Well, I finally got the go ahead from the wife to begin planning for my tank upgrade from a 180g to a 450-550g tank. There are two things I need to immediately figure out: 1) budget and 2) filtration approach (impacts budget. I am trying to do this build for under $7500 total and my approach is to go with an acrylic tank. What I need from MFK is help on filtration ideas so I can pull together anticipated budget.
There are 3 filtration approaches I was looking at and want input on:
1) Sump - Most logical
2) HMF - Cheapest
3) Closed loop via Ultima - most complex and expensive
Before I go into my thoughts on the 3 approaches, my stock is a single aimara wolf fish that I am growing out. I doubt he will have any tank mates. I doubt I will ever go with anything like rays ever. If I move to new fish it will probably be piranha again or something like dorado. I am not a big fan of overstocking and like to keep things very simple (no highly sensitive fish or crap ton of hard to school fish). Now on to my thoughts:
Sump
Safest choice but need to figure out the following:
- What size? I will be running an auto drip so the sump will be drilled for overflow and will be run close to full to make sure pumps never run dry when power goes out. I am guessing I will need to go with 90g or 120g.
- I do not want a massive sump with tons of complexity due to what I am keeping. Personally, the smaller the better with a focus on lots of room for easy cleaning. I could turn my 180g into a sump but I think that will be too complex considering my only other tank is a 40g breeder
- What mechanical? I am thinking filter floss over socks. I love the idea of just tossing floss every 1-2 weeks and not constantly re-washing socks. I just know I will never do it. When folks do floss how do they do it? I am guess it cannot be submerged like filter socks
- For bio, I am going to keep it simple. Re-user existing biomax media in 3 AC110s and existing 8x8x4 marine pure block. Was thinking of purchasing a second marine pure block and then some poret foam to build walls around that media. the poret will be 20ppi so that it acts as bio and not mechanical
Utlima/Biowave
I have kind of written these off my list unless someone can convince me otherwise for the following reasons:
- Any planned stock does not really justify the use of these
- Most expensive option for purchase and pump. Cost also prevents me from doing duplicate filtration as backup
- Don't have a 3in drain for backflushing of water. I just have access to a laundry room sink with standard drain
HMF
This is probably the most controversial and probably makes people think I am wacky for considering it. Here are my thoughts:
1) Simplest to setup, minimizes number of drains that reduces the risk of a leak, completely closed which makes it much easier to maintain heat
2) I would stuff low flow media such as marinepure behind the HMF corner filters for extra filtration, along with heaters and drain pipes behind the mattne filters
3) Probably the lowest cost. I can get high quality eheim pumps or add another air pump to run the matten.
4) Show be very low maintenance, but water clarity will obviously be lower than running a sump
5) I would do black poret so it blends with the black background and I was thinking of doing talls plants to help hide the matten filters and allow me to avoid doing gravel vacuuming.
6) Biggest drawback is that the corner filters will probably take up more than 60% extra space than overflow boxes. Probably go with a 12in radius which means the side walls of the tank will go from 4ft wide to 3ft wide.
I want to do this right so am open to feedback. One thing that is important is that this tank will be going in a corner flush against the wall which means unless I want to make a smaller tank, any drilling needs to be done to the bottom.
What are folks thoughts and suggestions?
There are 3 filtration approaches I was looking at and want input on:
1) Sump - Most logical
2) HMF - Cheapest
3) Closed loop via Ultima - most complex and expensive
Before I go into my thoughts on the 3 approaches, my stock is a single aimara wolf fish that I am growing out. I doubt he will have any tank mates. I doubt I will ever go with anything like rays ever. If I move to new fish it will probably be piranha again or something like dorado. I am not a big fan of overstocking and like to keep things very simple (no highly sensitive fish or crap ton of hard to school fish). Now on to my thoughts:
Sump
Safest choice but need to figure out the following:
- What size? I will be running an auto drip so the sump will be drilled for overflow and will be run close to full to make sure pumps never run dry when power goes out. I am guessing I will need to go with 90g or 120g.
- I do not want a massive sump with tons of complexity due to what I am keeping. Personally, the smaller the better with a focus on lots of room for easy cleaning. I could turn my 180g into a sump but I think that will be too complex considering my only other tank is a 40g breeder
- What mechanical? I am thinking filter floss over socks. I love the idea of just tossing floss every 1-2 weeks and not constantly re-washing socks. I just know I will never do it. When folks do floss how do they do it? I am guess it cannot be submerged like filter socks
- For bio, I am going to keep it simple. Re-user existing biomax media in 3 AC110s and existing 8x8x4 marine pure block. Was thinking of purchasing a second marine pure block and then some poret foam to build walls around that media. the poret will be 20ppi so that it acts as bio and not mechanical
Utlima/Biowave
I have kind of written these off my list unless someone can convince me otherwise for the following reasons:
- Any planned stock does not really justify the use of these
- Most expensive option for purchase and pump. Cost also prevents me from doing duplicate filtration as backup
- Don't have a 3in drain for backflushing of water. I just have access to a laundry room sink with standard drain
HMF
This is probably the most controversial and probably makes people think I am wacky for considering it. Here are my thoughts:
1) Simplest to setup, minimizes number of drains that reduces the risk of a leak, completely closed which makes it much easier to maintain heat
2) I would stuff low flow media such as marinepure behind the HMF corner filters for extra filtration, along with heaters and drain pipes behind the mattne filters
3) Probably the lowest cost. I can get high quality eheim pumps or add another air pump to run the matten.
4) Show be very low maintenance, but water clarity will obviously be lower than running a sump
5) I would do black poret so it blends with the black background and I was thinking of doing talls plants to help hide the matten filters and allow me to avoid doing gravel vacuuming.
6) Biggest drawback is that the corner filters will probably take up more than 60% extra space than overflow boxes. Probably go with a 12in radius which means the side walls of the tank will go from 4ft wide to 3ft wide.
I want to do this right so am open to feedback. One thing that is important is that this tank will be going in a corner flush against the wall which means unless I want to make a smaller tank, any drilling needs to be done to the bottom.
What are folks thoughts and suggestions?
