start of fish room planning

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Going to take some pretty wicked UVs to hit level 2 on that much volume....... Also a pretty wicked return system to get all that sterilized water out to all those tanks.

Not very jealous of you with a plate like that in front of you....... But would be glad to try to help out.....

What are you planning on using for bio?

How much space do you have to work with?
 
DB junkie said:
Going to take some pretty wicked UVs to hit level 2 on that much volume....... Also a pretty wicked return system to get all that sterilized water out to all those tanks.

Not very jealous of you with a plate like that in front of you....... But would be glad to try to help out.....

What are you planning on using for bio?

How much space do you have to work with?
Click to expand...

was hoping you would chime in. So the whole story is complicated but here is the short version. I have an apartment right now that is 815 sq feet. I have my 90g, 125g, 26g, 75g, 25g and a10g running here. I also have two more 20L set up else where. I got engaged and with that came selling my apartment to live closer to our jobs (when I say ours I mean hers). We are moving to an area of NJ that we both don't know as well so we will rent a house for a year and I will set up shop in the basement (before people comment on this -this will not be an issue). I will also set up my two 250g and two 55g. In roughly a year or sooner when we are comfortable with the area we will purchase a house and I will set up the official fish room. So in the mean time it will be temporary. All the tanks will be in the same room. Right now I have all my tanks in the same room except the 90g. I am filtering with mostly ACs and some rena xps and one fx5 on 125

I plan on running K1 for the sump for the 250s. I was thinking of using 55 gallon drums to do a settlement chamber to socks and pothos to K1 and then to a 75 gallon to the pump. Not sure if the 75g would be big enough to handle the tanks if the power is lost. I want to add a UV to this but never really used one before.

input on any of this is appreciated and i do like the blower idea, but love the simplicity of possibly having everything on the same system or mostly.
 
If your QTing the fish before entering your main systems + keeping water changes in check id be going with a central sump also its much more simple and doing water changes can be a breeze, I used to have tanks running solo and my W/C was taking me a whole day done properly at first it sounds fine but after a few months + working mon - fri it does become more of a second job, a semi fun job but still I prefer to sit back and watch the fish more.

Not sure what your plans are for the actual room but I would focus on the room setup before the tanks when the time comes, I.e insulation / heating methods / floor drains / mains for water etc you dont want to have everything setup then have to be working around it all, talking from experience here, not fun trying to insulate a roof with tanks everywhere.

Your sump sounds good, haven't tried one like it but seems to be the way to go these days for most, I would want a much larger tank though... 6x2x2 minimal personally
 
To me, plumbed central systems just become a leak risk and a power failure worry. I've had them. I much prefer to have individual tanks with air driven filtration.
 
Pharaoh said:
To me, plumbed central systems just become a leak risk and a power failure worry. I've had them. I much prefer to have individual tanks with air driven filtration.
Click to expand...

Leak risk? Isn't it just as risky as having lots of tanks full of water? Isn't a tank just as likely to leak as pluming is? A properly designed central sump should be engineered to handle power cuts as we all know they happen sooner or later....

How do you go about air driven filtering tanks with hungry monsters? I'm assuming air is choice for people who raise water bugs (Cichlids) but is this means really capable of handling monster feedings???

WAIT. There's been nothing mentioned as far as stock.... Maybe monster filtration isn't needed?

What are you keeping Charney?
 
Central sump and a big UV. Don't overthink it Mike. It'd be a travesty not to plumb everything together and take advantage of a larger water volume.
 
And if you've got the means, 24 hour drip. You'll never have to do water changes so you can keep the front glass clean haha!
 
I don't think "a" UV is going to do it......

I run a pair of 110 waters on my big system that I think is around 1300 gallons, and that's barely enough to hit level 2 sterilization.

Sounds like you've got the right idea though if you're talking drums for 1st stage mechanical (radial flow separators) and moving bed for bio...... Tough to beat that combo unless you're ready to step up to a $$$$ieve. Still going to need socks for 2nd stage mechanical, but I'd take this route over bead filters assuming there's rays in the picture.......

IF you're going to rely on a drip without manual water changes you're going to need a means of monitoring the buildup in the water, cause there's not really any way of knowing if you're really dripping enough. Either TDS or conductivity. I think there's a lot of people getting bit by this and they don't even know it, cause the only way to know it's not enough is to wait for the fish to get "sick" then meds get involved, the water changes involved with meds fix the problem (not the meds) and then they repeat and never even realize it's all cause there's not enough water dripping. Drips suck cause you have to drip 5X the water you'd use in a manual water change to achieve the same TDS/Conductivity result. IF it was me I'd rig the entire system around large massive manual water changes. Like a sump so massive you could rip off 300 gallon water changes without even shutting the filtration down. Use a "settling tank" on float valves so you empty it in the large water change and over then next day it refills then is ready for another "flush" a day later. You'll be amazed at what "settles" out of the water and the difference in TDS/Conductivity readings straight out of the tap and after 24 hours of aeration/settling. My "settling" tank was encased in scale in less then a month. Wouldn't believe it if someone else said it, but I watched it.
 
Squirtle919 said:
If your QTing the fish before entering your main systems + keeping water changes in check id be going with a central sump also its much more simple and doing water changes can be a breeze, I used to have tanks running solo and my W/C was taking me a whole day done properly at first it sounds fine but after a few months + working mon - fri it does become more of a second job, a semi fun job but still I prefer to sit back and watch the fish more.

Not sure what your plans are for the actual room but I would focus on the room setup before the tanks when the time comes, I.e insulation / heating methods / floor drains / mains for water etc you dont want to have everything setup then have to be working around it all, talking from experience here, not fun trying to insulate a roof with tanks everywhere.

Your sump sounds good, haven't tried one like it but seems to be the way to go these days for most, I would want a much larger tank though... 6x2x2 minimal personally
Click to expand...

This is along the lines I am thinking. WHen I start setting this up without question all new fish will go to qt tank.
When we purchase again and I set an offical room it will be set up correctly from the get go. ALso a good friend of mine is contractor and will help me with this aspect.

DB junkie said:
Leak risk? Isn't it just as risky as having lots of tanks full of water? Isn't a tank just as likely to leak as pluming is? A properly designed central sump should be engineered to handle power cuts as we all know they happen sooner or later....

How do you go about air driven filtering tanks with hungry monsters? I'm assuming air is choice for people who raise water bugs (Cichlids) but is this means really capable of handling monster feedings???

WAIT. There's been nothing mentioned as far as stock.... Maybe monster filtration isn't needed?

What are you keeping Charney?
Click to expand...

good question about stock. I do plan on keeping a lot of larger fish and fish that produce large bioloads. I have a group of L14s, building a group of L47s, and a group of chubbies and L200s. I also plan on doing a group of L25s. I have odeo pikes, atf, and cichlids. ALso have a small group of panda uarus I plan on growing. OH almost forgot my leichardti aro, clouded archers and cuda amoung others. I will do rays eventually but that won't be too soon. Right now my tanks are heavily stocked because I am limited on space. Once I upgrade the stocking densities per tank will be much less.

I also do worry about the effectiveness of a UV on large setup. I know they have them for ponds but don't know how good they are. There are some other tehcniques they use in aquaculture that I want to explore as well.

Lastly I agree DB I like the idea of an easy way to set up quick and simple large water changes. That being said eventually I do want to incoorporate a drip to supplement

I am definitely leaning towards the centralized sump. I think it will be easier in many aspects. Many of plecos are breeding projects. One of my worries is that on such a large system I won't be able to manipulate the water to try to triger spawning. i wonder if it would be best to keep some of the tanks on their own with Acs and canisters for that reason.

shookONES said:
Central sump and a big UV. Don't overthink it Mike. It'd be a travesty not to plumb everything together and take advantage of a larger water volume.
Click to expand...
definitely agree!

shookONES said:
And if you've got the means, 24 hour drip. You'll never have to do water changes so you can keep the front glass clean haha!
Click to expand...
lol that means I would have to buy some windex!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom