Filtering A 240 Gallon Saltwater Tank

[fish-r-fancy]

Hi I just happen to know somebody that is selling a 240 gallon fish tank that I was hoping could be my first saltwater fish tank that I would build into a wall. My question is how would you filter something that large? I would imagine that you would need a couple of fluvals or something. This thing is HUGE these are the dimensions 96X24X24 (in inches) and the glass is 1 and a half inches thick! Please all suggestions welcom on how you would filter this thing. Thanks in advance

 

[Lynden]

Awesome tank the same sized one I hope to set up soon.

The way you filter any saltwater tank is with live rock and powerheads, and in the case of an 8' tank, you will need PLENTY of both.

-Lynden

 

[fish-r-fancy]

You can't use canister filters to filter a saltwater tank? wow I never would have thought that. I have a question. If someone where to do fish only they woulden't get live work how would they filter a tank?

So I would probably need a several of these: powerheads

(just to let everybody know I DON'T shop at Petco)

But no filter? and obviosly a protein skimmer like this one: protein skimmer

How many of these power heads do you think I will need along with the protein skimmer? Of course I would go with the best power head with 400 gph at the bottom of the page.

I was reading the pinned topics and noticed that a return pump is mentioned. What is this and does it come with a power head?

 

[Mr Miagi]

This has been explained so many times now, but once more before I make a pinned topic out of it.

Cannister filters and mechanical filtration can be used, but in the end, without frequent cleaning (once a week) they become nitrate factories, and in marine tanks, especially a reef, youll want no nitrates. If your doing FOWLR or FO you can have nitrates, but you really want to eliminate as much as possible.

Filtering a large tank, for a FO system, id suggest buying a decent sump, and plumbing it in before you fill the tank (if its not already drilled) and buying a decent sized, and quality skimmer. Your not going to want to skimp on money on such an important piece of equipment if your doing a FO with no LR.

In a normal tank, mechanical filtration is accomplished by LR, with high flow. Id suggest buying 4+ Tunze streams. Its the only way your going to get any decent flow short of large external water pumps in a closed loop circulation system, without having around 12+ internal smaller powerheads.

Such a tank requires alot of planning and alot of money. I think you should have a look around the web and look at the design and dedication other people put into large tanks and see if you actually want to do this.

Melevs 280g
Reefkeeping Magazines Tank of the Months are monsters sometimes. Another place to browse the eye candy.
ReefCentrals FO & FOLWR Forum
RC's 300+g Tank Forum

 

[fish-r-fancy]

Also after finishing reading the pinned topic I think I'm going to start with a FOWLR setup then slowly go up to a reef tank.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Cool. Thats still going to need alot of warter movement, skimming, and even more money on T5 or MH lighting. Going FOWLR and then Reef is going to be easier for you to study what others have done, and see if your up to it.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

How many power heads do you think I will need for a tank this size with the protein skimmer in the link?

 

[Mr Miagi]

The protein skimmer adds nothing to your flow, so you cant factor that in. IMO your going to need two Tunze 6100's, plus a decent return pump, rated to how much water turnover you want. That skimmer isnt going to cut the mustard for a high stock load, but thats just IMO, and someone like Ski, who knows his equipment can help you.

I dont keep big reefs, so your best bet is to look around at others, and see what they do, as mentioned, with links supplied. No one here can aswer all of your questions 100% (no one keeps such a large system except for Navarre and Wuv), sometimes you have to do some ground work on your own, its deffinately no direct science. The best place to learn is through others mistakes and experience doing the same thing, so look around, read, and study.

 

[Lynden]

Tunze are so expensive, Seio will be good enough, and at a fraction of the price

Who is "Wuv" (I'm guessing 'Wuvmybetta')? How big are Navarre's and Wuv's systems? No offense intended Wuv, if you happen to read this, but I thought you were a Betta addict!

I hope to join the ranks of the "Big Tank Keppers" one day. Shouldn't be too hard, since I'm still only a kid, and, unladen with bills, taxes, and an urge to buy guitars (All my friends fell pray to that ), 100% of my income goes toward new fish stuff 8)

-Lynden

 

[SkiFletch]

I'm gonna go ahead and say you're crazy if you think powerheads are going to cut it on a tank of 240 gallons. Even to get to 20x flowrate you'd be talking 4800gph worth of turnover . You're WAY better off running whats known as a closed loop system with perhaps an ocean motions or similar flow distributor for randomization and a BIG centrifugal pump, say rated for 6000gph minimum. Furthermore, you're probably going to want to skim, and at that volume of water you'd need either 3-4 hang on skimmers (impractical IMO) or a BIG in-sump skimmer (think ASM G3 or G4 size). My LFS just setup a 240 of those same dimensions and the equipment is really impressive. They used an interior overflow feeding two 2" drains with wiers down to a 75g sump. An ASM G4 skimmer in the sump. The return pump was I believe a 5000gph pump with 20 feet of max head pressure which feeds two 1.5" lines back to the main tank. Then they drilled the display tank and installed a 5000gph pump to draw directly off it which pumps back up to the surface and is switched between 4 1" returns. Finally the tank is lit by 3 250watt metal halides from a custom canopy.

I dont mean to scare you off, but tanks this big require a lot of hardware, so be prepared to jump on the steep learning curve

 

[Mr Miagi]

Who is "Wuv" (I'm guessing 'Wuvmybetta')? How big are Navarre's and Wuv's systems? No offense intended Wuv, if you happen to read this, but I thought you were a Betta addict!

Wuv is Wuvmybetta yes, and she has a 100g tank with a little pico reef. Navarre's reef is a 220g, and hes got a nano aswell.

 

[Lynden]

100 gallon isn't really thaaat big. I'm certain a few other members have one.

-Lynden

 

[fish-r-fancy]

I'm gonna go ahead and say you're crazy if you think powerheads are going to cut it on a tank of 240 gallons. Even to get to 20x flowrate you'd be talking 4800gph worth of turnover . You're WAY better off running whats known as a closed loop system with perhaps an ocean motions or similar flow distributor for randomization and a BIG centrifugal pump, say rated for 6000gph minimum. Furthermore, you're probably going to want to skim, and at that volume of water you'd need either 3-4 hang on skimmers (impractical IMO) or a BIG in-sump skimmer (think ASM G3 or G4 size). My LFS just setup a 240 of those same dimensions and the equipment is really impressive. They used an interior overflow feeding two 2" drains with wiers down to a 75g sump. An ASM G4 skimmer in the sump. The return pump was I believe a 5000gph pump with 20 feet of max head pressure which feeds two 1.5" lines back to the main tank. Then they drilled the display tank and installed a 5000gph pump to draw directly off it which pumps back up to the surface and is switched between 4 1" returns. Finally the tank is lit by 3 250watt metal halides from a custom canopy.

I dont mean to scare you off, but tanks this big require a lot of hardware, so be prepared to jump on the steep learning curve

I do know that a tank like this is going to cost a lot of money and I'm up to that because I think it will all pay off. And if you think I'm crazy, as many people have probably noticed that this is my first saltwater fish tank I woulden't have known any of this. I will definetly look into better filtration and hopefully by Christmas this think will be up and running.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

This has been explained so many times now, but once more before I make a pinned topic out of it.

please do!!! i think a pin on marine tank filtration would be really excellent and useful. it's a q that gets asked time and time again. and for people who've haf 'filtration filtration filtration' drilled into them with years of FW keeping the idea of just abandoning the filter altogether is a big one to get your head around!!

 

[andywg]

I'm gonna go ahead and say you're crazy if you think powerheads are going to cut it on a tank of 240 gallons. Even to get to 20x flowrate you'd be talking 4800gph worth of turnover . You're WAY better off running whats known as a closed loop system with perhaps an ocean motions or similar flow distributor for randomization and a BIG centrifugal pump, say rated for 6000gph minimum. Furthermore, you're probably going to want to skim, and at that volume of water you'd need either 3-4 hang on skimmers (impractical IMO) or a BIG in-sump skimmer (think ASM G3 or G4 size). My LFS just setup a 240 of those same dimensions and the equipment is really impressive. They used an interior overflow feeding two 2" drains with wiers down to a 75g sump. An ASM G4 skimmer in the sump. The return pump was I believe a 5000gph pump with 20 feet of max head pressure which feeds two 1.5" lines back to the main tank. Then they drilled the display tank and installed a 5000gph pump to draw directly off it which pumps back up to the surface and is switched between 4 1" returns. Finally the tank is lit by 3 250watt metal halides from a custom canopy.

I dont mean to scare you off, but tanks this big require a lot of hardware, so be prepared to jump on the steep learning curve

Two things:

1) Tunze Stream 6300 gives 7,925US GPH for 70W in just one powerhead, so using powerheads to aim for 4,800 GPH is nothing like a crazy idea. It will also be cheaper than any other product after 3 years. Seio were mentioned and are a good cheaper alternative but cost around twice as much to run. Closed loops are ok but take a lot of time and effort and just like Seio cannot be run off wavecontrollers.

Running all or most of your circulation through a single sump return means a large amount of actual turnover is wasted through combatting head. Using Tunze Stream gives a much better spread f flow and is so cheap to run it is not funny. Over 100GPH per watt of electricity is insasnely efficient.

2) A learning curve that is steep actually indicates something is easy to learn not difficult