Filter Setup For 2 Of 6x2.5x3

[newies]

Hi there, I am new here.

Currently, I am having 2 of the 6 footers, one on the top of other. I am looking for suggestion of the filtration sys for the two tanks together.

What i am planning to have are american cichlids on the top one and african cichlids on the bottom. Can I pump the water from bottom tank to the top, and the water will return back to the bottom via overflow, or similar, to the filtration tray (similar to wet / dry but without sump). Water will move along the tray thru filter media and gravitationally fall into the bottom to complete the cycle. Of course I will have power heads in each tank to create some current.

The bottom line is that we want to ensure no flooding when power fail and not taking up any more space such as having the sump sitting on the side.

Your inputs will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ox5477]

If you are building a stand to house these, then make sure that stand is massivly stout. Your planning on suspending an almost 340USG aquarium over another. This not only makes it imperitive that you make it strong enough to hold the top aquarium, it means you have to make it strong enough with that huge gap underneath (the other tank). I honestly wouldn't stack them and woudl put them on opposite ends of a room if you can. It would be cool to see fish either way you walked into a room.

As for the sump question.....you want the sump to prob be able to hold atleast 30 to 50% of your total tank volume so...

(340USG x 2) x (.30) = 204USG
(340USG x 2) x (.50) = 340USG

So prob want about a 300G sump. Prob need to use two large pond pumps (both pushing atleast 1400G/hour at head to make 4x filtration) to push the water back into the tanks with large overflows that have the same flow rate/more flow rate as the pump.

This is a huge undertaking but of course your decision to get two 300+ gallon tanks was a huge decision so I would hope that you assessed the total scope of owning two huge tanks like this. Good Luck with your adventure and by all means, post as many pics as you can in the members pic forum to show everybody your progress.

Good Luck!!!

Can I pump the water from bottom tank to the top, and the water will return back to the bottom via overflow, or similar, to the filtration tray (similar to wet / dry but without sump). Water will move along the tray thru filter media and gravitationally fall into the bottom to complete the cycle.

NO. If your worried about overflowing water, this is the worst to do. The thing you have to do is run the overflows from the tanks to the sump, and then the sump back to each individual tank.




And I'm a moron....just thought of this. New Worlds and African's like much different water parms, so you are going to need two different sumps if you wish to house these two fish. But if you get a community tank with one of these (preferably the New Worlds) then you can run the sump together, otherwise you need seperate sumps to keep the two different waters seperate.

 

[andywg]

Barring the seperate water conditions the best option for filtering two tanks off one filter is through a wet dry. You do not need the sump to hold 30-50% of the water volume though. If you use a trickle tower that sits above the sump then you will need at most about 10% of the water volum. Bigger is better, but not essential as the media is housed in the tower. You could make do with one large pump returning the water with a T and some valves to control the flow.

You could try having the trickle tower in between the tanks with the water flowing from the top one to the bottom one and it could work very well, though you would need a fair gap in height between the two tanks.

 

[newies]

I dont have space for 2 sumps

Yes, thats similar to what I plan to do. But because the space between the 2 tanks is limited, thats why I decided to have the tray, in which water will flow in the pattern of up and down thru filter media at each partition of the tray as shown below just 3 partitions but actually there are more than 3


water flow in from top tank
I 0 I
I 0 I I
I 0 I I I
I 0 I I I 0 I
I____________I________I 0I____I
flow back to the bottom tank here

Pls give me some comments before i proceed.

thanks

 

[Tolak]

I've built several double stands, though nothing of that size. You do not want that bottom tank too close to the floor; maintenance is a pain, as it's tough to get a good siphon. Any lower than 12" is difficult to deal with. If you have the space underneath, you have room for a sump for both tanks on the floor beneath the lower tank.

You also don't want to limit space between the top of the bottom tank, and the supporting members above it. You need at least 1/3 if not 1/2 of the tank's depth above it to work comfortably. Squeezing that space down, along with putting a trickle filter in between is going to make maintenance rough.

The idea is a clever one, if you have the room height to deal with the gap in between while leaving enough space on the bottom. If those tanks are 2.5' tall, you are dealing with the top of the top tank closing in on 8' with the bottom tank being 14" off the floor, and a reasonable gap between the tanks. By adding that extra space between the tanks, you are dropping that bottom tank real low, and increasing the gap between tanks, which would be something to take into serious consideration as far as stand construction & stability.

If you are looking for beauty, put the sump beneath, you will need a good 30 to 40 gallon tank. Now, from a breeder's standpoint, you could pull it off. The bottom tank pumps into the top, the top overflow drains into the bottom. Put the light for the bottom tank behind the tank, along the bottom, with no background. Get a storage bin that is designed to fit under a bed, put your baffles & media in there, & put a hole at one end. Make a support system for this above the lower tank, with shutoffs for your feed & drain lines. Design it so it slides out like a drawer to give you clearance for maintenance on the lower tank. Your top tank's overflow drains into this, the filter drains into the bottom tank.

 

[newies]

I've built several double stands, though nothing of that size. You do not want that bottom tank too close to the floor; maintenance is a pain, as it's tough to get a good siphon. Any lower than 12" is difficult to deal with. If you have the space underneath, you have room for a sump for both tanks on the floor beneath the lower tank.

You also don't want to limit space between the top of the bottom tank, and the supporting members above it. You need at least 1/3 if not 1/2 of the tank's depth above it to work comfortably. Squeezing that space down, along with putting a trickle filter in between is going to make maintenance rough.

The idea is a clever one, if you have the room height to deal with the gap in between while leaving enough space on the bottom. If those tanks are 2.5' tall, you are dealing with the top of the top tank closing in on 8' with the bottom tank being 14" off the floor, and a reasonable gap between the tanks. By adding that extra space between the tanks, you are dropping that bottom tank real low, and increasing the gap between tanks, which would be something to take into serious consideration as far as stand construction & stability.

If you are looking for beauty, put the sump beneath, you will need a good 30 to 40 gallon tank. Now, from a breeder's standpoint, you could pull it off. The bottom tank pumps into the top, the top overflow drains into the bottom. Put the light for the bottom tank behind the tank, along the bottom, with no background. Get a storage bin that is designed to fit under a bed, put your baffles & media in there, & put a hole at one end. Make a support system for this above the lower tank, with shutoffs for your feed & drain lines. Design it so it slides out like a drawer to give you clearance for maintenance on the lower tank. Your top tank's overflow drains into this, the filter drains into the bottom tank.

thanks for your inputs. Unfortunately, we dont have much space between the two tank.

 

[Tolak]

You'll have a tough time with too little space, I've tried it. Go for the sump beneath, leave at least a foot between the two tanks.