I was thinking this idea too (29g tank), but if you have the length and aren't afraid of drilling some glass, you could get two 29's and use some bulkheads to join the two tanks together to make sure you have plenty of room for media and whatever else you want in there. This was part of my reasoning for building the stand for my 125g 24" deep so I can fit in my sump which is a 55g. Plus if I ever wanted a larger tank, I could step up to a 180g or 210g tank without a stand rebuild.
Sump help - what pump to buy? Jebao? Waveline?
- Thread starter Lusus_Naturae
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I was thinking this idea too (29g tank), but if you have the length and aren't afraid of drilling some glass, you could get two 29's and use some bulkheads to join the two tanks together to make sure you have plenty of room for media and whatever else you want in there. This was part of my reasoning for building the stand for my 125g 24" deep so I can fit in my sump which is a 55g. Plus if I ever wanted a larger tank, I could step up to a 180g or 210g tank without a stand rebuild.
I was referring the version 2.
The pump has arrived, but I'm wrapped up in work through Saturday at noon, and I don't know if I will have the energy to do aquarium work after that.
noside - My concern about the 29 is the height. The stand doesn't have enough weight with how they built it to get under it for easy maintenance - right now at least, meaning..
It looks like I'm probably going to tear down the system and rebuild the stand for more room inside and maybe a little more height too. We'll se what happens there in the end, a lot depends on my mood that day.
A lot of this has been loosely planned, then replanned, and again.. I'm sure we all go through this right?
If I rebuild it right I could put a 55 gallon sump underneath... worth it? I have until the 24th, Petco has the $1 gallon sale going.
Finally got to open the box, it's old version pump with 6 settings and the 10 minute feed cycle. I'm not sure if it matters much for my application though, I was plenty happy with those options to begin with - I'm only concerned about the overheated controller issues I've read about since the newer version is supposedly better. Should I be worried?
I've got some older style some newer style. I've had no problems but I also follow a specific setup which is instructed to do so in the instructions.
Make sure you connect up everything and then plug the power supply into your house power outlet.
55 gal sump is what I use if you can fit it, but those are even taller than the 29.
Make sure you connect up everything and then plug the power supply into your house power outlet.
55 gal sump is what I use if you can fit it, but those are even taller than the 29.
Well, the project of the week is rebuilding the stand and getting the sump finalized. It's going to be a bear tearing down the tank to get to the stand and then tearing the stand down just to tweak and rebuild it, and then setting it all back up. I'm toying with the idea of building a new stand completely just to save myself some headaches, I just didn't want to spend more money on the new wood.
I can fit a 55 in the stand right now, and that's tempting too. The height would only give me about 3 inches though at the top , so I'd almost need to have a 90* pipe to clear it (I think).
noside - I'll take a look at the manual again before I plug it in, we're a bit OCD already. Glad to hear you're happy with yours though and they are doing good.
I can fit a 55 in the stand right now, and that's tempting too. The height would only give me about 3 inches though at the top , so I'd almost need to have a 90* pipe to clear it (I think).
noside - I'll take a look at the manual again before I plug it in, we're a bit OCD already. Glad to hear you're happy with yours though and they are doing good.
I would not want to plumb a sump in 3 inches of clearance. Or work in the sump, removing filter socks, cleaning it out. How would you get submersible pumps into the sump--they MUST be more than 3 inches wide?
My brother-in-law has 12000 first gen, and he's had no issues for the last two years (knock on wood). If you got it for a great price and/or it's also a big hassle to exchange, then I wouldn't worry. I'm kind of picky about that stuff so would personally exchange.
If you have the option, I would consider a new stand to allow you more room. I'm assuming you are also using PVC for plumbing and that's going to be a nearly impossible fit. You may be better off biting the bullet this time so you don't end up redoing again in the future too. Good luck.
I don't mind the 1st gen pump right now.. we'll see how I like it when I hook everything up. As long as it does the job and lasts a long time I'll be happy.
Yeah, I have been thinking of rebuilding the stand already. I'm plumbing the overflow to the sump in PVC, the pump to the tank I'm thinking about doing in flexible reinforced hose - it'll curve but not have horrible angles that way.
This project was supposed to be an easy solution to my filter woes with the canisters. Don't get me wrong, I love the canisters, my back and shoulder hate them though. I have to build this with long term thoughts in mind too, not sure if my back and shoulder will ever get better but almost guaranteed they will get worse over time.
The only other issue is, every time I find one little thing to do with the rebuild, my wife finds something to change too, I will definitely post some before and after photos once we complete this project.
We are currently constructing the overflow box right now and I drew up the plans for a new stand today as well, but I have to do some final measuring to make sure it's what I really want for inside space.
It also looks like we may keep one canister on the tank just for polishing the water, Not sure yet, that's something that was brought up to me today and not sure where we're going with it yet - however she loved the photos in another thread showing the pots and pans pull out drawer and wants to incorporate one of those in the stand so I can easily access the canister. I'd still have to reach under and unhook the top though, which also a pita currently but maybe I can build the new stand to make it work..
Yeah, I have been thinking of rebuilding the stand already. I'm plumbing the overflow to the sump in PVC, the pump to the tank I'm thinking about doing in flexible reinforced hose - it'll curve but not have horrible angles that way.
This project was supposed to be an easy solution to my filter woes with the canisters. Don't get me wrong, I love the canisters, my back and shoulder hate them though. I have to build this with long term thoughts in mind too, not sure if my back and shoulder will ever get better but almost guaranteed they will get worse over time.
The only other issue is, every time I find one little thing to do with the rebuild, my wife finds something to change too, I will definitely post some before and after photos once we complete this project.
We are currently constructing the overflow box right now and I drew up the plans for a new stand today as well, but I have to do some final measuring to make sure it's what I really want for inside space.
It also looks like we may keep one canister on the tank just for polishing the water, Not sure yet, that's something that was brought up to me today and not sure where we're going with it yet - however she loved the photos in another thread showing the pots and pans pull out drawer and wants to incorporate one of those in the stand so I can easily access the canister. I'd still have to reach under and unhook the top though, which also a pita currently but maybe I can build the new stand to make it work..
Your going to have lots of flow with the sump setup, Ditch the canister all together, you wont need it at all and it will just take up room and add more to work on which is not needed, Keep it simple, A sump only needs to have 3 thing,
1. A place for the water to enter the sump and get cleaned for Mechanical purposes
Means to accomplish filtration step one-
-Filter socks (These will polish your water down to 1 micron if you so want, but the human eye cants see that small and they will clog super fast) If you want really clear water try 100 micron socks
-Sponge (These will polish your water as they make fine and less fine stuff you can use)
: Whatever you like but those are the main types used that I see, I really like socks myself
2. A place for the water to go through Bio media to take care of the Biological filtration requirements
Means to accomplish filtration step Two-
- Bio Balls
-Pond Matrix
-Scrubby pads
-Bio reactor/ fluidized bed with bio media that tumbles and cleans its self (No maintenance if done correctly)
-Lava Rock
:And many more ways of doing Bio filtration
3. A place for you water to pass over the heater and go into the return pump
-Make sure whatever media you chose it can not get into your pump and break it. (pump came with a screen use it or build one out of PVC)
= You do not need dividers but can have them if you want, Keep is simple and make it easy to work on. With my sump I clean my socks and that is all I do, Once to twice a week and done, Feed and enjoy the fish.
Other Tips, Take your stand Tall, Yep make it easy for you to maintain your system, if its easy you will do it better and keep up on it, if its hard to do and a pain you wont want to do it. All of my stands are taller to make it easy to work on them,
Sit in a chair or stand and use something to measure where you think is a good level for the bottom and top of the tank, this way you can image it at that level where you are siting, think of sand in the tank as well that might block view, then see about how high you can go to still fit where you want it, make it as tall as possible so its easy to work on but just right for your viewing pleasure.
Hard Plumb everything, will make it clean and nice and great flow, use PVC Primer, use Unions as well so if you need to work on something you can, add a valve if you want to be able to turn flow off or make it so you can have a line going out for a water change or what, think ahead of how you really want to have it long term to make is super easy to work on,
I hope this helps you a little, KEVIN
PS, All my pumps are first Gens, All work great and not a problem at all
1. A place for the water to enter the sump and get cleaned for Mechanical purposes
Means to accomplish filtration step one-
-Filter socks (These will polish your water down to 1 micron if you so want, but the human eye cants see that small and they will clog super fast) If you want really clear water try 100 micron socks
-Sponge (These will polish your water as they make fine and less fine stuff you can use)
: Whatever you like but those are the main types used that I see, I really like socks myself
2. A place for the water to go through Bio media to take care of the Biological filtration requirements
Means to accomplish filtration step Two-
- Bio Balls
-Pond Matrix
-Scrubby pads
-Bio reactor/ fluidized bed with bio media that tumbles and cleans its self (No maintenance if done correctly)
-Lava Rock
:And many more ways of doing Bio filtration
3. A place for you water to pass over the heater and go into the return pump
-Make sure whatever media you chose it can not get into your pump and break it. (pump came with a screen use it or build one out of PVC)
= You do not need dividers but can have them if you want, Keep is simple and make it easy to work on. With my sump I clean my socks and that is all I do, Once to twice a week and done, Feed and enjoy the fish.
Other Tips, Take your stand Tall, Yep make it easy for you to maintain your system, if its easy you will do it better and keep up on it, if its hard to do and a pain you wont want to do it. All of my stands are taller to make it easy to work on them,
Sit in a chair or stand and use something to measure where you think is a good level for the bottom and top of the tank, this way you can image it at that level where you are siting, think of sand in the tank as well that might block view, then see about how high you can go to still fit where you want it, make it as tall as possible so its easy to work on but just right for your viewing pleasure.
Hard Plumb everything, will make it clean and nice and great flow, use PVC Primer, use Unions as well so if you need to work on something you can, add a valve if you want to be able to turn flow off or make it so you can have a line going out for a water change or what, think ahead of how you really want to have it long term to make is super easy to work on,
I hope this helps you a little, KEVIN
PS, All my pumps are first Gens, All work great and not a problem at all
