Sump and Plumbing for my 535. Need help

[mrrobxc]

Any rubber strip around the house will help. It's just to provide friction and increase grip. I bought a 2" rubber coupler from Home Depot and cut a strip from that.



The intakes that point down are for the Ultima 2000 pair. That being closed loop, cannot back siphon. Technically it is in a constant state of back siphon. The two lines that overflow into the sump are at the top, gravity fed.

Got it. Thanks. I’ll go find some rubber when I get to Home Depot this weekend. Thanks for the tips.

Makes sense on the closed loop. I’m wondering how I can get something lower in the water column to reduce the accumulation of detritus and crap. Are there any best practices out there to have filtration near the bottom of the tank?

 

[mrrobxc]

Yes, the ready holders should fit perfectly on that rimmed glass tanks. You could line them across the end (not sure how wide your sump tank is from the picture). Use can use a PVC T and 45*/90* turns to split the drains amongst the 4-6 socks you are looking to do.

Awesome. Thanks for the help!

 

[mrrobxc]

After spending some time thinking about the filtration. I can’t stomach the idea of having to change filter socks or floss all the time.

I think I’m going to go with Poret Foam blocks and seachem matrix. I’m still unsure of the design and I haven’t seen a lot of links on google showing me a Poret Foam sump setup for very large tanks. If any of you have any tips or ideas I’d appreciate them greatly.

Also curious to know what the water clarity is like when using two sheets of 10 PPI followed by three sheets of 20PPI. It’s important for me to have crystal clear water since the scape and design is as important as the fish themselves. For me at least.

Lastly, I think I’ll go ahead and add a closed loop system using an Ultima II filter. I want something I can use to place an intake toward the bottom to clear up detritus. I also want the filter to be able to backflush into a hose leading out to my garden. The distance, however, will be about 150’. I wonder if the backflush from the pump is powerful enough to push water out that distance. Any suggestions or experience here is welcome.

Thanks again everyone for all the help this far. This will be a several month process so I’m sure I’ll be asking a ton more questions here. Thanks!

 

[nzafi]

Reach out to Steffan at Swisstropicals as he will be able to give you the best information of using poret to maximize mechanical filtration.

JK47 is using a ultima and sump combo as you know with the intakes low. I believe with his setup the ultima does most of the mechanical filtration and reduces the frequency of cleaning filter socks.

For my planned setup, I am using HMF for backup bio and hiding equipment, but plan on using the ultima for bio and primary mechanical.

What substrate are you planning on using? The substrate can impact how long you place you ultima in takes. I have fluorite in my 180g which I like the reddish color it provides, but unfortunately too much gunk gets stuck in it and I think I will be forced to go bare bottom on my big tank build.

 

[Woefulrelic]

If your bio load is as big as I imagine I don't think you'd have to change the socks much unless you have a lot of bio like plants and stuff getting in them. I haven't found a way to remove floss and poret without adding half its contents back to the tank. I would consult Justin about how much water you will need to backflush your Ultima under these pretenses. I'd imagine the more mech entering the more you need to flush it as well. pacu mom has or is planning to add a prefilter to her Ultima, though it seems somewhat redundant with the sump. I guess in a closed loop there isn't much reason not to add a sump? Extra water volume for not much extra head it sounds. Just make sure the water bill won't kill you, I'd hate to hear you drop big daddy bux and then have to set up some rain barrels to use it properly.

 

[jaws7777]

I think poret foam is a great product but changing socks weekly or bi-weekly still seems allot easier and squeezing foam pads monthly. Just buy enough socks so that your continually swapping them and washing the hold maybe once or twice a month. Im going with 20ish socks in a rotation.

 

[pacu mom]

Got it. Thanks. I’ll go find some rubber when I get to Home Depot this weekend. Thanks for the tips.

Makes sense on the closed loop. I’m wondering how I can get something lower in the water column to reduce the accumulation of detritus and crap. Are there any best practices out there to have filtration near the bottom of the tank?

Are you going bare floor? If so, extend your uptakes to just off the floor. In the 12 years our 300 gallon tank has been running, there has been no debris to vacuum. And if you get an Ultima, you don't want a high uptake for it, since it will require quite a lot of water to purge it, so a high uptake won't work. I love vertical pipes extending to just off the floor. I call them "poop suckers". Nine of these are my uptake and return pipes for the mechanical filtration for the big tank. I did make a big mistake. One of my Ultimas will be using two of these pipes. I had planned on a high uptake, but when purging, that won't work. I have to make another poop sucker pipe for the Ultima.

Because I have a mental problem about drilling the backs and sides of my tanks, (my fish have managed to break three bulkheads on the top of the tank) I plan on extending a vertical pipe to the bottom of my sump to draw water and return it to the main tank via another Ultima. Since I feed sinking food exclusively, I don't anticipate much debris getting into the sump and hope that my plans for using a couple of 5 gallon filter socks works.

Bulk Reef Supply now carries black PVC.

 

[nzafi]

You can run pentair RTL-25 (https://pstpoolsupplies.com/cartridge-filter-pentair-rainbow-rtl-25-top-load-1-1-2fpt/) pre-filters ahead of the ultima or on their own plumbing. pacu mom runs these on their own line using a reeflo barracuda. I considered these as I wanted clear water. I went away from it as I read too many scenarios of it being a pain to change the cartridges, get lazy and dont change them, or the fact that over time it is probably the same cose or less to just run an ultima instead of these.

 

[pacu mom]

Yep, I love RTLs. Nu-Clear filters make a mechanical filter that works pretty much the same way. they are more expensive and have less square feet of filter material.

 

[mrrobxc]

Thank you everyone.

I will be using a PFS and gravel mixture for my substrate. About an inch and a half deep substrate bed. I plan on running the intake down to a few inches above the substrate.

I wasn’t planning on a prefilter unless you guys think I would need one. I do plan on running the 125 gallon sump in addition to the Ultima.

I’m wondering if the Ultima II 2000 is the right size. And what pump I should pair this with. I plan to still run two pumps in my sump unless I can run 1 pump for the ultima and as one of the sump pumps and then a second pump for the sump only. This may be a completely stupid question so forgive my ignorance.

As for backflushing...how frequent do you need to do it and how much water does it use when doing so?