I need some MAJOR HELP!!!!!

R

reefnewbster

In Memoriam
So I have been put in charge of figuring out a stand desig, and filtration system for my ag class. All tanks are FW, but used to breed a couple of differnt species. I will probably drill all of the tank, and run them on a couple of differnt sumps, use skimmers on the tanks, and just use flouresent shop lights for lighting the tanks. In thotal there is 786 gallons, give or tanke a few. I multiplied that by 8.6 to get 6,760lbs, in just water. there will be 22 total tanks, sizes are as followed.
1 5(five) gallon tank.
1 6(six) gallon tank.
1 7(seven) gallon tank.
5 10(ten) gallon tanks.
1 15(fifteen) gallon tank.
1 20(twenty) gallon tank.
2 29(twenty-nine) gallon tanks.
1 35(thirty-five) gallon tank.
1 40(forty) gallon tank.
5 55(fifty-five) gallon tank.
1 75(seventy-five) gallon tank.
2 100(one hundred) gallon tank.

If you have any ideas as far as filtration goes, or a design for a stand that can hold all of this weight. We would like to have a 2 level stand, but can go with only 1 level if need be. We can also make a steel stand if that would be better. Please post any and all ideas that may help us.
 
You left ALOT of information out.

Are you planning on making all of these tanks into 1 large system?

Are some of these tanks display and some sumps or do you have other tanks for sump use?

I would look at at least a 2 tier design if not 3. Placing the larger tanks in the center section placing the smaller ones around them.
 
aal the tanks will be one 1 system, multiple sumps, but they will be connected together. i dont know if the teacher wants to get other tanks, or use some of these for sumps. i was thinging we could weld together a 2 or 3 tier stnad, and even place the 75, and 2 100's on the floor is needed.
 
Why in the world are you going to try to run a skimmer on a FW setup?

As for the design, put the larger tanks at the bottom, smaller tanks at the top. You can weld a stand or build a wooden one. The biggest thing is to figure out the layout/looks of the setup you want.
 
It would help greatly if you could elaborate on what your trying to do.

You can't run a protein skimmer on a freshwater setup. If your plumbing all of these together, I don't know how thick the glass is on that 5Gallon tank but chances are, it will burst.

Please give us some information on your project, the people on RC can be alot of help in a project like this.
 
Why would the 5 gallon tank burst if it was plumbed to the rest of the system... the only pressure it will see is the pressure induced by the water level in IT.

You can't use "multiple" sumps connected to a common system, you will have a flood due to the inevitable imbalance.

Either divide the system into logical units with dedicated sumps (the best idea) or use large common sump to aggregate all of the systems. The problem is that if you have a problem or need to medicate, the WHOLE system is affected.

You need to know what the budget is.
You need to know what the plans for each tank are.
You need to know what the maintenance procedures will be (what about summer).
You need to know what the overall goal is.

All of that before you design the first piece of plumbing or purchase the first pump.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13143328#post13143328 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BeanAnimal

You can't use "multiple" sumps connected to a common system, you will have a flood due to the inevitable imbalance.
Click to expand...

Huh?
 
The 5gallon tank will have thin glass, that is why I said it could bust when drilled for plumbing. Is that not logical "BeanAnimal"?
 
Exactly what I said.

The return pump is what dictates the flow in a sump based system. You can have multiple systems gravity drain into a common SUMP. You can use ONE or MULTIPLE return pumps. The collection area is a COMMON LOW POINT where ALL water drains to (that is why it is called a SUMP).

If you try to use multiple sumps that are tied to a COMMON system, then the water can find its way to ANY of the MULTIPLE LOW POINTS. However, the RETURN PUMPS operate at a fixed rate and NOT according to the rate at wich water flows to them.

So, over a period of time (minutes, hours, days, whatever). One "sump" will run dry and the other(s) will overflow. It is basic physics. A multiple sump setup would need to have flow balancing logic to keep everything working. This could be mechanical and/or electromechanical (float valves, float switches, relays, etc).

Bean
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13143442#post13143442 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FutureBoyGenius
The 5gallon tank will have thin glass, that is why I said it could bust when drilled for plumbing. Is that not logical "BeanAnimal"?
Click to expand...

Sure that is logical... but that is not what you said.

You said:

" If your plumbing all of these together, I don't know how thick the glass is on that 5Gallon tank but chances are, it will burst. "

The word BURST is commonly used to infer catastrophic failure due to pressure. You used it in a sentace in such a manner that would indicate your meaning was that the 5 gallong tanks thin glass would burst due to the pressure of the system.

Anybody reading your statement would come to the same conclusion based on your choice of words and context of your statement.

I simply (kindly) commented in THAT context. If you meant something else, you should have said something else. Instead, you have responded in a flip manner because your meaning was not clear.
 
Last edited:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13143532#post13143532 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralfragger101
Multiple sumps connected together (basically creating a single sump) should not overflow.
Click to expand...

Correct. As long as they [the sumps] are ALL connected together and the water can seek its own level among ALL of them (and do so faster than any of the return pumps can cause an imbalance) :)
 
Last edited:
If the sumps were connected with plumbing between them, then they would always be at the same level. That being said, I think the idea of two or three systems running next to each other instead of one big system is the best way to go.
 
Your probably not going to be able to drill tanks smaller then 15 gallons. Take that back. You can drill them but sooner or later they will crack since the glass is VERY thin. Since this is in a School I would be even more worried about it. Cause I'm sure the tanks will get bumped and banged around sooner or later.

FW. So this probably isn't the best place to ask about filtration. Like they said above you can't use a skimmer on FW.. It just wont work. SW and FW are very different't. With fresh water your going to be looking at a wet dry filter I guess. Probably something like I use on my pond. For a larger FW system pond equipment might be a good place to look.

Stand should be pretty easy to build. The biggest problem I see is all the tanks are different'.. But most of them look to be 12" wide X different't lengths. So its just a matter of figuring out how you want them laid out.. I'd probably build the stand out of metal just cause it will give you more room. I setup about 20 33 longs and probably 30 15 gallon tanks for a LFS. All the stands were 2" square tubing with three levels.

22 tanks isn't' that many really. It shouldn't' be to bad to do.. Main thing is to work on the filtration. I'd try to get rid of the small tanks also.. Your just not going to be able to connect them to a large system. Its probably not an option.. But it would be a lot easier to plumb and to layout if all the tanks were the same size. Or close to it. Like with the LFS most all his tanks except for his large displays were either 15s or 33 longs. Two 15s took the same space as a single 33 long. So it made it very easy to connect all of them. I ended up splitting them up into like 3 systems. I also agree its not a great idea to have just one large system.. One problem takes down every tank. Even at my house I have my tanks split into two systems. It would be very easy to connect them, But I rather have them separate.
 
I'd say a few hours spent learning Google Sketchup right now may help a lot in designing & impressing the teacher.

Also - there are a lot of people on this forum that speak sketchup, so it is easy to exchange models.
I'm sure you'll find most of those tank sizes already modeled out there somewhere.

Stu
 
One thing to mention is the cost of all the valves & unions.

You will need to have the ability to take any one tank offline & remove it if required without shutting down the whole thing.

If this is a research project: One screw up & the whole thing is Kaput!.

Stu
 
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