So I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around filtration for a soon to be plywood aquarium that will most likely house mbuna's. Some people say they do fine with a 1x-2x turnover rate and most demand you must have 6x-10x turnover rate for freshwater. My question is, is this for all types of filtration sumps, hob, canisters or is it just for canisters? I want to do a sump or canister but having around a 400 gal tank with atleast a 6x turnover rate is insane for pump size and electrical usage. Please help lol I need enlightenment on this subject. I'm used to hob filters
Plywood aquarium filtration
- Thread starter J village hobo
- Start date
I have used a 2400 g.p.h. pump on 300 gallons of tank, with a 75 gal sump and don't find that excessive.
With a plywood tank, it would be quite easy to drill outflows with a wood drill bit and add a sump that holds that size pump and plenty of bio and mechanical media.
Trying to get that rate on a can would probably be difficult.
With a sump you can do most media and other maintenance without having to turn off the pump.
With a plywood tank, it would be quite easy to drill outflows with a wood drill bit and add a sump that holds that size pump and plenty of bio and mechanical media.
Trying to get that rate on a can would probably be difficult.
With a sump you can do most media and other maintenance without having to turn off the pump.
The only problem is the noise and electrical usage of that big of a pump. And Is 6x turnover really necessary?
You could always use an jebao dcs-20000 or something similar in a sump filled with mechanical and biological media. Then in the tank use wavemakers for extra flow in the tank. Thats how i used to run a 1400L malawitank. I used 6 wavemakers rated at 9500L/h and a 6000L returnpump in the sump.
Just use a sump and two (use two for redundancy in case one fails or errors out during a power outage) Jebao DCP 15000 pumps.
They are very affordable, don’t use much power, and are extremely quiet. I use two of the DCP 8000’s on my 220 that has a 55 gal sump, and only have them turned up to around 60% for about 1500 gph. Btw, I have had one of mine error out on two occasions because the power glitches in my area. Luckily, the other started up fine and my tank still ran at half flow until I got home and found it. This is why I strongly recommend two pumps.
I’d recommend you go with three 2” overflows for that setup.
Also, I recommend you go with at least 4X turnover rate, but 6X is better.
What are you planning on using for the sump?
Amazon.com : Jebao DCP Sine Wave Water Return Pump (DCP-15000) : Gateway
Amazon.com : Jebao DCP Sine Wave Water Return Pump (DCP-15000) : Gateway
www.amazon.com
They are very affordable, don’t use much power, and are extremely quiet. I use two of the DCP 8000’s on my 220 that has a 55 gal sump, and only have them turned up to around 60% for about 1500 gph. Btw, I have had one of mine error out on two occasions because the power glitches in my area. Luckily, the other started up fine and my tank still ran at half flow until I got home and found it. This is why I strongly recommend two pumps.
I’d recommend you go with three 2” overflows for that setup.
Also, I recommend you go with at least 4X turnover rate, but 6X is better.
What are you planning on using for the sump?
Now that I've watched several videos and read thousands of paragraphs about sump and canister filtration. I'm still inbetween either goinh with a diy canister filter or 2 or a sump or 2. And might go with either 2 jebao dct4000 or 2 fluval sp4 pumps I would rather have 2 bigger pumps than what I need at half power than 1 pump at wide open in case anything were to happen the one pump could take the entire load until the problem/emergency was fixed. Or should I just have a back up pump? The reason I chose those 2 pumps is because it's the only 2 I've heard of so if you know of a better one please by all means tell me. Buy once cry once.
Travis I just got into the sump/canister ordeal lol there's an infinite amount of possibilities on how to build a sump lol and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. But probably a submerged media sump with mechanical and activated carbon in the first baffle then ceramic and lava rocks in the next baffle and I haven't gotten the rest figured out yet lol
And is the main necessity of turnover for water movement and oxygenation or to keep detritus off the floor? And would plants help lower the need for a big turnover rate? I know malawi/mbuna cichlids arent supposed to like/have plants but all of mine love swimming in and out of the plants in mine
There are several reasons for the higher turnover rate. It is important to keep detritus from settling too much, although some always will, so that it can be caught in the mechanical filtration. However, the more important reason is so that the fish waste is quickly filtered and processed into nitrates. Too little flow and it could allow for ammonia to build up before it gets processed into nitrate. The higher turnover rate assured that this does not happen.
As for my recommendation on a sump, I think you should just get a used 125 or 120 (90 at the very least) gallon aquarium and leave it as an open sump. You can often find cheaper tanks on Craigslist. Use filter socks in one end, then place bags of submerged media throughout the tank and put the pumps on the opposite side of the tank from the filter socks. If you want to do a little bit more for it, you can place a powerhead or two inside it to circulate the water within the sump. Also, your heaters can be placed right in the sump.
You’re definitely on the right track for the pumps. It is better to have two larger pumps that can be run at a lower setting. It’s better for the pumps’ life, better for noise, and gives you extra flow capacity if it’s ever needed. However, the DCT 4000 pumps will be far too small for this application. Since you said your tank will be about 400 gallons, plus your sump we’ll estimate at 100 gallons, you will have a total of 500 gallons in your setup. Multiply that by 6 and you are looking for about 3000 gph. I run two DCP 8000’s (pretty much the same as the DCT 8000 pumps) at 60% to achieve about 1500 gph. Without doing all of the calculations specific to your setup, I can estimate that two DCP 15000 pumps run around 65-70% should get you to that 3000 gph mark. I posted a link to those pumps above and they are about $150 each on Amazon. That is a really good price for a high efficiency pump that is controllable like it is. To be honest, if you can’t afford those for your setup, then you might want to reconsider your project, or scale it down to a 150-200 gallon setup. The DCT 4000 pumps you mentioned are only good for about 1050 gph. However, once you factor in the head loss from fittings, tubing/piping, and height, you will probably be getting around 700 gph each. That is if they are running full power, so they will probably be a bit noisy.
Lastly, skip the carbon in the filter. Not necessary.
If you want to go with a canister setup, I recommend staying away from diy canisters because they often end up leaking. For a 400 gallon tank, I’d recommend at least three FX6’s, but you’re definitely better off using four. Or, you could go the ultima route. I think you will find that both of these options will end up costing far more than a diy sump.
As for my recommendation on a sump, I think you should just get a used 125 or 120 (90 at the very least) gallon aquarium and leave it as an open sump. You can often find cheaper tanks on Craigslist. Use filter socks in one end, then place bags of submerged media throughout the tank and put the pumps on the opposite side of the tank from the filter socks. If you want to do a little bit more for it, you can place a powerhead or two inside it to circulate the water within the sump. Also, your heaters can be placed right in the sump.
You’re definitely on the right track for the pumps. It is better to have two larger pumps that can be run at a lower setting. It’s better for the pumps’ life, better for noise, and gives you extra flow capacity if it’s ever needed. However, the DCT 4000 pumps will be far too small for this application. Since you said your tank will be about 400 gallons, plus your sump we’ll estimate at 100 gallons, you will have a total of 500 gallons in your setup. Multiply that by 6 and you are looking for about 3000 gph. I run two DCP 8000’s (pretty much the same as the DCT 8000 pumps) at 60% to achieve about 1500 gph. Without doing all of the calculations specific to your setup, I can estimate that two DCP 15000 pumps run around 65-70% should get you to that 3000 gph mark. I posted a link to those pumps above and they are about $150 each on Amazon. That is a really good price for a high efficiency pump that is controllable like it is. To be honest, if you can’t afford those for your setup, then you might want to reconsider your project, or scale it down to a 150-200 gallon setup. The DCT 4000 pumps you mentioned are only good for about 1050 gph. However, once you factor in the head loss from fittings, tubing/piping, and height, you will probably be getting around 700 gph each. That is if they are running full power, so they will probably be a bit noisy.
Lastly, skip the carbon in the filter. Not necessary.
If you want to go with a canister setup, I recommend staying away from diy canisters because they often end up leaking. For a 400 gallon tank, I’d recommend at least three FX6’s, but you’re definitely better off using four. Or, you could go the ultima route. I think you will find that both of these options will end up costing far more than a diy sump.