My system: don't laugh...

[Kathy55g]

OK, now that I have water flowing and fish living in the new system, I sorta owe you all an explanation. So here goes!

Just remember I have never done construction, used power tools, done plumbing, owned a sump, or even bred fish before these past 9 months of intense learning. Add to that the fact that I am old, somewhat blind in that over 40 kind of way, have 2 great kids, and a great husband to distract me, and I had a frozen shoulder during all the heavy labor parts, and I hope you will look past the amateurishness of this project to see it as the shining achievement that I feel it to be.

So be kind to an old lady, and don't laugh.

Here is the bare bones of the table. I decided on a table because I like to look down on the fish and hover over while siphoning, etc. The original plan was to have 4 tanks arranged on this table with holes in the center for the plumbing to poke through. All the horizontal 2x4 were supported with metal joist hangers to help support the center of the table.

 

[RobbyG]

What size tank is this for? It looks like a fairly big tank!
The construction looks good and it seems to be strong, hard to tell from a photo, but just make sure the surface is level and flat.
And confirm with a carpenter if it can support the weight of water plus tank.

 

[Kathy55g]

Originally, I planned for 4 20 gallon tanks. I did ask around, and folks seemed to think this would hold. In practice it has held, so far...

Plywood over the top with the oblong holes on the center. Installed in the basement, it is level and true. I painted the whole thing with porch paint.

I acquired some tanks and a trickle sump from an old work buddy for free. so I used them:

This is a shot over the holes in the table where the plumbing pokes through. I ended up with 3 of the 20 gallon tanks, and 2 10 gallon tanks, so there are 5 tanks in all. Those are ball valves, but if I did it again, I would use gate valves--hang the expense.
They are just so much easier to adjust.

 

[Kathy55g]

The tanks drain into this 2" pipe which flows into the trickle filter. If I did it again, I would use a bigger pipe, as I am not sure it will hold all the water from the draining of 5 tanks when I get them all going at once. I may have to add another drain later on, or make this one bigger, or put some riser pipes on those Ts.

 

[Kathy55g]

The blue thing in the middle of the above picture is a 40 Watt UV filter.

This is where the drain flows into the trickle filter. I have a piece of filter floss in there now to get the big stuff. I tried putting a sheet of it over the trickle plate, but it just channelled the water to the center, and the bioballs on the outside did not get any water. that did not work.


Any suggestions for a mechanical filter would be welcome.

 

[Kathy55g]

Here is the sump and plumbing under the table:

When I need to remove the pump, I can cap the sump and use the ball valve to close off the rest of the plumbing. I put unions on both sides of the pump and on the other side of the UV so I can take that apart when I need to. The outlet to the gate valve is to recirculate excess water when I am only using part of the system (like right now) so I don't blast the tank or two I do use. If I were to do it again, I would use a gate valve everywhere instead of a ball valve.

 

[Kathy55g]

My basement sometime has water seepage from the outside when it rains hard, so the things on the floor are sitting on a type of flooring I found at Home Depot. It is particle board on top of a hard plastic with lots of plastic feet so water and air can circulate under the flooring. The acrylic sump is sitting on a sheet of styrofoam to even out the bumps.

When I got that sump it leaked pretty bad so I learned how to mend it with pieces of acrylic and weld-on 16. Doesn't leak now.

 

[Kathy55g]

My 20 gallon tanks came drilled with a 1" overflow, but the 10 gallon tanks were not drilled. I made this PVC overflow mostly with stuff I had lying around after reading all about it in the DIY forum. Here it is in action:


It works really well. It holds the siphon when the flow stops, and starts again when the flow resumes. A very satisfying project. I am making 2 more. One for the other 10 gallon, and one for the sump as a part of the automatic waterchange system.

More on that later.

 

[Kathy55g]

I have a siphon from the water top off tub to a float valve in the sump. It is working well.

The plan for the auto water change is to put a tub of new water higher than the level of the sump with a drain through a garden watering device set to open for a short time, then close. The water change water will be a couple of degrees cooler than the system water, so it should go to the bottom of the sump. The sump overflow drain will open, also on a watering timer, to allow the dirty surface water to seep out and down the basement floor drain. When the time is up, it will close. This is so I don't loose water in the event of a power failure, unless the power failure come during water change time....


That's it for now.

 

[Luis A M]

Well done,Kathy! .IÃ"šÃ‚´ve seen that stand before.
Ball valves are good enough.
Yes,put some riser tubes in yr tees.
You need a drip tray over the balls,and disposable filter pads over it held in some basket,same footprint as the balls.
Hope it was clear

 

[Luis A M]

On a 2nd look,I see you already have the drip tray.
So you onlyneed to make a filter basket with pieces of eggcrate,to keep the filter pad elevated from the plate

 

[RobbyG]

LOL at first I thought you said 420 Gallons, I was going to send EMT's to your house to save you from drowning , then I realized it was 4x 20 gal tanks. LOL excellent job, that could hold much more weight.

 

[Kathy55g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6643291#post6643291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Luis A M
On a 2nd look,I see you already have the drip tray.
So you onlyneed to make a filter basket with pieces of eggcrate,to keep the filter pad elevated from the plate

Oh, so that's how its done. I got this thing second hand for free, so I mostly just guess....
Thanks!

 

[mako56]

Heres the answer to my question on your other post for the food ring. AWESOME JOB!!!!! hope I need to do something like that soon. I don't know if the wife will like me taking over more of the basement but I should be able to sweet talk her into it.:love2: I have most of the stuff I would need left over from my 75 gallon except for the tanks.

 

[FuEl]

Why would anyone laugh at your system? I could'nt have done a better job. >.< Great work!

 

[ediaz]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:































































It's fine...:thumbsup:

The 2" drain is fine, I have 3" drains with a flow of 8000gph and it works fine.The only problem I see is that you reduced the drain from 2" to 1" ( it seems) to hook up the bio filter, that may cause trouble or not since your pump is not that big.

Luis idea to prefilter the water is excelent, you can also place a small tank on top of the trickle filter with a drain, and prefilter the water there before going in. Also , and this is what I do, I use a dedicated pump for the biofilters, the water drains in the sump and the pump feeds the biofilters.

Ed

 

[Kathy55g]

Great ideas, Ed, despite the fact that you cannot follow directions!


I guess we'll keep you.

K

 

[Kathy55g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6642879#post6642879 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
...

This is where the drain flows into the trickle filter. I have a piece of filter floss in there now to get the big stuff. I tried putting a sheet of it over the trickle plate, but it just channelled the water to the center, and the bioballs on the outside did not get any water. that did not work.


Any suggestions for a mechanical filter would be welcome.

So, following several splashing overflows of the last T on THIS drain, I followed Ed's and Luis's suggestions and cut off this mess of reducing pipes and stuck a connector to an elbow of the same size pipe as the rest of the drain(turns out I used 1.5 inch pipe, not 2"). The elbow sits over an open basket with blue filter stuff in it, on top of bottle caps to keep it off the diverter plate. There is about a half inch of air between the bottom of the elbow and the blue stuff. The blue stuff keeps it from splashing, and filters it without restricting the drain. I have much better flow through the drain and much less chance of overflow through the T's. And it is much easier and less messy to change that filter pad.

Sharp eyes, you guys! Thanks!

 

[BlackOnyx]

What are you breeding or attempting?

 

[Kathy55g]

This is a grow out system for the A. Ocellaris I have going. I have about 7 leftovers from the sale of my first successful hatch, 30 five week juveniles, and 40-50 (I think) 10 day old larvae undergoing metamorphosis right now. Wednesday I pick up a jumbo nest from my friend's spawning clownfish. Thursday, I hope to have more.