Mini Rack System! Finally!

[ronrca]

History

Last summer, after frequenting simplydiscus a couple of weeks, I became obsessed (my wife’s terminology) with designing and constructing a mini rack system as I call it. This is to be a ‘trial and error’ or test system in the spare bedroom for a number of reasons. First being limited in space and second eventually developing a dedicated fish room in the basement once my wife decides not to rent it out anymore (yes, my wife’s decision as I would be in the basement already). Naturally, I wanted something that would not cost a fortune however I quickly came to the conclusion that I would have to either learn to build the tanks myself or buy tanks over a period of time. Projecting the cost of buying tanks for the fish room came to hundreds/thousands of dollars just for the tanks, never mind rack materials, filters, heaters, etc, etc! I more or less became discouraged however was still determined to continue.

Then I met Dwayne Urban aka Smokey in southern Alberta! I don’t know how many e-mails we have sent since October 2002. Lots and lots! Smokey taught me how to make tanks from scratch utilizing used glass, most of the time free glass (my dad actually had a 4’x8’ double pane window, 6mm)! That was the first step. Next came the principle of minimizing maintenance, water overflow, water distribution, etc, etc! Well…..you will see the end product!

Many, many thanks to Smokey for your countless hours of typing e-mails, answering questions and just plain putting up with me bothering you over the last 7-8 months. I owe you a lot of discus (btw, some are in the mail already)!

Also, thanks to daninthesand and DaveC for sharing knowledge and info (dan, I love the fillpro).

Background

Everyone’s dream rack is one where maintenance is minimum, myself included. This ‘minimum maintenance’ for me is feces being sucked out of the tanks automatically and auto water changes. Well, the first part has been taken care of as you will see in the pics! The second part, the auto water changes, will be coming later once I save up some cash for limit switches, levels sensors, solenoid valves, timers, etc!

Anyways, the pics! You will find a few pics showing the overall rack system at

http://photos.yahoo.com/ronr_ca

Go under the folder – Fishroom and you will find 11 pics (the first 11 I believe)!
More detailed pics will follow later this week/next week! The pics on screen are very small. You can download them for much bigger size!

Of course, please offer any suggestions/concerns! I would love to hear how I can improve it and later when I do construct the fish room, I will have most of the issues ironed out! There are a few minor things I have to do yet like insulate the sumps.

The Rack System

Lets go to the first pic Rack system wo top rack!
This rack system at the moment is intended for 6 tanks (future is 8 tanks). I only have connected 3 tanks at the moment however the principle is the same for both shelves. The system works on the overflow method as you can see the bulkheads in the back of the tanks. The tanks are 24” deep x 15” wide x 15” high inside dimensions roughly equaling 19.5G if totally full! The rack is 51.5” wide x 25” deep x 90” high. Between the top of the tanks and the bottom of the next shelve is 8.25”. I do have a detail drawing of the rack with material list! Lets continue.

Sumps! Mag 9 pumps inside
In this pic you can see 2 40G Rubbermaid sumps on the bottom. In each of the sumps there is a Mag 950 pump plus heaters. Basically, the tanks will overflow into the sumps and be pumped up to a biofilter/manifold. The two separate sumps will work really good when I have different water conditions because they are kept separate. You can also see to ball valves just under the shelve. These are for incoming water from the storage barrels by which they would fill the sumps after draining them.

Middle Rack
How this works is water enters the tank thru the clear pipes seen in the front extending all the way up to the bottom of the next shelve. These pipes are only a couple of mm from the bottom of the tank. I cut one V at the bottom of the pipe thus allowing me to turn the clear pipe and creating a strong current sweeping any feces to the back of the tank (it really works).

Top Rack w biofilter
Here you can see that the top rack isn’t complete however it shows the biofilters/manifold/distribution for the tanks. Water exits the biofilter from the front, runs down the side of the rack and under the shelve to each of the tanks. This is shown clearer in the next pic.

Water pipes into the tanks
As the water exits the biofilter, it runs down the pipes into the tanks. Each pipe has a ball valve to control the water flow or even isolate a tank for whatever reason.

Back! Overflows and filter
In this pic you can see the overflows on the tanks a little better. I will get into that in a different pic. You can also see the overflows exiting into a underside down 5G water bottle jug. Boy, that works really good. I cut the bottom off, inverted it, and stuffed it full of foam. Of course the neck of the jug fits quite snug into the top of the sump allowing it to drain nicely. I also fasten the jug to the rack so that it will not tip over. The basket is kind of like a pre-filter intended to be easily removed, rinsed and replaced as feces will collect in this pre-filter. Next to or in front of the jug there is the pipe exiting the sump, going all the way up to the biofilters. I didn’t get a very good pic but there is a T in the vertical pipe (very top of pic) with a ball valve and pipe continuing horizontally across the back of the rack. This horizontal pipe connects to the drain thus when the ball valve is opened, the water pumps into the drain instead of up to the biofilters.

Water into biofilter from sump
This pic shows the vertical pipe from the sump all the way up to the biofilter

Close up of tank layout
Now, on to the overflow principle. The right hand side is ½” pipe and serves as an overflow and surface skimmer. These have ball valves to control the water flow as you don’t necessarily want the majority of the water exiting out the top.
-***The left hand side is 1” pipe. The connectors are starting from the front:
o***A reduce 90 (1” to ¾” or ½”). This acts to break any siphoning that may occur when the pump is off and no water enters the tank.
o***T connector. You can see a another clear pipe again extending down to the bottom of the tank. The bottom has little V’s cut all around the diameter of the pipe. This will create the suction intended to suck feces out from the tank.
o***The bulkhead. I use the oversized rubber gaskets btw.

Drain-top! New water-bottom
The horizontal pipe with ball valve described earlier T’ing from the vertical pipe exiting the sumps ends just beyond the rack and continues via a poly flex pipe (the top pipes) to wherever I remember to place the other end, normally the drain. At the bottom you can see the connection from the storage barrels via ¾” bowpex pipe. The other end is connected to a Rio 1700 pump inside the storage barrel where the water is heated, aerated and treated. You can also see another storage barrel for future beside the rack. Again, once I start using different water parameters (breeding), the isolated sumps and barrels will make it very easy. The storage barrel I'm currently using is shown in other pics after the rack pics.

Closeup of biofilter
As you can see, the water from the sump enters the biofiler from the back on top. Inside the biofilter is a spray bar shown by the T. Then comes the foams, dividers and the bulkheads where the water exits to the tanks at the bottom.

System running
This is just a pic of the pump on. You can see water in the clear pipes. These clear pipes also aerate the water seen by the bubbles in the clear pipes.

Pipes under shelf
This pic shows the pipe running under the shelf to each tank

Detail of new water in
Here you see the valves for water in from the storage barrels. You can see 2 valves. The ‘black’ valve is actually an isolation valve. When this valve is closed, the two sumps are isolated.

Detail new water in 2
Close up of the connection for the water from the storage barrels. There are two connections for 2 barrels and 2 different water parameters (just turn the black valve under the shelf).

Detail of filter jug
A close up of the inverted water jug acting as a filter. It full of foam! I removed the basket because it was difficult to remove.

Detail of drain
This pic shows the valves and pipes clearer

Detail of drain 2
Close up of the drain connection

Tank detail showing plexi
One of the interesting design with these tanks is that they incorporate a 4” plexi glass insert instead of having to drill glass. Wow, is this ever convenient and much cheaper than having to purchase glass drill bits/hole saws.

Tank detail showing plexi 2
The tank height is 15” therefore the bottom piece is 11” glass and the top 4” plexi. Because the plexi is at the good, there is not much water pressure on the plexi/glass joints. The two pieces are butted together and there is a 1” strip of plexi across the joint. This 1” plexi strip has 2 rows of small holes drill every 1” or so. This allows the silicon to be squeezed thru the holes and providing a much stronger and reinforced joint. If interested, I can get even detailed pics if requested.

Inside sump
Here you can see the Mag 950 pump, the jug entering the sump and a basket with more filtering (also to lessen the noise of water falling from the jug filter into the sump).

Inside sump 2
Another pic of the sump. The lid I cut in half so I can open it!

The last pic
The super model that has not been recognized yet! LOL! Hey, at least discus are not fussy about looks! LOL!

If anyone has questions or would like more pics, let me know!

[henryD]

Wow I am impressed.

That is a great job. I know who to bug when I want to build my own system.

[heavyp83]

the link to the fishroom didn't work for me. geez i really am itching to see it too

[Ardan]

Looks Great!!!! 8)

[shorthair]

Very nice setup ronrca I hope you and smokey are around when I decide to build a rack. ;D ;D Devin

[daninthesand]

A great setup. let us know how it works as far as REALLY getting rid of the bottom crap. would love to hear how it goes with a load of fish in there. good job!

Daniel

[ronrca]

Updated with 11 more pics! See description above!

[Jason]

Look's fantastic!

I agree Smokey is the best, whenever I get a new Idea or want to try something, he's the first guy I consult!

Very nice setup Ron, makes all the wc's look so easy ;D

After i move im abducting you and smoke and locking you in the fishroom til i see some of those. Never blessed with good wood working skills, cut the board twice and its still too damn short!

[Smokey]

so blkwolfe ... how many fingers ya still got ???? lol

[H Tran]

Great system!

Close up of tank layout
Now, on to the overflow principle. The right hand side is ½” pipe and serves as an overflow and surface skimmer. These have ball valves to control the water flow as you don’t necessarily want the majority of the water exiting out the top.
- The left hand side is 1” pipe. The connectors are starting from the front:
o A reduce 90 (1” to ¾” or ½”). This acts to break any siphoning that may occur when the pump is off and no water enters the tank.
o T connector. You can see a another clear pipe again extending down to the bottom of the tank. The bottom has little V’s cut all around the diameter of the pipe. This will create the suction intended to suck feces out from the tank

Can you please explain more on how all these work? Especially, the last section regarding "suction of fences": How does it work? Does the suction happen automatically when the water rise to that level?

Thanks

H Tran

[Smokey]

ShortHair; it is never too early OR to late to start to plan for a ''RACK SYSTEM''.
Everyone must understand that a rack is only the container for the aquariums. As the aquarariums are only the container for the water.

WATER is the container for the ''DISCUS''. Good healthy clean water!!! ahh the magic ingredient.

H Tran - perhaps I can be of help with your question. It is actually very simple. see draft below - [blkwolfe post]
Water will flow up the clear rigid pipe under its own pressure. The 90 elbow, actuall should be facing upwards. The 90 elbow allows for air , to break any actuall syphoning, preventing the tank from empting.
Believe it or not it works extremely well.


Smokey

Heh smoke, long as i got enough left to hold a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other im not complaining. Oh yeah, and hold a hose for wc's :

Pic courtesy of Smokey:

[H Tran]

Thanks Smokey and BlkWolf. I do have a couple more questions, if you don't mind...

1) The overflow. I assume it should be place higher than the siphoning unit. The question is, "How much higher?"

2)

Next to or in front of the jug there is the pipe exiting the sump, going all the way up to the biofilters. I didn’t get a very good pic but there is a T in the vertical pipe (very top of pic) with a ball valve and pipe continuing horizontally across the back of the rack. This horizontal pipe connects to the drain thus when the ball valve is opened, the water pumps into the drain instead of up to the biofilters.

And

Drain-top! New water-bottom
The horizontal pipe with ball valve described earlier T’ing from the vertical pipe exiting the sumps ends just beyond the rack and continues via a poly flex pipe (the top pipes) to wherever I remember to place the other end, normally the drain. At the bottom you can see the connection from the storage barrels via ¾” bowpex pipe. The other end is connected to a Rio 1700 pump inside the storage barrel where the water is heated, aerated and treated. You can also see another storage barrel for future beside the rack. Again, once I start using different water parameters (breeding), the isolated sumps and barrels will make it very easy. The storage barrel I'm currently using is shown in other pics after the rack pics.

Again, how does this work? Please, give more details and diagrams if posible.

I am sorry for all these elementary questions, but I really do have great interest in understanding this whole sytem and how it works. ;D

Thanks,

H Tran