Hello Everyone,
The time has come to UPGRADE! I've had a 60Gal Peninsula aquarium for the last 10ish years and I moved, so now i'm trying to work a new aquarium into a new space. With access to a basement, i'm excited to use at least part of that as an aquarium room for the messiest of tasks. BUT i'm concerned with some aspects of my design, and I figured the best place to sort it out is here. Some things i'm thinking hard about:
1) Do I need a bean animal overflow drain system? Running 3 pipes all the way to the sump is a lot in this situation, so can that be simplified without drastically increasing risk
2) Return pump - i'm looking at 10-15 feet of verticle, but 20-25 feet of pipe. I know there are pumps that can handle this, but would the large ecotech pump I have be sufficient?
3) Around 15 feet of horizontal return pipe running across the ceiling in the basement seems like a place prime for a clog. Do I need cleanouts or breaks in that run?
4) Reasons why the aquarium isn't immediately overtop the sing/sump area are we didn't want to damage the old wood floors, layout of the 1st floor would put it in a wall or in the middle of a room, and structurally the aquarium would sit in the middle of the open floor span so without additional basement supports we'd worry about sagging.
My goal is to have a fun 1st-floor aquarium but with as much of the maintenance mess in the basement. Any and all advise is welcome, even if its "this is a bad idea".
The time has come to UPGRADE! I've had a 60Gal Peninsula aquarium for the last 10ish years and I moved, so now i'm trying to work a new aquarium into a new space. With access to a basement, i'm excited to use at least part of that as an aquarium room for the messiest of tasks. BUT i'm concerned with some aspects of my design, and I figured the best place to sort it out is here. Some things i'm thinking hard about:
1) Do I need a bean animal overflow drain system? Running 3 pipes all the way to the sump is a lot in this situation, so can that be simplified without drastically increasing risk
2) Return pump - i'm looking at 10-15 feet of verticle, but 20-25 feet of pipe. I know there are pumps that can handle this, but would the large ecotech pump I have be sufficient?
3) Around 15 feet of horizontal return pipe running across the ceiling in the basement seems like a place prime for a clog. Do I need cleanouts or breaks in that run?
4) Reasons why the aquarium isn't immediately overtop the sing/sump area are we didn't want to damage the old wood floors, layout of the 1st floor would put it in a wall or in the middle of a room, and structurally the aquarium would sit in the middle of the open floor span so without additional basement supports we'd worry about sagging.
My goal is to have a fun 1st-floor aquarium but with as much of the maintenance mess in the basement. Any and all advise is welcome, even if its "this is a bad idea".
