75g Acrylic tank w/ 40g sump (Journal build thread)

[rickztahone]

So I have been working here and there on the plumbing and it is taking me for ever! To make matters worse, we added a softner to the house and now I have to pull my tap water from outside the front lawn. This means I have re-route incoming and outgoing water. It is a pain, but I was checking out the lay out and I am sure I can make it work. It is just more work than I had initially anticipated. This means that I have to weld a line, add a T, add an emergency shut off, route it about 25ft and it isn't a straight shot. These discus better appreciate all I am doing here!

[alcastro]

What do our wives think when we do stuff like this, I built a fish room that will problebly not have an end, lol

[rickztahone]

What do our wives think when we do stuff like this, I built a fish room that will problebly not have an end, lol

My wife simply rolls her eyes, lol. She's hoping this build part will never end, because she prefers when I don't have fish. She says that WC's are such a waste of time, lol. This is why I have simplified the formula a little.

[Discus-n00b]

It always ends up with the original plans in the trash LOL.

[rickztahone]

Can anyone help me out here? I am planning on buying this hose to fill my aging barrel:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ME11FS/...SUILFQ7S&psc=1

However, I am not finding some kind of nozzle or something that has a "U" type shape, or flexible enough so that it hangs on the lip of the aging barrel. Do any of you have suggestions?

I am thinking PVC but not sure how to connect the hose to the pvc without potentially leaving a weak spot in the refill setup in the future.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[rickztahone]

Also, finally placed the media in the sump. Filled up 3 large bags with ceramic media. All of this media, plus more was in 3 Rena filters and it doesn't even fill the section for media, lol.

I just need to get a water storage barrel and a hose and I will be set and ready for discus again.

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[rickztahone]

Finally finished the build. Check out the finished thread here:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...nimal-overflow

[Mgus]

Looks awesome Ricardo. Really sleek clean look. Any idea yet on what strain and size fish in you'll be putting in there?

[Jack L]

I have two 90 degree angles on my return line on my 90 but this tank does not have a mag-drive. Not sure of the pump on this tank. Can you lost a picture of a flat nozzle?

late to thread i know... but FWIW I have 4 return nozzles now, there were 2 3/4" rounds. i couldn't see much of a difference between the normal nozzle and a flat nozzle on output. i settled on 2 round and two flat outputs

[Jack L]

for what it's worth....

I ran a durso and it was always noisy. I loved having a sump but it wasn't worth it because of the noise. My 75 reef ready tank now houses two juvenile red foot tortoises.

I ran a mag 5 on a 75 gallon tank and it was a little bit too weak
I switched to a mag 9.5, good flow but would blow even heavy sand around and provided some really strong focused current.

I think a mag 7 would have been perfect. if I remember correctly there are two mag 7. I think the aquarium type has a 3' cord and the pond model a 6' cord? The price and everything else appears the same. go for the 6' cord.

IMO you can spend hundreds of dollars playing with baffles and ceramic media, k1 media, bio-spheres, bio-bale and all the latest filter media. And all you will have is a really expensive sump. I think one or two 4" of the very coarse poret foam will provide more than enough surface area for all biological filtration you will ever need. ever.

Get some filter socks or you can rig up a sheet of the filter sock material before the return pump and your water will be crystal clear.

late to thread i know, but FWIW
i converted a NOISEY guggling Durso to a herbie and it was a huge sound improvement, pretty much went silent.

[Jack L]

So I have been working here and there on the plumbing and it is taking me for ever! To make matters worse, we added a softner to the house and now I have to pull my tap water from outside the front lawn. This means I have re-route incoming and outgoing water. It is a pain, but I was checking out the lay out and I am sure I can make it work. It is just more work than I had initially anticipated. This means that I have to weld a line, add a T, add an emergency shut off, route it about 25ft and it isn't a straight shot. These discus better appreciate all I am doing here!

my plants wouldn't grow well in softened water (even easy Val). i now use RO and add back minerals and buffering and it seemed to do better. i keep debating on trying softened water with adding back some KH for the plants instead of RO, but for now using RO.

[CrazyAngels]

Also, finally placed the media in the sump. Filled up 3 large bags with ceramic media. All of this media, plus more was in 3 Rena filters and it doesn't even fill the section for media, lol.

I just need to get a water storage barrel and a hose and I will be set and ready for discus again.

DSC04477.jpg

DSC04478.jpg

DSC04480.jpg

Hey bud like what you've done here. great setup. I've started using Biohome filter media that some guy in England was pitching and lucky for us it's available now in the states through a distributor up in San Jose. Something for you to consider if you need more. here is the link. https://greatwaveeng.com/product-category/media/

[Jack L]

Can anyone help me out here? I am planning on buying this hose to fill my aging barrel:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ME11FS/...SUILFQ7S&psc=1

However, I am not finding some kind of nozzle or something that has a "U" type shape, or flexible enough so that it hangs on the lip of the aging barrel. Do any of you have suggestions?

I am thinking PVC but not sure how to connect the hose to the pvc without potentially leaving a weak spot in the refill setup in the future.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

that about something like this, and feed the hose through the pipe, the trap would act as a hanger and the hose would just not have a nozzle, unless you want one

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DBHL-1-1-...9738/100345656

[CrazyAngels]

Ricardo, as for something to hang, I'll take a picture of mine when I get home tonight and email it your way. simple and effective. been using it for the past 5 years to fill all my tanks.

[Jack L]

Hey bud like what you've done here. great setup. I've started using Biohome filter media that some guy in England was pitching and lucky for us it's available now in the states through a distributor up in San Jose. Something for you to consider if you need more. here is the link. https://greatwaveeng.com/product-category/media/

i really question how much media is really needed. a seller is never going to tell you the straight answer. but my thought as long as you are running nitrate and not amonia or nitrite, you have enough media. i bet i could run my sump empty and it would still be enough.

with just a filter sock, a tiny overflow prefilter(as a screen for shrimp) and a 2x3x14" sponge in sump, in my 170 gallons of water with PLENTLTY of bioload based on detritus, it kept up just fine. i tried to find solid info on how much biomedia is needed, but the the summary was no one knows, its cheap and doesn't hurt to overdo it, so people do.

but its more to maintain and waste of cash if not needed. i recently added matrix as they claim it will support both type of nitro bacter and in theory eat nitrate. so far that hasn't happened, but in their defense the matrix is getting a lot of water flow. i'm going to put in another sack of it in a low flow area of sump and see if it makes a difference