Ultimate 2M Tank + Sump Build:Need advice/Ideas

This is somewhat correct. Without 100% insulation you will still have losses and if the losses are more than what your heater can do then you won't ever get there I needed more than 600W but then the room was rather cold and with crappy louvre windows not very insulated and a bit drafy, and the tank was open top with no cabinet and a sump.

Pump wise I was pretty happy with a Sicce syncra silent 4. Plumbed it in by glueing a piece of pvc to it's own output and never did any maintenance on it and it ran pretty silently for quite a while.

 

Howzit man!

Thought I'd give my opinions on the questions you asked, I'm sure we've gone over some before and you've already answered most, maybe some more food for thought.

1. Cover for the top of the tank? ( needed with tropheus?)
2. OverFlow Box, Need ideas on designs/ efficiency. (thinking of a 20x20cm box in left corner)
3. Stand height (sump will be inside)
4. Sump Design (want a free compartment for tropheus fry)
5. Sump size. Max width can be 50cm, thinking of a height of 40cm, length 1.2-1.5
6. Where to get the needed filter Media in Southern Suburbs ( have large bio balls already)
7. Lighting ( Looking at l.e.d. options that clip onto the tank frame at the back)
8. Heating ( have a chinese 300W and a Jager 300W)
9. Return pump size / Flow Rate

1) Yes! Tropheus will jump! Use a sliding glass top to keep in the heat and reduce evaporation (good for your house!)
2) I believe you got this worked out with Graham already? I think you can hide pretty much anything with a bit of clever decor.
3) For my display tank I made the height around 100cm but I'm tall and wanted it high, keep the bottom level low to give yourself as much working space as possible!
4) Build a low flow refugium compartment into the sump and design it to keep fry in. Think of the refugium compartment as a separate tank within the sump, split your overflow from your main tank and put a ball valve on the split to control flow to that compartment / tank. Have the refugium compartment flow into the same compartment that as the rest of the water coming through the overflow so that it all goes through the filter.
5) The bigger the better, I liked the 150x50x50cm as it adds a lot of water, is not too high and gives you a good 50cm for storage under the tank.
6) Any pet store is good, or you can use some other products like hair curlers etc. Usually a combination is best.
7) As I said before, not my strong point as I don't use them, what I do know is that natural light gives the best
8) The Jager 300watt should do especially if you're using thick Styrofoam for your base and the back of the tank for insulation. The sump should be insulated as well and must have a glass top that covered as much as possible but not sealed, perhaps with a cut out to access the fry compartment. You can also wrap some bubble wrap around the overflow and pump outlet pipes.
9)You probably want something to filter the tank volume around 4-6 times an hour. Tropheus like their water a bit more turbulent than most Lake Tanganyika species who generally prefer slower moving waters compared to fish from the Amazon River. However, high oxygenation is recommend for Lake Tanganyika species from the shallower habitats. A venturi pipe fitted on the inlet will add a large amount of oxygenation to the water to keep them thriving. I think buying a good return pump is hugely important as it is the heart of the system, a heater may fail and go unnoticed for a week in warm weather but without oxygen and filtration fish die quickly, the better brands will likely make less noise too. I would worry more about flow through the filtration media than flow in the display tank, you can fix the latter quite easily with a neat flow pump, you don't want to oversize nor undersized your return pump to the point where it makes the filtration ineffective.

 

@Jack Stone

Thank you for the detailed reply!

The Tank is being built in the coming weeks as Graham has time. The stand i got delivery of last night which was a nice suprise!
Moving out the old tank this weekend and will put the stand in place.

The sump is going to be 120x55x45 to give me more space to work
the stand is 80cm tall and it really looks great!

Will take photos for the tasa people!

Getting very excited about all of this but it is still weeks away before the tank is here and probably the same for the new fish, More excited for the fish at the moment! F1 baby!
@Rory thanks man, will look at that pump this weekend, A few places have mentioned a Dolphin pump that does 10lt / hr. Need to find the model and check that out as well.

 

Why don't you and Graham come past and check out my tank if you want. He built my tank and sump and I never got round to inviting him over for a glass of wine to see the tank in operation. I hacked it down this weekend again but it still looks ok. This is how it looked last month. I have some lessons to share with the sump ;-)

 

@AdrianT

Your tank looks great! if thats a 2m planted that would be out of this world to see! Im not sure where lagoon beach is in comparison to where i am in the southern suburbs, but after my 2m is built I think we could do a quick braai or something and talk fish stuff, and get Graham out of his workshop!

Im new to sumps so any lessons would be great!

 

1,32m. Time is very short and precious to me so no braai's Talk to Graham, tell him to Whatsapp me. Lagoon Beach is West Coast, you should get out more