New 300 gallon high tech high light planted Discus tank - Build Journal

[rbarn]

Originally Posted by defender.TX

Seventeen pages and we don't even have water in the tank! I love when people take their time and do things right. All this extra work is going to really pay off down the road!

And only 17 more pages to go !!!! Wooo Whooo

[magnum]

Wow this is quite an impressive build. I know I'd be willing to make the drive to possibly see the finished product one day haha.

[rbarn]

[Bettatail]

read through 18 pages..., it is a big accomplishment for me today

get Tom barr on the payroll, he will make a contemporary aquarium natural art in your tank for sure.

[styxx]

Originally Posted by defender.TX

Seventeen pages and we don't even have water in the tank! I love when people take their time and do things right. All this extra work is going to really pay off down the road!

It doesn't get any better than this my friends. Probably one of the most thorough (if not the most thorough) build threads I've ever read on TPT in the past 10 years. Truly Epic.

[zenche]

yea..the amount of self-restraint shown here blows my mind. i don't think i have to the discipline to do something so thoroughly...too impatient.

[!shadow!]

Originally Posted by zenche

yea..the amount of self-restraint shown here blows my mind. i don't think i have to the discipline to do something so thoroughly...too impatient.

+1 kudos to the op.

[rbarn]

Change of plans for the pumps. I will be selling my 1/15hp pond pumps in favor of some high end pool pumps.

Was out messing around with my pool pumps today. They are high efficiency Pentair variable speed pumps. You can set them anywhere from 400rpm to 3,400rpm and they display exactly how much power in watts they are using on their lcd display.

At 3,000 rpm they are loud pool pumps blasting away and sucking 2,000 watts.

but when I dialed it down to 750rpms where I would run it on the aquarium pumping 1,200 gph it was whisper quiet and pulling less than 120watts !!!!

This will also allow me to exactly fine tune how much water the pump is putting out. just simply push a button on the pump and speed it up or slow it down.

Insanely expensive at $900 a pop, and I'll need two, but the savings in electrical cost should offset it in a year or two.

[Green_Flash]

sounds like a sweet new toy.

[styxx]

Wow those are sweet! I love how it has the LCD control pad, pretty impressive power there and really when making expensive choices like this the silence factor is one that's hard to beat.

[tippeecanoe]

Holy MOLEY! Impressive to say the very least. Will continue to monitor and hope all turns out the best. Now how the heck do I subscribe to this thread? Never mind, I found the check box.

[NWA-Planted]

Ok not to be rude by any stretch but 900 a pump?? If your only going to be running 1200 gph, why wouldn't regular aquarium pumps work?

I can see wanting the flexibility etc just seems a little expensive for something your not fully using it's potential O.o

Just doing a quick search saw a pond pump that was 2100 gph using 70 watts, just curious as to the choice of pool pump. As stated earlier not trying to be rude or whatever just trying to understand i have been known to miss things

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[styxx]

Originally Posted by NWA-Planted

Ok not to be rude by any stretch but 900 a pump?? If your only going to be running 1200 gph, why wouldn't regular aquarium pumps work?

I can see wanting the flexibility etc just seems a little expensive for something your not fully using it's potential O.o

Just doing a quick search saw a pond pump that was 2100 gph using 70 watts, just curious as to the choice of pool pump. As stated earlier not trying to be rude or whatever just trying to understand i have been known to miss things

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Yes it is expensive, but a regular aquarium pump doesn't have the overhead power that this type does. So should he want to re-arrange his aquarium to a higher position, the more RPMs capable the pump the more head it can accommodate; moreover, with the higher RPM threshold, he could conceivably empty the entire tank in a dramatically short period of time, should a catastrophic failure occur. A 100 gallon aquarium could potentially be emptied by a 2100 GPH pump in less than a minute if my math is correct (at full throttle...someone can confirm my calculations?). And if you have a 100 gallon tank leaking into your living room, having that option is a life saver, IMHO. And these options aren't built into lower quality equipment (and I'm sure rBarn could point out other advantages as well that I haven't thought of). One really does "get what they pay" provided that they've done the requisite research.

[crazydog64]

User Control Panel > Left side "Edit Options" > "Number of posts to show per page" set at 40. Only 7 pages now :-)

[rbarn]

Originally Posted by NWA-Planted

I can see wanting the flexibility

And there's your answer. 2 words. Variable speed.

I keep worrying the pond pumps I have now are not going to be up to snuff since there is no way to figure out what true head pressure will be after pumping through 15'+ of piping with all kinds of turns and then up 6' to the top of the tank.

These pumps will take all unknowns out of pump choice


as far as emergency tank draining, that is being done with a central drain in the bottom of the tank, outside of the overflow boxes, that will gravity drain out at full siphon if needed.