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Danny's Custom 8L Experimental Shrimp Tank

7K views 34 replies 16 participants last post by  binbin9 
#1 ·
So some of you guys may have seen my recently built 4 gallon long shrimp tank with CRS in it. If you haven't go check it out in my sig. Anyway, I actually really like these long and shallow tanks. I've been doing a lot of reading and research on Taiwan bees and caridinas and there's still a lot of mystery to these shrimp when breeding them together. So i decided to make an even longer and shallow tank. I wanted to try experimenting with breeding so I added a divider to my tank. The stability of a longer tank with the convenience of two smaller tanks.

Tank Dimensions: 48L x 6W x 7H (inches) - 8 Gallons Long
Tank Material: 1/4 Inch Acrylic
Substrate: Ada Aquasoil Amazonia New
Filtration: Eheim 2213 Classic Canister Filter / 2 Sponge Filters
Lighting: Small T25 bulb ( Will Upgrade )
Heater: 50 Watts
Airpump: Tetra Whisper 60 (Not quiet at all. Good thing the tanks in my kitchen)
Plants: TBA
Shrimp: TBA

Note: Some items listed above has been ordered and is still in the process of shipping.

Machine cutting the acrylic


Carbide Edge Smoothing








Okay so by now you guys guessed it, my setup is actually two 4 gallon tanks in one setup. But I mean i guess it's the same thing as one tank with a divider in it. Right? My plans for filtering this tank is to use to sponge filters that shoot the water to the opposite tank. On top of that I'm going to do a 2 inlet/inflow conversion to my eheim canister. I might need you guys help on ideas on how to do it. One intake on each side. Ill probably end up doing a custom spray bar that adds water to both tanks. Technically it'll be one tank filtered with the setup I'm going to make.












I added Coontail and Anacharis for the time being to cycling the ammonia and soak up everything. Now time to play the waiting game.
 
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#9 ·
Betta Maniac said:
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who keeps tanks in the kitchen!
Yeah lol the light under the cabinet was never in use so the other day I was like... This is a nice height suspension for a shrimp tank! And my man, I'm right behind you with the Taiwan bees. The prices are even going down!




That was the problem at first but I added the turning valves that allow the ability to let more or less air through. I played with it until I got the right amount of air going to each sponge filter. Great question! It'll probably be a bigger problem when I have the eheim filter. Ill need to one up with an idea to make a spray bar gay distributes water on both side evenly.
 
#12 ·
It's super-tough to do because the bodies of water are separate. If you were able to combine the tanks so water can level out between the two, you'd be better off.

When it comes to filtering two tanks with a single canister, there are two key problems that are tough to overcome because nothing is 100%. If one half of the intake is dirtier than the other or becomes clogged, then less water is going to be pulled in from that tank. That's going to lead to overflowing in the other. There's also no way to really guarantee that your output is going to disperse equal amounts of water into each tank.

Regarding the sponge filters... it will be next to impossible to really control the amount of water moved back and forth between tanks. Folks who have used those in such a manner in the past did so merely for water movement.
 
#14 ·
The sponge filter thing is a nonstarter, set them perfectly now, go watch some TV, and come back and see if they're even remotely the same volume in half an hour. If you want to cascade them together, you can either plumb a straight bulkhead from one to the other through the side (with some screen prefilters on it so nothing can move from one side to the other) or cascade from one higher tank into one lower tank. Think about a circuit a->b->canister filter->a instead of a->b == b->a because you're not gonna get that without some fairly sophisticated flow regulation/level sanity checks.
 
#17 ·
I came up with a solution of adding a section in the middle of the two tanks. It'll be it's own divided section in the middle and the two sides of the tank that are used to make this extra section will have drilled holes and covered by a piece of Ss mesh. That way the tank will be one and no overflowing happen. Pictures will be uploaded later of the new setup
 
#19 ·
I agree with the earlier comment of doing a linear filtration. Tank1 to tank2 to filter, then back to tank1. Also, if you plumb a sump, you could keep water levels in check that way. Two output pumps in the sump, and two overflows.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
#20 ·
Here's what I decided to do





The two sides will have holes near the top, it'll be two overflows. The middle section will be where my outlet is, so the filtered water will be distributed evenly, the two sponge filters will also aid in distributing the filtered water. The tank is now fully functionable as one tank.
 
#27 ·
Here's what I decided to do





The two sides will have holes near the top, it'll be two overflows. The middle section will be where my outlet is, so the filtered water will be distributed evenly, the two sponge filters will also aid in distributing the filtered water. The tank is now fully functional as one tank.
So the water will be filtered by the sponges, then output into the center section, then overflow into the tanks. Basically you plumbed a reverse sump in between the tanks. Am I correct?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
#22 ·
Really like this concept - very cool show tank.

Another workaround would be to very simply use the power of the Siphon! http://wetpetssupply.com/images/utubeCG89194medup.jpg - just a tube like this hooked over the middle of the two tanks. Use an airline to suck the air out and when the water level is higher on one side than the other the siphon will equalize the pressure by flowing water into the tank with the lower level. A 3/4 inch ID tube could probably do more than 600gph.

To prevent migration sponges would have to be used on either end.
 
#23 ·
Yeah I think all these methods would have been extremely difficult to work on two tanks. If I siphoned from tank 1 to tank 2, I'd need another siphone from tank 2 to tank 1. The slightest change of water through one of the siphone such as a leaf getting sucked up and getting stuck could cause one tank to overflow.
 
#24 ·
I think if you have a u shaped tube between/over the middle divider, that would siphon water to which ever tank has a lower water level, that would balance the difference in flow rates, or you could put the inlet from the filter in one tank, a couple of siphons to the second tank and the outlet to the filter in the second tank.
 
#28 ·
amberoze said:
So the water will be filtered by the sponges, then output into the center section, then overflow into the tanks. Basically you plumbed a reverse sump in between the tanks. Am I correct?
Yeah basically. The sponge filters is it's own filtration ran by an airpump. Ill have 2 inlets with stainless steel mesh guards for the canister intakes. The sponge filters are just extra. It'll be easier to visualize when the parts come and I can take pictures of the setup.
 
#30 ·
Yeah! It's called "Weldon 4" your going to need an applicator bottle, it has a needle at the end. Your gonna need to practice with scrap metal. The cement is really thin, i won't stay in my pipette or in the needle bottle applicator. It melts acrylic so the moment you accidentally drip it on the face of your tank or something it'll mess up the surface. I suggest you get Weldon 16. It's a gel like glue that does the same thing. I got everything on eBay. PM me if you need more help!
 
#32 ·
Got my reverse sump going, tank will start cycling as of now. Still waiting on my extra eheim parts to make two intakes. I used SS mesh to cover the holes.









I didn't know how to attatch the mesh so I just used some office clips. The eheim and sponge filters have been cycling in a very high bioload 170 gal tank with baby koi. Hopefully it'll give me a jump start on the bacteria cultivation
 
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