waack's 150 gal discus tank.

**waack** · 11-25-2012, 01:49 AM

After doing research i have decided to start up a discus tank. I have decided to make it a summer project and am going to do alot of the build myself. The tank is coming soon and is a 5.5ft x 20in x 20in. I am planning on getting discus, some cories and some schooling tetras. Running a sump filter that i will be building myself and will post pictures as i go. i'll be building the stand and hood after I get the tank, customising will allow me to have things exactly how I want them. Would love input as i go as this is the whole point of this. After doing some research the bio media i have chosen is seachem matrix, after reading a lot of good reviews. Anyway i'll post photos as i go

**AllenIsbell** · 11-25-2012, 02:44 AM

I love builds like this. I can't wait! Keep the pictures rolling with the updates!

**waack** · 11-25-2012, 11:38 AM

This is what I hope yo build in terms of the sump

**waack** · 11-27-2012, 03:55 AM

built the overflow today, i used a common design that i researched a bit.

It seems the major problem that people have with this design is air getting into the system breaking the siphon and obviously causing issues when the power went out. To overcome this i have included a clear section where the air would build up, I have also planned to connect the air tube from the check valve to the return pipe of the pump, venturi style, hopefully this is enough to continuously suck the any air out of the siphon. Any input on weather this would work??

**ijankrom** · 11-29-2012, 05:03 AM

Originally Posted by waack

This is what I hope yo build in terms of the sump http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...ck/sumppic.png

In my opinion there's to much empty space in this design to make it worth wild. One specific value of a sump is the extra water volume, but with the low baffles in this design you're cutting your potential water volume a lot.

In my plans I'm going to take the drip plate, bio media area out of the tank and place in a tiered drawer system which will sit above the tank. I'm expecting to use at least 80% of my tank for water storage. When the power goes out I'm only calculating 1-1.5 gallons of extra water in sump tank (which is a 10 gal tank).

I need to make plans soon and post them. Probably make a journal.

**waack** · 11-29-2012, 05:37 AM

Yeh the sump is probably going to change, i have just sold the fish out of one of my 3 footers so 90% sure im going to be using that, having higher baffles, extra space allows for higher baffles and still not flooding. Ill also have three area instead of 2 and thinking of growing some plants or running an algae scrubber in the second part.

**waack** · 12-11-2012, 04:30 AM

after having some issues running 2 x 25 mm overflow's, being that they couldn't handle the full flow i chose to go down the path of 1 x 25 mm overflow and 1 x 40mm overflow.

Together they can handle the full flow of the pump 4600l/hr without accounting for head loss. They both have no problems restarting after 'poweroutage' which has been my main concern.