When 6ft Tanks go really wrong ! ;-)

[Gallandro]

Take a look at this tank. Me a a freind spend 12 months getting to this, its a 6 foot tanks, Ã"šÃ‚£2000 worth of large rock and Ã"šÃ‚£1000's worth of fish and inverts. I have a story to tell that will amuse and shock **No livestock is harmed in this story** no thanks to us idiots ..

 

[Gallandro]

looks loverly dosent it .. >;-)

 

[Gallandro]

The whole thing is scratch built, the base, even the tank ... here we are on a dark night in the UK working on the base....

 

[Gallandro]

When first put together is had in each end cupboard, a Fluval 404, with chemical media, and two Eheim pumps to provide current.

 

[Gallandro]

In the middle were a system 2000 wave machine for the four ehiem pumps, 2 either end, and two canister filters with Bio media.

It has a Berlin scimmer hung on the back, and lighting is a triple MH and double Tube System 2000 suspended light system.

 

[Gallandro]

.. oh and two UV filters...

The water was crystal clear and the Corels and fish loved the current. Water stability was great, as were all stats except Nitrates which were high.

After some thingking and visits to LFS, we though it was the two central bio canisters. Foly filter was used for a while, but it only helped so much and is expensive.

The tank never had a sump, as we didnt trust an over flow box, didnt want the wooden floor damaging (If only we knew, but his house not mine so...) and as we built the tank we did not have the skill / tools to drill it. we could not find anyone locally either.

Sealed canisters it was. ... but we longed for a Fudge ......

 

[Gallandro]

Well, we are both engineers, so we set about designing the sealed sump !

and here it is :

We built a small sump, and used Perspex in the top so we could drill it, and created a sealed port hole, so the taps could be closed and the top opened for access to the algae and media inside.

 

[Gallandro]

We used a few pipes and joins lying around and bypassed the two exsisting canisters.

 

[Gallandro]

There was also a lot of tubeing pipwork down the sides that we wanted to replace with ridgid pipewaork.

 

[Gallandro]

Swapping out the pipework ...

 

[Gallandro]

:eek2: FIRST PROBLEM !!! I crack a stress bar forcing the pipes in !

 

[Gallandro]

Its quickly patched with 10mm glass and silicone ..

 

[Gallandro]

Disaster one over .. not the main one though !

 

[Gallandro]

Ok so we put the bio balls and lava rock in the sump, just to get it started. ...

 

[Gallandro]

Connect her up and let some water in ....

 

[Gallandro]

Alot of water is taken out to even half fill the new sump, surprising. Luckly we both have loads of RO sotred in the garages !

 

[Gallandro]

 

[Gallandro]

Connected the outlets and let the water run through great !

 

[Gallandro]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGG water peeing out all over from an outlet !!

 

[Gallandro]

Turns out to be a damages pipe bend, see the pic. we had another lying aroiund so replaced it and continued. water flows through great.