building a 1000 gal concrete block monster tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Joshy;645506; said:
Looking good wizzin. If you want my opinion, go with:

5 silver aro's
3 oscars
3 pBass
1 RTC
1 Clown Knife

Just because an animal needs 200 gallons of room (lets just say), it does not mean it will use the 200 gallons to its bio load possibilities. Personally if you go with just 'adequate' filtration, you will still be under-stocked with your or my list. I would not recommend plecos though, they will not make a dent on algae if you get it on that scale, and odds are the RTC will 'own' all bottom dwellers.

Keep the pictures and updates coming :)
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I'm with you. I've read a LOT about koi ponds in the research for this thing. Koi produce crazy amounts of waste per fish. Most pond filters are calculated based on lbs of fish, and lbs of food per day. Based on these calcs, my filtration is more than adequate. One other key thing to remember is I'm providing 240gallons of fresh water throughout a 5 day cycle. I'll also be cleaning those pads at least once a week, if not more. I also plan on vacuming once a week. If it fails, I'll go bigger with filtration.
 
Joshy;645580; said:
Good move buddy. So got any construction plans for today and tomorrow?
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I'm going to try to get through 2 more rows of block tonight. That will leave me with one more row tomorrow, then it's on to pouring the slab and infilling the cores. My goal is to be ready to set the glass this Saturday. If I can't make it, then glass will go in next Saturday. Then sanitred on Sunday. Filling would be the following weekend. I hope...
 
how much did the block and mortar run you...also what kinda sealer are you using and mortar?
 
GooDyboy420;645629; said:
how much did the block and mortar run you...also what kinda sealer are you using and mortar?
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Don't quote me on this (I'll post actual numbers at some point) but about $200 for block and another $200 for mortar and concrete. Sealing the interior with sanitred (another $250). Quickrete mortar and concrete.
 
rottbo;646050; said:
is there space next to the tank on the sink side to put a sump that would be level with the tank?????
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Well, here's the deal. If the design I made isn't sufficient, I'm going to relocate the washer and dryer and the mop sink. I'll put in (3) 55 gal drums as filtration with a float valve and an overflow connected to the floor drain. I've seen a number of large ponds now with koi heavily stocked with 1 55 gal drum and they're getting perfect water. The norm seems to be about 100 gal per 1000 gal of water. The equation of filter size to tank size seems to change when you breach the 1000 gal mark. Another example is the ecosystem filters (pre-made w/d's) http://www.aquatichouse.com/FILTRATION MENU_files/Ecosystem.asp
where their 7222 system for 1000 gal tanks is basically a 100 gal tank divided with mech filtration and bio. Pretty much everything I've seen (with the exception of a few) say 100gal for 1000. But I saw one guy had 9 55 gal drums on a 2000 gallon pond. yes, it works, and works well, but you could do it for less IMO.

I've noticed that there are a lot of people here that like to have enormous filters for their tanks, which is great, but I think you can get clean water with less. I realize that there is no such thing as too much filtration, but as with anything, over engineering sometimes just results in spending more money than is necessary to achieve the same results.

This tank will have 100 gal of filtration and a combined flow rate of almost 2700gph. I think it's about right. Like I said, I've looked at countless DIY pond filter pages, and concluded that 100gal if setup right should be fine. Yes, I could put a 500 gal filter on, but at what cost, and at what advantage. If it cost me another $500 and only really somewhat helped water quality, is it worth it? I can always add filtration. I'm starting with what I feel should work, and if I'm wrong I'll add another 100gal of filtration.
 
i think you are absolutly right

mike
 
I was just gonna say use a sump at the same level for all you mechanical filtration then pump the water over the tank into your bio filtration and scrap the chemical filtration (IMO its to expensive and bio is way better) ... this is exactly how I filter a 750 and 150 off one filter.. its nice i can fit as many as 30 layers of mechanical filtration in my sump then it is easy to change just remove the dirty ones and throw them away its nice.. but of course about once a month i do a complete tear down of the mechanical sump and clean it completely.... and I only use about 40 gallons of bio media on this setup and its clear.. oh yeah I move about 4000 gph since I removed one of the pumps
 
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