Setting up 700 gallon can't decide on going pressurized or good old wet/dry

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
The ultimas a quality product, just like their twins sold as pool filters!
$641 ultima filter on amazon
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$168 hayward filter on amazon w/ same specs
hayward.jpg
Fill it with whatever media you prefer and the numbers still dont add up
Im still kickin myself for the marineland c360s I spent more on
Cancel your order!!!

...jk but again I think these filters are the way to go on any budget

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hayward.jpg
 
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Reactions: ajohnson09
Whoah. Thanks for this. Does that Hayward pictured above just plumb right into my overflows? How do these work? I was about to buy a used 125 to diy a sump for my 300g, but this seems like a much more intelligent option.
 
Da--//it I feel used lol wow what a difference if sand would have worked I wouldn't have cared .. Seems to be a lot of difference in the way the actual design and flow of the plumbing inside but I don't see that much lol
 
Pacu mom great post as well thanks for everyone's post ,,, pacu mom I read in your old thread that u wanted drain it via over flows where u able to do that ? That's what I want to do looks like I have 4 large 2" in the back wall center and Maybe a predicted like a pool style pent air cartridge if there is a problem with clarity and just have the drain (s) for the poo when needed ,,,, I figure il need two pumps one directly under the stand to act as a siphon pump and then have a bypass once The water starts flowing into the one large pump with the basket going to the Ultima...again two concerns I want to use my overflows to bring the water from the close loop and I really didn't want a pre-mechanical filter other then the basket type in front of the pump
 
Regarding a typical sand type canister like a pool filter versus the usual pond filter with loose media... isn't there a HUGE difference on pump requirements? I always thought, generally speaking, that a sand filter has extremely high resistance requiring a high load positive displacement type pump.. usually very high amps for the given flow.

While the pond type canister has very low resistance so it can use the much higher efficiency certrifical type pumps.

IMO, a very worthy trade off.. yeah, sand filters catch smaller stuff, but at the expense of higher maintenance and higher power requirements. I also understand that sand filters are much more prone to caking. In 6 years I have never had to open one of my Ultima's up for any reason.
 
Tank isn't set up yet. Main mechanical and biological filters will be fed via vertical pipes extending down into the tank from the top of the tank. Returns for these two systems (one Ultima and the Pentair Rainbow spa filters). There will be three returns for both systems at different heights (high, middle and low) with venturi nozzles that can be turned. This should allow us to direct the return flows to achieve moving debris towards the poopsuckers. In our 300 gallon tank, we notice that the debris tended to eddy in certain areas. We put our poop sucker pipes there. In the big tank, we won't be able to do that, but by adjusting the return nozzles, we should be able to direct the currents in the tank to move debris where we want it to go. There are two 4' external overflow boxes on the tank that will drain into a 405 gallon sump. A vertical pipe (like our poopsuckers) will draw water from the bottom of the sump tank and run through the second Ultima 4000, a 120 W UV sterilizer through the six 1" returns associated with the overflow boxes. I really like vertical pipes drawing out water, and I avoid drilling holes in the back and bottom of the tank if at all possible.

In answer to your question, I believe Xander used his overflow boxes for a closed loop system. You might check out his thread--the one about setting up his fiberglass tank.

The fail/safe factor about overflow boxes is that when the water level in the main tank drops, there is no more water to the overflow boxes (therefore preventing a flood) I think this could be problematic for a closed loop system. In our case, the 405 gallon sump tank is sufficiently big enough to keep the water level high in the main tank, especially since we will be drawing water from the bottom of the sump. I guess the third system will be a modified loop of some kind :)
 
spiff44 said:
Regarding a typical sand type canister like a pool filter versus the usual pond filter with loose media... isn't there a HUGE difference on pump requirements? I always thought, generally speaking, that a sand filter has extremely high resistance requiring a high load positive displacement type pump.. usually very high amps for the given flow.

While the pond type canister has very low resistance so it can use the much higher efficiency certrifical type pumps.

IMO, a very worthy trade off.. yeah, sand filters catch smaller stuff, but at the expense of higher maintenance and higher power requirements. I also understand that sand filters are much more prone to caking. In 6 years I have never had to open one of my Ultima's up for any reason.
Click to expand...

I was looking at you're set pretty amazing Btw,,, I didn't see any pre-mechanical filter // I really don't want to run one either ,,I just want the simplicity of my backwash // uv with wiper , poo drains and done ,, but live pacu mom said some members have complained about debri still circulating ... R u running a pre- mechanical ? And yes I agree heard the same thing about sand but I hear they have their good and bad points like u said higher volume clumping and more backwash but they don't require A pre-filter because they can polish pretty good but all in all I think I like Ultima I've read nothing but great things about these from everyone who has them
 
Pacu mom I see how ur doing it now ur running fitters in tandem I really like the idea of utilizing the returns to creat flow to the suckers I was wondering about that myself .. In my 300 I have the exact saw thing going on with the eddy currents and I just scoop it out ,,, my set is all going back in the garage and I wanna go as simple as possible and the overflow might be a problem if it goes dry I'll proll put a flow switch on to save the pump and there might be a problem having enough water for back washes
 
Thanks for the kudos...

I was just making general statements based on your original email that was pondering pro's and con's of various filters... I just wanted to throw out the pump differences that I thought was overlooked.

No, I don't run any prefilter... These are pond filters.. their specialty is being able to suck up some serious solid matter and deal with it. They suggest a pre filter on an actual pond, where you might have a layer of leaves waiting to be sucked in, sticks, dead squirrels and anything else you can think of. For an indoor aquarium i couldn't imagine a situation that it would be needed. Basically, if it can make it past the pumps vanes.. then its all good. The prefilter I guess is accomplished by the smallest hole in my pickup, which I use a regular floor drain cap on my 4 inch pickups, and a thousand drilled quarter inch holes along the bottom foot or so as a defuser.

But yeah, placement is everything. I got lucky in that both of my pickups are with in a foot of the floor and since they're both right together, create a large enough updraft to accomplish the same thing Pacumom is talking about... all crap on the floor eventually gravitates to that corner and its all sucked up.

I have a very dense rock and plant layout..at first I was worried about accumulation, but the fish seem to do their part to keep the crud moving to its eventual destination.

Regarding the filtering of smaller particles, I think I would rather have the higher flow pond filter with a much less expensive certifical pump powering it. My tank water might not be as finely filtered as a sand filter would do, but its hard to see the difference.
 
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