What Size Wet Dry?

[soulFish]

I'm looking at getting a used 220 Gallon Glass tank (All Glass Brand) that has two over flows in it. Currently I'm running canisters and HOBs on my two 100Gals. But what size would the wet dry need to be for this 220Gallon tank?

I do have a acrylic 30 Gallon tank thats empty. Would that be big enough? This tank would primarily be used for Datnoids, and a few other similar type fish.

Also we're still talking price on the tank He knows that I'm not going to pay over $500. And I have not seen it yet, but he says it's 6 months old and has no scratches on it. What would be a going price for this tank in your opinion?

 

[niqolas619]

I don't know what a good price for that tank would be, but I've seen many people say that a good rule of thumb for w/d size is 1/3 of tank size. I don't know how necessary a 75gal for your purposes would be, but I would say that a 30 would be too small. I would go with at least 55 - I don't know the situation in SF, but there's always 55's on craigslist here in Chicago for about $50, or so.

 

[prophets]

Whats the dimensions of your 30g acrylic?

Precision Marine makes a W/D that can handle 200-400g tanks, and the dimensions of the W/D are 36x18x20. If your 30g is about same size as this W/D you should have no problems. The only thing is crucial is how much of a biomedia capacity you will have. In other words, how well you design your own W/D.

If its the same dimensions as the Precision Marine W/D...make the bio media area 20Lx18Wx14H and that should give you 21g of bio media capacity.

I am currently using a 20G Long as a WD for my 125, but will be upgrading to my old 55g converted to a DIY WD to handle the 125 and my new 240G Long tank.

Unless you can pick up a cheap 55g tank to use ...I'd say the 30 should be able to handle your filtration needs providing its designed with enough capacity for biomedia.

Good luck.

 

[rallysman]

30 would be bare minimum, but it's possible. You just have to make sure the sump can handle the extra water if power fails. I have a 55 on a 300 and it works flawlessly with room to spare.

 

[David R]

30 would be bare minimum, but it's possible. You just have to make sure the sump can handle the extra water if power fails.

Just work how deep the 'skim' will be [ie the amount of water that will be above the overflow that will end up in the sump when you turn off the power], and work out how deep you'll need to have the water in the sump for the pump to pick it up, then see how much space you have. Bigger is better IMO, if you can sell the 30g and pick up a bigger tank cheap then go for it.

 

[rallysman]

IME, bigger is not always better. Sometimes, bigger is simply a waste of space.

 

[prophets]

Yes and no. Extra space if utilized is not wasted. I mean in the sense that with the extra space in the sump, you can put your heater in there, chemical filtration (Chemipure, etc..), bags of CC to help buffer Ph, or some other type of bio media..ceramic cylinders...lava rock..etc.

You gotta admit its nice to have that extra space for additional wares.

Maybe add some plants in that extra space if you have fishes that love to dig and destroy plants like cichlids etc...(mini refugium).

 

[David R]

Well obviously within reason, I suggested a 55g sump for a 220g tank, not the other way round...

If the sump is going to take up all the room under the tank then its probably a bit overkill, but I think a 55g should still leave plenty of room under the tank for other stuff.