Filtration System Question

Hi,

As some of you know I am building a fish house, and will have a few racks of tanks, so rather than have filters in all the tanks I have been thinking about a central filtration system, using a pond filter.

I just dont know where to start with knowing if its going to be powerful enough etc.

I have thought about the system and attached is a diagram of how I think it will work, I will need to drill the tanks, which Ive watched a few youTube videos and seems straight forward and I dont think my tanks are tempered on the sides.

But how do I know if the filter will pump out enough pressure to do this? Im hoping to run three racks from the system.

Thanks

§tudz said:

Hi,

As some of you know I am building a fish house, and will have a few racks of tanks, so rather than have filters in all the tanks I have been thinking about a central filtration system, using a pond filter.

I just dont know where to start with knowing if its going to be powerful enough etc.

I have thought about the system and attached is a diagram of how I think it will work, I will need to drill the tanks, which Ive watched a few youTube videos and seems straight forward and I dont think my tanks are tempered on the sides.

But how do I know if the filter will pump out enough pressure to do this? Im hoping to run three racks from the system.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hello there,

At my last house, I had a fish house which held multiple tanks, which I ran on seperate filtration systems for some very good reasons. I am not trying to put you off a one-filter system, but here are some good reasons not to:

1, I kept many varieties of fish, most which required differing water chemistry.
2, If I had any infections or dosing issues - all tanks were unaffected by tanks with problems.
3. It is easier to drain off individual tanks, without affecting the filtration of others
4, If a filter breaks down, only ONE tank is affected, much less of a disaster.

Are you seeing a pattern here?
I am sure that you have thought of these issues, but it makes sense "not to put all your eggs in one basket" as it were.
There is a guy I know who did have his fish house running with one filter system: Brian Walsh ([email protected]) Brian is quite well known in fish circles, He is a very talented man: fish carvings, nano planted tanks, senior "A" class judge (FNAS) etc. Check out corydorasworld.com to see examples of at his carvings. If anyone can give you guidance, Brian is your man.

I don't think that Brian will mind if you contact him, he is always willing to help out with like minded folk. I know him from my time on the Aquatics socities & shows scens, which he is still active with. His fish carvings are sought after worldwide -I have had the pleasure of some gracing my trophy shelves for occassional periods

Thanks for the reply, I understand the problems of filters failing better than most I lost a probably around £1,000 worth of fish because I was away and a filtered failed on my 125gallon
It was devistating
I will be fitting each tank with their own taps both inlet and outlet so if I have fish that need specific param's I can accommodate them.

Im thinking it would be better to spend £150 on an pond external to filter them all, rather than £100 per tank for their own externals. I think it will also be kinder on the wallet for the electricity as I wont be running a lot of filters either, I could possibly even heat the water at one source as well as heating the room, again saving some £££s

And yeah infections will be a amazive issue, but I will be running seperate quarantine tanks too.

With regard to the taps, I want to be able to have enough pressure to push water to all the outlets but not too much that if I shut off a few of the taps the piping could burst.

But I suppose the tanks will over flow (down the outlet pipe) as fast the tank is filled, as long as it isnt too fast?

Might have to take a trip to a LFS and see if they'll show me how their filteration system works, would give me a better idea I suppose?

I have not heard of Brian, at least he doesnt jump to the front of my mind, but I sorta know Ian Fuller, via the net only really.

have you looked up doing a sump? or do you want a pond system? if you want a pond system then you will want a pressurized system with an inline pump on the return pipe before it breaks off into individual tanks. I would use an oase aquamax dry to pump the system. But as of pressurized systems i would go for some sort of fish mate filter these have a selector that lets you siphon water off and will clean the sponges. But honestly i would just go for a sump as these units are quite expensive and you could easily build it a lot cheaper. But if you want any more advice i can help as i work at world of water and during the summer all i do is advice people on pond systems.

Thanks, I havent thought about a sump, as Ive never run one, would this run on the same setup plan as described?

Also Ive been to world of water I think, Im sure thats while bought my black shark as back them my biggest tank was only 33gallons
I wasnt too impressed saw a lot of dead fish and the tanks werent very well maintained, BUT that could have changed since my visit
The staff that were one didnt want to help any of the customers and there were loads there

anyway enough derailing of my own thread

Any advice on sumps would be great.

Thanks

EDIT:
after looking at your profile its not the same place as your from down south

i'm the world of water in kent and to be honest our trop shop isn't great but its being striped out in january for a brand new one. A sump isn't pressurized like the pond filter i suggested but your diagram for the filtration would be the same but its basically a fish tank with compartments in it specific for some type of media. Then in the final compartment you have a pump that just pumps the water back to the tanks. I haven't done one myself as i have never needed to but i know people who have. I would research on marine tanks and generally poeple who have large reefs use sumps but plenty of people on the fresh side also use them on larger fish tanks or on fish rooms like yourself. But you could make a pressured pond system work but i think it may just be a bit more work. Also which world of water did you go to?

Cheers, Ive been over to another forum and they had some people making sumps there, doesnt seem too hard, will have to cost it up.

Just need to know how I work out what pressure I need etc so I dont buy too little or too much

I think its on the wirral? not sure.

Looks like you may have got a result there James.

I like the idea of a seperate isolation/quarantine tank though, wise move.
You never said if all your tanks were going to be the same size (or I may of missed it) but is there going to be a problem with flow rate if some tanks are larger than the others? danger of an over fill with the smaller ones? Plus the pressure of flow to lower tanks will be greater than to the higher level tanks? Danger of unwanted syphoning to lower tanks being greater than system flow?
I really like the idea of visiting your LFS to see his system, good move
I had the good fortune to have access to the staff areas at the public aquarium Marineland, in Morecambe (sadly now demolished) and most of their larger systems were basically pond set-up using pond style sumps as header tanks, with pumps returning the water to said tank then allowing gravity to do the rest. Pretty simple, yet effective.

Anyhow, good luck with the project,

Im hoping to that the tank will all be 30gallon tanks, of the same dimensions.
I have two 30s atm and a few smaller tanks, these will be used for seperate fry holding tanks and breeding tanks for my dwarf species.

Id love to have an access all areas for blue planet aquairum, its only down the road from me.

Could you give me details on the pond setup they had?

I want to cover all bases before deciding as this is something that is gonna be a nightmare to change later on when I find it doesnt work lol


Cheers,

§tudz said:

Im hoping to that the tank will all be 30gallon tanks, of the same dimensions.
I have two 30s atm and a few smaller tanks, these will be used for seperate fry holding tanks and breeding tanks for my dwarf species.

Id love to have an access all areas for blue planet aquairum, its only down the road from me.

Could you give me details on the pond setup they had?

I want to cover all bases before deciding as this is something that is gonna be a nightmare to change later on when I find it doesnt work lol


Cheers,

Click to expand...

Hi James,
Glad your'e not too miffed with my continual questioning of your intended set-up.

The pond type set-up at marineland I was talking about was basically overhead sumps containing some form of trickle media (you could set-up various chambers with whatever media you prefer ) being pumped from the lowest point in the tank. The outlet in this case was just a spout allowing aeration as it entered. (I was amazed at how basic it was!) With your proposed system, you could incorporate spray bars or venturi type outlets to suit your needs. The good thing is - if you're not too bothered about asthetics, it would be cheaper to visit your local DIY store & use 15mm plastic plumbing for your system (or 22mm if you need a quicker turn over) with all available connections, valves etc. I see from your diagram, how you've drilled the tanks at a set height to prevent the upper tanks emptying themselves, that should work fine. If you have any mates who are in the plumbing trade, I would pick their minds - better still, set them a challenge to design the pipework for you.
I chickened out with my fish house, & used all my spare filters it did allow a certain flexibility though.

I do admire your project though, are you intending to centralise the heating source too?

Thanks for the details,

I dont think I know any plumbers but Im sure I know someone who does, so might be a challenge there for them.
So their method was basically a reversed sump then, instead of it being at the bottom and the overflow filling the sump and then pumps fill the tanks it was reversed?

havign the sump at the bottom would mean less drilling of tanks I suppose, Ive been looking at sumps and diy sumps, seems for 4 30x18x12" tanks I need something like a 50gallon sump? is that right?

Ive been onto some tank builder this morning to get quotes on tanks, as Im not paying £150 for a single tank, and Ive not seen any second hand ones anywhere, at least not the sizes I want, even in Aquarists-Classified.


As for heating, I am looking at heating the room, I have an oil filled heater which works great and can keeps it at a constant temp.

I will then have two desktop fans screwed to the ceiling to ensure good air cirulation to help fight dead spots. This the project
Although I may add a heater to the sump or what ever filtration system I go with. just as a back up, as it wont do any harm if the water is at temp as it wont be on, also would mean I could have the room slightly cooler, so I can accommodate other temp requirements if needed. But I do tend to keep my tanks around 26 any way.

Yep, the sumps were used as header tanks at marineland.

bit scary drilling the tanks - could the tank builder do this for you?
I would also check the net to see if there are any old shop systems for sale.

If this info helps: My fish-house was in my cellar (bad news at water change time, lugging all that water upstairs) it was 8' x 10' with all walls, floor, cieling & door well insulated. This was great & saved a lot on heating costs - mass tanks at 76-80 degrees all year round, Used to dry all my Mountain biking kit in there. I also had an electrician mate who rigged it to a seperate fuse box, so that if anything went wrong, it wouldn't effect the rest of the house.

Check and Mate I believe

The fish room is about the same size as your basement.
And Ive insultate the walls with thick oolystrene boards.

I also had an electrician put the garage on a seperate ring main too, as I have a tumble drier and fridge out there (in a seperate part) I built a studded wall to seperate them.

I thought about old shop setups but didnt know where to look, which is a sad situation seeing as Im a web developer by trade lol (general software developer as a secondary)

Why are you drilling your tanks?

Its only a possibility, but its for the sump, I know there are 'over the edge' systems I can rig together but these dont look at clean as the drilled overflow.

I have watched a few youtube videos and read a few guides and it seems simple enough to drill them myself, save me spending extra on the builds (If I get the tanks built) plus it also something else I will learn to do.