What to do with my 1.8m tanks

Hi all
I have 2 1.8m tanks the 1st 1.8m tanks diamentions are 180cm x 60cm x 60cm and the 2nd tank is 180cm x 45cm x45cm
so this is my plan...
I want to use the 1st tank as my planted, display tank and use the 2nd one as a sump fishslap2.... I know what you are thinking, what a waist of a tank but hear me out.
IF I use the 2nd tank as a sump then I will have a total water volume of 1000l
and that way less maintenance and so on right?

now for the 1st question: who can I contact to have the tank drilled? ( it has to be someone that is willing to come out to me)
Question 2: Is it better to have the intake for the sump at the top or at the bottom?
I have made a littler sketch that I will attach to give you a idea of what I am trying to do. (it was made using ms-paint so it is not perfect)

Black - Tank Glass and glass dividers
Blue - Water
Yellow - Water Flow
Brown - Inlet to sump
Grey - Heaters
Green - Return Pump
Red - Inlet to tank and Spray bar.

Advice on this will be much appreciated.

 

Some would say its a waste of a 6 footer,but I'm all for it... nice big volumeof water and you will have MORE than enough filtration.... Go for it!!

 

It would be a waste rather use 1,2's as sumps.

 

I was thinking about using a 1.2 as a sump but I have the 1.8 that looks odd because of the size (1.8m x 45cm x 45cm) so that is why I thought of using it as a sump.

 

ok, use it as a planted tank or grow out tank

 

It is been used as my planted tank at the moment....lol
but all my plants seem to out grow the tank way to fast.... I have to trim the tank 2nd week to that light can get to the bottom. that is why I am going to use a bigger tank for my planted tank...

Can anyone please help me with the Questions....
now for the 1st question: who can I contact to have the tank drilled? ( it has to be someone that is willing to come out to me) I will pay them for the service....

Question 2: Is it better to have the intake for the sump at the top or at the bottom?

 

Ok LOL ... use it as a grow out tank and use the clippings from your new planted tank to setup the shollow one

 

Make it a sump.... with a section for extra plants

 

Hi my Boooii

go for the bottom

 

I was thinking of making 1 biggish compartment for plants or grow out or something like that
all I will do is put a mesh on the top and bottom of the dividers and that should keep the fish in that compartment

 

Hi Gareth,

You can make an overflow using PVC piping which is cheap, works efficiently and needs no drilling so I would rather go that route. I would VERY STRONGLY advise AGAINST all those up and down sections in the sump as these restrict water flow. It is much better to go for larger compartments in which you can have a slower and more even water flow. I am saying this to you based on my recirculating discus systems which I have been using very successfully for the past 20 years.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks Prof
so what you are saying is less ups and downs and make the compartments bigger, I was thinking about that, the only reason I was going with the "lots of ups and downs" is because of the filter material that will go into it. All I will do is just put more filter material in or am I going to have a problem doing that?

Thanks for all the replies so far guys.

 

I might be a bit stupid here but how would I do this? if it is possible to explain or mabey post a pic here for me to see what you mean?

 

Hi Gareth,

Every time you put in a up and down, the water flow is restricted by the narrowest part that it has to move through, so if you restrict water flow because of three compartments you will have much less flow that one compartment. It might not sound all that logical, but once you see this in real life it is as clear as daylight. I must see if I can post some diagrams that I need to scan.

Re the PVC pipes, have a look at these pics, this works like a charm. Drilling significantly weakens glass and is permanent, if you can use this option, you can always sell the tank later without the hole problem. The first pic shows all the elbows and pipes when they are not glued together, the second pic shows it in assembled form.

What you do is to put the left down pipe into your aquarium and let the top (where the number 2 is) rest on the edge of the tank. You then fill the pipe between 2 and 3 with water by pouring water from 1 into the pipe. You then remove the last air above 2 by sucking off the air with the small air hose type pipe which you then close with an airhose clamp. Now when you pump water into the tank from the sump below it fills up the tank, the syphon between 2 and 3 fills up and because of the level of 3 is slightly lower than 2 it overflows and this you feed back into the sump. You use 40 mm standard plumbing PVC pipes for all of this. You do not need to assemble all of the parts in the flat plane as I have indicated. You can have the U into the tank at right angels to the rest which sits on the side of tank and then you feed the overflow into the sump. I hope this is understandable.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Nice plan Prof thanks ... as with most overflows - I think it good to have two per tank - one is the backup for the other, should you loose siphon on the one, you should not overflow the tank (or fit a level switch in the sump .. i.e. if the level drops to X level then cut the power to the sump). You should also ensure that your return does not cause a siphon back into the sump should you loose power on the pump - spray bar ABOVE the water level should be fine.

Last mod I might consider for this design is adding a valve to the flow back into the sump (and not have the air hose in 2) that way you can suck on 1 till you taste fish water then open the valve and you should have siphon .. then again sucking on a 40 mm pipe might not be your idea of fun ;-)

 

Ag no man Ferdie,

Why make a simple thing complicated again. With the 40 mm thickness, this overflow does not fail, believe me! Glue all the bits together properly with PVC glue and off you go, no problem. I have systems like this that have run for 20 years non-stop, so two of these are really not necessary, more than one would be cumbersome in any case. I fully agree about the backflow, in other words that the inlet pipes must be above the water level, I use such outlets to aerate the water in any case, but beware of a heavy spray bar, too much surface agitation is also not good. I use pump that have a float level and that cuts out if the water level drops too low so this needs to be in place, I agree.

Re your last mod, I am not sure if you are understanding me properly. The air hose is for removing the water so that the syphon is generated, so without it, I cannot see how you would establish the syphon, I mean, do you have the lungs to suck a syphon on a 40 mm pipe! Remember that pipe 1 is open at the top, so there is not a syphon flowing to the right at joint 3 it is just an overflow. Once you stop adding water to the tank and the level reaches this overflow level the flow will stop and it does not continue syphoning out the tank. This is the beauty of this system and you don't need to drink large amounts of tank water, I prefer wine to tank water in any case.....

Lekker Kersfees hou!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

How noisy is an overflow like this? Because it seems to have a bit of a Durso element to it.

As for the 6ft sump, I would say you could build an awesome paludarium out of it and stock it with river fish like botiine and hillstream loaches and lots of smooth rocks

 

Thank you Prof
I will have a look for all these parts that I will need in the new year.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. If the water in the main display drops below point 3, then I would assume that the system will stop flowing? Thus preventing a flooded sump. I am also assuming that the pipe labelled as "1" is to "vent" the system to prevent air pockets that would stop the flow of water, and the airtube is to do the same? (and to get the system going).

To me this looks like basic drainage you would have on your basin, (p-trap, vent etc) however with a prevention of flooding the sump. Looks very simple.

I also do not see why this would be noisy, just place the outlet of the pipe going into the sump under the water surface?