Yme
New Member
Hi all,
I just introduced myself as I would really like your input on the sump design of my freshwater tank (introduction)
In fact, I will completely renovate the house next year and that allows a once in a lifetime opportunity to built the tank of my dreams!
As I am from The Netherlands and English is not my native language, please excuse me for not knowing some words and perhaps some cm versus inch issues.
So, I will build an aquarium that in part goes through a wall, approximately 2/3 in the living room and 1/3 in a technical room. I can then enter the tank from both sides, which is very convenient. It also means that I do not want pipes behind the aquarium as I would need to reach over them in order to reach into the aquarium. Thus, I have decided to make an oversized overflow chamber that covers the complete back. Not sure if this is clearly explained, but it means I will have a weir of 50 inch and that all the pvc pipes enter and leave the tank via this oversized overflow chamber. I realize that costs some “depth”, but that is not really an issue for me.
I have several questions, but posting them all at once is simply too much. I will start with the sump design. As I understand, there is a mechanical part and a biological part in the filter system. First, you remove dirt by mechanical filtering and then you have your bio filtration. This makes very much sense: mechanical filtering prevents clogging of your biological filter material.
Then there 2 ways of mechanical filtration: filter socks and roller mats (In the Netherlands we can buy Theiling and Clarisea). So far so good. As I am a bit lazy, I opt for a roller mat system. And then it becomes more difficult: I am planning to use a bean animal drain as overflow. So three pipes. I have read that people connect the primary drain to the roller mat, but not the secondary drain. For me, this defies the purpose of the idea that mechanical filtration keeps the biological filter material clean. Even if only 5% of the flow goes via the secondary drain, then the biological filter material will still get dirty. To solve this, I could connect the secondary drain to a filter sock, or to another rollermat (yes, I know this overdoing it) (B, second picture).
To make things more complicated, I would not like to be totally dependent on a roller mat in the following situation: once in while (1x-2x per year) I will completely tear the hardscape inside the tank apart and reattach plants to the wood, try a different layout etc etc. The gravel is then severely disturbed: you will not be able to see further than a couple of inch. Now, if all this dirt needs to be cleaned by a roller mat, then I will get poor… Therefore would like in this situation that I can use filter socks, which I can change a couple of times per day. You could achieve this with some valves: you close the valve to the rollermat and open another valve to a filter sock. This explains picture B.
One question I have is how much water WILL pass the rollermat in this setting B. I read that normally the secondary pipe should just be a little trickle of water. But if a rollermat gives too much resistance, then perhaps much more water goes via the secondary drain. Which then basically means I should connect a second rollermat to the secondary pipe, as I would not like to clean filtersocks every week.
Although B should work, I wondered whether it is possible to first filter the water with filter socks and then by a rollermat. This idea is picture A. As it is, I do not think it is working as displayed, but I would really like to know whether a filter sock followed by a rollermat is even possible. Again, normally, the filter socks will not even be in the sump. They will only be inserted when I will disturb the gravel.
There is also another general restriction: as it will be a planted tank I will add CO2. This means that there should not be to much splashing and mixing of water and air as it will degass the CO2 from the water.
So picture A. To see whether this is possible at all, I probably need to provide more specifics. I would love to have two return pumps, but as all rollermats can not really handle much flow, I think a single pump is the better choice if I want ALL water running through the rollermat (and not have a bypass). Therefore, I think the Red dragon mini speedy 3 is the best choice. 1.321 gallons/hour. I will use 40 mm PVC tubing. I think that convers to 1.5 inch. This size tube can handle 2100 gallons/hour by gravity. So these pipes can easily handle the flow from the pump. But if I then look at the rollermats, the best suitable rollermat seems the Clarisea SK5000, which can maximally handle 1320 gallons/hour. And even then.... there is a nice picture that shows that at this flow rate you really quickly need a new piece of filter. A flow of 528 gallons per hour (2000 liter/hour) seems much more efficient (for your wallet). As the red dragon can minimally pump around 400 gallon/hour (1500 liter/hour), I think that the red dragon mini speedy 3, 40 mm PVC tubes and the Clarisea SK5000 are well suited to work together. Especially now that the new clarisea gen3 has an adapter for 40 mm.
All right, then back to picture A. If I place the rollermat in a second compartment of the sump, then I am totally dependent on how easily water can pass a clean filter fleece. Water always goes the easiest way, so perhaps water does not even enter the rollermat, but goes around it. In picture A, I put a pvc pipe from the rollermat to the first compartment. The good thing about it is that the water level in the filter socks is relatively high. And therefore CO2 degassing is limited. But of course, this will not be a closed siphon full of water and can probably not handle the required flow. I could place the PVC tube lower, but even then I am unsure what will happen: does the pipe drain easily, and thus lower the waterlevel in the filtersock compartment (more CO2 degassing) or is the flow so low that only a part of the water goes into the rollermat?
This is the point where I am know concerning the sump. Sorry for the very long post, but I hope you can give me some advice!
Thanks!
Yme
I just introduced myself as I would really like your input on the sump design of my freshwater tank (introduction)
In fact, I will completely renovate the house next year and that allows a once in a lifetime opportunity to built the tank of my dreams!
As I am from The Netherlands and English is not my native language, please excuse me for not knowing some words and perhaps some cm versus inch issues.
So, I will build an aquarium that in part goes through a wall, approximately 2/3 in the living room and 1/3 in a technical room. I can then enter the tank from both sides, which is very convenient. It also means that I do not want pipes behind the aquarium as I would need to reach over them in order to reach into the aquarium. Thus, I have decided to make an oversized overflow chamber that covers the complete back. Not sure if this is clearly explained, but it means I will have a weir of 50 inch and that all the pvc pipes enter and leave the tank via this oversized overflow chamber. I realize that costs some “depth”, but that is not really an issue for me.
I have several questions, but posting them all at once is simply too much. I will start with the sump design. As I understand, there is a mechanical part and a biological part in the filter system. First, you remove dirt by mechanical filtering and then you have your bio filtration. This makes very much sense: mechanical filtering prevents clogging of your biological filter material.
Then there 2 ways of mechanical filtration: filter socks and roller mats (In the Netherlands we can buy Theiling and Clarisea). So far so good. As I am a bit lazy, I opt for a roller mat system. And then it becomes more difficult: I am planning to use a bean animal drain as overflow. So three pipes. I have read that people connect the primary drain to the roller mat, but not the secondary drain. For me, this defies the purpose of the idea that mechanical filtration keeps the biological filter material clean. Even if only 5% of the flow goes via the secondary drain, then the biological filter material will still get dirty. To solve this, I could connect the secondary drain to a filter sock, or to another rollermat (yes, I know this overdoing it) (B, second picture).
To make things more complicated, I would not like to be totally dependent on a roller mat in the following situation: once in while (1x-2x per year) I will completely tear the hardscape inside the tank apart and reattach plants to the wood, try a different layout etc etc. The gravel is then severely disturbed: you will not be able to see further than a couple of inch. Now, if all this dirt needs to be cleaned by a roller mat, then I will get poor… Therefore would like in this situation that I can use filter socks, which I can change a couple of times per day. You could achieve this with some valves: you close the valve to the rollermat and open another valve to a filter sock. This explains picture B.
One question I have is how much water WILL pass the rollermat in this setting B. I read that normally the secondary pipe should just be a little trickle of water. But if a rollermat gives too much resistance, then perhaps much more water goes via the secondary drain. Which then basically means I should connect a second rollermat to the secondary pipe, as I would not like to clean filtersocks every week.
Although B should work, I wondered whether it is possible to first filter the water with filter socks and then by a rollermat. This idea is picture A. As it is, I do not think it is working as displayed, but I would really like to know whether a filter sock followed by a rollermat is even possible. Again, normally, the filter socks will not even be in the sump. They will only be inserted when I will disturb the gravel.
There is also another general restriction: as it will be a planted tank I will add CO2. This means that there should not be to much splashing and mixing of water and air as it will degass the CO2 from the water.
So picture A. To see whether this is possible at all, I probably need to provide more specifics. I would love to have two return pumps, but as all rollermats can not really handle much flow, I think a single pump is the better choice if I want ALL water running through the rollermat (and not have a bypass). Therefore, I think the Red dragon mini speedy 3 is the best choice. 1.321 gallons/hour. I will use 40 mm PVC tubing. I think that convers to 1.5 inch. This size tube can handle 2100 gallons/hour by gravity. So these pipes can easily handle the flow from the pump. But if I then look at the rollermats, the best suitable rollermat seems the Clarisea SK5000, which can maximally handle 1320 gallons/hour. And even then.... there is a nice picture that shows that at this flow rate you really quickly need a new piece of filter. A flow of 528 gallons per hour (2000 liter/hour) seems much more efficient (for your wallet). As the red dragon can minimally pump around 400 gallon/hour (1500 liter/hour), I think that the red dragon mini speedy 3, 40 mm PVC tubes and the Clarisea SK5000 are well suited to work together. Especially now that the new clarisea gen3 has an adapter for 40 mm.
All right, then back to picture A. If I place the rollermat in a second compartment of the sump, then I am totally dependent on how easily water can pass a clean filter fleece. Water always goes the easiest way, so perhaps water does not even enter the rollermat, but goes around it. In picture A, I put a pvc pipe from the rollermat to the first compartment. The good thing about it is that the water level in the filter socks is relatively high. And therefore CO2 degassing is limited. But of course, this will not be a closed siphon full of water and can probably not handle the required flow. I could place the PVC tube lower, but even then I am unsure what will happen: does the pipe drain easily, and thus lower the waterlevel in the filtersock compartment (more CO2 degassing) or is the flow so low that only a part of the water goes into the rollermat?
This is the point where I am know concerning the sump. Sorry for the very long post, but I hope you can give me some advice!
Thanks!
Yme
