ArkyLady
04-29-2003, 11:07 PM
I'm looking at setting up a series of small tanks for breeding some guppies. They will be mostly 5 and 10 gal with a few 20 gal growout tanks. When I set this up before it was a smaller setup of only 5 tanks and I had sponge filters in each tank and did the water changes manually. This time I'd like to plan better and set things up a bit more sensibly so it's not as difficult to maintain.
I'm envisioning a central sump/filter system that heats and filters the water, then returns it back to the tanks. I'm unsure how to get the water from the tanks into the sump. I read that drilling glass can weaken it which I'd assume would be more of an issue with the smaller tanks? And the DIY overflow setups I've seen seem rather large to be using in these small tanks.
Using sponge filters is very easy to setup, but the main reason I'd like to use a central sump/filter is so that I can easily automate water changes and also have a central location to heat the water instead of keeping a heater in each tank. Although this will be setup in a nicely insulated building just for this purpose, I'd like to have heaters as backup in case the temperature isn't just right since I won't be able to afford to install a thermostatically controlled heating system for the building.
Once I figure out how to get all the water into the sump, I'd like to install what would basically be an auto top off system. I'll be having to clean the fish waste and left over foods from the bottom of the tanks at least twice a day, so if the water that is sucked out during this process is automatically replaced with fresh water (already treated and stored in a holding tank), that should be enough to cover my water changes. I can easily keep track of how much water is being changed per week and pump more water out if necessary.
I'm a little nervous about designing my own system since I've never had a sump and I've read of disasters happening by not fully understanding what will happen during a power outage or if something got blocked up somewhere. Also, let's not forget that many of these tanks will be housing fry, so we don't want them to be sucked out and going for a ride!
So if you were setting up a fish room from scratch and wanted to do it right the first time for maximum efficiency, what are your ideas? Diagrams and pictures are welcome and encouraged :)
I'm envisioning a central sump/filter system that heats and filters the water, then returns it back to the tanks. I'm unsure how to get the water from the tanks into the sump. I read that drilling glass can weaken it which I'd assume would be more of an issue with the smaller tanks? And the DIY overflow setups I've seen seem rather large to be using in these small tanks.
Using sponge filters is very easy to setup, but the main reason I'd like to use a central sump/filter is so that I can easily automate water changes and also have a central location to heat the water instead of keeping a heater in each tank. Although this will be setup in a nicely insulated building just for this purpose, I'd like to have heaters as backup in case the temperature isn't just right since I won't be able to afford to install a thermostatically controlled heating system for the building.
Once I figure out how to get all the water into the sump, I'd like to install what would basically be an auto top off system. I'll be having to clean the fish waste and left over foods from the bottom of the tanks at least twice a day, so if the water that is sucked out during this process is automatically replaced with fresh water (already treated and stored in a holding tank), that should be enough to cover my water changes. I can easily keep track of how much water is being changed per week and pump more water out if necessary.
I'm a little nervous about designing my own system since I've never had a sump and I've read of disasters happening by not fully understanding what will happen during a power outage or if something got blocked up somewhere. Also, let's not forget that many of these tanks will be housing fry, so we don't want them to be sucked out and going for a ride!
So if you were setting up a fish room from scratch and wanted to do it right the first time for maximum efficiency, what are your ideas? Diagrams and pictures are welcome and encouraged :)