waack's 150 gal discus tank.

[waack]

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]

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

[waack]

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

[waack]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[waack]

Deciding that the full flow of the pump back to the tank was going to be too much flow I invested in a T piece and some ball valves. I also went with my gut and changed the sump from the original 2 foot to the 3 foot design.
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The middle section will be for the return pump, the rightmost section for the biomedia/ mechanical filtration. The leftmost section will contain an abundance of fast growing plants and mosses. After looking at algae scrubbers and realizing i didn't have enough flow. I went for another option being the plant section. They should aid in removing at least nitrates and maybe phosphates if the section is illuminated correctly which i plan on doing.

[waack]

Today the sump build was finished, including the baffles and the media box.

Some of the flow from the pump will be diverted into the plant section, obviously low flow don't want to blow the plants out of the water.

The silicone drop is very rough, but it was my first time so give me a break. It works so that's the main thing. Also it will be under the tank so aesthetics isn't a major issue. The drip plate near the top works perfectly for the flow i'm planning on using. A small layer of water builds up, which will allow be to reduce some of the noise by submersing the overflows under the small layer, and then the water flows evenly through the holes which will give even flow over the biomedia which will be contained underneath. The bottom is an old undergravel which i cut up

[waack]

Media arrived today, massive overkill in terms of the recommended 1L per 100gal ( i bought 8 litres) but the more biomedia the better right. Also bought some matting, pads and a pad that claims to remove phosphates probably a gimmick but it didn't cost that much anyway.