PhysicsDude's 7 Foot River Tank Journal UPDATE 1-4-2016 New Sump!
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339 Posts
Update 1-4-2016
UPDATE 1-4-2016:
I have done lots of work lately to the tank! First and foremost, I switched the tank over from a closed loop canister filter system to a sump! I was tired of maintaining the canister filters, and after 5 years of nonstop work, the Magnum 350 filters just weren't cutting it anymore. I was also having issues of the water not being oxygenated because of low filter flow.
More on that later!
Livestock Update:
I also put some new livestock in lately. I got 2 bichirs a few months ago, and I bought a school of tiger stripe silver dollars, which are awesome fish! Unfortunately I bought the silver dollars right before a 7 day business trip, and when I came back, half my livestock was dead from an Ich infestation that was brought in from the new silver dollars! I know I should have quarentined them, but I don't have a quarantine tank. Live and learn!
Right now in the tank I currently have:
0 Denison barbs all dead :-(
0 Clown Loaches all dead :-(
2 bristlenose plecos
8 tiger barbs
5 Apollo Sharks
6 corydora catfish probably bichir food in a few months
1 albino sengalus bichir My favorite!
1 delhezi bichir
1 Tiger Stripe Silver Dollar Lone survivor
In a few weeks after the infection is 100% gone and I'm home for at least a week I'm going to restock on Denison barbs, silver dollars, and clown loaches.
The albino bichir is my favorite! I've had him about 6 months, he's a full 8" and pretty thick. Like most bichirs, he was pretty shy when first added to the tank, but he's become quite adventurous now! Very cute and photogenic if you ask me
. The Delhezi bichir is newer, and still pretty shy. He's going to be a beast when he grows a bit more, and will hopefully get a bit more active when he gets bigger.
Delhezi Bichir:
Albino Bichir:
UPDATE 1-4-2016:
I have done lots of work lately to the tank! First and foremost, I switched the tank over from a closed loop canister filter system to a sump! I was tired of maintaining the canister filters, and after 5 years of nonstop work, the Magnum 350 filters just weren't cutting it anymore. I was also having issues of the water not being oxygenated because of low filter flow.
More on that later!
Livestock Update:
I also put some new livestock in lately. I got 2 bichirs a few months ago, and I bought a school of tiger stripe silver dollars, which are awesome fish! Unfortunately I bought the silver dollars right before a 7 day business trip, and when I came back, half my livestock was dead from an Ich infestation that was brought in from the new silver dollars! I know I should have quarentined them, but I don't have a quarantine tank. Live and learn!
Right now in the tank I currently have:
0 Denison barbs all dead :-(
0 Clown Loaches all dead :-(
2 bristlenose plecos
8 tiger barbs
5 Apollo Sharks
6 corydora catfish probably bichir food in a few months
1 albino sengalus bichir My favorite!
1 delhezi bichir
1 Tiger Stripe Silver Dollar Lone survivor
In a few weeks after the infection is 100% gone and I'm home for at least a week I'm going to restock on Denison barbs, silver dollars, and clown loaches.
The albino bichir is my favorite! I've had him about 6 months, he's a full 8" and pretty thick. Like most bichirs, he was pretty shy when first added to the tank, but he's become quite adventurous now! Very cute and photogenic if you ask me
. The Delhezi bichir is newer, and still pretty shy. He's going to be a beast when he grows a bit more, and will hopefully get a bit more active when he gets bigger.Delhezi Bichir:
Albino Bichir:
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339 Posts
New Sump!
I finally joined the dark side and switched to a sump. I should have designed the setup initially to use a sump, but I was too lazy.
After 5 years of continuous work, my canister filters were pretty worn out. I tried replacing a few parts on them, but it didn't seem to help much. I'm glad I switched to a sump, its really the best option for any serious larger aquarium.
The biggest sump I could fit under my stand was a 20 gallon long. I found one on craigslist that already had baffles installed. I used (4) 4"x9" filter socks. I'm hoping they can last 30 days between replacements, but lately I've been changing them weekly to keep the water pristine.
I also bought a Jabeo DC-8000 sump pump. I'm very happy with it so far, its pretty quiet, features 10 speeds, and slow start. I only use speed 3 out of 10, and its plenty of flow for the tank. Best part is it cost less than $100!
I learned a lot about sumps. When I first installed it, I didn't properly plan my drains. I didn't understand that you want the main drain to have a full siphon. I then redid some of the plumbing. I'm not going to go into all the details, and I had to plumb things in a weird way due to how I built the setup initially. I ended up drilling another hole near the top of the tank, which was not very easy to do with fish in the tank! After my 2nd re-do, everything is working pretty well. With a properly designed overflow I could have more reliable flow and quieter operation, but the setup is working fine for what I had to work with.
The sump was really hard to fit under the tank. I didn't design the tank with a sump in mind, so I had to remove one of the supports (while the tank was 1/2 full of water) to get everything to slide in. I spent about 15 hours straight installing the sump and figuring out all the problems.
I put some K3 media in the sump to create somewhat of a fluidized bed filter. I'm not sure if I'll keep it. My tank has plenty of beneficial bacteria in the tank due to the background and driftwood, and the media bouncing around the sump is noisier than I expected. It does look really cool when its in action though!
sump won't fit:
Moved support so that it will fit:
Installed and running!
I finally joined the dark side and switched to a sump. I should have designed the setup initially to use a sump, but I was too lazy.
After 5 years of continuous work, my canister filters were pretty worn out. I tried replacing a few parts on them, but it didn't seem to help much. I'm glad I switched to a sump, its really the best option for any serious larger aquarium.
The biggest sump I could fit under my stand was a 20 gallon long. I found one on craigslist that already had baffles installed. I used (4) 4"x9" filter socks. I'm hoping they can last 30 days between replacements, but lately I've been changing them weekly to keep the water pristine.
I also bought a Jabeo DC-8000 sump pump. I'm very happy with it so far, its pretty quiet, features 10 speeds, and slow start. I only use speed 3 out of 10, and its plenty of flow for the tank. Best part is it cost less than $100!
I learned a lot about sumps. When I first installed it, I didn't properly plan my drains. I didn't understand that you want the main drain to have a full siphon. I then redid some of the plumbing. I'm not going to go into all the details, and I had to plumb things in a weird way due to how I built the setup initially. I ended up drilling another hole near the top of the tank, which was not very easy to do with fish in the tank! After my 2nd re-do, everything is working pretty well. With a properly designed overflow I could have more reliable flow and quieter operation, but the setup is working fine for what I had to work with.
The sump was really hard to fit under the tank. I didn't design the tank with a sump in mind, so I had to remove one of the supports (while the tank was 1/2 full of water) to get everything to slide in. I spent about 15 hours straight installing the sump and figuring out all the problems.
I put some K3 media in the sump to create somewhat of a fluidized bed filter. I'm not sure if I'll keep it. My tank has plenty of beneficial bacteria in the tank due to the background and driftwood, and the media bouncing around the sump is noisier than I expected. It does look really cool when its in action though!
sump won't fit:
Moved support so that it will fit:
Installed and running!
Joined
·
339 Posts
Full Tank Shots!
Some shots of the full tank, and a quick video! I re-did the filter outputs when I installed the sump, and it creates a much better "river flow" effect that you can see in the video, also a quick shot of the K3 media in action at the end. Too bad there's not more livestock in the video. Maybe next time!
Video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2mXEOvK9B8
Full tank shot:
![]()
Right third of the tank:
Middle third:
![]()
Left third:
![]()
Some shots of the full tank, and a quick video! I re-did the filter outputs when I installed the sump, and it creates a much better "river flow" effect that you can see in the video, also a quick shot of the K3 media in action at the end. Too bad there's not more livestock in the video. Maybe next time!
Video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2mXEOvK9B8
Full tank shot:
Right third of the tank:
Middle third:
Left third:
Joined
·
339 Posts
I had a pictus cat in the tank (it too died in the ich outbreak). Pictus cats are typically really active, but he hid all day, I rarely saw him. Also my tiger barbs are extremely lethargic and hang out under the wood a lot. I think all the cover and hidden spots in the tank make a lot of the livestock hide more than usual.
That's one reason I decided to add silver dollars, they rarely hide.
Flagtail catfish are really cool, but they would just hide all day. I've been trying to research a catfish that would stay under 10" and be active during the day, but I haven't been able to find a commercially available catfish that fits the bill.
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