Woody sump

[Henrikorg1]

Hi im building a wooden sump in my basement for my 850 gallon fishtank,the sump is going to be around 350 gallon.
Lot off issues and things to be thought about,electricity here in denmark is expensive so i going to use danish fjernvarme thats hot water connected to our houses from an local powerplant wich only costs around 1/3 of eletric heating,but how to control it a get a stable temperature?
I have contacted a guy who work with this and i have found out the solution is a shunt 2 circuit waterheating system used for floors.more will come when i get the rest off it done,sofar its only half way done.
The filter is build from wood with plywood walls and i have gotten some special epoxy for food industry thats non toxic to humans so i gues that also good enough for my filter so it will get several full coatings off it,i bought almost 4 gallon and im just going to use it all and hope the filter will last longer.
Sofar i have made it a 3 chamber sytem but now im thinking about changing it to a 4 chamber system ?
The extra chamber would be for a wet dry part for extra filtration but im not sure whats the best solution is becourse i have an koi flow 60 air pump with 6 big airstones that will be added to the sump giving about 900 gallons off air pr hour in the bioball department.
First a pic off the tank it should power and after pic off how far im am now.
View attachment 776653

Please chip in with any ideas and tips you may have,im kind oof new to tthis and my first temporary sump for the tank little 65 gallon one 2 off the walls have broken so i ned to get something done.

 

[aldiaz33]

Hi Henrik- Looking good! I'm curious to see how your water floor heater works on the aquarium. Please post pictures when it is up and running. Do you have any photos of the electric heaters you are currently using?

I found this natural gas pond heater a few months ago: http://www.houseneeds.com/shop/heatingproducts/boilers/pondheatingpackagebuy.asp
The initial cost to purchase and install would be high, but it would save me quite a bit of money in the winter time (natural gas is much cheaper here than electricity). It would however take around 8 to 10 years to get a return on the investment, but I'm not so sure I will have the tank that long, so I'm just using the electric heaters for now.

Awesome setup! I was considering doing a community of oscars, but was worried about aggression issues and having them breed like crazy. Have you experienced any of these issues in keeping them?

 

[Henrikorg1]

My oscars do have there litle fights now and then but nothing serious,they all chase eachother and i have noone single thats being picked on all the time,they are all the same age but some are danish breed and 4 are f1 first time breeders off wildcaught.
My oscars is only about 1,5 years old so little early for breeding i think,they have tryid to i think but i removed almost all rocks from the tank so they have no place for their eggs,they have been cleaning the roots/driftwood for a while but sofar nothing have happened.

Pics will come when the heating system is finnished but right now it down on my to do list, to get the filter itself up and running is he most important thing.

Youre link lookes interresting but i dont like the use off all that coppertubing,it lookes like it get into contact with the water ?
Copper is bad or better poisenes from what i have learned and there is a reason for copper being in lots off fish medication and snail shellfish probably dies from it,but when it comes to fish i think they only get (sterile) not to be able to get fish babies when to high copper amounts are in the water constantly.

What i having made is similar to this ecxept for i will be using a remote digital temp feeler that will be added directly into the sump
http://www.billigvvs.dk/images/Prod...tronisk-regulering,-m-Alpha+-16-60-375960.jpg
Biggest difference from this and the one im having made is mine will mostly be done in stainless steel,but couple off parts neds to be brass.

 

[aldiaz33]

A few years ago I bought two baby (2") oscars and they were best of pals until they reached about 8". I believe they were both male and the larger one would relentlessly pick on the smaller one to the point where I had to get rid of one. Perhaps keeping a group of them would disperse aggression...they were the only two cichlids in the tank; I had some Silver Dollars, Bala Sharks and Clown loaches with them. In any case, glad to hear that you are able to pull it off with your group of O's. They are probably my favorite fish...so much personality.

In regards to the link I posted, the aquarium water never comes into contact with any of the copper pipe. The aquarium water passes through the stainless steel heat exchanger (in the lower portion of the photo) which also has heated water passing through it, although the hot water line is a closed system, so there is never any mixing of the hot water heater fluid and the aquarium water.

Looking forward to seeing your heating system...sounds interesting.

I'm a little confused by the link you provided. Is this powered by natural gas? What is the white unit towards to the top of the photo?

 

[Henrikorg1]

In denmark when have hot water lines laid in our houses from a central powerstation called fjernvarme,its also a closed system where the heated water heats up (regular) water for use through a heat exchanger and then we pay for how many kw off heat we draw out off the heated water,its not by choice they simply force everyone living in city`s to pay for the hook up to that system wich is little expensive but the cool thing is from the heating only costs little above 1/3 off electric heating.
I have talked to the power company that delivers it and they never heard off anyone else doing somthing like it but they where all ok with it,and again there isnt many big fishtank in denmark i think im the top 3 or 4 list as the biggest private owned one`s and none off the others have thought off anything like it so they follow what i do pretty close ;-)
Im single uneducated fool that doesnt make that much money and what i got i spend on my fish motorcycles car and radiocontrolled toys so i dont use my dishwasher i sit here in the dark ecxept for the light from the screen and from the fishtank to save a little on my around 500 $ electric bill a month,the tank alone uses around 400 $ and by reducing that cost i can buy 2000 feederfish a month instead off the 1500 im buying now,thats how my cavemann brain works ,-)

 

[Henrikorg1]

The white thing on the top is an electric digital thernostat assister to give even more precise temps,it also a reciever for the remote control for temp adjustment,i also have remote control for the lights and pumps in the fishtank,i like to get a little geeky with the things i do ;-)

 

[aldiaz33]

The concept of the fjernvarme is very interesting, but I don't get how the hot water stays hot. Wouldn't the long runs of supply lines buried underground essentially cool the water as soon as it leaves the plant where it's heated? I would imagine that by the time it reaches your home, the hot water has been cooled down quite a bit. My apologies if I am not understanding the concept. I tried doing some research online, but most of the information is in Danish

 

[Henrikorg1]

Sry but most danish people speak danish ;-)
The underground pipelines is insulated pretty well and i can se on my diplay at home when the water enters my home its betwen 84-92 degress celcius or 183.2-197.6 degress fahrenheit,the concept is ok but the problem is like many things else in denmark its not free to choose your kind off heating,the last idea the goverment had was open fireplaces in peoples home are poluting to much so now they are working on banning them also,probably just an excuse for they cant get enough taxes from people having some tree`s on their land cutting them down and save money on that kind off heating.
Last year they raised almost all taxes here and most eye catching is our car/motorcycle taxes wich its made from couple off combined taxes so all in all we have to pay around 225 % in taxes off little economic cars/bikes and way more for all the fun cars and bikes,madness rules in our goverment
Ill post more pics in the weekend off the progress i hopefully get done,am at work now and have no new pics here to upload.
Have a nice weekend.

 

[Oughtsix]

Central heating plants (usually steam) are somewhat common in the United States in big cities. Most people aren't aware of them because they are usually used in larger buildings in densely packed down town areas not private residences.

If they charge you by the BTU it would seem like they would have to measure the incoming water temperature, the exit water temperature and the volume of water... Interesting!

I think a hot water aquarium heater makes perfect sense. A valve, a coil of tubing and a temperature controller should be all that is needed.

Most aquarium heat is lost via evaporation. If you can reduce the evaporation of your tank and sump with covers you will greatly reduce the heat needed.

 

[Henrikorg1]

Oughtsix
Nice i was just starting to think that danish people where special and not in a positive way ;-)

New pics will come soon i dont want to go to the basement right now i have just finnished the six layer off epoxy coating and it smells pretty bad and probably also unhealthy,se if i can remimber to bring cam before the seven layer tomorrow