Thanks. They will be behind the tank. They are 3'x2'. So eight with plumbing should fit nicely behind the tank. Thinking of building a false back to the tank to cover them and allow me to insulate them also. I don't feel like building a traditional sump, and to give me more tank space I need uniformity. They will sit pretty much at the same level as the tank since they are on ground level. THis will prevent an overflow due to poweroutages. Another idea that had crossed my mind was hooking some of the main components to a wind powered generator incase the power ever goes out. Could give me enough energy to run the air pump, and maybe the filter if the power ever goes out. I found one for $400. Plus I think you get a tax break for alternat energy sources. I could get a large one to run the entire garage and house for $4000.00. Might try to make the first barrel a prefilter/settling chamber. Basically the bottom half of the filter would be the settling chamber, and the top half would be full of pillow batting. The batting would have to be changed monthly, but at $3 a bag at Micheals it's worth it. This would ensure that no particals would make it beyond that first stage, and all the large particals would settle at the bottom of it. Basically the water would travel down through the top and through a pipe ran all the way to the bottom of the barrel. The bottom would have slots cut into the sides pushing the water out sideways. Large particals would settle on the bottom and small ones would get trapped in the batting. Might also make a micro screen to polish the water just above the batting. Anyway the water would flow up through the batting and screen, and there would be a spillway leading to the next barrel at the top. The next six barrels can be used for whatever, but I am going to try and eventually fill most of them with pot scrubbies. The cost of that many pot scrubbers would be around $600. Probably going to start with around $200 worth and buy more a little at a time as the fish grow. The last barrel will be the last stage and will contain the return pump. So that's the plan on the filter for now unless someone can come up with a reason why it wouldn't work. Basically a 55 gal prefilter, then 6 bio chambers(overkill I know) equaling 330 gals of biomaterial. Then a 55 gal sump chamber that will contain heaters, and the return pump. Not sure how big the spillways need to be, but I know it will need to be massive. I have a 2" spillway on one of my filters now that handles roughly 1800 gph no problem. So probably a 4" spillway would work, but again open to suggestions.OscartheGrouch;2016718; said:
looking forward to this!!!
