Lets see what's in your stand! mechanical photo's

[pacu mom]

As far as installation though, do they just go inline of the pump and hardplumbed in?

RTLs have 1 1/2" - 2" ports, depending on the size of the filter.
This is the picture the guy who sold us the RTL-25s gave us of a setup he did.

This is our setup for our 300 gallon tank:

There is a free standing base that can be purchased for RTLs. The RTL-100s for our big setup will be sitting on the floor.

All Aquatics sells RTLs, so I'm not the only fishkeeper using spa filters.
http://all-aquatics.com/store/item/...RTL_100_Dynamic_Series_Commercial_Filter.html

There are a few other elements in my picture. There's a line from a 55 gallon holding tank. (We open the valve, and water gravity flows into the main tank through the filtration plumbing) Not in the picture is a utility sink with a connector to the holding tank. We just turn the hot/cold water on to keep filling the 55 gallon tank that feeds the main tank. On the extreme right is a line going down under the house and out on the patio. When we open the valve outside, water starts draining out of the main tank. Super easy water changes

 

[JimA]

Curious why not just a big pool sand filter type system for the monster tank? Something you could backflush when needed? I know enough about std filters but not much if anything on a pool filter.

 

[Egon]

I would use 7x32 polypropylene socks - they have close to if not the same surface area as the 5G paint strainer bags but are made of a much better material.

Yeah I agree, 7" is the largest/cost effective option. I use it and it works great! Of course we can get into the industrial sizes but for the money you can't beat the 7" option.

 

[pacu mom]

Curious why not just a big pool sand filter type system for the monster tank? Something you could backflush when needed? I know enough about std filters but not much if anything on a pool filter.

Will be running two Ultima 4000s run by Barracuda Gold pumps. Our little RTL-25s have worked so well on our 300 gallon tank, that I'm not willing NOT to use RTLs on our big tank. Someone has a thread asking about using a filter sock in addition to his Ultima...so apparently additional mechanical was needed. I'm running the Ultimas primarily for biological filtration. There are threads by others on this forum who went from sumps to Ultimas and are very pleased. I'll use the sump tank as a holding tank, and one Ultima will draw water from the sump and return it to the main tank. I'll also run a Clarity CL-3 off the sump, and will throw in some Pond Matrix for redundant bio filtration since I have the space (405 gallon sump). My tank came with 20 holes in the two overflow boxes. I had an additional eleven holes drilled in the top of my tank for 1 1/2" PVC to accommodate my RTL filtration. I am a believer in RTLs.

 

[Dan F]

Yeah I agree, 7" is the largest/cost effective option. I use it and it works great! Of course we can get into the industrial sizes but for the money you can't beat the 7" option.

I did the math, and a 7x32 sock is actually considerably larger than a 5G bucket sized bag.

5g bucket surface area:
10.75" (mean diameter) x 3.14 = 33.755"
33.755" x 14.5" = ~490 square inches (surface area of bucket's cylindrical portion) + ~90 square inches (surface area of bottom) = ~580 square inches


7x32 sock surface area:
7" x 3.14 = ~22"
22" x 32" = 704 square inches

580/704 = 0.82, so a 7x32 sock is about 18% larger than the 5G bucket sized bag. Add in the fact that the paint strainer bag has no rim and is made from polyester mesh and there really is no reason you would want to use them, unless you really needed that specific size and shape of bag.

 

[ChiPerf]

My head hurts.

 

[pacu mom]

I did the math, and a 7x32 sock is actually considerably larger than a 5G bucket sized bag.

5g bucket surface area:
10.75" (mean diameter) x 3.14 = 33.755"
33.755" x 14.5" = ~490 square inches (surface area of bucket's cylindrical portion) + ~90 square inches (surface area of bottom) = ~580 square inches


7x32 sock surface area:
7" x 3.14 = ~22"
22" x 32" = 704 square inches

580/704 = 0.82, so a 7x32 sock is about 18% larger than the 5G bucket sized bag. Add in the fact that the paint strainer bag has no rim and is made from polyester mesh and there really is no reason you would want to use them, unless you really needed that specific size and shape of bag.

I stand corrected. I purchased a bunch of 11" x 16" socks and thought I had purchased the largest size. My apologies to Egon for being wrong.

BTW, the dimensions for the 5 gallon bag are:
Overall size is 20 1/4" Dia. x 21 1/2" Ht. Top diameter is 13 1/2".


How tall would your sump have to be to effectively use a 32" sock?

 

[Dan F]

I stand corrected. I purchased a bunch of 11" x 16" socks and thought I had purchased the largest size. My apologies to Egon for being wrong.

BTW, the dimensions for the 5 gallon bag are:
Overall size is 20 1/4" Dia. x 21 1/2" Ht. Top diameter is 13 1/2".


How tall would your sump have to be to effectively use a 32" sock?

It is hard to imagine the exact shape of those big 5G bags from the dimensions they list, I just went by the dimensions of an actual 5G bucket - the bags are actually quite a bit bigger, but I'm not sure bigger is better in this situation.

I have seen the 32" long socks used in a fairly shallow (maybe 24" deep) sump, they kind of bent at the bottom but seemed to work fine. I think in your monster sump there should be plenty of room, maybe just angle them slightly.

By the way, I love those RTL filters, they seem like an excellent value compared to Ocean-Clear/NuClear canisters.

 

[Egon]

I love those RTL filters, they seem like an excellent value compared to Ocean-Clear/NuClear canisters.

I agree! I'm a huge fan of the Ocean-Clear/NuClear filters also, I have 7 total. One of them is 20+ years old. I think I'm going to gradually switch over to the RTL filters. The extra capacity is the most desirable aspect of these filters for me. Close second is the value. I love this thread!!!!!!

 

[pacu mom]

Was planning on just cutting away the majority of the buckets, leaving enough to attach the socks to, then hanging the bucket rims and handles on the incoming PVC pipes, and calling it a day. I just need something to catch uneaten food that finds its way into the sump. I'm not sure that I want anything finer than 100 microns, especially since we can be gone for more than a week at a time, and it would be a disaster if we had a major clog in the sump. We'll try to catch most of the food in prefilter sponges in the overflow box. These bags are super simple in design, and if I can find felt similar to the 11" x 16" socks I have, I'll just make up some big ones and use both kinds.