Many years ago I had a 300 gallon tank with 6 large Tinfoil Barbs one large Six Barred Distichodus Sexfasciatus and 2-5 inch Clown Loaches. Feeding them was a soaking experience and they ate a large quantity of food in two minutes. Needless to say the standard flow UG was overwhelmed in about 3 weeks after cleaning. I did some research and ended up with a Little Giant pump and 3 inline canister filers. First inline was a 25 micron pleated filter, second was a charcoal filter and last was a thermometer inside the canister. This setup was piped as a reverse flow UG system. I could control the flow to the under gravel by diverting some of the flow to spray bars. This reverse flow set up kept the water sparkling clear and I never had to clean the gravel. I'm going to be using the same setup on my new tank but the Little Giant pump was so noisy that I had to build a outside pump house for all of it. Any help on some high flow pumps that are very quite and reliable?
Reverse Flow UG
- Thread starter Night Ranger
- Start date
DAPMH15
I wouldn't go larger unless you've got another tank or two. I'm running one now and could sleep w/ it running in my bedroom easily. It's not silent but compared to the old Little Giant pumps they're amazingly low noise. The loudest aspect would be if you don't have a use for all the air in the tank and bleed some off directly from the manifold you'll hear that far more readily than you might the pump itself.
I understand that you're not asking about anything beyond a pump recommendation but many of us used under gravel filters in various flow configurations roughly 40-50 years ago and they're far less common now though there remains no single ideal filtration method and we're all still experimenting in a lot of ways. I'm currently running six Fluval FX6's on an 800 gallon tank and it's crystal clear and remains so for months. There are a few giraffes in it turning the substrate every night but that too is part of the ongoing experiment.
I wouldn't go larger unless you've got another tank or two. I'm running one now and could sleep w/ it running in my bedroom easily. It's not silent but compared to the old Little Giant pumps they're amazingly low noise. The loudest aspect would be if you don't have a use for all the air in the tank and bleed some off directly from the manifold you'll hear that far more readily than you might the pump itself.
I understand that you're not asking about anything beyond a pump recommendation but many of us used under gravel filters in various flow configurations roughly 40-50 years ago and they're far less common now though there remains no single ideal filtration method and we're all still experimenting in a lot of ways. I'm currently running six Fluval FX6's on an 800 gallon tank and it's crystal clear and remains so for months. There are a few giraffes in it turning the substrate every night but that too is part of the ongoing experiment.
Thanks for the response but are you saying the little giant pumps discharge a lot of air while running? The reverse flow will be used in a 48"x96"x39" high tank. In my old system I cut up under gravel plates and used silicone to join them together for a proper fit also seal the edges to the bottom of the tank to keep gravel from getting under the plates. The plates had a lip around the perimeter to add silicone to adhere to the bottom of the tank. It takes a large amount of water to push down then up through the plates to keep the gravel free from debris. The canisters I will be using are rated to 1,200 gallons per hour. There will be some experimenting to find the proper amount of water to push and keep the debris from settling into the gravel. If there is to much pressure I can divert the excess to the surface as I did with my last tank. I will try to find some very old pictures and post them to you.
No Sir. That is not what I meant and my apologies for misunderstanding your original post. I see you are pumping water down through your vertical tubing on the under gravel filter and for some reason I confused the little giant reference w/ an air pump... and that's what I was referring to w/ the Jehmco reference.
Were I in your shoes I might be inclined to route the tank return flow from an FX6 to the inlet side of your under gravel filter. You're taking a big jump from 300g to 800g and will no doubt have multiple large filters operating. The return from any of them will do what you're looking for. That is, unless I've misunderstood again and that you may be incorporating a sump this time.
Either way, I'm guessing there aren't too many of us running under gravel filters anymore. They were the hot setup at one point but likelihood of promoting anaerobic decomposition remains high. Please keep up posted.
Thanks for the reply! I don't believe the FX6 would do well with the back pressure pushing water down a column of water 3 feet deep with enough with left over pressure to do the job of passing the required amount of water need through the substrate. Once my Little Giant pump was started I had to close off the inline spray bars to get enough pressure to force the trapped air bubble down the tubes and under the gravel plates. One the trapped air bubble was forced under the under gravel plates I could open up the spray bars at the surface. We didn't have camera phones back then but I will try to find some old pictures for you.
Sometimes anecdotal evidence is better than white paper. I have a similar tank to the one you're talking about and it's on a 3' tall stand. I have six FX6's servicing the tank; two of them are on the floor and four are at stand top level. My background is not mechanical and I don't monitor flow attenuation but I can tell you there's zero noticeable difference in outflow speed or volume from the units that are on the floor as opposed to those that are at stand top level. The outflow for all is @ 27" above stand top level.
I definitely don't believe FX6's are the hot setup across the board but if you have one laying around you might want to take a crack at hooking it up to see what might happen. I would.
I definitely don't believe FX6's are the hot setup across the board but if you have one laying around you might want to take a crack at hooking it up to see what might happen. I would.
Each of the PVC pipes you see are 1.5" Sch40 and each has two FX6's inline between this side of the tank and the far side. The water flow is pinched down to 1" at the tank returns via barbed fittings. This pic is a little deceiving as the internal 90* fitting is installed only for WC purposes and represents the maximum I can drain and replace without needing to be concerned about tank temp dropping beneath 73*f during the WC.
The canisters I'm planning on using are filtering at 25 microns, this is to reduce any build up on the bottom of the tank. I don't believe the Fluval is capable of filtering down to this level. By the way I searched for pictures of my 300 but all I can find right now are pics of my 55 gallon. Oh and a very nice looking aquarium you have.
That's way outside the realm of an FX6 and nearing reverse osmosis levels. I'm definitely interested in hearing more and can't help but wonder how you keep something like this operating. If you're filtering at roughly 1/2 the thickness of a human hair (25μm)and a large fish's turd is easily 500μm... it would seem that there must be more complexity to this system than I've envisioned. Looking forward to understanding more of what you've got in mind. Would love to see a pic of the completed unit.
And thanks for the compliment!
And thanks for the compliment!
The canisters I will be using are made by Nu-Clear. If I remember correctly I was running 2 Fluvals in conjunction with the main pleated canisters and the little giant on my 300 many years ago. After viewing the website you can imagine the little giant pump pushing water through the micron filter which can be stacked then through a charcoal canister then through a heater canister and then out to the reverse flow under gravel grid. As I mentioned earlier this kept my gravel completely clean to the point I never had to clean the 2-1/2 to 3 inches of gravel in the tank. At the time when I had the 300 going there was a different company that I had bought the filter canisters from but I don't remember who they were. I know the canisters were white and the heater module had a clear cover so you could see the light when the heater was on. I had all three inline and they took up about 24 inches. You know you can buy a large swimming pool canister with a micro filter and a little giant pump then you can polish the water 24/7.