature gap between room temperature and the water temperature, as much a 5 watts/gal.
For pumps, you should look for a 3-5 turn-over rate meaning 15k-25k gallons/Hr and that's considering head loss. I'd be looking into multiple pumps, just to be on the safe side.
If i was in your place, i'd be using 2 of the tanks as sumps for filtration & connect each sump to 4 tanks each with a turn-around 2-3 times/Hr. With a normal bio-load it should work.
well ... that's my 2 cents ...
For pumps, you should look for a 3-5 turn-over rate meaning 15k-25k gallons/Hr and that's considering head loss. I'd be looking into multiple pumps, just to be on the safe side.
If i was in your place, i'd be using 2 of the tanks as sumps for filtration & connect each sump to 4 tanks each with a turn-around 2-3 times/Hr. With a normal bio-load it should work.
well ... that's my 2 cents ...