Tank renovation help.

[meBNme]

I set this 150 up about 3 months ago. It was my first tank. (well unless you count a 30g I had when I was a kid, up till about 14)

I didnt know what I was doing.

I now want top do a complete renovation.
the current substrate is a very light colored, med to large river rock. (some golf ball sized and larger) I want to change out 90% of it to small deep brown natural gravel

I will be designing a pumping system to go around the perimeter of the tank to force up-flow all along the edges of the substrate against the glass, to prevent crud, food, etc from getting trapped against the glass beyond the reach of the UGF plates.
(Basically two power heads pumping water into twp PVC pipes with increasing sized holes drilled every couple inches)

I will reroute the tubes from the UGF plates to converge on the corners where they can easily be hidden.
I will build a 3d background out of polystyrene foam to cover all pipes tubes etc.

I have already added one bag of the new gravel in attempts to get a head start on or (or preferably not lose) the biofilter once the renovations are done.

Friday, I am picking up a 55g tank setup for a feeder guppy tank, I'm thinking of temporarily using this to house the fish currently in my 150 during the renovations.

SO, I need help here.

How can I do this without destroying the biofilter and having to start all over again?
Will my idea on the 55 as a temp home work?
If I remove 80 of the water to do all this, and the fish end up staying in the temp tank for about a week, what are my chances of success with no fish loss?

I don't mind using a few feeder guppies as guinea pigs for testing for fish safe conditions.

Here my current set up.

150 gal tall, "show tank".
Freshwater. Started up on 7-14-11.
Undergravel filter. 2 plates 2' x 2' with 4 marineland powerheads. 3 are 600s and one is a 1200.
Over the side filter (55g)

Lighting:
48" dual bulb with blue LED nightlights. One ?aktenic? Bulb, one white.

PH7.0
80* F


Fish are as follows:
1 sturgeon 5"
1 marbeled needlenose gar 6"
1 polypterus senegalus 5.5"
1 polypterus endilicheri. 5"
2 leopard ctenapoma 3"
2 silver dollars 3.5"
2 tank bred angelfish 3.5 & 4"
1 clown knife 6"
2 rainbow sharks 3"
1 pictus cat 3.5"
1 Jaguar hybrid syntadonis 4.4"
2 giant danios (until I can catch em)
1 electric yellow lab 2"
3 other 2" ciclids, can't remember names.

 

[meBNme]

Bump

no help?

 

[Oughtsix]

I would recommend setting up the two tanks right next to each other with the top rim of the tanks as close to level as you can get them.

I would use a decent flowing canister filter with the supply tube in one tank and the return tube in the other tank. I would then add a decent diameter siphon tube between the two tanks to level the water between them. Your two tanks are now a single echo system and share their water. After running in this configuration for a week I would transfer fish back and forth between the two tanks without hesitation.

Uhhh... under gavel filter in a 150g? I guess there is nothing wrong with this but are definitely a bit out of vogue (for what ever that is worth?)!

Personally I prefer a wet/dry trickle sump over a canister filter and a canister filter over an under gravel filter. With the stocking level you currently have in your 150 I would definitely recommend considering a sump... sand substrate... and vacuuming the junk off the sand weekly.

 

[floridagar]

+1 on the sump idea

I actually have a 55g tank that i would like to make into a sump...

Only thing i have a problem is what size pump ill need for the return and what size tubing am i going to need for the inflow to the sump and back up to the tank??

if anyone could chime in and help im sure this might help the both of us.

 

[Oughtsix]

The most important principal of selecting a pump and tubing size is the overflow needs to handle a greater flow out of your tank into your sump than your pump supplies back into your tank.


http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?47105-How-to-size-a-pump-to-your-tank

I have a Quiet One 4000 pump with 1" non-kink pond tubing return. I have a 1" pvc durso overflow pipe which feeds a 1.25" corrugated swimming pool tubing that supplies my sump.

When I build my new 29g sump I will drill my tank for a 1.25" bulkhead and buy a larger pump. The Quiet One 4000 I currently have is just under the maximum flow my Durso overflow pipe provides.

 

[meBNme]

Thanks man, That is very helpfull.

Why are the wet dry better than canister and canister better than UGF?

I was thinking of keeping the UGF and replacing the current over the side filter with a canister.

 

[floridagar]

The most important principal of selecting a pump and tubing size is the overflow needs to handle a greater flow out of your tank into your sump than your pump supplies back into your tank.


http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?47105-How-to-size-a-pump-to-your-tank

I have a Quiet One 4000 pump with 1" non-kink pond tubing return. I have a 1" pvc durso overflow pipe which feeds a 1.25" corrugated swimming pool tubing that supplies my sump.

When I build my new 29g sump I will drill my tank for a 1.25" bulkhead and buy a larger pump. The Quiet One 4000 I currently have is just under the maximum flow my Durso overflow pipe provides.

So what your saying is the return piping is smaller than the inflow?? So i could run a 1.25" overflow from my tank to my sump then 1" tubing for my return back into the tank??

Otherwise i wouldnt know what submersible pump i could use for the return...

 

[Oughtsix]

So what your saying is the return piping is smaller than the inflow?? So i could run a 1.25" overflow from my tank to my sump then 1" tubing for my return back into the tank??

Otherwise i wouldnt know what submersible pump i could use for the return...

NOPE!!!! NOT WHAT IS WAS SAYINGL!!!!

I could have a 6" diameter durso pipe with a half in drop and it wouldn't keep up with my quiet one 4000 constricted through a .5 inch return pipe. It is not a matter of having a bigger overflow pipe than a return pipe it is a matter of having a bigger overflow capacity than a return capacity.

A Durso pipe is a siphon based overflow. The pipe diameter vs the drop determines its maximum flow. I could lower the external crossover portion of my Durso and increase its flow capacity. The tank water level to the external crossover determines the drop of a Durso. With a drilled tank the drop is much easier to figure and usually results in a greater possible flow than a siphon based overflow.

In my setup a Quiet One 4000's return capacity is less than but close to the supply capacity of my 1 inch Durso pipe (which has about a 8" drop). If I changed to 2 inch return tube coming from the quiet one the return capacity would be nearly identical. If I had a .25 inch return tube it would severely restrict the flow of the Quiet one 4000. The Quiet One 4000's outlet if 1". I think I could go down to .75 inch tubing and only loose a little flow.

Does this make better sense? I just took a blind stab in the dark when I built my system and the return flow was greater than the supply flow (Causing my tank to overflow). With some experimenting I figured out I could increase the flow of my Durso pipe by lowering the external crossover pipe... creating a larger drop to the siphon... which made the hole thing work properly. My Durso originally had about a 2" drop. A 6" drop was about equal in flow to my pump. The 8" drop gives me a buffer of a greater overflow capacity but not so much so that I get a lot of gurgling sounds from my Durso.